“This is How We Know”

“This is how we know” coincides with the Mercy portion of a persuaded heart, with Teacher alongside.

John the Beloved was a Mercy, who learned from Jesus the Teacher as a disciple before he was sent forth by Him as His Apostle. In John’s living of life after Jesus’s return to the Father, Holy Spirit brought to memory those lessons and truths learned from Truth¹ Himself. John had come to know and therefore could say he truly knew Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. His first letter as an aged Apostle was penned after having learned, proven, and bore witness to what love is. Two thousand years have not altered the Truth nor look of that love. I John administers the test.

“This is how you know”

Have you ever thought about how you come to know something? By ‘know’, I mean have it confirmed and stashed in your mental thought processes from which to draw when needed or wanted. We started out learning in school, with quizzes and tests (often groaning) to ascertain our comprehension and knowledge gained. Plenty of material got stashed on our ‘know ledge’ and either gathered cobwebs or was dusted off with repeated use.

As believers grafted into the True Vine, we are enrolled in a different school – the School of the Spirit. John walked in person with the Messiah’s spirit, soul, and body. Now, we too accompany and are accompanied by Holy Spirit that dwells within the life of every true child of God. His school trains and teaches us “this is how we know.”

John’s days with Jesus were not so different from ours. Politics. Religion. Customs and Culture. Sick and Disabled. The Haves and Have Nots. Exploiters and Victims. Thieves and Restorers. Hopeful and Hopeless. And prowling around, the father of those legitimacy lies sowing false seeds of identity – first rooted in humanity’s souls in the Garden.  John was baptized in his lifetime with “the Holy Spirit and with fire”² just as John the Baptist prophesied.

John’s relationship with Jesus is evidenced by what was entrusted to him during his life. He wrote in John 21:24-25:

“This is the disciple {John} who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his {John’s personal} testimony is true. Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.” {notations added}

Let’s look at what he witnessed, was taught, and learned from the Father’s Son with whom he lived and walked. As a result, he underwent a be-truthing of ‘how great a love’³ was his – and ours. In coming to know this love, he could write from a persuaded heart – with knowledge, wisdom, and authority: “This is how we know.”

“This is how we know”

In the epistle (letter) of I John, he clearly listed seven “this is how we know…” statements. Consider them alongside Jesus’s seven identity statements. Jesus and John together refute the legitimacy lies of the father of lies.

For those following the redemptive gifts, this is another pattern of seven in order of the portions of our human spirit: Prophet, Servant, Teacher, Exhorter, Giver, Ruler, Mercy. The seven test statements cascade from John’s knowing as stated in I John 2:3 –

“We know that we have come to know Him if we obey His commands.”

I John 2:5-6 – “This is how we know we are in him: whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did.”

I John 2:18-19: “This is how we know it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us, but their going showed that none of them belonged to us. (Even now many antichrists have come).” (Greek antichrist – opponent of the Messiah)

I John 3:10 – “This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.”

I John 3:16 – “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us (entwined with John 3:16). And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in His presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and He knows everything.”

I John 3:24 – “Those who obey His commands live in Him, and He in them. And this is how we know that He lives in us: we know it by the Spirit he gave us.” (ncb: His Spirit witnesses, testifies of Him, to our spirit; we know and keep coming to know).

I John 4:1-6 – “Dear friends (or Beloved), do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: every spirit that acknowledges (confesses) that Jesus Christ has come to us in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world. You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.”

I John 5:2 – “This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out His commands. This is love for God: to obey His commands.”

Mercy, the Test Administrator

Mercy’s river still flows in this age of grace from the throne of the Most High God, whose foundations of His government are righteousness and justice. If we would know that we have come to know Him, Mercy still administers the key test through John the Beloved, who experientially came to know and testify that God is love.⁴

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. – Micah 6:8 NIV

Gracefully Free

¹ John 14:6                  ² Luke 3:16                  ³ I John 3:1                  ⁴ I John 4:8

©2022 Nancy C. Bentz – Author’s permission granted to forward this devotional piece in its entirety, including this copyright line.  For more devotionals, to leave a comment, or to subscribe to this blog, visit Wellspring of Life