1 John 2:4-6 teaches that anyone who claims to know Christ yet does not keep His commandments is not living in the truth, but is a liar and a hypocrite. In contrast, the one who keeps His word demonstrates that the love of God has reached its intended maturity in him. The evidence of truly abiding in Christ is walking in the same pattern of obedient dependence that Jesus Himself walked.
1 John 2:4-6 teaches that the one who claims to know Christ yet does not keep His commandments is not walking in the truth, but the one who obeys His word demonstrates perfected love for God and proves that he abides in Him by walking as Jesus Himself walked.
John is writing this letter to believers (1 John 2:12) so that they can experience in this life the fullness of eternal life (1 John 1:3-4, 2:1).
John’s letter is an exhortation on what Jesus taught in the beginning (1 John 1:1-5).
Jesus defined eternal life as knowing God (John 17:3).
Jesus taught His disciples to love one another as He had loved them (John 13:34-35, 15:12, 15:17).
Jesus said we would love God and He would abide with us if we kept His commandments (John 14:15, 14:21, 14:23, 15:10).
In 1 John 1:6 - 2:3, the Apostle John gave a list of seven conditional statements describing what it meant to walk in the Light of fellowship with God. These conditional statements culminated in 1 John 2:3, which said:
“By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.” (1 John 2:3)
John introduced two major themes of his epistle in that verse:
Knowing God
Keeping His commandments to love one another.
Both themes were derived from Jesus’s original teaching in John 13-17.
In 1 John 2:4-6, John begins to unpack the first of those themes—knowing God. John will begin to unpack the second theme—keeping His commandments to love one another—in 1 John 2:7-11.
John unpacks these two themes by using hypothetical statements that begin the following phrases:
“the one who says…” (1 John 2:4, 2:6, 2:9)
“the one who loves…” (1 John 2:10)
“the one who hates…” (1 John 2:11)
All five of these hypothetical expressions—the one who—refer to believers who say, love, or hate various things. John explains or reveals the truth about each type of believer. The first of these hypothetical statements is 1 John 2:4.
THE FIRST: “THE ONE WHO SAYS…” STATEMENT
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 (v. 4).
The first scenario describes a hypocritical believer who says that he has a close relationship with God (has come to know Him), but who does not keep Jesus’s commandments.
A hypocrite is a person who says or pretends to be one thing, while doing the opposite. The word hypocrite comes from the Greek word for a professional “actor.” Jesus called the religious leaders of His day hypocrites because they professed God and pretended to be devout followers of God’s Law and commandments, but in reality they violated them and justified their behavior with their own religious rules (Matthew 15:7-8, 23:23, 27-28, Mark 7:8-9). When Jesus called the religious leaders “hypocrites,” He was calling them “liars.”
In this scenario, a believer is a liar because he is hypocritically claiming that he has a close relationship with God and is intensely experiencing eternal life when he says: I have come to know Him.
In the context of 1 John, the hypocrite is a believer who is falsely claiming to experience fellowship and joy with God. There is no question being raised whether the hypocrite has received the Gift of Eternal Life. The Gift of Eternal Life is received by grace through faith in Jesus. Receiving this Gift of Eternal Life is not connected to our works including how well we keep His commandments (John 3:16,Romans 3:20, 5:20, Ephesians 2:8-9,2 Timothy 2:13,Titus 3:5).
The Gift of Eternal Life is fully guaranteed on the basis of Jesus’s finished work on the cross. It is not in any way based on our own ability or any righteousness we can generate. Being born into eternal life is a Gift that is received through belief in Him (John 1:12,John 3:14-16).
But the Prize of Eternal Life, which includes having a close relationship with God in this lifetime comes from knowing Him in our present circumstances. It comes from enjoying fellowship with Him right now, and is a result of choosing to faithfully walk in the Light. The way we choose to have fellowship with God and to know Him now and experience the joy of the Prize of Eternal Life (1 John 1:2-4) is by keeping His commandments to love one another.
The hypocritical believer of 1 John 2:4who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is falsely claiming and/or pretending to be experiencing the Prize of Eternal Life. But this is impossible. This believer cannot be experiencing Eternal Life because he is not keeping Jesus’s commandments. He is therefore a hypocrite and a liar.
The opposite of life is death. Death is separation. We can see this in James 2:26, which describes physical death as the separation of the spirit from the body. Breaking God’s commands separates us from fellowship with Him. It separates us from His design for us. Thus, it leads us to experience death (Romans 6:16).
Every believer in Jesus has the Gift of Eternal Life—whether that believer is a hypocrite or not—because the Gift is freely gifted by His grace and is not in any way dependent upon that believer’s works (Romans 3:24). This is because our offenses were nailed to the cross, thus erasing our guilt (Colossians 2:14).
The Greek term that is translated as I have come to know is a form of the word: γινώσκω (G1097—pronounced: “gin-ō-skō”).
“Ginōskō” describes an experiential or relational knowledge rather than intellectual knowledge. “Ginōskō” is also a “stative” verb which means it describes a state of being as opposed to an action. As a stative verb, “ginōskō” is more about who we are than it is about what we do.
Moreover, the verbal tense of “ginōskō” in verse 4 is in the perfect tense. Normally, when a Greek verb is in the perfect tense it emphasizes the ongoing effects of an already completed action. But when a stative verb such as know is in the perfect tense, its meaning is amplified. In this case, the perfect tense of “ginōskō” means: “Iknow intensely,” “I experience deeply,” or “Iknow fully.”
In writing his Gospel account of Jesus’s life, John used “ginōskō” when he quoted Jesus’s description of eternal life.
“This is eternal life, that they may know [‘ginōskō’] You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” (John 17:3)
The experience of eternal life is knowing Jesus intimately and experiencing close fellowship with God. The believer who says I have come to know Him is claiming to be experiencing the fullness and joy of eternal life. This experience of life is only possible if we are connecting to God’s design for us, and that is only possible if we are walking in obedience to His commandments.
We know the expression know Him in John 17:3 refers to fellowship with God, the experience of eternal life, and not to the Gift of Eternal Life. The immediate context is Jesus praying for those the Father has given Him (John 17:2).
