Verses 1 and 2 of chapter two are a conclusion to the word in 1:5-10 regarding our confession and God’s forgiveness of our sins, which interrupt our fellowship with Him. That is the first condition of, the first requirement for, our enjoyment of the fellowship of the divine life. Verses 3 through 11 deal with the second condition of, the second requirement for, our fellowship with God—the requirement that we keep the Lord’s word and love the brothers.
In verse 3 John says, “And in this we know that we have known Him, if we keep His commandments.” It is significant that this verse begins with the conjunction “and.” This conjunction used at the beginning of the sentence indicates that John is about to speak concerning another condition for maintaining our fellowship.
We have seen that the first condition of the divine fellowship is dealing with sin. If we do not deal with sin, sin will damage our fellowship. Therefore, in order to maintain our fellowship with the Father, we need to confess our sins. Not only is this true doctrinally, but it is also true according to our spiritual experience. From experience we know that in order to maintain our enjoyment of the divine life in fellowship, the first thing we must do is to deal with sin. Hence, dealing with sin is the first condition, the first requirement, of keeping ourselves in the fellowship of the divine life. Now that John is going on to consider the second condition, he begins verse 3 with the conjunction “and.” This word points to another condition, another requirement, of maintaining the divine fellowship.
In verse 3 John says, “In this we know that we have known Him.” The Greek word for know in this verse may also be rendered perceive. Here the meaning is to perceive not doctrinally but experientially, by keeping the Lord’s commandments.
A more literal translation of the Greek words rendered “have known Him” would be “have come to know Him.” This denotes that we have begun to know Him and still continue knowing Him till the present time. This refers to our experiential knowledge of God in our daily walk related to our intimate fellowship with Him.
Our knowing of the Lord has begun and is continuing. This continuous knowing of the Lord is an experiential knowing. If we know the Lord in this experiential way, surely we shall keep His commandments.
In verse 4 John goes on to say, “He who says, I have known Him, and is not keeping His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in this one.” In this verse truth denotes the revealed reality of God as conveyed in the divine word, which reveals that our keeping of the Lord’s commandments should follow our knowing of Him. If we say that we have known the Lord, yet we are not keeping His commandments, the truth (reality) is not in us, and we become a liar.
When I was young, I was bothered by the word “commandments” in these verses. I thought that this term always referred to the Ten Commandments of the Mosaic law, and I wondered why John here mentioned this law, telling us that we must keep the Ten Commandments. Actually, the commandments in this verse are commandments in the New Testament, not the commandments of the Mosaic law. These New Testament commandments are the commandments of the Lord Jesus given directly by Him, or the commandments given through the apostles. In the Gospel of John the Lord gave us the definite commandment to love one another: “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 13:34). This commandment to love one another was given by the Lord Jesus Himself. Hence, it is not a commandment of the Old Testament, but a commandment of the New Testament. Other New Testament commandments were given by the Lord Jesus indirectly through His apostles.
If we say that we know the Lord experientially in the New Testament way, then we should keep the New Testament commandments. But if we do not keep these commandments, this is a sign that actually we do not know Him, even though we say that we do. According to John’s word in verse 4, if we say that we have known Him, yet do not keep His commandments, we are a liar, and the truth is not in us.