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Title: The Test of Knowing Him
Do Christians “size up” other Christians? (Take answers)
And it what ways do we do this? (Answers)
What should Christians do instead of “sizing up” others? (Answers)
And how should we do this?
By taking a look at today’s passage.
I. A Very Simple Self-Examination
(Read v. 3-5)
Could John say this any more simply or directly? I don’t think so. The key to knowing if we know Him is to look at our own lives and see if we keep Christ’s commandments. The real question quickly becomes: Do we know Christ’s commandments?
To know and understand all of these, we must know our Bible, and that is what we are here doing week after week, amen? That is what, indeed, we are striving for, amen? And we must also remember that “Christ’s commandments” are not just the things that Christ himself spoke, but the whole of scripture as well.
For as this same author, John, tells us, both in John 1:1, and here in I John 1:1-2 is this: Christ is the Word of God made flesh.
Therefore, to follow what Christ commands is to follow what Paul teaches, what Mark teaches, what Luke teaches, what James teachers, what Peter teaches, and what the author of Hebrews teaches.
So, let me briefly explain all of the commandments of the Bible so that we can measure ourselves. That’s really only half a joke. What I am here for, week after week, is just that very thing: to teach, and to learn with you, what I believe the Bible teaches.
Now, to be realistic, that is an amazingly difficult task, but I am also a pragmatist. I want you to leave here with a real way to measure yourself to see if you do indeed know Christ because you “keep his commandments.” With that in mind, I’m proposing five simple questions that are drawn from multiple authors and parts of scripture concerning whether we are obedient to Christ’s commandments.
1. Do you love the Lord your God above all else? (Do you TRUST Him?)
2. Do you love others as yourself?
3. Do you seek God in prayer, scripture and teaching?4. Are you hiding sin?
5. Are you lying about any of your answers?
Now, I can’t answer these questions for you, and you can’t answer them for me. Obviously this is not an exhaustive list, but it will get you started. Perhaps we need to be maknig our own list, tailored to the hardest questions for ourselves.
Notice also in verse five that John says, “Whoever keeps his WORD, truly the LOVE of God is perfected in him.”
That’s staggering. He who keeps his word (scripture) is the one who truly understands God’s love, and experiences sanctification through that perfecting love.
What is my point?
We cannot underestimate or overemphasize the importance of Scripture.
It is everything.
There are people in the world today (many calling themselves Christians) that will tell you they know for a fact that they love God and God loves them. But on what basis? On what qualification? They do not keep his commandments, for one of two reasons:
1. They don’t know the commandments.
2. They don’t like them.
Friends, these people don’t know Jesus any more than I know Abraham Lincoln. I know about Abraham Lincoln. I’ve read books, I’ve seen movies, I watched biorgraphical television shows, but do I know him? No. Not at all. And, frankly, I don’t know if there is a way that I could know Abe Lincoln, even if I wanted to. I could read every Abe Lincoln book, sit in on every historian’s lecture, and still only know of him.
But Christ I can know through the indwelling of his spirit, through prayer, and through study of a different kind of book, a one of a kind book.
II. Just as he walked? Really?
(Read v. 6)
John then leaves us with a quite a challenge. We ought to walk as Christ did. Without sin? Yes. Without a selfish nerve in our bodies. Yep. In constant communion with God? Yep. Sacrificially? Yep. With as much hatred for sin and fleshly things are He did? Yes.
Now, historically, John is assuming by writing this that his audience knew the Gospels, knew Christ’s life and actions, understood their context, and their application.
Again, it is no different for us. If we do not know the Christ of scripture, we can’t hope to know the Christ that is reclaiming our souls? Why? They are the same person!
This isn’t loving skinny Elvis of the 50’s, but not caring for fat, drug-abusing Elvis of the 70’s. We don’t have that luxury.
We either choose to embrace ALL of Christ and his commandments, or we embrace none of them!
No so with many of our churches today who love the grace of Christ, but disregard his teaching on homosexuality. Or they love the service aspect of Christ’s ministry, but no so much His radically aggressive teaching on sin and personal responsibility.
Don’t misunderstand me, this test is not intended to discourage you. It’s intended to wake you up about the most important issue in your life: your relationship to the savior of the world. I know that we can’t be like Christ in terms of perfect behavior. If we could, there would be no need for Christ. But in returning to our opening question: I do think that He, and and ONLY HE, should be the measuring stick of our faith.
I can’t afford to look at Jim, or Mike, or Ken to point to my spiritual strengths and weaknesses, I can only look to Christ.
There I will find a mountain of my shortcomings and failures. And there I will also find a savior greater than all of my wretched wickedness, willing to forgive, and make me whole again.