In 1 John 2:3–17, John moves from What is true? (God is light) to What does that truth actually look like?
Because for John, knowing God is not just something you believe—it’s something that shows up in your life.
We often think knowing God means understanding more, learning more, believing the right things. But John says that if we know Him, we will keep His commands.
Not because obedience earns anything. But because obedience reveals that we do in fact know God.
It’s easy to hear this and feel overwhelmed. Like faith is just a long list of things to get right. Just obey and you'll be okay. But that’s not what John is saying.
Obedience is not about perfection. It’s about transformation.
It’s about becoming people who reflect Jesus.
Obedience is about moving toward the light, staying in the light, returning to the light, committing to the light and letting the light change you as you look more and more like Jesus.
Which is why John points out not just to a list of commands but to the commandment Jesus gave his disciples, one rooted in a very old command.
The command to love God and neighbor was old, found in the Law of Moses, and in Jesus it takes on a newness that moves to sacrificial love. It is a love that goes beyond neighborly love and is a love that loves like Jesus has loved us.
In Jesus, we see that love is not just a feeling but also an action.
It’s a pattern.
A posture.
A way of being in the world.
And it's not just for the easy relationships, but for the difficult ones.
And John insists that love is so central to this knowing God - walking in the light - that if one hates another you stand at odds with God. Opposed to his very intention for the world.
Just like love is not simply an emotion, neither is hate. It too is an action. It can be explosive and hostile, angry and bent on another's destruction.
But often it's not.
It can be quiet. Subtle. Habitual. Distance. Resentment.
It can look like justifying actions aginast people we don't care for or participating in systems that harm others. It can simply be indifference.
But John doesn't stop at love of others.
He says knowing God looks like something specific.
It looks like who we love AND what we love.
How do we know what we love? Well, John gives a way to answer that question.
He says: Do not love the world.
This doesn't refer to creation or people. No we have been called to love all that God has made. John is referring to the pattern of desires that pulls us away from God.
He names three:
- The cravings of the flesh
- The cravings of the eyes
- The pride of life
These are not new.
We see them in Genesis 3 when Eve and then Adam choose the fruit over God's way.
We see them in Jesus’ temptation in Matthew 4 when Jesus choose God's way over the immediate.
The same pattern exists for us. What do I need or want? What feels and look good? What do I see that makes sense to me according to my wisdom, insight, and understanding? What do I stake my identity in? Where do I put my trust? What do I eleveate to a position in my life that gives me a sense of control, identity, or status but robs me of trusting God?
Really what John is asking us, is what is shaping our desires? Is it the Spirit of God who is light or the world?
Take time this week to sit with these:
Knowing God
- When I think about knowing God, do I think more about what I know about Him or how my life is being shaped by Him?
- Is there an area where I know what is right, but I’m not living it out?
Love
- What does my love for others actually look like right now—especially in difficult or inconvenient relationships?
- Is there anyone I’ve allowed resentment, distance, or indifference toward to become normal?
- Are my actions toward others life-giving, or could they be causing harm—even if I don’t feel hatred?
Desires
- Which of these do I see most at work in my life right now:
- cravings of the flesh
- cravings of the eyes
- pride of life
- Where am I being driven more by impulse, comparison, or self-sufficiency than by the Spirit of God?
- Are there good things in my life that I’ve started to rely on more than God?