That You May Know
1 John 5:13-21
John’s purpose in writing is designed to make it clear that if you have the Son, you can rest assured, you have eternal life!
“Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.”
John 20:30-31
“Putting together the purposes of Gospel and letters, John’s purpose is in four stages, namely that his readers may hear, hearing may believe, believing may live, and living may know. His emphasis is important because it is common today to dismiss any claim to assurance of salvation as presumptuous, and to affirm that no certainty is possible on this side of death. But certainty and humility do not exclude one another. If God’s revealed purpose is not only that we should hear, believe and live, but also that we should know, presumptuousness lies in doubting his word, not in trusting it.”
John Stott, The Letters of John
John closes with a summary of the 10 things he wants us to know:
- Those truly born of God do not continue in habitual sin
- Jesus was born of God and keeps us
- The evil one cannot touch us
- That we are of God
- The reality that this world lies in the power of the evil one
- That the Son of God has come
- That He has given us an understanding to know Him
- That we are in Him who is true
- Jesus is the true God and eternal life
- That we are His children and we must remain faithful to Him. We need to be aware of idols/worshiping anything that is not God. This is because only God is worthy, because nothing else will satisfy us, and nothing else can save us.
“When an idol gets a grip on your heart, it spins out a whole set of false definitions of success and failure and happiness and sadness. It redefines reality in terms of itself.”
Tim Keller, Counterfeit Gods
John wants you to know there really is a God who loves you, and wants you to know He loves you! So much so the Father sent the Son to offer salvation by grace, through faith to all who will repent and believe!
