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After I moved to the American South in 1973, I soon realized that many professing Christians lived like pagans. What I observed over the years is that Christianity has been woven into the fabric of Southern culture in such a way that there are many professing Christians whose conduct invalidates their profession. This may be more pervasive in the South, but it is everywhere. The church needs revival. I pray that the Lord will send revival through the faithful preaching of His Word, resulting in Christians who live increasingly godly lives. A major element of that preaching should include the warning that the Apostle John gave in his first epistle.
The warning occurs in 1 John 2:4: “Whoever says ‘I know him’ but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” This is both a warning and a means by which we can discern whether we are genuine children of God. Knowing God in this verse refers to a saving relationship with God. First Samuel 2:12 describes Eli’s sons as those who “did not know the Lord,” meaning that they lacked a saving relationship with the Lord. John’s point is that knowing God brings one into fellowship with God. In the opening of his epistle, John declared that “our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3). Notice how 1:6 reads: “If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.” The similarity between this verse and 2:4 indicates that fellowship with God and knowing God are essentially the same. Only God’s children enjoy fellowship with Him because they have been forgiven (1:7) and obey Him. The psalmist wrote, “If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened” (Ps. 66:18). Sin breaks fellowship with God, but that fellowship is restored when we confess our sins (1 John 1:9) and continue in the path of righteousness.
It would be a mistake to think that a false claim about knowing God can become genuine by keeping God’s commandments. Keeping His commandments fails to bring a person into a saving relationship with Him. It is the other way around. Being in a saving relationship with God results in keeping His commandments. One’s saving relationship with God begins with regeneration. John wrote in 2:29 that “everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.” James clarifies for us how we are born anew. The Holman Christian Standard Bible translates James 1:18, “By His own choice, He gave us a new birth by the message of truth.” Knowledge of the truth of the gospel is the means God uses to regenerate sinners, which results in their obeying Him. Chapter 13 of the Westminster Confession of Faith begins, “They, who are once effectually called, and regenerated, . . . are further sanctified, really and personally, . . . by his Word and Spirit.” Regeneration begins sanctification, and the means that Christ uses are His Word and Spirit. We need God’s truth to be godly. Godliness does not take place in a vacuum. In His High Priestly Prayer, Jesus prayed for His disciples with these words: “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth” (John 17:17). One cannot be sanctified apart from the truth in the Scriptures. This is one of the reasons that doctrinal integrity is so important.
The word godliness can be synonymous with righteousness. Consider 2 Peter 2:9: “The Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment.” Peter could have substituted “godly” with “righteous” and “unrighteous” with “ungodly” without changing his meaning. He joins the two concepts in 2 Peter 3:11, where he asks, “What sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness[?]” Peter presents the connection between knowledge and godliness in 2 Peter 1:3: “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence.” Thus, knowledge of Himself is a means that He uses to graciously bestow on us everything for life and godliness. The knowledge needed for godliness is the knowledge of Christ. Peter is telling us that godliness comes from knowing Christ, which is the result of a saving relationship with Him. In 1:8, he teaches that growth in godliness produces growth in our knowledge of Christ. The one advances the other. Thus, Peter ends his second epistle by saying, “Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (3:18).
John’s warning ends with “and the truth is not in him” (1 John 2:4). His meaning is not that the person is devoid of truthfulness but that he is devoid of the Truth. In other words, the person lacks doctrinal integrity. A person whose conduct invalidates his claim to be a Christian does not possess God’s truth. Such a person is in a natural state, and the “natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. 2:14).
If what you have just read has caused you to reconsider your claim to be in fellowship with God because your actions and doctrinal deficiencies have invalidated that claim, flee to Jesus for salvation. If what you have just read has strengthened your conviction that you are a true child of God, thank Him. He caused you to be born again through the Word of truth, He is growing you in grace and the knowledge of His Son, your conduct validates your profession, and you are characterized by doctrinal integrity, to the praise of His glorious grace.