For all believers, Jesus is our “Advocate” (1 John 2:1) and “the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 2:2). Our assurance that we have received the Gift lies in our faith in Jesus. Our confidence that He will present us “holy and blameless and beyond reproach” in God’s presence comes from trusting His word, that He will do what He said He will do (Colossians 1:22). Our faith is in Jesus and what He has already accomplished, not in what we have done or will do.
If this believer claiming to know God is keeping His commandments, then the believer is speaking the truth. For it is by keeping Jesus’s commandments, that we know (“ginōskō”) that we fully know (“ginōskō”) Him (1 John 2:3). But if this believer who says I fully “ginōskō” Jesus does not keep His commandments, he is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
It is practical logic that we cannot walk in intimate fellowship with God while refusing to follow in His ways. We can see this principle in our practical experience. We cannot walk in fellowship with our teachers while refusing to attend class, do our homework assignments, or take tests. We cannot live in fellowship with our employer if we refuse to do our job.
The scenario of verse 4 describes the inverse of 1 John 2:3 which said that we are able to know we have come to know Him by keeping His commandments. 1 John 2:4 reinforces the truth of 1 John 2:3 by expressing its opposite, saying if we do not keep His commandments then we do not know Him, no matter what we might say.
1 John 2:3 described this truth that knowing God means following His ways in positive terms. 1 John 2:4 describes this same truth in negative terms. By describing this truth in both positive and negative terms, John makes it clear that the only way believers can know God and experience the fullness of eternal life is by keeping His commandments. Believers cannot know and positively experience the joy of fellowship with God if they do not also keep His commandments.
The expression His commandments particularly refers to Jesus’s commandments, which includes a command to love one another (John 13:34-35, 14:15, 14:21, 14:23, 15:10). The focus here is on a response from love to love instead of a legalistic mindset around the letter of the law.
As Jesus claimed, the law is summed up in the two great commandments to love God and love others (Matthew 22:37-40). The Apostle Paul asserts that when we walk in the Spirit, we fulfill the Law (Romans 8:4). Paul’s terminology of walking in the Spirit conveys the same idea as John’s concept of knowing and abiding in God.
It is impossible to know (“ginōskō”) God and be close to Him and to not love one another. “The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love” (1 John 4:8). This is because God is love, and if we are walking in His ways, we will walk in love (1 John 4:16).
The hypocritical believer whosays, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments to love one another, is like the believers of 1 John 1:6 who “say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in darkness.” Not keeping His commandments, not loving one another other is walking in darkness.
1 John 2:4 expands the concept of what it means to walk in darkness to include not keeping God’s commandments just as 1 John 2:3 expanded the concept of what it meant to walk in the Light to include keeping His commandments.
The reality for the hypocritical believer of 1 John 2:4 is similar to the reality of the hypocritical believers of 1 John 1:6 and 1:8.
“the one who says… is a liar and the truth is not in him” (1 John 2:4)
“If we say… we lie and do not practice the truth” (1 John 1:6)
“If we say… we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8)
Believers who falsely claim to have fellowship with God as they walk in the darkness, deny their sin, and do not keep His commandments are liars to others, themselves, and to God.
And His truth is not in them.
The expression the truth is not in them describes how the truth and power of God’s word is not activated in their lives. God’s word is truth (Psalm 119:160,John 17:17). When believers do not keep His commandments, then they are stumbling in the darkness of their own sin instead of walking according to truth of His word. As James describes this same concept, we can escape the death produced by our own evil desires through setting aside our inner wickedness and receiving God’s word to be implanted within us, that we might follow it (James 1:14-15, 21).
God’s word is a lamp to our feet and a light for our path (Psalm 119:105). Such believers who do not practice the truth of God’s word are like the soil that the seeds of the Sower do not penetrate and produce fruit (Matthew 13:3-9, 18-22). Believers who do not have the truth in them are blind leaders of the blind as they hypocritically claim to know God (Matthew 15:14).
Truth is not in the one who lies and deceives themselves. Truth is not just a collection of facts about Jesus. Truth is something to be lived and practiced (John 3:21,3 John 1:4). To have the truth in us is to have Jesus’s teachings in us actively shaping our perspective, directing our actions.
When believers walk in intimacy with Jesus, which is to say they know Him, their mind is renewed and they are transformed by Him. Because their mind is renewed, they live as a living sacrifice and follow His commandments (Romans 12:1-2). They live and love as He lived and loved. Jesus taught:
“If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.” (John 15:10)
After John describes the hypocritical believer who says “I have come to know Him” but who does not keep His commandments, he describes the corrective response in the form of an opposite example of whoever keeps His word:
A CONTRAST TO THE FIRST: “THE ONE WHO SAYS…” STATEMENT
but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him (v 5).
The phrase but whoever keeps His word is a direct contrast to the hypocritical believer who does not keep His commandments, whom John described in verse 4. The terms His word and His commandments are used as synonyms in these statements.
John uses three important terms that have not been previously discussed in verse 5.
They are the words for:
Keeps
Love
Has been perfected
The first important term of verse 5 is the Greek word for keeps.
The word keeps is translated from a form of the Greek word τηρέω (G5083—pronounced: “té-re-ō”). “Téreō” means to watch over, guard, and/or protect. It does not describe a passive obedience that thoughtlessly goes through the motions. “Téreō” requires focused intentionality and an active vigilance.
To keep His commandments and word means to lock in and deliberately choose to put the truth into practice. “Téreō” is the same Greek word that is translated as “keep” in 1 John 2:3 and verse 4.
The repeated presence of “téreō” in 1 John 2:3-5 indicates that keeping God’s commandments/His word is a deliberate series of choices to actively practice the truth. This suggests that we must be intentional and focused if we are to walk in the Light as He is in the Light and love one another as He loved us. Further, it infers that if we let our “téreō” (keep/guard) down we will soon stumble away from the Light of fellowship and into the darkness.
