The quiz show Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? reminded millions of Americans of the humbling truth that the average person knows less than a ten-millionth of one percent of all available knowledge. Even the greatest genius walks through life with only a small bucket of understanding in an ocean of what could be known. But John cuts through all of that and asks the one question that actually determines where you spend eternity: Do you know God? In 1 John 2:3, he writes, “And by this we know that we have come to know him …” (ESV). In fact, of all the things you could know in this world, the only one that ultimately matters is Who you know. Knowing God is not just possible; it is meant to be certain. John gives us three signs, visible in how we live, how we look, and how we love, that confirm we truly do.

On September 19, 2010, Army EOD technician Brian Mast stepped on an IED in Afghanistan and lost both legs above the knee and a finger. He lived because a Level IV body armor plate stopped a large fragment from reaching his heart. He said, “That plate took the hit so my heart didn’t have to.” He calls September 19th his “Alive Day.”

We too walk through a world with an unseen enemy—the spirit of antichrist—always looking to fire weapons we never see coming. In 1 John 2:18, John gives us fair warning: “Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come” (ESV). Antichrist is not only a coming person; it is a philosophy alive in the world right now, and its whole purpose is to deceive the sinner and defeat the saint. John’s answer is one word he uses several times in this passage: abide. There is a bulletproof vest available to every believer, made of three layers: the Word of God, the Son of God, and the Spirit of God, and putting it on is a daily choice.

Imagine being a child in an orphanage. You have no name, no family, no certainty about tomorrow. Then one day a family walks in, looks across a room full of children, and points to you. “We want you,” they say. In that moment, you might think only of the bare minimum: a roof, food, someone looking out for you. But you wouldn’t yet understand the total package of a permanent name, the unconditional love, and the full inheritance of being truly adopted. That is the picture John is painting in 1 John 3:1 when he writes, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are” (ESV). That first word, “See,” is better translated “Behold!” or “Stop everything and look at this.” The word John uses for “what kind” of love means literally “out of this world.” In three verses, John answers the three deepest questions every human being carries: Who am I? Where am I going? Why am I here? The answer to each one is bound up in what you receive because of Jesus.