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\n\n20\u00a0<\/sup>And we know that the Son of God has come and\u00a0has given us understanding, so that we may know\u00a0him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and\u00a0eternal life.<\/span>21\u00a0<\/sup>Little children,\u00a0keep yourselves from idols.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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Are you certain of the truth about God, man, and eternity; life and death? Do you know the true God? Do you want to know and be certain? This has been John\u2019s concern in writing this letter. He wants us to know these things. As we close out 1 John today, we see three final ways that the believer knows Christ. As Christians we are to know Christ from our heads, to our hearts, to our holiness.<\/span><\/p>\n
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Heads<\/b><\/p>\n
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The first observation we make is that understanding comes from God.<\/b>\u00a0That is one of the very reasons for which Christ came, according to John.\u00a0This is the foundation of Christian understanding and knowledge. It comes from Jesus Christ. The reason we know anything is because Jesus Christ has given us understanding. Proverbs 9:10, \u201cThe fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n
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This obviously communicates to us that our understanding of God does not come from within ourselves. It does not come from our own intellect or critical thinking. Apart from Christ we are darkened in our minds. There are other passages that spell this out very clearly such as Ephesians 4:17-18:<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n
\n17\u00a0<\/sup>Now this I say and\u00a0testify in the Lord,\u00a0that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do,\u00a0in the futility of their minds.<\/span>\u00a018\u00a0<\/sup>They\u00a0are darkened in their understanding,\u00a0alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to\u00a0their hardness of heart.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
And also 2 Corinthians 4:3-6:<\/p>\n
\n3\u00a0<\/sup>And even\u00a0if our gospel is veiled,\u00a0it is veiled to\u00a0those who are perishing.<\/span>4\u00a0<\/sup>In their case\u00a0the god of this world\u00a0has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing\u00a0the light of\u00a0the gospel of the glory of Christ,\u00a0who is the image of God.<\/span>\u00a05\u00a0<\/sup>For what\u00a0we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with\u00a0ourselves as your servants[a<\/a>]<\/sup>\u00a0for Jesus’ sake.<\/span>\u00a06\u00a0<\/sup>For God, who said,\u00a0\u201cLet light shine out of darkness,\u201d\u00a0has shone in our hearts to give\u00a0the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.<\/span><\/p>\n
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Thus is our condition apart from Christ, and thus our great need for Christ to enlighten our minds to the truth and give eyes to see, that we might have the light of Christ chase away the darkness of our depraved minds and understanding.<\/span><\/p>\n
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Understanding not only comes from Christ as it\u2019s source, but it cannot be searched out or had apart from Christ. In other words, Christ is not only the beginning of wisdom and knowledge, as if we start with Christ and then move on from him into the rest of knowledge, but rather it is in Him that we understand all things. There is nothing that we do not need Christ for to understand. One of my favorite passages that gets at this idea is Colossians 2:1-4:\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n
\nFor I want you to know\u00a0how great a\u00a0struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face,<\/span>\u00a02\u00a0<\/sup>that\u00a0their hearts may be encouraged, being\u00a0knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of\u00a0God’s mystery, which is Christ,<\/span>\u00a03\u00a0<\/sup>in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.<\/span>\u00a04\u00a0<\/sup>I say this in order\u00a0that no one may delude you with plausible arguments.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
All<\/em><\/span>the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ.God cares about our minds and our intellect. He wants us to use it and apply it to the truth. We ought to be fervent in our study, and not fall prey to a mindless Christianity. Even more so in the context of 1 John we are to apply our minds to the truth so that we may know the truth of Jesus Christ and not be taken captive by falsehood or antichrist\u2019s who would seek to shake our assurance. Knowing the truth and applying our minds to it helps to assure us in our knowledge of God and eternal life. So let us honor Christ with our minds, by 1) using them, and 2) seeking knowledge in a Christian way, which seeks it in and through Jesus Christ as the foundation and the beginning of knowledge.<\/span><\/p>\n
