Mensa Otabil - A Life of Obedience (11/02/2025)
1 John chapter 2, verses 3 and 4: By this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, «I know Him,» and does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. As I’ve been saying from the beginning, John the Apostle was one of the last living apostles of Jesus Christ, and by this time, all kinds of wrong teachings were coming into the church.
So, John is correcting them. There were people in the early church who believed that knowledge of Christ was the most important thing. Yes, knowledge of Christ is important, but the Greek society prized knowledge above everything. So, they spent a long time discussing matters and knowing about something, but doing very little about it. They brought this mentality to Christianity, leading people to feel that all they needed to do as Christians was know about Christ; they didn’t have to live for Him or live righteously. They thought they could live their own lives while just studying about Christ. They had a good knowledge of Christ, much like what people do in a Bible knowledge class; they study the Bible but don’t live by it. These people knew about Him and studied about Christ but were not concerned about the Christian life and living it out. That is what John is correcting.
So, the question he’s answering is: How do we know that we know Christ? He says if you say you know Him but do not live by His commandments, then you are a liar. John is saying you don’t know Him just by having information about Him. You know Him by turning that information into action-by living for Him and obeying Him. When we know, we obey what we know. If Christ says, «Thou shalt not commit adultery,» we know that, but we shouldn’t just know it and then commit adultery. He says, «Don’t commit adultery,» and then we obey that. He says, «You shall not lust after a person,» and then we obey it.
So, that’s what Christianity is: it’s not just knowledge but also obedience to that knowledge. Nowadays, there are people who have knowledge of God but do not obey Him; knowledge of Christ but do not obey Him. There are people who believe that all that is important is prayer, and that if they can spend hours praying, that is all they need in the Christian life, even if their whole life is in disobedience to Christ. They may spend a lot of time praying, but are full of bitterness, anger, hatred, and strife. Others spend a lot of time studying the Bible, but are full of bitterness and anger. Whatever it is, what John is telling us today is that knowing about Him, talking to Him, experiencing Him, having an encounter, being filled with the Holy Spirit, and having all kinds of spiritual encounters- maybe seeing visions- whatever it is, if you don’t obey Him, you are a liar. That’s heavy stuff. Very heavy stuff. Because it is the way for us to know we belong to Christ and are living for Him.
We belong to Him not because we pray or go to church or have had a spiritual encounter, or have received a prophecy or given a prophecy. Those may all be good, but the mark from John is obedience to Him, doing His commandments. His commandments do not mean a lot of rules or a long list we must not fall short of; He says we have to obey His commandments. The perfect thing is to obey His commandments. When we fall short, He says we have an advocate, but we must not fall short and say, «Well, the commandments don’t matter at all; they' re not even important. All I need to do is pray or go to church.» He says, «No, no, no, there are commandments. There are rules you must obey.» If you fall short, you go to the Advocate, and He’ll set you right. That is what Christianity is аbout: obedience to Christ.
I pray that we will commit to a life of obedience to Christ. Let’s pray: say with me, «Heavenly Father, I desire to know and obey You. Help me by Your Spirit to live my life according to your Word. In Jesus' name, amen and amen.»