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Scripture Reading: 1 John 2:3-6
Before we consider 2:3-6, I would like to say a further word concerning propitiation. John says in 2:2, “He is a propitiation concerning our sins, and not concerning ours only, but also concerning the whole world.” According to its biblical meaning, propitiation leads to enjoyment, for it ushers in fellowship between God and us. According to Paul’s word in Romans 3:25, God has set forth Christ a propitiation-cover through faith in His blood. This indicates that Christ is not only the One who propitiates, but also that He is the place of propitiation. Christ as the propitiation place is the place where God and His redeemed people may converse, have fellowship, and enjoy one another.
In his first Epistle, John indicates that God’s provision not only includes the blood of Jesus and God’s righteousness and faithfulness, but also includes the Advocate who pleads our case with the Father and who Himself is our propitiation, our peacemaker. Christ Himself is actually the peace between God and us. This peace is the ground on which we and God may converse, have fellowship, and enjoy one another.
In the first section on the conditions of the divine fellowship (1:5-10), the problem that affects our fellowship is sin. If we sin, we need to confess. If we confess our sins, the blood of Jesus will cleanse us from our sins. Then in His faithfulness and righteousness, the Father will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from unrighteousness. Furthermore, our Lord Jesus Christ will be the Advocate with the Father to handle our case. Eventually, this precious One will be our propitiation and thus the base, the ground, where we enjoy God and have fellowship with Him and He with us.
We may use an example from family life as an illustration of how Christ as our propitiation restores pleasant fellowship between us and the Father. Suppose the children in a family offend their father by disobeying him. As a result, their fellowship with the father is broken. However, the children repent and confess to the father, and he forgives them. Nevertheless, the situation is still not altogether pleasant. Then the mother may come in as the peacemaker, as the one who helps all the parties to be peaceful and happy. She may even prepare something for the family to eat so that they may have an enjoyable time together. This is an illustration of what Christ does as our propitiation. After we confess our sins and are cleansed by the blood and forgiven by the Father, the Lord handles our case with the Father and then becomes the very enjoyment that appeases the Father. This is Christ as our propitiation.
As we consider this matter, we shall realize that this is not merely a doctrine but is something very experiential. From experience we know that when we confess our sins, we have the sense that the blood has cleansed us and that the Father has forgiven us. Immediately, there is also a sense of enjoyment. That enjoyment is Christ as our propitiation. It is by this enjoyment, by Christ as our propitiation, that we may converse with God and He with us, and that together we may enjoy Christ and have fellowship around Christ. Therefore, Christ is the enjoyment that is the propitiation with God for us. Eventually, He becomes the very ground of our fellowship with the Father. It is in this way that our fellowship, which is broken through sin, may be recovered. Praise the Lord that by the five provisions — the blood, God’s faithfulness and righteousness, the Advocate, and the propitiation — we are restored to full fellowship with God!
Verses 1 and 2 of chapter two are a conclusion to the word in 1:5-10 regarding our confession and God’s forgiveness of our sins, which interrupt our fellowship with Him. That is the first condition of, the first requirement for, our enjoyment of the fellowship of the divine life. Verses 3 through 11 deal with the second condition of, the second requirement for, our fellowship with God — the requirement that we keep the Lord’s word and love the brothers.
In verse 3 John says, “And in this we know that we have known Him, if we keep His commandments.” It is significant that this verse begins with the conjunction “and.” This conjunction used at the beginning of the sentence indicates that John is about to speak concerning another condition for maintaining our fellowship.
We have seen that the first condition of the divine fellowship is dealing with sin. If we do not deal with sin, sin will damage our fellowship. Therefore, in order to maintain our fellowship with the Father, we need to confess our sins. Not only is this true doctrinally, but it is also true according to our spiritual experience. From experience we know that in order to maintain our enjoyment of the divine life in fellowship, the first thing we must do is to deal with sin. Hence, dealing with sin is the first condition, the first requirement, of keeping ourselves in the fellowship of the divine life. Now that John is going on to consider the second condition, he begins verse 3 with the conjunction “and.” This word points to another condition, another requirement, of maintaining the divine fellowship.
