Stephen preached from 1 John 2:3-6 this morning, looking at what it means to know Jesus. These verses strongly link obedience to our knowledge of God.
Knowing someone or something involves being aware through observation, having a knowledge of the person or situation and being absolute regarding something. It’s far more than the kind of ‘followers’ people have on social networks like Twitter or Facebook. Knowing Jesus involves more than clicking a ‘Like’ button on a computer or phone. John shows us that our relationship to God must be outworked in everyday living. Jesus said ‘if you love me, keep my commands’ (John 14:15). Obedience is the key to being His follower and is the way to completeness.
Knowing Jesus means we have to live as He did (vs 6), which means we have to find out all we can about how He lived. We need to digest the word of God and spend time seeking His face. Knowing Jesus is a big challenge; it’s easy to talk about, but we will spend our whole lives discovering how He lived and living in obedience to Him.