How to Know God Better

During the Second World War, Nazi Germany faced a crisis. Because of her lack of some key natural resources such as oil and rubber, and her inability to import them during wartime, her military machine was in danger of grinding to a halt with no fuel to run and no wheels to run on. So the best scientific brains in Germany were put to work to find substitutes. Millions of man-hours of research went into the search. Finally, Germany was able to produce artificial substitutes for both oil and rubber. They were known as “ersatz”, a German word which means synthetic. But the word “ersatz” has also come to mean inferior, because these products that were invented by the desperate Germans were not as good as the real thing.

Much of what passes for Christianity in America these days is “ersatz”. We are told that 50 million Americans - one in five of the population - consider themselves to be evangelical Christians. But where are they? Where is their influence in the culture and values of our nation? I fear that many of them are “ersatz”. They claim the name Christian, but they show no real evidence in their lives that they are.

The book of 1 John is all about authentic Christianity. It is about real, not “ersatz” Christianity. In the first four verses of chapter one, we learned that God is real. He proved it. He became a man. He personally entered our world. He came here to earth as Jesus Christ. People like John saw him, they heard him, they touched him. They were eyewitnesses to God being here in the flesh, and they passed their testimony on to us. They did that so that we could know him too. They wanted us to have fellowship with him just as they had had fellowship with him.

Then we learned that, although it is possible for us to claim that we know God, there is something that really proves it. It is our attitude toward sin. The person who really knows God is the person who understands that he is a sinner. He understands that he has this inborn urge to go his own way, independent and autonomous from God. He knows only too well that he often gives in to this urge, and the result is sin in his life. But the person who really knows God is the person who deals biblically with his sin. He doesn’t gloss over it. He doesn’t pretend he is without sin. He sees it for what it is and confesses it to God. He repents of it. And God cleanses him. The truly authentic Christian is the one who deals with sin this way.

Now we come to another test of authenticity. It is found in verses 3-11 of chapter 2. You see, in John’s day, just as in our day, there were a lot of people who went around claiming to know God. In fact, in John’s day, they even gave themselves a name - the Gnostics - which means the “knowers”. They claimed to have all sorts of inside information as to what God was really like. They were enlightened. They felt that they were really close to God. So close, in fact, that it didn’t really matter how they lived. They thought that they were so spiritual, so “in” with God, that how they actually lived was irrelevant.

But John said to them, as he says to us today: “You want to know who really knows God? It is the person who obeys God. That’s who really knows him.

1 John 2:3-6 We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.

In these few short verses, John gives us the most important principle of the Christian life. That principle is this: To know God is to obey God. To know God is to want to please God. This is a principle that is found all the way through the Bible.

Ephesians 5:8,10 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light…and find out what pleases the Lord.

Colossians 1:10 And we pray … that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God

2 Corinthians 5:9 So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.

What does John mean, exactly, when he says in verse 3

We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands.

Well, the first thing he says is that it is possible to know whether you know God. The word “know” is a very important word in 1 John - it appears 41 times in these five short chapters. You would be surprised at how many Christians don’t know whether they really know God. They are unsure of their relationship with him. They don’t know whether they are going to heaven when they die. They hope so, but they’re just not sure.

To these people, John says: “You can know. Just look at your life. Are you living so as to please God? Are you making his will your priority? Are you obeying what you read in the Bible God wants you to do? Not that you are perfect in every respect, but is this the overall direction of your life? Is this where you’re headed? If it is, then you are a person who knows God.”

What’s more, if you do this - if you make obeying God your highest priority, you will get to know God better. One of the most important verses in the Bible for the Christian is found in…

John 14:21 Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.

So if you want to get to know God better, this is how you do it. When do you feel closest to God? Isn’t it when you’ve done something that you know to be his will? Don’t you feel closest to God when you have shown love to someone who perhaps is hard to love? Or when you have shared Christ with someone? Or when you have given sacrificially to the Lord’s cause? You feel that warmth of his presence in your life. This is when you feel closest to God, because God delights to reveal himself to people who do his will.

In 1 John 2:5, John says

But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him.

If you want to experience God’s love in your life, obey God.

The word “obey” in 1 John ch. 2 is an interesting word. It means fundamentally “to pay attention”. The Greeks actually used this word to describe how a sailor keeps an eye on the weather and the tides. We talk about keeping a “weather-eye” out for something. We mean to be alert, to be watchful. For a seaman, the tides and the weather are matters of life and death. So he watches them with great care. They are very important to him.

This is how we are to pay attention to the will of God. We are to make obeying God our highest priority in life. That means that, just like the sailor who wakes up in the morning and looks first at the sky and then at the sea, we should look to God. We should say “God what do you want me to do today? What is your will for me? How can I obey you today?”

