How do you know that you know God?(Ezra 3-4; Psalm 92; 1 John 1)

It is such a blessing to know the one true living God, but how do you know that you know Him? That’s what John is writing about in this wonderful letter of 1 John. John is writing to believers who had been shaken by false teachers. They thought they knew God, they were part of a fellowship of people who all said they knew God, but then something really sad happened. A load of people left the church claiming that they had the secret to really knowing God, offering a greater spiritual experience, greater victory. They even claimed they could help people live lives without sin! We don’t hear about these people until chapter 2:18, but it’s helpful to keep them in mind as we read chapter 1.

John is straight to the point, he wants to reassure these troubled believers that they really do know God! How do they know Him? They know Him because the apostles personally met Jesus Christ, they saw him, heard him, touched him, saw Him die and rise again. And because the apostles have proclaimed Jesus to us in the Scriptures, we can know God! We can have fellowship with “the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ” (1:4). Don’t let anyone rob you of the joy of knowing God. John is writing so that “our joy may be complete” (1:5)

The false teachers were robbing believers of their joy, they claimed to have fellowship with God, but their actions proved otherwise. They claimed to be walking in the light, but they were actually walking in the darkness. One of the ways they were doing this was by claiming they were without sin (v8). John says, one of the ways you can know that you know God is by knowing you’re a sinner!

If we compare ourselves to other people, we may fool ourselves that we’re not too bad, but John reminds us “God is light”. He is totally pure, start comparing yourself to Him and you’ll soon see you have plenty to confess. And here’s the good news, when you confess your sin to God “He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1:9).

Notice that precious little word “all”. That means everything! You can be totally forgiven, and made right with God. Don’t fool for the lies of the false teachers who tell you that you can be good enough for God, as we saw yesterday, Jesus came for failures! You can know that you know God when you confess your sin to Him and know the joy of His forgiveness. How can we know we’re forgiven? Because the “blood of Jesus… cleanses us from all sin” (1:7). We’ll see more of how Jesus forgives us in the next chapter, but for now, don’t let anyone rob you of your joy, if you trust in the Lord Jesus, you know God.