The Truth About Love

We are currently in a study called What God Wants You To Know, based on 1 John. In 1 John 2, John helps us to understand that what we know is connected to what we do. In other words, true knowledge is connected to our behavior. John was addressing a particular heresy moving through the church at the time called Gnosticism. Gnosticism comes from the Greek word gnosis, which means knowledge. Gnosticism emphasized that spirituality was a matter of what you know. For the Gnostics, there was a disassociation between the physical world and the spiritual world. They taught that our relationship with God is a spiritual relationship alone that was totally disconnected with what we do with our bodies. They used this to excuse sexual sin, their lack of care for for the poor, the hungry, the widows and orphans, along with other sins. So John wrote to refute the teachings of the Gnostics. And in chapter two John tells us that what we know is connected to, and proven by, what we do. He says in verse 3: We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands.

Even though Gnosticism is not prevalent in the 21st century, but some principles are making a comeback. There are those who believe that as long as you know the right things, your behavior doesn't matter.  Jesus never said, "You will judged according to your knowledge of knowlege." He said in Matthew 7:21, "Not everyone who says to me 'Lord, Lord' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." 

John reinforces this point in 1 John 2.  The emphasis is that religious knowledge and talk is not enough. John says in verse 4: “The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” Then he goes on to say in verses 5-6: “This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.”

What does that mean, to walk as Jesus did? We are going to explore that this week. We will discover that he is not talking about sinless perfection. He's talking about imitating Christ, walking as Jesus walked. And we will see that John correlates it to the way we relate to others. That is the truth about love.  Loving God directly impacts our relationship with others.