The Fifth Day in the Octave of Christmas, Wednesday, December 29, 2021

I have had a very rough day, but I’m doing better as of the late afternoon.  Thanks for your prayers!

John 2:3-11

Beloved:The way we may be sure that we know Jesus is to keep his commandments. Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word, the love of God is truly perfected in him. This is the way we may know that we are in union with him: whoever claims to abide in him ought to walk just as he walked. Beloved, I am writing no new commandment to you but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard. And yet I do write a new commandment to you, which holds true in him and among you, for the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining. Whoever says he is in the light, yet hates his brother, is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother remains in the light, and there is nothing in him to cause a fall. Whoever hates his brother is in darkness; he walks in darkness and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

“The way we may be sure that we know Jesus is to keep his commandments.”  Translating from the Greek, the text literally says, “By this we know that we have known him: if we observe his commandments.”  The Greek verb for “to know” is nearly as flexible as the English, in terms of its meaning.  It can mean “to come to know”, “to perceive”, “to recognize”, and “to learn”.  This verb can also mean “to know” as in “Adam knew his wife Eve, who conceived and brought forth Cain” (Genesis 4, 1).  This verb means “to know” experientially, as opposed to abstractly.  Thus, John is saying to us that we know that we have come to know the Lord by observing his commandments.  It is in doing his will that we can know Jesus.  We might think of different ways we come to know someone, especially spending time with that person and conversing with him.  But to know Jesus we must obey his commandments — that is, to live as he lives, obedient to the Father.  This is no mere copying of his actions but joining ourselves to him through our cooperation with his grace so that we might live in him.  It follows, then, that “whoever says, ‘I know him,’ but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him.”  This person may know a great deal about him, but cannot “know” him.

“But whoever keeps his word, the love of God is truly perfected in him.”  This should read “the love of God has been perfected in him.”  The verb is in the perfect passive.  This means that for those who observe his commandments, the love of God has already been perfected (or, “completed”, “accomplished”).  It is not “being perfected” in them.  The love of God has transformed them.  They are not merely men and women now, but Christians and heirs of eternal life.

“This is the way we may know that we are in union with him: whoever claims to abide in him ought to walk just as he walked.”  The Apostle John emphasizes how his followers may “know” Jesus, and how they may “know” that they are in union with him.  He is writing to Gentiles converts who have not seen the Lord in person.  They are in love with Jesus and greatly desire some sign that they belong to him.  This belonging is invisible because it involves the spirit, and the best sign of their — and our — belonging to him and of his accepting them is that we obey his commandments — and that he makes it possible for us to obey his commandments.