When we open our Bible, which is like our navigation handbook, we should read it with the attitude “God, what are you trying to say to me today? What do you want me to learn? What do you want me to do?” The person who consistently makes this his highest priority in life is the person who really knows God. He is an authentic Christian. Because to know God is to obey God.

It’s never enough to just claim to know God. That claim, to be genuine, must be accompanied by commitment. Commitment to the will of God. Commitment to obey God whatever the cost.

Now John says “Okay, I’ve given you a principle. You want to see an example of this principle in action? Let’s start with something basic. Let’s start with love. God has commanded us to love people.” The next few verses deal with love as a test of obedience.

1 John 2:7-8 Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.

One thousand five hundred years before John wrote those words in his epistle, which itself is now 1,900 years old, God gave a command. It is found in…

Leviticus 19:18 ”’ Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.

That is a pretty old command. And a pretty important one too. The Jews thought it was so important that Rabbi Akiba, one of the authors of the Talmud, said that this little command was the fundamental law of the Torah. When Jesus walked this earth, he was once asked a question by the experts in the Jewish law.

Matthew 22:36-40 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

So the command to love people is an old command. But it is also a new command. When Jesus came and taught his disciples, he said

John 13:34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

This is a new command in that up until Jesus came, people didn’t really have the ability to love one another. They couldn’t and didn’t obey that old command. But the person who is in Christ has been given the ability by God to love one another. So now they can obey it. Just as Jesus loved people with God’s love, Christians can love people with God’s love.

But do they do it? No. There are Christians who disobey this fundamental command of Jesus Christ. John is talking about Christians when he says…

1 John 2:9-11 Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.

Have you ever been in a place that is really dark? I mean really dark? So dark that there is not even a single glimmer of light? So dark that when you hold your hand up in front of your face, you can’t see it? Darkness like that almost has a physical feel to it, doesn’t it? It’s disorienting. You lose your bearings. You become afraid to move. The darkness has blinded you.

There are some Christians who are experiencing this in their spiritual lives. They are paralyzed. They aren’t moving. They aren’t making progress. They are disoriented. They are afraid. And it is because they have lost sight of the command to love one another.

Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother lives in the light

Our love for people is the evidence of whether we’re really in the light - whether we really know God. Now every Christian is in favor of loving one another. It is one of those motherhood things, like balancing the federal budget that everyone is for. But what does loving one another mean to us in practical terms?

Well let me say that I believe that for the Christian, loving one another begins at home. Christian husband, it begins with loving your wife. Christian wife, it begins with loving your husband. We have been commanded by God to love one another as husbands and wives. Because love isn’t just a feeling, love is something you do.

I want especially to talk to husbands on this issue. How are you treating your wife these days? Are you loving her? Notice I didn’t say “Do you love her?” I said “Are you loving her?” Love isn’t really love unless it is expressed. Love is something you do. Have you been expressing your love toward your wife, lately? Have you told her how much you appreciate her? Have you been helping her with the chores around the house? Have you gone out of your way to display some tenderness and affection for her?

I am appalled at the number of Christian marriages that are on the rocks these days. You would not believe what is going on behind the doors of Christian homes. Christian marriages are breaking up, or just limping along on a wing and a prayer at best. And a major reason is that we husbands are not loving our wives. Oh, we would say that we love our wives, but what would our wives say? We take them for granted, we don’t communicate with them, we expect them to be thrilled with a life of dishpans and dustmops and dirty diapers. And in the process of treating them this way, we make ourselves into phony, inauthentic Christians.

1 Peter 3:7 Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.

Peter directly ties a man’s spiritual life to the way he treats his wife. God is not too impressed with a Christian man who comes to church, who perhaps has some leadership role in the church, but who treats his wife like dirt. That man is not getting through to God. That man doesn’t know God, because he has neglected to love his wife.

To know God is to obey God. And to obey God is to love one another, starting right at home with your most important relationship. But of course it doesn’t end there. Loving one another is a command that goes to church with you.

If a Christian bears a grudge against another Christian, he’s in the dark. If a Christian harbors dislike for another Christian, he’s in the dark. If a Christian uses and manipulates a fellow Christian, he’s in the dark. If a Christian says cruel, hurtful things about another Christian, he’s in the dark. Jesus said,

John 13:35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

And if we don’t love one another at Lynbrook Baptist Church, then we are all in the dark. We might as well pack it up and close the church, because we are never going to touch the world for Jesus Christ if we don’t love each other. Jesus gave the world the right to decide whether we are really his followers on the basis of our love for one another. If they see it, they’ll be interested in knowing him. If they don’t, they’ll just turn their backs and walk away.

The Christian who is authentic is the Christian who makes obeying God’s will his number one priority in life. And that person will love others, because that is God’s will. It will show up in his home life, it will show up in his church life, it will show up at work, and at school, and at play.

Do you desire to obey God today? Do you want to really love people? If you do, then you want to be an authentic Christian. And God is pleased that you do.