Obedience To His Commands

Obedience to His Commandments

1st John 2:3-6

Jeff Hughes

I. Introduction

a. By way of introduction, let’s briefly look at the five verses we studied last time.

b. First, we looked at the deception of sin, we looked at the deception of saying we don’t have a sin nature, and the deception of saying we don’t commit sin after conversion. We looked at these two verses (8 and 10) and how they paralleled each other, and server to highlight verse 10.

c. Second, we looked at Confession and Forgiveness in verse 9. We looked at how that verse is a cornerstone of our faith. It speaks of God’s faithfulness, and how we can be sure God forgives our sins, no matter how grievous or numerous.

d. Third, we looked at The Advocate. We learned that we have an Advocate at the right had of the Father to defend us against our accuser, Satan. But, that this does not give us a license to sin. Also, we learned John’s second reason given as to why he wrote the epistle – That we might not sin.

e. Last, we looked at the concept of Jesus as the propitiation or atonement for our sins, and how this is in addition to His role as Advocate. We also saw in this verse that Jesus died for the sins of the whole world, and not just a select few, as some teach.

f. Tonight we are going to look at the idea of Obedience to God’s Commands. Our text comes from 1 John 2, verses 3-6.

II. Text

a. 3 Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4 He who says, "I know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5 But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. 6 He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.

b. Tonight, we’ll look at four points from this text: Obedience (3), Disobedience (4), Keeping (5), and Abiding (6)

III. Illustration:

a. Our Captain

b. Where our Captain bids us go,

‘Tis not ours to murmur no;

He that gives the sword and shield

Chooses too the battlefield.

Where we are to fight the foe. – Anonymous

IV. Study

a. First Topic - Obedience

i. Text - 3 Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.

ii. We gain more understanding of this verse if we look at the original text.

iii. Know that we know – Both instances are different tenses of the Greek word ghin-oce’-ko first is the present tense “we know” second, it is the perfect tense of the verb meaning “once-and-for-all we have known”. Now this is important that it is in the perfect tense, because we see here that John is putting the topic to rest with the readers.

iv. Keep – Greek word tay reh-o

1. meaning to attend to carefully, take care of

a. to guard

b. metaph. to keep, one in the state in which he is

c. to observe

d. to reserve: to undergo something

2. One of John’s favorite words, used mainly by John in the NT. He uses it instead of the Greek word for “do”, implying that the thing kept is special, something to be guarded.

v. Commandments – Greek word en’-tol-lay, meaning injunction, precept, or command. Note that this is different from the law, mentioned elsewhere in the New Testament, what I draw from this is that we are under the new covenant of grace rather than the law.

vi. Wrap up –

1. Drawing this altogether, we find that this verse means “We know that we know, once-and-for-all, that we know Him meaning Jesus, if we keep or guard carefully His commandments.”

2. This is a re-iteration of what Jesus told the Disciples while giving them instruction before His crucifixion in John 14:22 - He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.

vii. Historical Application – Remember John was writing this to combat Gnosticism. One of the main precepts of Gnosticism was that because they had this “special knowledge” or revelation, they being Spirit, did not have to obey the law. This verse directly contradicts this.

b. Disobedience

i. Text - 4 He who says, "I know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

ii. Now, this verse is emphasizing the previous verse. In the original Greek, John uses the same words again, in the same tenses, but in the negative.