In verse 3 John says, “In this we know that we have known Him.” The Greek word for know in this verse may also be rendered perceive. Here the meaning is to perceive not doctrinally but experientially, by keeping the Lord’s commandments.
A more literal translation of the Greek words rendered “have known Him” would be “have come to know Him.” This denotes that we have begun to know Him and still continue knowing Him till the present time. This refers to our experiential knowledge of God in our daily walk related to our intimate fellowship with Him.
Our knowing of the Lord has begun and is continuing. This continuous knowing of the Lord is an experiential knowing. If we know the Lord in this experiential way, surely we shall keep His commandments.
In verse 4 John goes on to say, “He who says, I have known Him, and is not keeping His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in this one.” In this verse truth denotes the revealed reality of God as conveyed in the divine word, which reveals that our keeping of the Lord’s commandments should follow our knowing of Him. If we say that we have known the Lord, yet we are not keeping His commandments, the truth (reality) is not in us, and we become a liar.
When I was young, I was bothered by the word “commandments” in these verses. I thought that this term always referred to the Ten Commandments of the Mosaic law, and I wondered why John here mentioned this law, telling us that we must keep the Ten Commandments. Actually, the commandments in this verse are commandments in the New Testament, not the commandments of the Mosaic law. These New Testament commandments are the commandments of the Lord Jesus given directly by Him, or the commandments given through the apostles. In the Gospel of John the Lord gave us the definite commandment to love one another: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another” (John 13:34). This commandment to love one another was given by the Lord Jesus Himself. Hence, it is not a commandment of the Old Testament, but a commandment of the New Testament. Other New Testament commandments were given by the Lord Jesus indirectly through His apostles.
If we say that we know the Lord experientially in the New Testament way, then we should keep the New Testament commandments. But if we do not keep these commandments, this is a sign that actually we do not know Him, even though we say that we do. According to John’s word in verse 4, if we say that we have known Him, yet do not keep His commandments, we are a liar, and the truth is not in us.
In verse 5 John continues, “But whoever keeps His word, truly in this one the love of God has been perfected. In this we know that we are in Him.” Here “word” is synonymous with “commandments” in verses 3 and 4, for the word comprises all the commandments. “Commandments” emphasizes injunction; the “word” implies spirit and life as a supply to us (John 6:63).
The word in verse 5 is the totality, the aggregate, of all the commandments. No matter how many commandments there may be, as a whole these commandments are the word of the Lord. Hence, in verse 5 John speaks of keeping His word. By this he means keeping the word spoken either by the Lord Himself directly or spoken through the apostles.
In verse 5 John tells us that in the one who keeps the Lord’s word the love of God has been perfected. In this verse the Greek word for love is agape. This word denotes the love which is higher and nobler than phileo (see notes 71 and 72 in 2 Peter 1). Only this word with its verb forms is used in this Epistle for love. “The love of God” here denotes our love toward God, which is generated by His love within us. The love of God, the word of the Lord, and God Himself are all related to one another. If we keep the Lord’s word, God’s love has been perfected in us. It is altogether a matter of the divine life, which is God Himself. God’s love is His inward essence, and the Lord’s word supplies us with this divine essence with which we love the brothers. Hence, when we keep the divine word, the divine love is perfected through the divine life by which we live.
The word “perfected” is very important. The Greek word for “perfected” is teleioo, meaning to complete, to accomplish, to finish. The love of God itself is perfect and complete in Himself. However, in us it needs to be perfected and completed in its manifestation. The love of God has been manifested to us in God’s sending His Son to be both a propitiation and life to us (4:9-10). Yet, if we do not love one another with this love as it was manifested to us, that is, if we do not express it by loving one another with it as God expressed it to us, it is not perfectly and completely manifested. It is perfected and completed in its manifestation when we express it in our living by habitually loving one another with it. Our living in the love of God toward one another is its perfection and completion in its manifestation in us. Thus, others can behold God manifested in His love essence in our living in His love.
