God gives commands that can only be obeyed if you know Him

1 John 2:3-6

See also

• Romans 3:23 — for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
• John 6:28-29
  • ²⁸ Then they said to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?" ²⁹ Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent."
• John 13:35 — By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.
• John 15:5-12 — ⁵ “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. ⁶ If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.
• Philippians 2:12-13 — ¹² Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; ¹³ for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.

Observations

• Herein lie instructions for determining whether one does, in fact, know God
• As with chapter one, this is directed to those who say they know Him
• We can have confidence & certainty that we know God
  • We are certain we know God if we keep His commandments
• We can be certain we do not know God if we do not keep His commandments
  • What commandments?
• For those who do keep His commandments
  • you know God
  • the love of God is perfected in You
  • you are in God
• this is black and white — either you know God or you don’t

Things God Does and other interpretations

• on obeying commandments
  • what commandments?
    • assuming this passage is not a weird way of saying “nobody knows God” (which would be both strange and contrary to other parts of scripture), “keep His commandments” does not mean “never sin” because all have sinned.
    • believing in Jesus is probably part of it
    • “commandments" — plural — so it’s not only believing
    • loving one another is probably part of it
    • (do I need to list all of Jesus’ commandments here? But then we’re back to the “all have sinned” part. Something is missing.)
  • does it matter what commandments?
    • His commandments. The things He has commanded you to do.
    • “by this we know that we know Him” — it’s a personal thing. This passage is not how to check if someone else knows God, it’s about checking whether I myself know God
    • I know that I get commandments from God from reading scripture and from sermons at church — the commands I receive are the ones I read and hear.
    • Do I obey? Do I change my ways? Do I adjust?
      • if God’s scripture and the sermons of the leaders He puts over me don’t change me, if I don’t submit myself to them — then I’m ignoring His commandments to me and I don’t know Him.
  • “what commandments?" The ones I’ve heard and read. The ones I’m aware of.
• God expects me to submit myself to Him through His scripture
  • this is something that will happen as long as I know Him
  • this is something that will only happen if I know Him
  • the fact that this happens proves to me that I know God
    • I know Him
    • I’m in Him
    • His love is perfected in me
• other thoughts
  • In this context, it’s binary whether you know God (either you do or don’t — no gradient).
    • maybe this is because either the Holy Spirit is in you or He isn’t
    • I’d need to look up more cross references to back that up properly

Application

• Rejoice! I know God! I’m in Him!
• Relax! My obedience is a byproduct of my relationship with God.
  • from the cross-references
    • Can a branch produce fruit without the tree?
    • Work out your salvation
    • God provides the will and the doing
  • Try to obey but know that God supplies the will and the oomph
  • This is why obedience is evidence of a relationship with God — we can only obey with God’s help, which He only gives (in this context) to those who know Him
• I ought to be OK with whatever spiritual fruit of obedience and good works I produce... because it’s God working in me to produce those results. The credit for the fruit goes to God.