1 John 5 — how to know you have eternal life

Through 1 John, part 7 · 1 John 5

By now John's tests of real faith are clear: belief in who Jesus is, love for God, love for fellow believers, and obedience to His commands. One note before we start — faith and belief are the same word in Greek; one is the noun and one is the verb, and both mean trust. And it helps to read "the" into your mind whenever John says Jesus is Christ or Son of God: Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.

Born of God (vv. 1–3)

"Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father also loves the one born of him." Belief here is committal of your life to Jesus as the Christ. If you're born of God, you love God. If you love God, you'll love others born of Him — all believers, not just the ones who look like you. "This is how we know that we love God's children: when we love God and obey his commands." The truly saved are marked by a desire to do God's will. "For this is what love for God is: to keep his commands. And his commands are not a burden." The commands of God are the very things born-again people love to do.

The victory that conquers the world (vv. 4–5)

"Everyone who has been born of God conquers the world, and this is the victory that has conquered the world: our faith."

We overcome the desires and the system of the world by seeing past its temporary state. I think that's why the biblical writers call it "the world" so often — the word itself reminds you it's passing. Our three main adversaries — the world, the flesh, and the devil — are all temporary. Faith in what's eternal lets us live beyond them. "Who is the one who conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?" Only those who do it through Jesus.

Water, blood, and Spirit (vv. 6–8)

"Jesus Christ — he is the one who came by water and blood, not by water only, but by water and by blood." John is still undermining the teaching that "the Christ" came on Jesus at His baptism and left before the cross. Jesus came by water (His baptism) and blood (His death). He died as the Christ; it didn't leave Him before His atoning death. "The Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth." Three witnesses agree: the Spirit bears witness in the Word of God; the water is the baptism, where the Father bore witness; the blood is the cross, where Jesus bore witness. All three say the same thing — Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, who paid the atoning sacrifice.

God's testimony (vv. 9–12)

"If we accept human testimony, God's testimony is greater." We trust people all the time. If we're comfortable with that, we should be far more comfortable trusting God. "The one who believes in the Son of God has this testimony within himself" — the witness of the Holy Spirit in us. "The one who does not believe God has made him a liar." Rejecting Jesus is calling God a liar, which is why Scripture sometimes calls receiving the gospel "obedience" and rejecting it "disobedience."

"And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son." All of it — the Trinity, the baptism, the cross, the resurrection, our own experience — bears one record: God gives eternal life, and it's found only in Jesus. "The one who has the Son has life. The one who does not have the Son of God does not have life."

There's an old story about a wealthy man whose only son died young. When the man died, his estate was auctioned, and the first item up was a plain portrait of the son. Nobody wanted it except an old servant who had loved the boy. When the servant bought it for almost nothing, the auction stopped — the father's will said whoever took the son got everything. That's verse 12.

The verse the letter was written for (v. 13)

"I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life."

Knowledge replaces fear. When we know we have eternal life, we can be confident in it — and that confidence frees us to trust Jesus and His name all the more. God doesn't want His children guessing.

Confident prayer (vv. 14–15)

"This is the confidence we have before him: if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears whatever we ask, we know that we have what we have asked of him." Knowing God's will is essential — but God reveals His will to those in a loving relationship with Him. If you don't have a relationship with God, don't expect to know His will. Out of the relationship flows the knowledge, and out of the knowledge flows confident asking.

The sin unto death (vv. 16–17)

"If anyone sees a fellow believer committing a sin that doesn't lead to death, he should ask, and God will give life to him." We should pray for people we see falling into sin — not in a judgmental way, but in love. And a word here: sharing a "prayer request" should never be a form of gossip. If someone told you something in confidence, it's not yours to pass along, even with a spiritual label on it.

"There is sin that leads to death. I am not saying he should pray about that." What this sin is exactly, we can't be certain. One view is that it's apostasy — people who came to an intellectual knowledge of Jesus as the Christ, professed faith, joined the church, were never truly saved, and then were led astray and left the faith. John says we don't have liberty to pray for their restoration. Hebrews 6:4–8 says more. "All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin that doesn't lead to death." Not every sin carries the same consequences here or hereafter — some have results that follow you.

What we know (vv. 18–20)

"We know that everyone who has been born of God does not sin" — does not go on living in habitual sin — "but the one who is born of God keeps himself, and the evil one does not touch him." "We know that we are of God, and the whole world is under the sway of the evil one." "And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know the true one. We are in the true one — that is, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life." John is restating the whole purpose of the letter and putting the false views of Jesus to rest: He is the Son of God, He is the Christ, and He is the true God.

Keep yourselves from idols (v. 21)

"Little children, guard yourselves from idols." John is pointing at the false teaching that was creeping into the church and had already led some out of it — beware of teachings opposed to who Jesus is. But the principle is wider. An idol is anything that replaces God. Guard yourselves.

Before you guard anything else

John says we know. He says it three times and doesn't blink. But maybe you read that and you don't know. You've never been sure of anything about God except that He's up there and you're down here. Here's what settles it: the true God came down as a man, took the death your sin earned, and walked out of the grave three days later. That's not a religion to try. That's a Person to trust. Call on Him and He'll save you, and the knowing John keeps talking about starts the minute you do.

And if you're already His, go find your idol. Not a statue. The thing you reach for first when the day goes sideways. The thing you'd fight hardest to keep. Name it out loud this week, to the Lord and to one other believer, and put something in its place: the Son of God, who is the true God and eternal life. Guard yourselves. He's worth more than whatever it is.

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Through 1 John: ← Part 6 · Part 7 · Part 8 →