The Bible expresses such profound truths in such simple ways that we read them and think we already know this truth, when in reality we do not know what we know! If these words intrigue you, then permit me to use God’s simply words to illustrate this.
I vividly recall an experience from our early days in New Zealand in 1962. As we tried to learn more about the various religious groups meeting there, we visited a denomination I knew nothing about. As we were asked, “Do you know the Lord as your personal Savior?” I had never heard this phraseology before, but I did know the answer. We knew Jesus, we knew He had saved us, so we were welcomed.
How would you have answered that question about knowing the Lord? I wish I had known then how the apostle John would have answered it. John said that we not only can know Him, but we can absolutely know that we know the Lord. Hear these words of this great apostle. “Hereby we know that we know Him…” He says more than saying we can know the Lord—he says we can know that we know Him. Let me ask you if you know the Lord as your Savior? Do you absolutely know that you know Him? What evidence can you give that you know Him? Read what John says.
“Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments” (1 John 2:3). Read these simple words and think about them. (1) We can know Him. (2) We can know that we know Him. (3) The way we know that we know the Lord is not to just “feel assurance” in our hearts that we know Him. The way we know Him is not just a deep feeling in our souls that we know Him. (4) The divinely given measure of knowing Him is whether we keep His commandments.
But John says more in the next verse. John says that anyone who says that he knows the Lord and does not obey Him “…is a liar, and the truth is now in Him” (1 John 2:4). We may not consciously know we are lying but God sees us differently.
In fact, if we do not love the truth about how to serve Him, even God Himself will give us a strong feeling of salvation. “They did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie” (2 Thess. 2:10-11). Hear these truths. If we do not obey Him, we do not know Him and He will allow us to strongly believe that we know Him. Let me ask you again. Do you know the Lord as your personal Savior?
If I do not obey Him, I do not know Him. I do not love Him (John 14:15). If I do not obey Him, I am not His friend (John 15:14). How do you know you know Him and love Him?