Just Saying "I Know Him" isn't Enough

Most people define lying as knowingly saying something false. You know the truth, you say something else, and you deceive someone on purpose. Scripture points to another kind of lying that doesn't fit that definition at all. It happens when a person claims a status or relationship that their own conduct contradicts. No deliberate deception is required. A person can believe every word they are saying and still be lying, because the lie is not found in their intention. It is found in the gap between their claim and their conduct.

John addresses this directly in his first letter. "He who says, 'I know him,' and doesn't keep his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him." 1 John 2:4. That leaves little room for interpretation. Someone can say "I know God" with complete sincerity and still be a liar, because the claim is not proven by the saying of it. It is proven, or disproven, by whether the person's life reflects what they claim.

John wrote this letter to believers, not to outsiders or skeptics. He was not trying to convince unbelievers to convert. He was writing to people who already professed faith, and he was giving them a way to test whether that profession was real. Before reaching the test in verse 4, he acknowledges something believers still struggle with. In 1 John 2:1-2, John explains "...if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins..." (For this article we will use Yeshua's Hebrew name Yeshua Ha'Mashiac.) John is not describing a community of people who never fail. He is describing people who fail and have somewhere to turn when they do. Once he establishes that mercy exists for human weakness, he introduces the specific standard by which genuine faith is recognized in daily living.

What follows is a progression. John moves from knowing God, to keeping His commandments, to abiding in Him, to walking as Yeshua walked. Each stage builds on the last, and the whole sequence functions as a test. The test does not measure verbal confidence or the sincerity behind a person's words. It measures whether a person's life agrees with what they claim to believe.

The phrase "I know him" carries more weight than most modern readers understand. In the Hebrew mindset, to know someone was not primarily about having information about them. It was relational, describing intimate knowledge formed within, in this case, a binding covenant agreement. To claim to know God was to claim a real, personal relationship with Him, not just an awareness that He exists or a casual acquaintance with Him.

That claim carries an implication most people miss. A relationship with God, if it is real, changes how a person lives. It shows up in daily choices, not only in what someone says on any given day or posts online. John is writing to people who considered themselves part of God's family, and he tells them that the claim by itself proves nothing. Claiming this covenant connection while disregarding the rules of the covenant creates an internal contradiction. A person cannot maintain an active relationship with God while choosing to ignore the specific directions He established for His people.

Verse 3 gives the standard directly. "By this we know that we know him, if we keep his commandments." Obedience here is not an extra credit assignment tacked onto faith. It is the evidence that faith exists at all. John is not teaching that keeping commandments earns salvation. He is teaching that keeping commandments reveals whether a person's relationship with God is genuine or imagined. Throughout Scripture, love for God expresses itself through compliance with His words rather than through feeling or spoken devotion. In John 14:15 Yeshua said, "If you love me, keep my commandments." Someone who claims to love God while ignoring His instructions has not demonstrated love. They have demonstrated the opposite.

Some readers assume John means only a vague, general love for others, as though commandments here amounts to nothing more specific than kindness. That reading does not hold up. John connects love to obedience throughout his letter, but love does not dissolve or replace the instructions God delivered to His people. When John wrote to his original readers, the term commandments carried a defined history rooted in what God had already revealed throughout Scripture. Neither Yeshua nor the apostles redefined that term to exclude the written laws God previously commanded through Moses, something I will touch on a little later. Yeshua continuously taught obedience to God's commands during His own ministry and never taught their removal. The question John raises is not whether commandments still stand. It is whether people are willing to submit to what God has actually said, rather than substituting their own preferences for it.

John chose the word liar with deliberate precision. He did not soften the charge into something more comfortable, like mistaken or confused. He attributed this condition to more than a simple oversight or an occasional failure. In 1 John 2:4, John identifies someone who claims to know God while rejecting His instructions as a liar, because their words and their actions stand in direct opposition. He makes a similar point earlier in the letter. Claiming fellowship while walking in darkness is described in 1 John 1:6, where the verse declares that if a person says they have fellowship with Him and walks in darkness, "we lie, and don't tell the truth." Light and darkness, truth and falsehood, obedience and rebellion run through the whole letter. Wherever a person's confession and conduct contradict each other, truth does not govern that person's life, regardless of what they say about themselves.

None of this means Scripture expects flawless behavior from believers. A believer may stumble into sin, recognize the transgression, and turn to Yeshua for forgiveness. The issue John addresses is different. It involves a person who justifies disobedience, ignores God's instructions, or refuses to align their lifestyle with Scripture. Yeshua offers forgiveness and restoration when believers fall, and that grace does not disappear because someone has a difficult day or a difficult season. But grace was never meant to remove the requirement to obey God's commands. The goal of an observant believer's life is not a record free of mistakes. It is a continuous pursuit of faithful obedience to God's written word.

Spiritual self-deception often develops gradually through religious routine rather than through a single dramatic decision. A person can attend services regularly, know Scripture well, hold leadership roles, and use church lingo while remaining disobedient to what God has actually commanded. Religious familiarity and biblical knowledge are not the same thing as obedience. Scripture can become a set of ideas acknowledged intellectually rather than instructions actually obeyed, sitting on a shelf as a reference point instead of functioning as the rule of life it was meant to be. 

Yeshua addressed this exact danger directly. In Matthew 5:20 He said, "For I tell you that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, there is no way you will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven." The scribes and Pharisees were the most trained students of the law, and Yeshua was telling His listeners that studying and teaching the law was not the same as living under it. A person could master the text and still miss the kingdom, because the standard was obedience, not expertise. Later in that same sermon He described people who prophesied in His name, cast out demons in His name, and performed many mighty works in His name, fully convinced their ministry proved their standing with Him. Yeshua said He will tell them, "I never knew you. Depart from Me, you who work lawlessness." Religious activity carried out in His name did not substitute for actually doing what He commanded. 

Self-examination has to be specific to mean anything. Speech, honesty in financial dealings, readiness to forgive, and personal moral purity serve as direct areas of daily application. Beyond these general moral principles, many people claim to know God while setting aside specific written instructions given in Scripture. Walking with God requires being Set Apart from surrounding cultural traditions by aligning daily practice with what God has actually commanded, rather than simply blending into the culture around it and calling that faith.

This passage was written for self-examination first, not as a weapon against other people. Each person must inspect their own heart and lifestyle before God rather than someone else's. Paul made the same demand of the believers in Philippi, telling them to "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" in Philippians 2:12. That responsibility falls on each individual and cannot be transferred to a pastor, a church tradition, or anyone else's example. Does daily conduct reflect obedience to God's written word? Have human traditions or cultural habits been given priority over written biblical commands? Has a profession of knowing God been made while living in ways He prohibited? Are God's explicit instructions being actively practiced in daily routine? None of this is meant to produce condemnation. Facing these questions honestly is meant to lead to genuine repentance and restore alignment with God's truth. Yeshua remains the Advocate for those who stumble, but that advocacy was never a substitute for the call to walk in obedience. 

The issue was never simply what a person says about their faith. It is whether their life agrees with what they claim to believe. John closes this section with the final standard for every believer. "He who says he remains in him ought himself also to walk just like he walked." 1 John 2:6. Yeshua lived in complete obedience to every commandment God gave, providing the perfect example for His followers to follow. Verbal claims carry no weight where obedience is absent. Do not simply claim to know Him. Walk as He walked.