The Apostle Paul gave himself as an example of this to the Philippians when he wrote:
“Brethren, join in following my example, and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us.” (Philippians 3:17)
The example Paul was referring to was how he pressed on to lay hold of the prize of knowing Christ by living according to the standard that He gave us (Philippians 3:12-16). Paul considered everything he once held dear in life “to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Philippians 3:8).
The Apostle Peter also urged believers to
“be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things [i.e. virtue, knowledge, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love] you will never stumble; for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.” (2 Peter 1:10-11—see also 1 Peter 1:5-9)
The concept of having “an entrance” into Jesus’s kingdom that is “abundantly supplied” refers to the great rewards Jesus promises to grant to those who live as faithful witnesses for Him (Revelation 3:21, 21:7). Jesus Himself said:
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.” (Matthew 7:21)
Jesus is our perfect example of what it means to keep God’s commands and abide in Him (John 15:9-10,Hebrews 12:1).
John writes that the love of God has truly been perfected in whoever keeps His word.
The second important term of verse 5 is the Greek word for love.
The Greek term that is translated as love in verse 5 is the Greek noun: ἀγάπη (G26—pronounced: “a-ga-pé”). This Greek noun appears in 1 John eighteen times. This Greek noun appears in 1 John more than any other book of the New Testament besides John’s Gospel. The verbal form of this word (G25—“a-ga-pa-ō”) appears twenty-eight times in 1 John, more than any book besides the Gospel of John.
“Agapé” can be translated as “affection” or “good will.” The New Testament purposes “agapé” love to refer to a love of choice. In 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, Paul describes love as a list of actions that go against our natural affections. John will use “agap/agapaō” later in this chapter when he exhorts believers not to “agapaō” the things in the world, including its lusts (1 John 2:15-16).
“Agapé/Agapaō” describe how we are to choose to treat other people, including our enemies, if we are to walk in His ways (Matthew 5:44). But there is a special emphasis to choose to love one another (1 John 3:1, 4:7, 4:11, 4:12). The two greatest commandments use “agapaō” when they command us to love God with all our might and to love our neighbor as welove ourselves (Mark 12:29-31). Paul writes that the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, “You shall love [‘agapaō’] your neighbor as yourself” (Galatians 5:14).
John uses “agape/agapaō” to describe God’s unconditional love for us in sending His Son to be the propitiation for our sins (1 John 4:9-10) and he uses it to describe God’s character (1 John 4:8). God is love, so following God requires walking in love.
John also uses “agapé/agapaō” to describe how we should not love the world by choosing to follow in its ways,
“Do not love [‘agapaō’] the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves [‘agapaō’] the world, the love [‘agapé’] of the Father is not in him.” (1 John 2:15)
When John commands: “Do not love the world” (1 John 2:15a), he is saying we should not choose to follow the lusts that are in the world. Our old man will desire the world, but we are asked to set those desires aside and instead follow God’s word (James 1:21). We are asked to choose to love our enemies and treat them with kindness and mercy and hope for their best—regardless of how we might feel about them.
If we want to know God, we are to choose to behave in such a manner that we shine a light for them, that they might come to know Jesus and to become our brothers and sisters in Christ. We should have goodwill for the world, but we should not have affection for it.
John’s command to not love the world is a command to seek approval from God and not the world. It is similar to Jesus’s teaching in the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus asserts that we cannot serve two masters (Matthew 6:24). We cannot love God and love the world at the same time.
When John says, “If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in Him” (1 John 2:15b), he is saying we cannot have affection for and/or be aligned with the world and its darkness while at the same time choosing to be aligned with God who is Light.
The third important term of verse 5 is the Greek word for has been perfected.
The Greek term that is translated as has been perfected in this verse is a form of the verb τελειόω (G5048—pronounced: “tel-ī-o-ō”). It means to fulfill, carry through, accomplish, bring to fruition. This could also be translated “has been completed” or “has been fulfilled” instead of has been perfected.
In verse 5, this verb is in the passive voice in the perfect tense.
When a verb is in the passive voice it means that its subject receives rather than performs the verb’s action. In this case, the love of God is the subject, and it receives the action of being fulfilled, which is to be perfected. In other words, the love of God is what is perfected when we choose to love others.
This verse is not saying that we have beenperfected. Believers are presented by Jesus as holy and blameless before God through Christ, regardless of our actions (Colossians 1:22). John is saying God’s love has been perfected in us when we love one another. John repeats this claim more explicitly later in his letter:
“if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.” (1 John 4:12)
To be clear, God’s love is already pure and perfect—God is Light without any darkness at all (1 John 1:5). What remains is for His love to be made complete within us. This is our path to fulfillment. Love overcomes strife and division (Galatians 5:14-15).
So, what John means by saying God’s lovehas been perfected is that it becomes perfectly fulfilled and carried out when we love others. It comes full circle: God loves us, then we share with others His already-perfect love that He has given us:
“We love, because He first loved us.” (1 John 4:19).
When a verb is in the passive voice, as in the love of God has been perfected, it means that the direct object is the one that does this action to the subject that receives it. In verse 5, the implied direct object that is doing the perfecting of God’s love is whoever keeps His word. This means that we, as believers, have a role in bringing God’s love to perfect fruition.
In writing how God’s love has truly been perfected, John is describing what happens every time we keep His commandments to love one another. Namely, we fulfill God’s perfect will in that moment. We accomplish what God created us to do for that moment. Humans were created and believers are saved to serve God in love by serving others with His love. And when we love others, His love is perfectly accomplished in us.
The Greek tense of this verb is in the perfect tense which normally describes the ongoing effects or consequences of a completed action. But because “telioō”/perfected is a stative verb (a stative verb describes a state of being more than an actual action), the perfect tense intensifies its meaning. In this case, it signifies that the love of God has truly been perfected.
And John includes the adverb truly to further emphasize the complete fulfillment which God’s love has accomplished in us when we keep His commands.
