the starting point of true holiness. In verse 22 we read, ‘‘Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth . . .’’ The acceptance of the truth of God was not merely a matter of intellectual assent or emotional persuasion; rather, it was submission of the whole life to the supremacy of the truth of God. The Christian life was, in the first place, obedience. John uses strong statements: ‘‘He who says, ‘I know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him’’ (1