1 John 2:3-17 - The New Commandment
Well, church, it is good to be with you. How are we doing? Good! I love it. I am thrilled that you guys are joining us here at the Columbus campus. Welcome to you. If you’re joining us online, a special welcome to you as well. I hope you’re enjoying the fireplace in the midst of this rainy weather. And if you’re at FIGS, a special welcome to you—I’m glad you guys are hanging out over there. To the 6 PM crew that will be joining us later, I’m grateful for you as well. My name is Mike, and if I haven’t had the privilege to meet you yet, I’m grateful to get to be with you guys as we continue in our series in 1 John.
I want to invite you to turn to 1 John chapter two. While you do, I want to throw out a question. I want to know if I’m the only one in the room that struggles with this: Do any of y’all have a love-hate relationship with Costco? Thank you. That makes me feel a lot better. I actually struggle with Costco. A couple of months ago, my wife and I walked in there. I had my phone and the list: milk, eggs, turkey. It was very simple. We walk in, we’re shopping for these things, and all of a sudden, I’m like, “Where’s my wife?”
I’m looking down aisles, and all of a sudden, I look down the furniture aisle and there’s my wife sitting in a recliner. She says, “Honey, we gotta get this recliner. It’s amazing!” I’m like, “Babe, it’s not on the list.” But of course, we bought the recliner. I went home that day, called the bank, and took out a second mortgage for all the other stuff I couldn’t afford. That’s Costco for you.
This isn’t a one-time thing. A couple of years ago, we were in there with the same list. We walked down the aisle with the fertilizer, garden hoses, and citrus trees. My wife said, “Babe, look at all these trees. They’ve got lemon trees and lime trees. We need a lime tree.” I’m the spender in the family, so lest I sleep on the couch tonight, I need to clarify: when my wife says we’re getting a lime tree, we’re getting a lime tree. She doesn’t like a whole lot of stuff, so if she wants a tree, we’re getting it.
I brought it home and called a farmer buddy of mine. I asked, “What do I do with this thing?” He said, “Put it in the ground. Water it. They’re pretty simple, Mike. Even you can’t screw this up.”
So we waited, and it wasn’t bearing fruit. Months went by. I figured we’d just keep watering it and let the sun do its thing. Finally, a season later, we started to see some fruit. There were these little dinky things. They didn’t look like limes, but they were something. They got bigger, and I noticed they were small and yellow. I thought, “Okay, I guess that’s what lime trees do. They start yellow.”
Eventually, it was clearly time to pull them off. I told my wife, “Babe, these are the yellowest limes I’ve ever seen.” We brought them into the house to make salsa, we cut into them, and we tasted them. Y’all, they were not limes. They were lemons. They were very clearly lemons. I don’t care what the label said. Even as a city kid from Texas, I knew that by its fruit, it evidenced it was a lemon.
In a very similar way, this is the issue John is dealing with today. He has a group of people in his church who are thinking, “Man, we think we’re limes, but we’re struggling. Maybe we’re actually lemons?” Then he has another group who says, “We are absolutely limes,” but by their fruit, they are demonstrating they are actually lemons. John is going to speak to both of them. How do you know for sure that you are actually what you say you are? That is the fundamental question John is answering today.
The Test of Knowing God
As we take a rolling start into this, remember from last week that John is walking intimately and pastorally with these believers. He reminds them that the goal is to walk in the light and not to sin. But when you do, you have an advocate with the Father: Jesus Christ, the propitiation for our sin. He paid the price on your behalf. So walk in holiness, yet know that when you struggle, you have an advocate.
They must have been asking, “How do I know Jesus is advocating for me? How do I know he has actually taken my sins?” John says it shows up in two areas: a love for God and a love for other human beings. Let’s look at verse three.
By this, we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments.
1 John 2:3 (NASB)
By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.
