by Terry Wane Benton<\/p>\n
Everything is not up for question and doubt. There are some things we can know<\/em> and be certain about. John says we “may have confidence<\/em>” (I John 2:28) at His coming. He says, “By this we know <\/b>that we know <\/b>Him<\/em>” (I John 2:3). We can pass from not knowing to knowing. Strongs says this word, ginosko<\/em>, means we can know “absolutely”, and sometimes it is translated “be sure” in various places.\u00a0John says he writes, “Because you have known Him<\/em>” (I John 2:14), and he affirms there is a way “we know that we are in Him<\/em>.”\u00a0John affirms that his original readers “know the truth<\/em>” (I John 2:21), and you know that if a person does not affirm that Jesus is the Christ, he denies the Father (I John 2:22). There are some things you can know conclusively.<\/p>\n John affirms that you can “know that He is righteous<\/em>” (I John 2:29). You cannot hold a reasonable doubt about this matter of God’s righteous nature. We can know<\/em> that when He is revealed we will be like Him (I John 3:2) and see Him as He is. We don’t have to hold every scripture topic in doubt, nor pretend that we can’t know<\/em> so many things He has revealed. We know<\/em> Jesus was manifested to “take away our sins<\/em>” (I John 3:5), and we can know that there was no sin in Him. It is not up to us to pretend false humility and hold such issues in doubt.<\/p>\n Here is another issue we can know<\/em>. You know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him (I John 3:15). How do we know these things? God has revealed them. We know love because He laid down His life for us (I John 3:16). Does God love me? Absolutely! How can I be sure? He laid down His life for me. We can have a heart that does not condemn us and “have confidence toward God<\/em>” (I John 3:21). We can “know that He abides in us<\/em>” (I John 3:24). We can know what the Spirit of God affirms and what is not from the Holy Spirit (I John 4:2-3). Again, there are things we can know are true and things we can know are false. We don’t have to pretend all positions are equally valid.<\/p>\n We can know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error (I John 4:6). We can “know that we abide in Him<\/em>” (I John 4:13) and know when we are not. We can have “boldness in the day of judgment<\/em>” (I John 4:17). We may “know that you have eternal life<\/em>” (I John 5:13). This is the “confidence that we have in Him<\/em>” (I John 5:14) and “we know we are of God<\/em>” (I John 5:19). We know Jesus has come and has given us an understanding “that we may know Him who is true<\/em>” (I John 5:20). We may not know everything, because there are things God has not revealed, but we are not stuck in a position where we cannot be confident of anything. Such a false humility that cannot take a stand on any issue makes the testimony of God a lie. God testifies that we can know what has been freely given to us in His word: truth. It is conclusive, dependable, and reliable. To say otherwise is to deny all of the Bible and its testimony.<\/p>\n Should the brethren have taken a stand on the issue of whether God came in the flesh? Taking a stand is not being brash or prideful. There are things we must stand for because not standing gives credibility and strength to damnable heresies. True humility means I believe God’s testimony, and knowing God means I can come to know what He has revealed about many things. Humility says, “Speak, Lord your servant is listening!<\/em>” We can have “full assurance of faith” (Hebrews 10:22) and confidence without pride, arrogance, or false confidence. We don’t have to pretend we know everything to know <\/b>that we know some things. There needs to be true humility, without being so humble, we forget what we know and refuse to stand for it. Avoid pride and arrogance, but God says we can continue in His word, know the truth, and the truth will set us free (John 8:30-31). We can know that is true.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Terry Wane Benton Everything is not up for question and doubt. There are some things we can know and be certain about. John says we “may have confidence” (I John 2:28) at His coming. He says, “By this we know that we know Him” (I John 2:3). We can pass from not knowing to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[250],"class_list":["post-83931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-confidence"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":55069,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/assurance-of-our-salvation\/","url_meta":{"origin":83931,"position":0},"title":"Assurance of Our Salvation","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 8, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bryan Sharp \"I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":44017,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-does-someone-know-if-they-have-the-holy-spirit\/","url_meta":{"origin":83931,"position":1},"title":"How does someone know if they have the Holy Spirit?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 20, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I always wondered this, but how does someone know if they have the Holy Spirit or they don't? Answer: \"Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, \"I know Him,\" and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":43699,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-can-i-do-for-my-daughter-who-fears-she-might-have-done-something-wrong\/","url_meta":{"origin":83931,"position":2},"title":"What can I do for my daughter who fears she might have done something wrong?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 22, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My daughter was recently baptized.\u00a0 Since then, she has been sad and crying every day, feeling so guilty and questioning her every decision or thought or word out of her mouth as to whether it is sin.\u00a0 She knows even just one small sin, even a little lie, can\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":65055,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/before-jesus-was-born\/","url_meta":{"origin":83931,"position":3},"title":"Before Jesus Was Born","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 26, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer The Gospels of Matthew and Luke both speak to various details concerning the birth of Jesus Christ. The Gospel of Mark says nothing about these details but rather jumps right into the work of John and then immediately to the baptism, temptations, and beginning of Jesus' public\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":59522,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-search-for-assurance\/","url_meta":{"origin":83931,"position":4},"title":"The Search for Assurance","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 24, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"by Paul Earnhart It was a discussion between preacher friends.\u00a0 We were wrestling with the question of how confident Christians ought to be, moment by moment, about their salvation. Some were arguing for absolute assurance, others for a more cautious one. There is perhaps no concern that weaves its way\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":36645,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-everything-i-do-be-done-in-plain-sight\/","url_meta":{"origin":83931,"position":5},"title":"Should everything I do be done in plain sight?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 25, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I read through John recently, and John 3:20-21 stood out to me. I can't quite make sense of how to apply it. My understanding is that I should do everything in plain sight so that everyone can observe that I'm doing nothing wrong. But I'm unsure of how far\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83931\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}