Book of 1 John Chapter 2 Vs. 3

 Christ Our Advocate

1 John 2:3 “And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.”

hereby we do... Twenty-one reasons we do know that we know Him:

1. personal fellowship (1Jhn. 1:3-7; 2:13)

2. Fullness of joy in the heart (1Jhn. 1:4)

3. Keeping His commandments (1Jhn. 2:3; 3:22)

4. Walking even as He walked (1Jhn. 2:6)

5. Love of the brethren (1Jhn. 2:9-11; 3:10-19, 3:23; 4:7-21; 5:1)

6. Overcoming the world and Satan (1Jhn. 2:13-14; 5:4, 5:18)

7. Hatred of the world (1Jhn. 2:15-17)

8. Being one with Christians (1Jhn. 2:19)

9. Holy Spirit anointing (1Jhn. 2:20-27)

10. Knowing the truth that sets free (1Jhn. 2:21; John 8:32-36)

11. Acknowledging God and Christ (1Jhn. 2:22-25)

12. Doing righteousness (1Jhn. 2:29; 3:7-10; 5:1-4, 5:18)

13. Purifying ourselves (1Jhn. 3:3)

14. Being born again (1Jhn. 2:29; 3:9; 5:1-18)

15. Cleansing from sin (1Jhn. 1:7-9; 3:5-10)

16. Freedom from condemnation (1Jhn. 3:20-24)

17. The indwelling Spirit (1Jhn. 3:24; 4:4, 4:13)

18. Faith (1Jhn. 2:23; 5:1, 5:10)

19. Confessing Christ (1Jhn. 4:14-15)

20. Receiving Christ (1Jhn. 5:10-13; John 1:12)

21. Answered prayer (1Jhn. 3:21-22; 5:14-15)

Hereby (ἐν τούτῳ)

Lit., in this. Characteristic of John. See John 8:35; 15:8; 16:30; 1Jhn. 2:5; 3:24; 4:13; 5:2; 3:16; 3:19; 4:2. The expression points to what follows, if we keep His commandments, yet with a covert reference to that idea as generally implied in the previous words concerning fellowship with God and walking in the light.

We know (γινώσκομεν)

Or perceive. By experience, from day to day; distinguished from οἴδαμεν we know, expressing absolute, immediate knowledge of a fact once for all. Compare 1Jhn. 3:2.

That we know (ὅτι ἐγνώκαμεν)

Or, more literally, have come to know. John does not use the compound forms ἐπιγινώσκειν and ἐπίγνωσις (see on Mat. 7:16. See Luke 1:4; Acts 4:13; Rom. 1:28; Eph. 1:17, etc.), nor the kindred word γνῶσις knowledge (Luke 1:77; Rom. 2:20, etc.).

if we keep... To be saved one must keep His commandments; not merely start keeping them but continue in keeping them. If the condition is to keep them, then upon this basis only will God bless and save people (Rom. 1:5; Jas. 1:22-25; 1Pet. 1:2).

We keep His commandments (τὰς ἐντολὰς αὐτοῦ τηρῶμεν)

A phrase peculiar to John and occurring elsewhere only Mat. 19:17; 1Tim. 6:14. In 1Cor. 7:19, we find τήρησις ἐντολῶν the keeping of the commandments. On τηρέω to keep, see on 1Pet. 1:5.

John writes so that his readers may not sin (verse 1). Now he sets forth a characteristic of genuine knowledge of God: obedience to His commandments. This is a major teaching of Jesus.

A Christian is a follower of, and a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. If we desire in our heart to please Him, because we love Him, we will keep His commandments. It must be the desire of our heart not to sin.

John 14:15 Jesus said: “If you love me, keep my commandments.”

In this verse and the next, the repetition of the words know … keep emphasizes that those genuinely born again display the habit of obedience. Obedience results in assurance of salvation, (Eph. 2:2; 1 Peter 1:14).

That these two words are among John’s favorites is clear since he uses know approximately 40 times and keep approximately 10 times in this epistle.

Basic principles of knowing God

John’s transition (1Jhn. 2:3) to the subject of knowing God may seem more abrupt than it really is. In ancient thought, the concept of light readily suggested the idea of vision, perception, or knowledge. It seems obvious that a life of fellowship with God in the light ought to lead to knowing Him. Of course in a sense all true Christians know God (John 17:3), but sometimes even genuine believers can be said not to know God or Christ (John 14:7-9). Furthermore, Jesus promised His disciples a special self-disclosure that was predicated on their obeying His commands (John 14:21-23). It is clear that such an experience involves the knowledge of God. Finally, fellowship naturally leads to knowing the One with whom that fellowship takes place. Even on the level of human experience this is true. If a father and son live apart, they will not know each other as well as if they lived together, even though their parent-child relationship continues to exist.

It would be wrong, therefore, to read 1Jhn. 2:3-11 as if John had left the subject of fellowship with God behind. On the contrary, the subject of knowing God is its logical continuation.

For readers who wish to decide whether their experience of fellowship with God has led them really to know Him in a personal way, John gave a simple test: We know that we have come to know Him if we obey His commands. The two occurrences of the word know ginōskō in this verse are the first of 23 times John used this word in this epistle. A synonym, oida, occurs six times: 1Jhn. 3:2; 5:15 [twice], 1Jhn. 5:18-20. As often in Johannine usage, the word Him might refer either to God or to Christ. For John, Jesus is so closely linked with the Father that a precise distinction between the Persons of the Godhead sometimes seems irrelevant. Fellowship is with both the Father and the Son (1Jhn. 1:3) and to know One of Them intimately is to know the Other. But obedience is the condition for such knowledge (cf. John 14:21-23). It is also the means by which a Christian can be sure that he has really come to know his Lord (cf. obey His commands in 1Jhn. 3:22, 3:24; 5:2-3).