Advancing to Spiritual Maturity; 1 John
2:4-5
Knowing and loving God is
what relates to the maturing adult believer. There is one phrase in 2:3 that
needs explanation: “By this we know.” When we look at such a phrase, all things
being equal, it can refer to either that which comes before or that which comes
after. In the Greek “By this” is en touto
[e)n
touto]. It can
refer to that which precedes, and that is called the anaphoric view; or it can
refer to that which comes after, and that is called the cataphoric use. How do
we determine whether a phrase like this refers to that which has already been
stated or that which is to follow? There are usually certain syntactical clues,
certain things in the passage that make it clear as to what is coming or what
precedes. Usually when something follows there is a subordinate explanatory
clause that follows. If that is true then it is a cataphoric use of the phrase.
If it is referring to something preceding then it lacks that subordinate explanatory
clause. What we have here is the statement, “By this we know that we have come
to know Him if we keep His commandments.” The “by this” is going to be
cataphoric because it has a subordinate explanatory clause. The “if” clause is
subordinate; it explains the “by this.” The reason for making issue out of this
is because John uses this terminology, “by this,” about six different times in
the epistle, and each time we have to look at it in terms of the context in the
Greek. The English isn’t going to give us a clue. For example, 1 John 2:5 NASB
“but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected.
By this we know that we are in Him.” Verse 5 ends with “By this we know that we
are in Him,” and then verse 6 starts, “the one who says he abides in Him ought
himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.” Most commentaries will say
that the “by this” is also cataphoric, focusing on verse 6. But verse 6 is not
a subordinate explanatory clause. So the “By this we know that we are in Him”
is going to be anaphoric. That tells us that what we have here is what is
called an inclusio. It is like two book-ends: we have a “By this we know” in v.
3, and a “By this we know” in v. 5 and they are both
referring to what comes in between. We see here that we have an inclusio form
by both the cataphoric and then the anaphoric use of en touto.
1 John 2:3 NASB
“By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.”
The word “keep” is a present active indicative of tereo [threw]. The present tense is
continuous, but here it doesn’t mean that you can continuously obey the
commandments. It is what is called a habitual present, and that means that this
is something that generally characterises your life. It is also called a
customary present and a customary present emphasises repeated action. It also
has the idea that there are interruptions, so there is repeated action but
there are interruptions between the actions. And that is what is true in the
life of the believer. We get to a point where we keep His commandments but we
still sin, we still disobey God, so we are out of fellowship and need to
confess our sins and get back in fellowship. But when we reach maturity we are
generally characterised by the fact that we are obedient to those commandments.
This word tereo is an important
word and it goes back to what is called the great commission, the commission
that was given by the Lord to His disciples in Matthew 28:19, 20 NASB
“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name
of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
What does this word
“commandments” mean? Some think it means the Ten Commandments. But remember,
the Ten Commandments were given to
Saying that there are
commandments is not legalism. Legalism is not the emphasis on absolutes or
right or wrong or obedience to commandments. Legalism is saying that I receive
blessing from God and approval from God because I have obeyed those
commandments. But obedience is necessary for advance in the spiritual life. We
do not grow because we are obedient, but because we are obedient we maintain
fellowship and growth takes place. When we are disobedient we are out of
fellowship, growth can’t take place, and there can’t be any spiritual maturity,
so it is all wood, hay, and straw. This is why the test is “if we keep His
commandments,” because only as we come to know God through a study of His Word
are we then motivated by understanding His grace to love Him, and we come to
love Him because we have come to know Him.
This emphasis on obedience
to commandments as a barometer for spiritual growth is evidenced from numerous
other passages in Scripture. For example, John 13:34 NASB “A new
commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you,
that you also love one another.” John
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;
Now in verse 4 John gives
us the example. Here, instead of saying “If we say,” he is going shift to an
impersonal articular present participle of lego
[legw], which is correctly translated “The one who says.”