Here is the ultimate lemon-lime test. Whether you are or whether you aren’t, it will be put on display by your fruit. There are two different words John uses for “know” in this book. One is oida, which is cognitive, factual knowledge (like 2+2=4). But the word he uses here is ginosko. This means intellectual knowledge coupled with experience. You know something to be true, and that truth is confirmed in your life. It’s a head-and-hands kind of knowledge.
When Mary was told she would bear Jesus, she asked, “How is that possible? I have never known a man.” That is the intimacy of this word. John is saying you will have a familiarity with God acquired through experience. In the Old Testament, Israel walked in a covenant relationship with God; they knew Him experientially. John says fruit is evidence of what is on the inside. For the believer, there are external markings—what Paul calls the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness. These are the markings that we are in Him.
John is using highly relational language. You know someone. You are walking intimately with them. He is pushing back against false teachers who said, “I can know God and it never show up in my life.” John says, “I beg to differ.”
The one who says, “I have come to know him,” and does not keep his commandments, he is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
1 John 2:4 (NASB)
The one who says, ‘I have come to know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him;
John is on repeat. If we claim to have a relationship with God, there should be, at some point, evidence of life change.
The Either-Or of the Gospel
Notice the polarizing language John uses. It’s either this or it’s that. You walk in light or you walk in darkness. You walk in truth or you are a liar. This is common in the wisdom literature of the Old Testament—you are either a fool or you are wise, a sluggard or diligent. Jesus used this same language: you are a sheep or a goat; you pick up your cross or you deny Him. John is doing this to confront the idea that you can have true saving faith with zero life change. He says that theology is simply rubbish.
The gospel makes a change in us when we put our faith in Christ, and it produces something in us over time as we lean into the Holy Spirit. James said the same thing: faith without works is dead. Now, we aren’t advocating for a works-based salvation. We need to avoid two heresies here. One is “front-loading” the gospel, telling people they have to get sober and clean up their lives before they come to Jesus. That’s not the gospel. The gospel says “Come as you are.”
The second heresy is “back-loading” the gospel, saying that once you have faith, you have to display these things in your own power to prove you’re saved. No, the Holy Spirit births those things in us. We claim faith alone in Christ alone for salvation, and then fruit is evidenced down the road through the Spirit’s power, not our flesh.
The one who says he abides in him ought himself to walk in the same manner as he walked.
1 John 2:6 (NASB)
the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.
John uses that powerful word: abide. If we sink deeply into Christ and remain in Him, these things will evidence themselves. To the person who says you can believe and yet never be conformed to the image of Christ, John says that idea is inconsistent with the truth.
Comfort for the Afflicted
I know some of you have brains like mine. As you hear this, that inner voice starts to spin. “Yeah, Mike, but I know my sin nature. I know the things I think that nobody else knows. Can God really love me?”
The Word of God has an interesting ability to both comfort the afflicted and afflict the comforted. Can we comfort the afflicted for a second? For those of you wallowing in insecurity or questioning your salvation because you aren’t perfect, I want you to hear this.
One of my favorite artists, Andrew Peterson, wrote a song called “Be Kind to Yourself.” It’s a Dad speaking to his daughter, but it’s a beautiful picture of our Heavenly Father. He writes:
“I know it’s hard to hear it when the anger in your spirit is pointed like an arrow at your chest, when the voices in your mind are anything but kind, and you can’t believe your Father knows best. I love you just the way that you are. I love the way He’s shaping your heart. Be kind to yourself. You can’t expect to be perfect. It’s a fight you gotta forfeit. You belong to me whatever you do. So lay your weapon down, darling. Take a deep breath and believe that I love you.””
Some of you need to believe that today. Your struggle is actually evidence of your saving faith. You might say, “But Mike, I see the fork in the road and so often I walk down the path of the flesh.” But the fact that the Spirit is whispering to you, “Don’t do that, walk this way,” is evidence of His work. There is none who seeks God on their own. If there is any God-ward disposition in you, that is Him moving.
