KNOWING THAT WE "KNOW" HIM

I John 2:3-6   "Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.  He who says " I know Him", and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.  But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we know Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to WALK just as He WALKED"

1. We will learn from these verses that the Christian life is not a matter of intellectual assent to doctrine.

                a. John will talk about the outcome of doctrine....Doctrine and practice are like the source of a river and the river itself....YOU CANNOT DIVIDE them .They both are one in an organic and vital sense. 

2. Like it or not  v. 3 is all about ASSURANCE. "By this we know that we know Him".  Obedience to the Word of God is the Key to assurance.

3. We are to know several things.

                a. We are to KNOW THE LORD JESUS CHRIST.....”hereby we do know that we know Him.” He does not say we are to know certain things ABOUT Him....We are to KNOW HIM. 

                b. John is not talking about a superficial acquaintance....there is intimacy here...it is a personal acquaintance...

                c. The second thing we are to know...”we know that we know Him if we keep His commandments.”

                                1. John 15 describes it as the vine and branches...thus it is an ORGANIC RELATIONSHIP, not a mechanical attachment...it is a living one....SHARING THE LIFE OF THE VINE ITSELF. 

                                2. a Christian is not just one who HOLDS SOME OPINIONS about Christ....It is a “I live, yet not I but Christ liveth in me.”  Gal 2:20....  HERE IS A PERSON WHO IS ‘AWARE’ of the Son of God Himself in their lives. 

4. Note that John is telling us to TEST OUR EXPERIENCE.

                a. Every experience is not a true one....there are false experiences.  You claim that you have had a mystical experience?....then test it...

                b. The way that we know that we know Him....is not by the strange or the mystical....but merely, “if we keep his commandments"...NOTHING LESS THAN THAT.

                                1. The experience does not enable us to say that we know Him....it is not feelings nor sensation, nor visions, nor amazing answers to prayers or  thrills...

                                2. WHAT IS YOUR LIFE LIKE?  HOW DO YOU LIVE?  The test is are you keeping His commandments?   YOU WILL ALWAYS BE CONCERNED TO BE LIVING THE CHRISTIAN LIFE AS FULLY AS YOU CAN.....YOUR ONE OBJECT IS TO BE WELL PLEASING IN HIS SIGHT.  [IT DOES NOT MEAN THAT YOU PUT A LIST OF  SPECIFIC INJUNCTIONS ON THE WALL AND DO YOUR BEST TO KEEP THEM....IT IS NOT MECHANCIAL LIKE THIS.] 

                                3. If you say you are like the branch to the vine, then you will bear the character of the vine...THIS IS INEVITABLE.

5. The Bible often describes our life as a WALK. 

                a "And Enoch WALKED with God; and he was not, for God took him."  Gen. 5:24

                b. "Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah WALKED with God.  "Gen 6:9 "

                c. God said to Abraham, “WALK before me and be thou perfect.” Gen. 17:1

                d. Jesus said, “I am the light of the world; he that followeth me shall not WALK in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”  John 8:12. 

                e."for you were sometimes darkness, but now are you light in the Lord;  WALK as children of light.” Eph. 5:8 

                                a. If you say you are in Him, then you ought to WALK as He walked...If you are in the vine, then you will begin to bear the character of the vine...THIS IS INEVITABLE.