Knowing You Know Him
1 John 2:3 (NKJV) Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments
Jesus told me recently, “When you know Me, you can obey Me. The reason you cannot obey Me, is because you do not really know Me. When you know Me, you will not be afraid to do anything I ask you to do.”
1 John 2:5 (NKJV) But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him.
When we can keep God’s word, it is because His love has been perfected in us. This is how we know that we are in Christ; we can keep His word because we know He loves us.
1 John 2:6 (NKJV) He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.
If you say you abide in Christ, you should be able to prove it by walking in the same authority, power and love that He walked in.
Philippians 3:7-11 (NKJV)
7 But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. 8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ, 9 and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
This is why Paul said that he counted everything he once valued as dung. He had discovered life in Christ. Knowing Jesus was the goal and prize of Paul’s life.
In 1 John 2:6 above John is speaking what he has heard Jesus speak. John is speaking oracles of God. Jesus is basically saying through John, “It is My will for you to walk in the same authority, power and love that I walked in. When you know Me, you can do what I ask you without fear and you can go where I ask you without fear because you know I will take care of you.” We can know, like Paul and John, that if we suffer and are hurt and wounded by men, that He will always heal us and raise us up until the day He takes us home. He will prepare us for everything that comes our way and we will be His witnesses and testify of Him in truth and righteousness.