“I know him, I truly do”

In 1 John 2:13, John writes “to you fathers, because you have known him (Jesus, 1:1) who is from the beginning (has always existed).”

What John meant by “knowing” he’d explained already in chapter 1:1-4, that “We’re writing to you because we saw and heard the very Word of life himself, the One who’s always existed with the Father, our point being that you too can know him and the joy-filled fellowship with him that we had when he was here with us in person.” So joy for John was these “fathers” who for years had known and experienced Jesus too. 

And it must have meant a lot to John because he writes exactly the same words to these fathers a second time in 2:14 – because they’d proved his point. From their years of experience they could say of Jesus, “I know him, I truly do,” having taken to heart what Jesus said in John 10:10, “I came to give you life to the full (Greek perissos, meaning  ‘a surplus’, over and above abundance into superabundance, a life beyond what we can even imagine).” 

Like John these fathers believed that when Jesus appeared this was the life he came to make visible and real, 1 John 1:2. And by the word “life,” Jesus meant “eternal life” (2), the life he’d lived forever with his Father (3). The life, therefore, that “we proclaim to you,” John writes in verse 2, “is the eternal life.” Not the utopian fantasies the world dreams up, but life as the Father and Jesus enjoy together, that we can enjoy with them, and with each other.

Which all sounds wonderful, but what’s the key that unlocks this life for us now? John answered that back in 1 John 2:13, when he said, “you fathers have known him.” The key is knowing Jesus. 

But what brings us to the point that we too can say, “I know him, I truly do”? John answered that in verse 3: “We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands.” And in verses 5 and 6, “We know we’re living in him (really knowing him) when we’re walking as he walked.” Which makes sense, because Jesus’ commands and his “walk” were both based on love. To obey his commands and walk as he walked is to love as he loved and live as he lived. And doing that for many years, like those “fathers” did, we too can say, “I know him, I truly do.” 

And having done this for many years himself, John knew what it was like, therefore, to have “Fellowship with God”….(next blog)