Anyone who has worked with young Christians knows that often shortly after a person has believed in Christ doubts set in. The initial experience of the Christian is usually one of great joy. He had been lost in the darkness of his own sin and ignorance; now he has come into the light. Formerly he had not found God; now he has found Him. But then, as time goes by, it is also frequently the case that the new Christian begins to wonder if, in fact, anything has really changed. He thought he was a new creature in Christ, but, to speak frankly, he is really much as he was. The same temptations are present; they may even be worse. There are the same flaws of character. Even the joy, which he once knew, seems to be evaporating. At such a time the new Christian often asks how it is possible to be certain that he is saved by God. He may ask, “How can I truly know that I know God?”
To answer this question is one of the major purposes of 1 John. But it is only at this point, rather than earlier, that the problem is dealt with directly. Until now John has been stating largely the historical groundings of the Christian faith and has been dealing with the reality of sin in Christians. Now, however, he begins to indicate in very explicit language how a Christian may truly know that he is born again or, to use John’s own language, how he may know that he knows God.
There are three answers or tests. These were highlighted years ago by Robert Law and have since been restated well by John Stott.1 First, there is the moral test, which is the test of righteousness. This is developed first in 2:3-6, the verses being looked at in this present study; it is brought forward at several other points throughout the letter. The point here is that the one who knows God will increasingly lead a righteous life, for God is righteous. It does not mean that he will be sinless; John has already shown that anyone who claims this is lying. It simply means that he will be moving in a direction marked out by the righteousness of God. If he does not do this, if he is not increasingly dissatisfied with and distressed by sin, he is not God’s child. The second test is social, the test of love. It is developed first in 2:7-11 and is also restated several times later in the letter. Finally, there is the doctrinal test, which is the test of truth. It is found in 2:18-27 and in other places.
From what John has already said it is easy to understand the importance of this first test. For if a person claims to know God and yet does not live a righteous life, then he inevitably comes to justify the sinful things that he does. In other words, he says that sin is not sin, or that God does not care about sin, or that what he does is not sin. So he becomes a hypocrite. John calls him a liar. His very presence begins to undermine true Christianity.
John introduces the first of the tests for Christian assurance in verse 3. But he does so, not by saying, “And by this we may know that we are born again” or “By this we may know that we are Christians,” but rather by the idea of knowledge. He says, “And by this we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.” The reason is immediately apparent. For since the Gnostics made so much of the matter of knowledge, it is as though John is saying, “So you want to speak about knowledge! All right, then. What is it that characterizes the one who truly knows God?” The answer, as we have already seen, and as he says here, is “righteousness.”
1Robert Law, The Tests of Life (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1968), 208-278; John R. W. Stott, Epistles of John (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1964), 53, and passim.