Love goes in both directions: we love God by keeping His commands and God’s love is perfected in us when we keep His word to love one another. Shortly after Jesus commanded His disciples to love one another (John 13:34-35), He told them:
“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.” (John 14:21)
Reading John 14:21 out of context, it might seem like God only loves people who keep Hiscommandments, or that we must keep His commandments in order to earn His love. But God’s love precedes our love. God loved us when we were still sinners (Romans 5:8). Or, as John teaches:
“In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1 John 4:10)
God loved us before we love Him by keeping His commandments to love one another. John is not saying God loves us only because we love Him and keep His commandments. John is describing the perfection or completion of God’s love in us as we walk in the Light.
John ends verse 5 by saying: By this we know that we are in Him.
The expression by this refers to keeping His word. If we keep His word, we know that we are in Him—i.e. in the fellowship of His Light. The point of 1 John 1:5 repeats what John said in 1 John 2:3 when he wrote: “By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.”
The way we (believers) experience (“ginōskō”) fellowship inHis Light is keeping His word.
If as believers in Jesus, we do the following things in faith (“for without faith it is impossible to please God”—Hebrews 11:6), then we will not only be recipients of the Gift of Eternal Life, we will know (“ginōskō”) God and partake in the abundant experience and current reward of eternal life that Jesus came to offer (John 10:10b):
Practice the truth (1 John 1:6)
Walk in the Light (1 John 1:7)
Confess our sins (1 John 1:9)
Keep (“téreō”) His commandments (1 John 2:5)
Love (“agapaō”) one another (1 John 3:11, 3:23, 4:7-8, 4:11-12, 4:19-21, 5:1-2)
All of these things are connected. John does not advocate for one of these apart from the others. John wrote these things so believers could experience the fullness of eternal life and in doing so have their joy made complete (1 John 1:2, 4). All of these things are all characteristic actions or states-of-being that lead to fully experiencing (“ginōskō”) the joy of abiding in the fellowship of eternal life in Him.
THE SECOND: “THE ONE WHO SAYS…” STATEMENT
This idea is continued in verse 6:
the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked (v 6).
As was the case with verse 4, the expression—the one who says—refers to the believer who says.
The believer of verse 4 and the believer of verse 6 are essentially claiming the same thing:
The believer of verse 4 says “I have come to know Him.”
The believer of verse 6 says that he abides in Him.
The Greek term that is translated as abides is another important term in John’s writing. It is a form of the Greek verb μένω (G3306—pronounced: “men-ō”). Menō is used a total of 118 times in the New Testament; over half of those occurrences are used by John in his Gospel, epistles, and Revelation. John uses “menō” twenty-four times in 1 John.
“Menō” means to dwell, live with, stay, or remain with. We abide in a house or dwelling; to abide in something means to make it our home.
Thus, when a believer says that he abides in Him, the believer is saying that he has made Jesus Christ his home. It is where he stays. The believer is saying that he lives with Jesus and stays with Him as he encounters life’s circumstances. He and Jesus do life together.
Jesus promised that if we keep His commandments we will abide in His love and make it our home (John 15:10). The reason Jesus said this was so that our joy might be made full (John 15:11).
“Menō” and “ginōskō” each depict the actions that lead to us experiencing eternal life in the here and now. This is because what we are doing, we are doing with and for God. “Menō” means we abide in Him and make Him our home. “Ginōskō” means we personally and intimately know God and walk with Him in our daily activities.
Jesus also said that God the Father makes His home in us when we love Him and keep His word,
“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.” (John 14:23)
The difference between verse 4 and verse 6 is that verse 4 describes a believer who says, “I have come to know Him” but does not keep His commandments, and verse 6 describes what a believer who says that he abides in Him should do.
The believer of verse 4 is a lying hypocrite. But the believer who says that he abides in Jesus ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.
To walk in the same manner as He walked means to live like Jesus lived when He was on earth.
These teachings demonstrate how loving God, knowing Him, and abiding in Him necessitate the accompanying behavior of keeping His commandments to love one another. Jesus taught the same thing when He said:
“He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me.” (John 14:21)
“He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit.” (John 15:5)
“You are My friends if you do what I command you.” (John 15:14)
Jesus commanded us to love one another as He loved us (John 13:34-35, 14:15, 14:21, 14:23, 15:10). Jesus loved His disciples by abiding in His Father’s will and entrusting Himself and His choices to God (John 5:19, 5:30, 8:28, 14:10). Jesus told His disciples that as He abided in the Father, so we ought to abide in Him,
“Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.” (John 15:9-10)
This is what it means for us to live and walk in the same manner as Jesus lived and walked.
We are to serve others as Jesus served others. (Matthew 20:26-28)
We are to have the same mindset of Jesus, who did not rely on His own divine power, but fully relied on God, learning obedience even unto death (Philippians 2:5-8)
We are to deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow Him. (Luke 9:23)
The goal is not to live an upright and moral life by following religious rules in our own power. This type of living is seeking to justify ourselves, which is silly because believers are fully justified before God through Christ (Galatians 3:3,Colossians 1:22). Similarly, we cannot sanctify ourselves, God is the one who sanctifies us in His word and love (John 17:17,1 Thessalonians 5:23-24). Apart from Him we can do nothing (John 15:5b).
The goal is to be like Jesus by keeping His word in His power through walking as He walked, which is in dependence upon Him. (Overcoming life’s trials by faith and in His power is another aspect of what it means to be in Him, Revelation 3:21).
We emulate Jesus’s faith in action by keeping His commandments as we abide in Him. We are transformed by His love. We become like Jesus as we live and walk in God’s love. Hislove flows through us changing us and flows to others as we love them with God’s love for us. The extent to which we do this is the extent to which we will experience life in this age, and also will be the basis upon which we are judged in the age that is to come (1 John 4:17-18).
In His life on Earth, Jesus modeled what it means to perfectly obey the will of the Father. As Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane: “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done” (Luke 22:42). Jesus obeyed His Father out of His perfect love for and fellowship with the Father.
In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul also instructs us to imitate God:
“Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also love you and gave Himself up for us.” (Ephesians 5:1-2a)
And Jesus Himself told the disciples that “I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you” in washing their feet (John 13:15).
Christ came to Earth to be “the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 2:2): to die on the cross and rise again and turn the wrath of God away from us. But He also came to be an example for us and to pave a path for us to walk. He is the perfect human being. Because Jesus is the Author and Finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:1-2), we can look to Him as an example for what it means to obey the Father by faith and out of love.
