3 If we obey God's commands, then we are sure that we know him
4 If someone says that he knows him, but does not obey his commands, such a person is a liar and the truth is not in him.
5 But whoever obeys his word is the one whose love for God has really been made perfect. This is how we can be sure that we are in union with God:
6 whoever says that he remains in union with God should live just as Jesus Christ did.
This morning, as I was meditating on this short passage in John's first epistle, I realise that we can be sure of two very important conditions in our Christian life.
The first assurance we have is stated in v.3, which says that we can be sure of our knowledge of God, "if we obey God's commands".
This statement is followed by an elaboration in verses 4 and 5 of a two-fold implication. Firstly, anyone who claims that he knows God but disobeys God's commands is lying, and "the truth is not in him" (v4). Secondly, on the other hand, anyone who keeps God's commands (or God's words, v5), has made perfect his love for God.
The second assurance in our Christian life is found in v.5b,6: which may be understood as a reflection of or a parallel to the earlier in v3 above. It says that we can be sure of our union with God if we live just as Jesus Christ lived.
This reminds us of our Lord's prayer in John 17: 21-23, for all believers to be in union with God, in the following words:
"I pray that they may all be one. Father! May they be in us, just as you are in me and I am in you . . ." (v.21)and". . . I in them, and you in me so that they may be completely one, in order that the world may know that you sent me and that you love them as you love me"(v.23)
This also helps us to understand what our Lord had said earlier in John 10:38, telling the people who wanted to stone him for his alleged blasphemy, ". . . that you may know once and for all that the Father is in me and that I am in the Father".
This was the kind of union that our Lord Jesus had with God, and this is the same union with God that we can assure ourselves of, if we live just as our Lord had lived when he was in this world.
Brothers and sisters, Hebrews 5:7 tells us that our Lord Jesus in his life on earth offered up prayers and petitions "with loud cries and tears" to God who could save him from death. It was because our Lord was humble and devoted that God heard his prayers. Verse 8 of the same chapter further says that Jesus learnt to be obedient to God through his sufferings.
Let us therefore hold fast to these two great assurances in our lives: to obey God's commands and be sure of our knowledge of God, to live like our Lord Jesus did, in learning obedience through sufferings. and be sure of our union with God.