Hearts<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true\u2026\u201d This might seem as if John is repeating himself, but he is not. The idea of knowing Jesus Christ is more than mere intellectual knowledge. This has really been one of John\u2019s running themes throughout the book – if we truly know God, we will not only know him in our heads, but we will know him in our experience.<\/span> How do we know Him who is true experientially in our hearts?<\/p>\n
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- We will experience the new birth.<\/span>\n
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- We will experience His love shed abroad in our hearts – John experienced this, as the Apostle of Love, he calls himself in his gospel, \u201cthe disciple whom Jesus loved.\u201d Do you know yourself to be loved by Jesus?<\/span>\n
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- We will experience the warm embrace of faith as we lean upon Christ, and as we love Christ in return.<\/span>\n
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- We will experience a disdain for sin that remains in our lives, which hinders our communion with Christ.<\/span>\n
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- We will experience the spirit of God indwelling us, guiding us in the truth of God\u2019s Word and keeping us from falsehood.<\/span>\n
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- We will experience a love in our hearts for our brothers and sisters in Christ.<\/span>\n
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- We will experience a sense of the various benefits of the gospel that are afforded to us in Christ, as we get a sense of what it means to be forgiven, loved, justified, secure, etc.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Intellectual knowledge is meant to lead to experiential knowledge.\u00a0<\/b>The Christian life is one that is meant to be lived and experienced. To be sure, we do not build our foundation of faith and assurance upon our experiential knowledge. No, our foundation is the Word of God, and we filter all our experience through God\u2019s Word. But we must also have this experiential knowledge, though it may ebb and flow throughout our lives, it is experienced. Christianity is not a lifeless, dead and cold religion. It is a life to be lived and experienced.<\/span><\/p>\n
– But wait, there\u2019s more! As Christians we not only know Him who is true through the gracious condescension of Jesus Christ, but we are <\/span>in Him<\/span><\/i> who is true. John here is getting at our union that we have with Christ as Christians.<\/span><\/p>\n
The reason we have this experiential knowledge of Christ, is because have union with Christ. We are one with Christ. We are in Him.\u00a0<\/span>What does it mean, within this context, that we are \u201cin Him\u201d? First, it means that we are in the truth. Second, it means that we securely have eternal life – this is one of the great benefits of union with Christ that John is employing here. Union with Christ means that we are not just with Jesus, but we are bound up in Him, tied to Christ, or \u201cswallowed\u201d up in Him, as Edwards<\/a> once put it. So unless Christ dies, we will not die, but we will live eternally, just as Christ lives eternally. Union with Christ is a great aid to our assurance. As Christ goes, so go we who are in Him. I can\u2019t help but think of the conversion of the Apostle Paul when confronted by Christ, and Christ says, \u201cSaul, Saul, why do you persecute <\/span>me<\/span><\/i>?\u201d \u201cME\u201d He said. But Saul wasn\u2019t persecuting Jesus, he was persecuting Christians. Ah, but union with Christ. Saul didn\u2019t know about that then.<\/span><\/p>\n
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Holiness<\/strong><\/p>\n
In verse 21, the Apostle ends his epistle by exhorting his readers to keep themselves from idols. This\u00a0is contrasted with the end of verse 20, \u201cHe is the true God and eternal life.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Keeping ourselves from idols is the practical application of knowing, experiencing, and being in Him who is the true God and eternal life. What is one way that we know and experience Jesus Christ? By keeping ourselves from idols. By maintaining allegiance to Christ as Lord.<\/span><\/p>\n
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What is an idol?\u00a0Anything that takes the place of Christ in your life. Anything that is worshiped other than the true God. It is something that you love or enjoy more than Christ. It is something that you are more committed to than Christ. An idol is whatever sits on the throne of your heart that governs the decisions you make and the way you live your life. Implied in John\u2019s exhortation to keep ourselves from idols is the fact that Christians can fall into idolatry from time to time. It will not be the rule of their life, for a true Christian, but it can occur.<\/span><\/p>\n
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When a Christian falls into Idol worship it:<\/span><\/p>\n