‘You may know that you have eternal life.” (4) (1 John 5:13-21)

‘You may know that you have eternal life.” (4)

[1 John 5:13-21]

        In today's text, 1 John 5:13, the Bible says this: “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.” Focusing on this verse, I want to meditate on the five assurances (John MacArthur) in 1 John 5:13-21 under the title of ‘You may know that you have eternal life’, and want to receive the lessons that he Lord gives us:

        The first assurance is the assurance of salvation. In other words, it is the assurance that those who believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, have eternal life.

        Look at 1 John 5:13 again: “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.” The Apostle John, in writing the letter to 1 John, considers why he is writing this letter to his recipients for six purposes:

(1) Look at 1 John 1:4 – “We write this to make our joy complete.”

The first purpose why Apostle John wrote to the recipients of the 1 John letter was so that “our joy” might be completed also in the recipient brothers and sisters in Christ. The “our joy” spoken of by the Apostle John here is the joy we enjoy in fellowship with God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit (v. 3). The apostle John wrote the letter to 1 John with that purpose because he wanted the recipients to enjoy the full joy of fellowship with God the Father and the Son Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit.

(2) Look at 1 John 2:1a – “My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin.”

The Apostle John told the recipients of the 1 John letter that the second purpose of his writing was so that they would not sin. The reason is because if we say that we are having fellowship with God, who is light, who has no darkness at all in him (1:5) and continue to walk in the darkness, then we are only liars who do not live by the truth (v. 6). It is also because if we walk in the light, just as God is in the light, we will have fellowship with one another (v. 7). In the Lord, true horizontal love fellowship between brothers and sisters in Christ presupposes vertical love fellowship with God the Father and His Son our Lord Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit. And this vertical fellowship of love presupposes that we walk in the light just as God is in the light. It means, ‘If we claim to have fellowship with God yet walk in the darkness (v. 6), then it means that we are not having a true vertical love fellowship with God the Father who is the light and His Son Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit. As a result, we cannot share true horizontal love of fellowship with our brothers and sisters in the Lord. That is why the Apostle John wrote this 1 John letter so that his “dear children” (children of faith) would not sin (2:1).

(3) Look at 1 John 2:7-8: “Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.”

The third purpose of the Apostle John in writing this letter to the recipients of the first letter of John is to make them obey the true command of Jesus. The true command of Jesus is “to love one another” (3:23). The Apostle John wanted his recipients not to commit the sin of hating his brother (2:9), but rather to love one another according to God's command. This is because “the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining (v. 8). The reason is because they became children of God through the great love of God the Father (3:1). Therefore, the Apostle John said that if the recipients of his 1 John letter were in loving fellowship with God, the light, they would no longer live a dark life of hating their brothers (1:6) but would do the righteousness of loving their brothers (2:29; 3:10) just as God is righteous (3:7) and would live a life of light. Then the love of God will be perfected in them (2:5), and there is nothing in them to make them stumble (v. 10), because they belong to the truth (3:19) and live as those who have eternal life (v. 14). That’s why the apostle John wrote this letter of 1 John.

(4) Look at 1 John 2:12-14: “I write to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name. I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, dear children, because you have known the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one.”

The fourth purpose of the Apostle John in writing this letter to the recipients of the first letter of John is because their sins are forgiven on account of Jesus’ name, that they have known him who is from the beginning, and that they have overcome the evil one. Here, their sins have been forgiven on account of Jesus’ name means that even though they should not have sinned while having fellowship with God the Father, who is the light, and Jesus Christ, who is eternal life, through the Spirit “if we say that we have fellowship with God, but if they claim to have fellowship with God yet walk in the darkness (1:6), God will forgive them their sins and purify them from all unrighteousness if they confess their sins since He is faithful and just (v. 9). And if anyone commits a sin, because the righteous Jesus Christ, who became the propitiation for our sins, who pleads for us before God the Father (2:1-2), their sins are forgiven on account of Jesus’ name. The apostle John wrote this letter to the recipients in order to let them know that their sins have been forgiven. Also, the Apostle John wrote this letter to them because the recipients knew Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who is the word of life from the beginning and who is eternal life (1:1-3). Since their sins were forgiven on account of Jesus’ name, and were having fellowship with Him, the Apostle John wanted them to get to know Jesus Christ more and have an intimate fellowship, so he wrote this letter to them. The Apostle John also said wrote this letter so that the recipients, who have overcome the evil one with the powerful word of God lives in them (2:14), so that they continue not to love the world or anything in the world (v.15) that pass away but to do the will of God (v. 17). In particular, the Apostle John wrote this 1 John letter to the recipient because he wanted them to stand firm in the word of God and continue to fight and live a victorious life (v. 14) since “this is the last hour” and “the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come” (v. 18) and they were in the spiritual warfare with “the liar” (v. 22) and “those who are trying to lead you (them) astray” (v. 26).

(5) Look at 1 John 2:21 – “I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth.”

The fifth purpose of the Apostle John in writing this letter to the recipients of the first letter of John is because they know the truth and no lie comes from the truth (v. 21). The Apostle John knew that “this is the last hour” and that “many antichrists have come” (v. 18), who were liars, who deny that Jesus is the Christ and who deny the Father and the Son Jesus Christ (v. 22). And he knew that the true Christians know that many antichrists who appeared in the last hour not only did not belong to Jesus Christ, but also did not belong to Christians (v. 19). So, the Apostle John, who knew that the recipient brothers and sisters in the Lord had already received the Holy Spirit from the Holy God, and that “this is the last hour,” and that “many antichrists have come” (v. 18), wrote this letter of 1 John to them so that what they had heard from the beginning could remain in them (v. 24). What does it mean by what they have heard from the beginning here? Could it not be the Christ who is the eternal life that the Apostle John saw and proclaimed to them? (1:1-2) In a word, I think what the recipients of the 1 John letter have heard from the beginning is the gospel of Jesus Christ. However, since lying and deceiving antichrists appeared, denying that Jesus is the Christ, and denying God the Father and the Son of God Jesus Christ (2:22), the Apostle John wrote to the recipients and told them that anyone who believes in Him is a child of God (5:1) and only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God overcomes the world (v. 5). So Apostle John wrote this letter so that they would not forget that they had already heard the gospel of Jesus Christ and became the children of God by believing that Jesus, the truth (2:21), is the Christ and the Son of God (v. 24).

(6) Look at 1 John 5:13 – “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.”

The sixth purpose of the Apostle John in writing this letter to the recipients of the first letter of John is to make known to the recipients of the 1 John letter that they who believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, already have eternal life. The Apostle John knew that the recipient brothers and sisters in the Lord had already heard the gospel of Jesus Christ and believed in the Christ who is eternal life (1:2), believed that Jesus is the Christ (5:1), and that Jesus is the Son of God. Since the Apostle John knew that they knew this truth that denying that Jesus is the Christ and the Son of God is lie and it did not come from the truth (2:21), he wrote this letter to them, saying that those who have the Son of God, that is, who believe in Jesus Christ, who is eternal life (1:2; 5:20), already have eternal life that God has given them (5:11-13).