1 John 2:3

John proposed a test whereby we can measure our experiential knowledge of God (Father and Son, 1 John 1:3), how well we really know Him. He said, look at your response to God’s revealed will. All believers know God to some extent (John 17:3). However some know Him more fully and intimately than others do (John 14:7-9; John 14:21-23). Occasionally a person who has been married for a long time and then gets a divorce will say of his or her spouse, "I never really knew her (or him)." Obviously they knew each other in one sense, but their knowledge of one another was not very complete or intimate. John’s point was that our personal experiential knowledge of God will affect the way we live, and the way we live, obediently or disobediently, will reveal how well we really know God.

"To know God was not merely to know Him as the philosopher knows Him; it was to know Him as a friend knows Him. In Hebrew the word to know is used of the relationship between husband and of [sic] wife, and especially of the sexual act, the most intimate of all relationships (cp. Genesis 4:1)." [Note: Barclay, p. 64.]

"This verse is often taken as a way of knowing whether or not we are really saved. But that view flies directly into the face of all Johannine theology, according to which we are saved by believing in Christ for eternal life (John 3:16; John 5:24; John 6:35 and passim; the references are numerous). . . .

"The idea that a Christian can believe in Christ, without knowing whether he or she has really believed, is complete nonsense. Of course we can know whether or not we believe. That we can know this is both common sense and completely biblical [cf. John 9:35-38; John 11:25-27]. . . .

"Thus the test suggested by 1 John 2:3 is not of the saving knowledge of God or of Christ, but of the experiential knowledge of God and His Son. To get this wrong, as many commentators have, is to lay the groundwork for a complete misreading of the epistle! Such a misreading is indeed common in the commentaries today and may be traced back primarily to Robert Law’s study on this epistle." [Note: Hodges, The Epistles . . ., pp. 75-77.]

"The sign of [experiential] knowledge of God is obedience to his commands and recognition of the way of life that he expects from his people." [Note: Marshall, p. 122.]

"In other words, to ’know’ God is not a matter of correct thought-processes, but of a genuine spiritual relationship. The knowledge of God, and fellowship with him, are complementary aspects of Christian experience." [Note: Smalley, p. 45.]