This could refer to a believer or an unbeliever. Here we have a person who
makes a claim, perfect active indicative of ginosko
[ginwskw], meaning that somebody is
making the claim that they have reached spiritual adulthood. If someone makes
that claim and does not keep His commandments—there is the application or
standard—he is a liar and the truth is not in him. So if this person claims to
have this advanced knowledge of God, this advanced personal relationship, and
is not applying doctrine their lifestyle doesn’t match with their talking. They
are divorced from reality. If you don’t apply doctrine you are not in
fellowship, if you don’t apply doctrine you don’t know God, you don’t have that
deeper relationship with Him. There are three options in v. 4. When John says the
truth is not in him, that could mean first of all that
they are not saved, which would indicate they have no understanding of doctrine
because no unbeliever can understand doctrine. Secondly, it could refer to the
saved believer who has no knowledge of doctrine, no teaching. All they know is
Christ died on the cross for them, they are just barely saved and have no
information about the spiritual life, no knowledge of doctrine so there is no
obedience. Third, it could refer to the saved believer who has advanced to
spiritual maturity but at this moment is out of fellowship, maybe living in
carnality, and in this case it would be a believer who is ignoring doctrine,
operating on human viewpoint and walking according to the sin nature. So John
says: “He who says I know Him—makes a claim of knowledge of
God and spiritual maturity—and does not keep His commandments, is a liar
and there is no doctrine operational in him.” To John, “in Him”
is a term of relationship, so that would mean that there is no relationship at
this point with doctrine in that believer’s soul.
In contrast, v. 5 begins
with the Greek word de [de] which is an adversative conjunction indicating contrast. So we see
how John teaches by way of contrast. He is contrasting the false response with
the true response. “…but whoever keeps His word.” Once again it is an impersonal
participial form. Notice that in v. 3 he refers to the Word by “commandments”:
if we keep His commandments. Verse 4: the one who does not keep His
commandments. But in v.5 he changes: “whoever keeps His word,
in him the love of God has truly been perfected.” Perfection means flawless or
without error, and this is not what this word means. It is the Greek word teleioo [teleiow] and it means to bring to completion, to bring to
maturity, or simply to mature something. It indicates maturity, not perfection.
So what John is saying here is that whoever is obedient to the mandates of
Scripture. Remember, Jesus prayed in His high priestly prayer: “Father, sanctify
them in truth; they Word is truth.” It is the keeping of the Word that is the
process of sanctification, spiritual growth.
The phrase “love of God”
in the Greek he agape tou theou [h( a)gaph tou qeou]. The genitive case is going to tell us something about
the head noun, which is agape or
love. This kind of genitive can be called a subjective genitive or an objective
genitive. Love is a noun here but it is a noun of action; a noun but it is
describing an action. An action can be toward something, in which case the
action has an object. That would be an objective genitive and would mean love
for God. The subjective genitive would indicate that the genitival noun, God,
is performing the action. There are some passages where this phrase means God’s
love, but we have to look at the context. This is not talking about God’s love
for us isn’t brought to maturity because we obey Him. That is works. This is an
objective genitive. Our love for God is brought to completion by obedience. As
we study the Word and learn about God we learn more about God. Love is always
based on knowledge, not on emotion or feelings. It is based on an intimate
knowledge of the object. Our love for God grows because we spend time studying
His Word, meditating on His Word, and applying His Word. By this we come to
know who God is, we understand the dimensions of His
grace in our lives and all that He does for us. The result is greater gratitude,
our grace orientation develops and we respond to His love, as John will say
later in 1 John 4: “We love Him because He first loved us.” As we come to
understand the dimensions of His love for us then our love for Him advances and
is brought to completion or maturity.
Then we come to the
anaphoric use of the “By this.” “By this [obedience; love being brought to
completion in us] we know that we are in Him.” The phrase “in Him” is not
talking about salvation, it is about abiding, being in fellowship. It is
relational, not salvation. It is remaining in fellowship and growing and
advancing to maturity.
John 14:21-23 NASB
“He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who
loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose
Myself to him. Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, ‘Lord, what then has happened
that You are going to disclose Yourself to us and not
to the world?’ Jesus answered and said to him, ‘If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We
will come to him and make Our abode with him’.” 1 John 2:3-6 is John‘s expanded
commentary on what Jesus says in these three verses. He even uses the same
shift. He starts with commandment and shifts to Word. Same thing happens here.
Jesus starts with commandment in verse 21 and then He says: “Keep my Word.” This
is not salvation, this is talking about the advance in
intimacy that the believer enjoys in spiritual adulthood with God the Father. Because
he is no longer bouncing in and out of fellowship all the time, he is spending
more and more time in fellowship with the Lord, having that fellowship with the
Lord, and advancing to spiritual maturity. That love for the Father is manifest
by obedience.
John