It is through faith that we can receive the Gift of Eternal Life (John 3:14-15). It is through walking by faith and following Jesus’s commands that we can experience His fullness in this age, as we have seen in 1 John chapters 1-2. And it is through living as a faithful witness that we can gain the greatest rewards in the age that is to come (Revelation 3:21, 21:7).
In the next section of scripture (1 John 2:7-11), the apostle explains why loving one another is necessary for walking in the Light.
1 John 2:4-6
4 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;
5 but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him:
6 the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.
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1 John 2:4-6 meaning
1 John 2:4-6 teaches that the one who claims to know Christ yet does not keep His commandments is not walking in the truth, but the one who obeys His word demonstrates perfected love for God and proves that he abides in Him by walking as Jesus Himself walked.
John is writing this letter to believers (1 John 2:12) so that they can experience in this life the fullness of eternal life (1 John 1:3-4, 2:1).
John’s letter is an exhortation on what Jesus taught in the beginning (1 John 1:1-5).
In 1 John 1:6 - 2:3, the Apostle John gave a list of seven conditional statements describing what it meant to walk in the Light of fellowship with God. These conditional statements culminated in 1 John 2:3, which said:
“By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.”
(1 John 2:3)
John introduced two major themes of his epistle in that verse:
Both themes were derived from Jesus’s original teaching in John 13-17.
In 1 John 2:4-6, John begins to unpack the first of those themes—knowing God. John will begin to unpack the second theme—keeping His commandments to love one another—in 1 John 2:7-11.
John unpacks these two themes by using hypothetical statements that begin the following phrases:
(1 John 2:4, 2:6, 2:9)
(1 John 2:10)
(1 John 2:11)
All five of these hypothetical expressions—the one who—refer to believers who say, love, or hate various things. John explains or reveals the truth about each type of believer. The first of these hypothetical statements is 1 John 2:4.
THE FIRST: “THE ONE WHO SAYS…” STATEMENT
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 (v. 4).
The first scenario describes a hypocritical believer who says that he has a close relationship with God (has come to know Him), but who does not keep Jesus’s commandments.
A hypocrite is a person who says or pretends to be one thing, while doing the opposite. The word hypocrite comes from the Greek word for a professional “actor.” Jesus called the religious leaders of His day hypocrites because they professed God and pretended to be devout followers of God’s Law and commandments, but in reality they violated them and justified their behavior with their own religious rules (Matthew 15:7-8, 23:23, 27-28, Mark 7:8-9). When Jesus called the religious leaders “hypocrites,” He was calling them “liars.”
In this scenario, a believer is a liar because he is hypocritically claiming that he has a close relationship with God and is intensely experiencing eternal life when he says: I have come to know Him.
In the context of 1 John, the hypocrite is a believer who is falsely claiming to experience fellowship and joy with God. There is no question being raised whether the hypocrite has received the Gift of Eternal Life. The Gift of Eternal Life is received by grace through faith in Jesus. Receiving this Gift of Eternal Life is not connected to our works including how well we keep His commandments (John 3:16, Romans 3:20, 5:20, Ephesians 2:8-9, 2 Timothy 2:13, Titus 3:5).
The Gift of Eternal Life is fully guaranteed on the basis of Jesus’s finished work on the cross. It is not in any way based on our own ability or any righteousness we can generate. Being born into eternal life is a Gift that is received through belief in Him (John 1:12, John 3:14-16).
But the Prize of Eternal Life, which includes having a close relationship with God in this lifetime comes from knowing Him in our present circumstances. It comes from enjoying fellowship with Him right now, and is a result of choosing to faithfully walk in the Light. The way we choose to have fellowship with God and to know Him now and experience the joy of the Prize of Eternal Life (1 John 1:2-4) is by keeping His commandments to love one another.
The hypocritical believer of 1 John 2:4 who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is falsely claiming and/or pretending to be experiencing the Prize of Eternal Life. But this is impossible. This believer cannot be experiencing Eternal Life because he is not keeping Jesus’s commandments. He is therefore a hypocrite and a liar.
The opposite of life is death. Death is separation. We can see this in James 2:26, which describes physical death as the separation of the spirit from the body. Breaking God’s commands separates us from fellowship with Him. It separates us from His design for us. Thus, it leads us to experience death (Romans 6:16).
Every believer in Jesus has the Gift of Eternal Life—whether that believer is a hypocrite or not—because the Gift is freely gifted by His grace and is not in any way dependent upon that believer’s works (Romans 3:24). This is because our offenses were nailed to the cross, thus erasing our guilt (Colossians 2:14).
The Greek term that is translated as I have come to know is a form of the word: γινώσκω (G1097—pronounced: “gin-ō-skō”).
“Ginōskō” describes an experiential or relational knowledge rather than intellectual knowledge. “Ginōskō” is also a “stative” verb which means it describes a state of being as opposed to an action. As a stative verb, “ginōskō” is more about who we are than it is about what we do.
Moreover, the verbal tense of “ginōskō” in verse 4 is in the perfect tense. Normally, when a Greek verb is in the perfect tense it emphasizes the ongoing effects of an already completed action. But when a stative verb such as know is in the perfect tense, its meaning is amplified. In this case, the perfect tense of “ginōskō” means: “I know intensely,” “I experience deeply,” or “I know fully.”
In writing his Gospel account of Jesus’s life, John used “ginōskō” when he quoted Jesus’s description of eternal life.
“This is eternal life, that they may know [‘ginōskō’] You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”
(John 17:3)
The experience of eternal life is knowing Jesus intimately and experiencing close fellowship with God. The believer who says I have come to know Him is claiming to be experiencing the fullness and joy of eternal life. This experience of life is only possible if we are connecting to God’s design for us, and that is only possible if we are walking in obedience to His commandments.
We know the expression know Him in John 17:3 refers to fellowship with God, the experience of eternal life, and not to the Gift of Eternal Life. The immediate context is Jesus praying for those the Father has given Him (John 17:2).