John concludes verse 5 by saying, “In this we know that we are in Him.” The pronoun “Him” refers to the Lord Jesus Christ. The phrase “in Him” is a strong expression; it stresses that we are one with the Lord. Because we are one with the Lord, who is God, the loving essence of God becomes ours. It is supplied to us by the Lord’s word of life for our walk of love so that we may enjoy the fellowship of the divine life and abide in the light (v. 10).
In our reading of verse 5 we may wonder whether the love of God here refers to God’s love or to the love with which we love God. The Chinese Version speaks of our loving of God, or of the love with which we love God. But the English expression seems to indicate that John is referring to God’s love.
If we consider the Greek text and also take care of the context, we shall realize that this expression in verse 5 denotes our love toward God. However, this love is generated by the love of God, which we enjoy. First we enjoy the love of God; hence, the love of God is our enjoyment. Then the love of God, which is enjoyed by us, produces in us a love with which we love God. This is the love of God becoming our enjoyment and producing within us a love for God. On the one hand, this is the love with which we love God; on the other hand, this love is produced by God’s love, which is enjoyed by us.
Actually it is rather difficult to say whose love John is referring to in verse 5. We have seen that this love is God’s love enjoyed by us and also that it is the love produced in us with which we love God. Love comes from God to us and becomes our experience and enjoyment. The result is that this love produces a love in us toward God. Therefore, this love comes from God, it passes through us, and it returns to God. What a wonderful, experiential love this is!
The love in verse 5 is both God’s love for us and our love for God. This is God’s love becoming our love through our enjoyment of the divine love. When God’s love becomes our love, we have within us a love toward God. Through our experience of God’s love, the love that comes from Him now returns to Him.
We have pointed out that in verse 5 John speaks of the love of God being perfected in the one who keeps His word. In itself God’s love is absolutely perfect. There is no need whatever for God’s love to be perfected, for it is already perfect and complete. However, God’s love becomes the love with which we love Him, and this kind of love does need to be perfected. We love God by the love that is generated in us through our experience of the divine love. Although we may have this love and may love God with this love, our love is still very limited and far from perfect. Therefore, our love for God needs to be perfected. As we grow in the divine life, our love for God also will grow.
Our love for God actually is not our own love. It is still God’s love, but it is God’s love becoming our experience and producing a love in us for God. Through our experience and enjoyment of the divine love, we love God. Now this love needs to be perfected.
I believe that all of us in the Lord’s recovery can say that we love God. But we still need to ask to what degree, to what extent, we love Him. Some of us may have a very high degree of love for the Lord, but this love is not perfect. I wish to emphasize the fact that in itself God’s love is perfect. But the love that is produced in us through our experience and enjoyment of God’s love needs to grow, increase, and be perfected.
In our study of 2:5 we may have two questions concerning the love mentioned in this verse: first, the question whether this love is God’s love or our love; second, the question concerning why God’s love needs to be perfected. I believe that by now we have the proper answer to both questions.
In this verse the love of God is not mentioned in an objective sense; rather, John speaks of God’s love in a subjective sense. John is referring here to God’s love becoming our enjoyment in order to produce a love in us for God. Hence, now we know that the love of God here refers to the divine love experienced by us and becoming our love for God.
Furthermore, we have come to see that this love needs to be perfected. God’s love viewed in an objective sense does not need to be perfected. But in an experiential, subjective sense, the love of God does need to be perfected in us. The love with which we love God, the love produced by our enjoyment of God’s love, certainly needs to be perfected. Our love toward God is not complete, perfect, absolute. No matter how much we love God, our love has not yet been perfected. Therefore, we need to have our love for God perfected, and have it perfected to the uttermost.