As John says, we are going to wrestle. If you are wrestling, remind yourself that the struggle is evidence of conversion. Our flesh and Spirit will battle in this life, but we have an advocate in Jesus Christ.
The New Commandment: Love for Others
John continues by saying that saving faith also manifests in how we treat others.
Beloved, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you have heard.
1 John 2:7 (NASB)
Beloved, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you have heard.
I love how John calls them “beloved.” That is your identity. He says there is nothing new about the command to love God and love your neighbor. And yet, in verse eight, he says it is a new commandment. He is repeating what Jesus said in John 13: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another even as I have loved you.”
Jesus took what they knew and put it on display. The “newness” is the quality and the extent. We are to love in a self-sacrificial way, and we are to love not just our neighbors, but our enemies.
The one who says he is in the light and yet hates his brother, he is in darkness until now.
1 John 2:9 (NASB)
The one who says he is in the Light and [yet] hates his brother is in the darkness until now.
John is saying that if you claim to know God but hate your fellow human being, your deeds are canceling out your words. Light and hatred simply do not go together. If you are stuck in habitual hatred, you are walking in darkness and you need the light.
Afflicting the Comforted
Now, let’s look at the other side. There are times the Word needs to afflict the comforted. John is saying to the people who claim to be limes but show no fruit: “It doesn’t work that way.”
Maybe you say you’re a believer because you walked an aisle in sixth grade or had a cool experience at church camp, but as you look back over decades, there is zero evidence of life change and zero desire to change. The Bible gives no credence to a “conversionless conversion.” If you are converted, fruit will show up.
Paul tells the church at Corinth to test themselves.
Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?
2 Corinthians 13:5 (NASB)
Test yourselves [to see] if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you– unless indeed you fail the test?
If someone put you on trial, would there be enough evidence to convict you of being a Christian? I think about my own life. I came to Christ in a fraternity. Y’all, talk about potty mouths—we had it down. I could use four-letter words as every part of speech. It was my regular vocabulary. But after I put my faith in Christ, I started hearing those words and thinking, “That sounds different now. I don’t think that’s consistent with who I am.”
Nobody told me to stop cussing, but God’s Spirit began to work on me. If you looked at me a week later, you might not have seen much change. But over thirty years, I assure you, God has done a work. The Spirit brought awareness and conviction. If you can’t look back at any point and see that kind of work, maybe you only believed it in your head, but not in a saving way.
Resting in the Finished Work
John finishes this section with incredible pastoral intimacy. He wants to reassure those who are struggling.
I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven you for His name’s sake.
1 John 2:12 (NASB)
I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven you for His name’s sake.
John says, “I’ve seen your fruit. I’ve walked with you. You are limes.” Notice he says your sins “have been forgiven.” That is a completed action. It was done to you. You didn’t save yourself; you were saved. He tells the fathers, the young men, and the children that they are known by the Father.
Wait—even when we sin? Yes. Because when you do, you have an advocate. Relax. Jesus came to save you from your sin, and the gospel will continue to do a work in you as you submit to the Spirit.
I have written to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.
1 John 2:14 (NASB)
I have written to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.
There are two groups of people here today. There are those of us who need to allow the Word of God to comfort us—to remind us that we are in Him, it is finished, and we are sealed. And there are those of us who need to allow the Word to be a sword, to poke us and ask, “Is what I say really true?”
The answer for both groups is the gospel. Embrace what Christ has already done and rest in that. Embrace Christ for the first time, not just in your head, but in a saving way.
These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.
1 John 5:13 (NASB)
These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.
Let’s pray. Father, we’re grateful for the new life we have in Christ. For those of us here struggling with whether we are what we say we are, I pray You would bring comfort and security in what the gospel has accomplished. And for those who are putting their hope in an event or a prayer but see no life change, would You afflict us a little bit? Convict our hearts to accept what Christ has done and to consider Your admonitions. We are grateful for the finished work of the gospel and for our Savior. In Jesus’ name, Amen.