For all believers, Jesus is our “Advocate” (1 John 2:1) and “the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 2:2). Our assurance that we have received the Gift lies in our faith in Jesus. Our confidence that He will present us “holy and blameless and beyond reproach” in God’s presence comes from trusting His word, that He will do what He said He will do (Colossians 1:22). Our faith is in Jesus and what He has already accomplished, not in what we have done or will do.
If this believer claiming to know God is keeping His commandments, then the believer is speaking the truth. For it is by keeping Jesus’s commandments, that we know (“ginōskō”) that we fully know (“ginōskō”) Him (1 John 2:3). But if this believer who says I fully “ginōskō” Jesus does not keep His commandments, he is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
It is practical logic that we cannot walk in intimate fellowship with God while refusing to follow in His ways. We can see this principle in our practical experience. We cannot walk in fellowship with our teachers while refusing to attend class, do our homework assignments, or take tests. We cannot live in fellowship with our employer if we refuse to do our job.
The scenario of verse 4 describes the inverse of 1 John 2:3 which said that we are able to know we have come to know Him by keeping His commandments. 1 John 2:4 reinforces the truth of 1 John 2:3 by expressing its opposite, saying if we do not keep His commandments then we do not know Him, no matter what we might say.
1 John 2:3 described this truth that knowing God means following His ways in positive terms. 1 John 2:4 describes this same truth in negative terms. By describing this truth in both positive and negative terms, John makes it clear that the only way believers can know God and experience the fullness of eternal life is by keeping His commandments. Believers cannot know and positively experience the joy of fellowship with God if they do not also keep His commandments.
The expression His commandments particularly refers to Jesus’s commandments, which includes a command to love one another (John 13:34-35, 14:15, 14:21, 14:23, 15:10). The focus here is on a response from love to love instead of a legalistic mindset around the letter of the law.
As Jesus claimed, the law is summed up in the two great commandments to love God and love others (Matthew 22:37-40). The Apostle Paul asserts that when we walk in the Spirit, we fulfill the Law (Romans 8:4). Paul’s terminology of walking in the Spirit conveys the same idea as John’s concept of knowing and abiding in God.
It is impossible to know (“ginōskō”) God and be close to Him and to not love one another. “The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love” (1 John 4:8). This is because God is love, and if we are walking in His ways, we will walk in love (1 John 4:16).
The hypocritical believer who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments to love one another, is like the believers of 1 John 1:6 who “say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in darkness.” Not keeping His commandments, not loving one another other is walking in darkness.
1 John 2:4 expands the concept of what it means to walk in darkness to include not keeping God’s commandments just as 1 John 2:3 expanded the concept of what it meant to walk in the Light to include keeping His commandments.
The reality for the hypocritical believer of 1 John 2:4 is similar to the reality of the hypocritical believers of 1 John 1:6 and 1:8.
“the one who says… is a liar and the truth is not in him”
(1 John 2:4)
“If we say… we lie and do not practice the truth”
(1 John 1:6)
“If we say… we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us”
(1 John 1:8)
Believers who falsely claim to have fellowship with God as they walk in the darkness, deny their sin, and do not keep His commandments are liars to others, themselves, and to God.
And His truth is not in them.
The expression the truth is not in them describes how the truth and power of God’s word is not activated in their lives. God’s word is truth (Psalm 119:160, John 17:17). When believers do not keep His commandments, then they are stumbling in the darkness of their own sin instead of walking according to truth of His word. As James describes this same concept, we can escape the death produced by our own evil desires through setting aside our inner wickedness and receiving God’s word to be implanted within us, that we might follow it (James 1:14-15, 21).
God’s word is a lamp to our feet and a light for our path (Psalm 119:105). Such believers who do not practice the truth of God’s word are like the soil that the seeds of the Sower do not penetrate and produce fruit (Matthew 13:3-9, 18-22). Believers who do not have the truth in them are blind leaders of the blind as they hypocritically claim to know God (Matthew 15:14).
Truth is not in the one who lies and deceives themselves. Truth is not just a collection of facts about Jesus. Truth is something to be lived and practiced (John 3:21, 3 John 1:4). To have the truth in us is to have Jesus’s teachings in us actively shaping our perspective, directing our actions.
When believers walk in intimacy with Jesus, which is to say they know Him, their mind is renewed and they are transformed by Him. Because their mind is renewed, they live as a living sacrifice and follow His commandments (Romans 12:1-2). They live and love as He lived and loved. Jesus taught:
“If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.”
(John 15:10)
After John describes the hypocritical believer who says “I have come to know Him” but who does not keep His commandments, he describes the corrective response in the form of an opposite example of whoever keeps His word:
A CONTRAST TO THE FIRST: “THE ONE WHO SAYS…” STATEMENT
but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him (v 5).
The phrase but whoever keeps His word is a direct contrast to the hypocritical believer who does not keep His commandments, whom John described in verse 4. The terms His word and His commandments are used as synonyms in these statements.
John uses three important terms that have not been previously discussed in verse 5.
They are the words for:
The first important term of verse 5 is the Greek word for keeps.
The word keeps is translated from a form of the Greek word τηρέω (G5083—pronounced: “té-re-ō”). “Téreō” means to watch over, guard, and/or protect. It does not describe a passive obedience that thoughtlessly goes through the motions. “Téreō” requires focused intentionality and an active vigilance.
To keep His commandments and word means to lock in and deliberately choose to put the truth into practice. “Téreō” is the same Greek word that is translated as “keep” in 1 John 2:3 and verse 4.
The repeated presence of “téreō” in 1 John 2:3-5 indicates that keeping God’s commandments/His word is a deliberate series of choices to actively practice the truth. This suggests that we must be intentional and focused if we are to walk in the Light as He is in the Light and love one another as He loved us. Further, it infers that if we let our “téreō” (keep/guard) down we will soon stumble away from the Light of fellowship and into the darkness.
The Apostle Paul gave himself as an example of this to the Philippians when he wrote:
“Brethren, join in following my example, and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us.”
(Philippians 3:17)
The example Paul was referring to was how he pressed on to lay hold of the prize of knowing Christ by living according to the standard that He gave us (Philippians 3:12-16). Paul considered everything he once held dear in life “to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Philippians 3:8).
