Know God...then what?

I'm kind of camping in 1 John these days, partly because of a Bible study, and partly because I never before realized just how John picked up where he left off in his Gospel.  The Gospel of John was complete all on its own, don't get me wrong, and it focuses heavily on Jesus' divinity, and captures our major teachings on being born again.  That is, understand that Jesus is God, trust in Him for salvation, and then follow Him, as He tells Peter at the close of John 21.

OK, good plan.  What does that "following" entail?  I last touched on the "do not love the world..." aspect of 1 John 2, and I need to step back a bit to really grasp what John is teaching.

1 John 2 makes a great transition from knowing God in the Gospel, and even in 1 John 1, where He defends Jesus again as God, since there were many then, as now, who denied Jesus for who He is.  9 times in the chapter John mentions the word "abide".  It is simply not enough to know God, we must abide in and with Him.

Simply put, we are to be saved and then draw that supernatural power which we have been given by way of the Holy Spirit, and then walk moment by moment in the Spirit's leading.  Sounds good, right?  Wish we knew just what that implies?  Well, John tries to help us out.

Someone abiding in Christ would be walking in the same manner as He did.  Yielding to the Father's will in life, having control over one's thought life, guarding our actions and testimonies, being properly angry without sinning, and the list goes on.

One abiding in Christ will love his fellow Christians, as John states that doing the opposite (hating) is indicative of walking in darkness, not light. 

Abiding means knowing that sins are forgiven for the asking, and for demonstrating repentance.  John reminds the readers that he writes these things because they know the Father.  They are or claim to be Christians.  He does not imply that they are to be satisfied with sinning, since they are forgiven, but rather to appreciate that forgiveness and use it as a motivation to fight against sin, to truly desire to live a life pleasing to God.

One who abides has as the primary object of his love the Father, not the world and its systems.  God Gave us the world, true, and He did not have John writing to show how evil the world is.  Rather, He wants to demonstrate that we tend to make anything good an idol, including Creation.  Romans 1, as mentioned before, shows that we have shifter our worship away from the Creator and toward what He created.

Finally, though not exhaustively, one who abides has a clear focus on the life yet to come.  Christ will return suddenly, and it could be at any moment.  We should not fear that return, but rather eagerly, yet patiently, wait for it.  Eagerly, meaning nothing else really matters.  Patiently, meaning we have work to do while He tarries.

So, do we know God?  If so, do we abide in Him?  For the Christian, the first question is settled.  The second, well, that is where our battle lies each and every day, actually, each and every moment.  Join me in praying today that we would stop to challenge ourselves on where it is we currently abide, and where it is we'd like to.  Let's pray that we make better choices today than we did yesterday, and thus grow closer to God.  It's what He expects.

Holding Fast to the Name of Our Creator