Anyone who has been to elementary school has heard “Liar liar, pants on fire,” right?
What if I told you this phrase is [sort of] in the bible?
Maybe worded slightly different, but still there all the same…

1John 2:3-6
³ Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. ⁴ He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. ⁵ But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. ⁶ He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.

These verses are a test that we can apply to ourselves.
-This is a test to see if we “know Him”
-Requires keeping His commands
-Otherwise you are a liar
-And the truth is not in you
-And we are to walk as He walked, meaning that we are to do the things Messiah did.

This bit of scripture is quite simple. It doesn’t really need much in the way of commentary.  But the implications of this idea are quite serious and very significant!!
How many times have we heard someone say, “I’m just a sinner saved by grace”?  And people use this as their excuse to continue in sin.

I am not claiming we have to be perfect, mindless robots in order to “know Him”. What I am saying is that we need to have a heart and a desire to keep the commandments in order to honestly claim to “know Him”. If not, then we are liars.

If we back up just a couple verses, we see this in 1John 2:1-2
My children, I am writing these things to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an Intercessor with the Father—the righteous Messiah Yeshua. ² He is the atonement for our sins, and not only for our sins but also for the whole world.

This is the proof that scripture does not require us to be perfect little mindless drones, obedient without free will.
Yes, we will sometimes fail, and in those cases, we have an intercessor.
But I reiterate, it should be our desire to keep the commands.  And if and when we do fail, we are to repent and turn back to the ways of the Father, and we’ll receive grace and forgiveness from our intercessor, Yeshuah Messiah.

It is important that we do not willfully continue in sin, because in that case, we do not have an intercessor.
How do I know this?  Because it says so in the book of John and the book of Hebrews.

John 3:36
He who trusts in the Son has eternal life. He who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

Hebrews 10:26-31
For if we keep on sinning willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, ²⁷ but only a terrifying expectation of judgment and a fury of fire about to devour the enemies of God.  ²⁸ Anyone who rejected the Torah of Moses dies without compassion on the word of two or three witnesses. ²⁹ How much more severe do you think the punishment will be for the one who has trampled Ben-Elohim underfoot, and has regarded as unholy the blood of the covenant by which he was made holy, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? ³⁰ For we know the One who said, “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay,” and again, “Elohim will judge His people.”  ³¹ It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

We need to pray for ‘the church’.
In general, our mainstream church culture teaches lawlessness.
Our general mainstream doctrine teaches that we do not follow the commands, the Torah instructions, the law, because Messiah did away with them.
Messiah Himself tells us that is not the case in Matthew 5.
He tells us that not a single penstroke of the law will change until heaven and earth pass away.

If you are part of the mainstream church, believing that the law is no longer applicable, please pray on these things.
If you have come to this understanding and are Torah observant, please pray for our family and friends in the church, being taught otherwise.