The Apostle Peter also urged believers to
“be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things [i.e. virtue, knowledge, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love] you will never stumble; for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.”
(2 Peter 1:10-11—see also 1 Peter 1:5-9)
The concept of having “an entrance” into Jesus’s kingdom that is “abundantly supplied” refers to the great rewards Jesus promises to grant to those who live as faithful witnesses for Him (Revelation 3:21, 21:7). Jesus Himself said:
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.”
(Matthew 7:21)
Jesus is our perfect example of what it means to keep God’s commands and abide in Him (John 15:9-10, Hebrews 12:1).
John writes that the love of God has truly been perfected in whoever keeps His word.
The second important term of verse 5 is the Greek word for love.
The Greek term that is translated as love in verse 5 is the Greek noun: ἀγάπη (G26—pronounced: “a-ga-pé”). This Greek noun appears in 1 John eighteen times. This Greek noun appears in 1 John more than any other book of the New Testament besides John’s Gospel. The verbal form of this word (G25—“a-ga-pa-ō”) appears twenty-eight times in 1 John, more than any book besides the Gospel of John.
“Agapé” can be translated as “affection” or “good will.” The New Testament purposes “agapé” love to refer to a love of choice. In 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, Paul describes love as a list of actions that go against our natural affections. John will use “agap/agapaō” later in this chapter when he exhorts believers not to “agapaō” the things in the world, including its lusts (1 John 2:15-16).
“Agapé/Agapaō” describe how we are to choose to treat other people, including our enemies, if we are to walk in His ways (Matthew 5:44). But there is a special emphasis to choose to love one another (1 John 3:1, 4:7, 4:11, 4:12). The two greatest commandments use “agapaō” when they command us to love God with all our might and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves (Mark 12:29-31). Paul writes that the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, “You shall love [‘agapaō’] your neighbor as yourself” (Galatians 5:14).
John uses “agape/agapaō” to describe God’s unconditional love for us in sending His Son to be the propitiation for our sins (1 John 4:9-10) and he uses it to describe God’s character (1 John 4:8). God is love, so following God requires walking in love.
John also uses “agapé/agapaō” to describe how we should not love the world by choosing to follow in its ways,
“Do not love [‘agapaō’] the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves [‘agapaō’] the world, the love [‘agapé’] of the Father is not in him.”
(1 John 2:15)
When John commands: “Do not love the world” (1 John 2:15a), he is saying we should not choose to follow the lusts that are in the world. Our old man will desire the world, but we are asked to set those desires aside and instead follow God’s word (James 1:21). We are asked to choose to love our enemies and treat them with kindness and mercy and hope for their best—regardless of how we might feel about them.
If we want to know God, we are to choose to behave in such a manner that we shine a light for them, that they might come to know Jesus and to become our brothers and sisters in Christ. We should have goodwill for the world, but we should not have affection for it.
John’s command to not love the world is a command to seek approval from God and not the world. It is similar to Jesus’s teaching in the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus asserts that we cannot serve two masters (Matthew 6:24). We cannot love God and love the world at the same time.
When John says, “If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in Him” (1 John 2:15b), he is saying we cannot have affection for and/or be aligned with the world and its darkness while at the same time choosing to be aligned with God who is Light.
The third important term of verse 5 is the Greek word for has been perfected.
The Greek term that is translated as has been perfected in this verse is a form of the verb τελειόω (G5048—pronounced: “tel-ī-o-ō”). It means to fulfill, carry through, accomplish, bring to fruition. This could also be translated “has been completed” or “has been fulfilled” instead of has been perfected.
In verse 5, this verb is in the passive voice in the perfect tense.
When a verb is in the passive voice it means that its subject receives rather than performs the verb’s action. In this case, the love of God is the subject, and it receives the action of being fulfilled, which is to be perfected. In other words, the love of God is what is perfected when we choose to love others.
This verse is not saying that we have been perfected. Believers are presented by Jesus as holy and blameless before God through Christ, regardless of our actions (Colossians 1:22). John is saying God’s love has been perfected in us when we love one another. John repeats this claim more explicitly later in his letter:
“if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.”
(1 John 4:12)
To be clear, God’s love is already pure and perfect—God is Light without any darkness at all (1 John 1:5). What remains is for His love to be made complete within us. This is our path to fulfillment. Love overcomes strife and division (Galatians 5:14-15).
So, what John means by saying God’s love has been perfected is that it becomes perfectly fulfilled and carried out when we love others. It comes full circle: God loves us, then we share with others His already-perfect love that He has given us:
“We love, because He first loved us.”
(1 John 4:19).
When a verb is in the passive voice, as in the love of God has been perfected, it means that the direct object is the one that does this action to the subject that receives it. In verse 5, the implied direct object that is doing the perfecting of God’s love is whoever keeps His word. This means that we, as believers, have a role in bringing God’s love to perfect fruition.
In writing how God’s love has truly been perfected, John is describing what happens every time we keep His commandments to love one another. Namely, we fulfill God’s perfect will in that moment. We accomplish what God created us to do for that moment. Humans were created and believers are saved to serve God in love by serving others with His love. And when we love others, His love is perfectly accomplished in us.
The Greek tense of this verb is in the perfect tense which normally describes the ongoing effects or consequences of a completed action. But because “telioō”/perfected is a stative verb (a stative verb describes a state of being more than an actual action), the perfect tense intensifies its meaning. In this case, it signifies that the love of God has truly been perfected.
And John includes the adverb truly to further emphasize the complete fulfillment which God’s love has accomplished in us when we keep His commands.
Love goes in both directions: we love God by keeping His commands and God’s love is perfected in us when we keep His word to love one another. Shortly after Jesus commanded His disciples to love one another (John 13:34-35), He told them:
“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.”
(John 14:21)
Reading John 14:21 out of context, it might seem like God only loves people who keep His commandments, or that we must keep His commandments in order to earn His love. But God’s love precedes our love. God loved us when we were still sinners (Romans 5:8). Or, as John teaches:
“In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
(1 John 4:10)
God loved us before we love Him by keeping His commandments to love one another. John is not saying God loves us only because we love Him and keep His commandments. John is describing the perfection or completion of God’s love in us as we walk in the Light.
