1 John, verse-by-verse

Session 4 | 1 John 2:3-11

1 John 2:3-7 | Sin Not: by keeping His Commandments

• Verses 3-4 -- Note: these verses were included on session 3 but are revised here. In the previous session I took the pronoun he to be a reference to the Father. In further study, it should be a reference to the Son.

• Verse 3 --

  • The author is seeking to get the nation to come to Jesus as Messiah (see heading, vv. 1-2). How does a Jew know that he knows the Messiah? He will keep his commandments.

  • The word know is γινώσκω [ginosko], to know in the personal/experiential sense.

    • The first use is in the present tense, a current reality.

    • T“an action which is viewed as having been completed in the past, once and for all, not needing to be repeated."

      
      

  • The standard for this knowledge is to keep his commandments.

    • Jesus, of course, commanded the keeping of His commandments (see Jn. 14:15, 15:10, etc.).

    • One of His commandments was to keep the Law, in totality (Mt. 5:19).

      
      

  • “you are not a Christian if you do not keep Torah?" This would be a ridiculous and works-based theology, so devoid of Pauline truth that it simply should be unacceptable to Christians. However, it is prevalent in all corners of Christendom.

    
    

• Verse 4 --

  • This epistle is an instruction manual for Jews who recognize Jesus as Messiah and want their nation to receive Him and His Kingdom.

    • In Revelation 12:17 the believing Jews are those who keep the commandments of God, along with the testimony of Jesus Christ. See also Revelation 14:12.

    • Both 1 John 2:4 and John in the Revelation teach the exact same thing.

    • It is not Pauline (as it is clearly works based) because it is about a kingdom gospel rather than the individual gospel.

      
      

  • If one says rejects my premise and rather says that this verse speaks of behavior after salvation and not a requirement for salvation, they are still left out of the ability to say that salvation is not of works, for works are required in the equation, simply moved places in the equation.

    
    

• Verse 5 --

  • The phrase keepeth his word stands as the opposite of keepeth not his commandments (v. 3). The one who keeps the word of Jesus is the one in whom the love of God [is] perfected.

  • The word perfected is from τελος [telos] which is the word for taking something to its full end (like telescope takes vision to its full end).

  • Keeping the word of the Messiah is the only way the Jew can know...that we are in him.

  • To be in Christ is not something that belongs to the Body of Christ alone. Consider, for example, Romans 16:7.

    
    

• Verse 6 --

  • Jesus said essentially these same words in John 15:4-7.

  • “WWJD" prescription for Christian living, based on passages like this one, is misguided, failing to recognize that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision and that we are not of the circumcision.

    • For those of us in the Body of Christ, we abide by Paul's instruction to be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ (1 Cor. 11:1).

      
      

• Verse 7 --

  • This verse is decidedly unpauline.

    • “stay the course."

    • He wants them to keep the old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The questions are, which commandment and the beginning of what?

    • I think that the author is saying, I am not giving you a new dispensation, but asking you to continue walking under the same rule you've been under.

      
      

  • The commandment then is the Law which they have had from the beginning of their nation.

  1 John 2:8-11 | Sin Not: by Keeping A New Commandment