John ends verse 5 by saying: By this we know that we are in Him.
The expression by this refers to keeping His word. If we keep His word, we know that we are in Him—i.e. in the fellowship of His Light. The point of 1 John 1:5 repeats what John said in 1 John 2:3 when he wrote: “By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.”
The way we (believers) experience (“ginōskō”) fellowship in His Light is keeping His word.
If as believers in Jesus, we do the following things in faith (“for without faith it is impossible to please God”—Hebrews 11:6), then we will not only be recipients of the Gift of Eternal Life, we will know (“ginōskō”) God and partake in the abundant experience and current reward of eternal life that Jesus came to offer (John 10:10b):
(1 John 1:6)
(1 John 1:7)
(1 John 1:9)
(1 John 2:5)
(1 John 3:11, 3:23, 4:7-8, 4:11-12, 4:19-21, 5:1-2)
All of these things are connected. John does not advocate for one of these apart from the others. John wrote these things so believers could experience the fullness of eternal life and in doing so have their joy made complete (1 John 1:2, 4). All of these things are all characteristic actions or states-of-being that lead to fully experiencing (“ginōskō”) the joy of abiding in the fellowship of eternal life in Him.
THE SECOND: “THE ONE WHO SAYS…” STATEMENT
This idea is continued in verse 6:
the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked (v 6).
As was the case with verse 4, the expression—the one who says—refers to the believer who says.
The believer of verse 4 and the believer of verse 6 are essentially claiming the same thing:
The Greek term that is translated as abides is another important term in John’s writing. It is a form of the Greek verb μένω (G3306—pronounced: “men-ō”). Menō is used a total of 118 times in the New Testament; over half of those occurrences are used by John in his Gospel, epistles, and Revelation. John uses “menō” twenty-four times in 1 John.
“Menō” means to dwell, live with, stay, or remain with. We abide in a house or dwelling; to abide in something means to make it our home.
Thus, when a believer says that he abides in Him, the believer is saying that he has made Jesus Christ his home. It is where he stays. The believer is saying that he lives with Jesus and stays with Him as he encounters life’s circumstances. He and Jesus do life together.
Jesus promised that if we keep His commandments we will abide in His love and make it our home (John 15:10). The reason Jesus said this was so that our joy might be made full (John 15:11).
“Menō” and “ginōskō” each depict the actions that lead to us experiencing eternal life in the here and now. This is because what we are doing, we are doing with and for God. “Menō” means we abide in Him and make Him our home. “Ginōskō” means we personally and intimately know God and walk with Him in our daily activities.
Jesus also said that God the Father makes His home in us when we love Him and keep His word,
“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.”
(John 14:23)
The difference between verse 4 and verse 6 is that verse 4 describes a believer who says, “I have come to know Him” but does not keep His commandments, and verse 6 describes what a believer who says that he abides in Him should do.
The believer of verse 4 is a lying hypocrite. But the believer who says that he abides in Jesus ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.
To walk in the same manner as He walked means to live like Jesus lived when He was on earth.
These teachings demonstrate how loving God, knowing Him, and abiding in Him necessitate the accompanying behavior of keeping His commandments to love one another. Jesus taught the same thing when He said:
“He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me.”
(John 14:21)
“He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit.”
(John 15:5)
“You are My friends if you do what I command you.”
(John 15:14)
Jesus commanded us to love one another as He loved us (John 13:34-35, 14:15, 14:21, 14:23, 15:10). Jesus loved His disciples by abiding in His Father’s will and entrusting Himself and His choices to God (John 5:19, 5:30, 8:28, 14:10). Jesus told His disciples that as He abided in the Father, so we ought to abide in Him,
“Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.”
(John 15:9-10)
This is what it means for us to live and walk in the same manner as Jesus lived and walked.
(Matthew 20:26-28)
(Philippians 2:5-8)
(Luke 9:23)
The goal is not to live an upright and moral life by following religious rules in our own power. This type of living is seeking to justify ourselves, which is silly because believers are fully justified before God through Christ (Galatians 3:3, Colossians 1:22). Similarly, we cannot sanctify ourselves, God is the one who sanctifies us in His word and love (John 17:17, 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24). Apart from Him we can do nothing (John 15:5b).
The goal is to be like Jesus by keeping His word in His power through walking as He walked, which is in dependence upon Him. (Overcoming life’s trials by faith and in His power is another aspect of what it means to be in Him, Revelation 3:21).
We emulate Jesus’s faith in action by keeping His commandments as we abide in Him. We are transformed by His love. We become like Jesus as we live and walk in God’s love. His love flows through us changing us and flows to others as we love them with God’s love for us. The extent to which we do this is the extent to which we will experience life in this age, and also will be the basis upon which we are judged in the age that is to come (1 John 4:17-18).
In His life on Earth, Jesus modeled what it means to perfectly obey the will of the Father. As Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane: “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done” (Luke 22:42). Jesus obeyed His Father out of His perfect love for and fellowship with the Father.
In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul also instructs us to imitate God:
“Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also love you and gave Himself up for us.”
(Ephesians 5:1-2a)
And Jesus Himself told the disciples that “I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you” in washing their feet (John 13:15).
Christ came to Earth to be “the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 2:2): to die on the cross and rise again and turn the wrath of God away from us. But He also came to be an example for us and to pave a path for us to walk. He is the perfect human being. Because Jesus is the Author and Finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:1-2), we can look to Him as an example for what it means to obey the Father by faith and out of love.
It is through faith that we can receive the Gift of Eternal Life (John 3:14-15). It is through walking by faith and following Jesus’s commands that we can experience His fullness in this age, as we have seen in 1 John chapters 1-2. And it is through living as a faithful witness that we can gain the greatest rewards in the age that is to come (Revelation 3:21, 21:7).
In the next section of scripture (1 John 2:7-11), the apostle explains why loving one another is necessary for walking in the Light.