STUDY ON THE BOOK OF FIRST JOHN
Life Is in The Son!
Read 1 John 5:11-21
Assurance of life in the Son.
“And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.” (vv11-12)
In the previous verses, John has used the word “testimony” six times. Now when John says, “This is the testimony”:
- “God has given us eternal life” (5:11a). “Has given” is in the Aorist tense, speaking of a gift given at a particular point in time in history. “Eternal” is aiōnios, “pertaining to a period of unending duration, without end,” life without end! The rich young ruler fell at Jesus’ feet with the question, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Mark 10:17). This is the prize, the promise of Jesus.
- “This life is in His Son” (5:11b). The eternal life cannot be separated from the Son. It resides in Him personally — not in a body of doctrine or in a church. No denomination has an exclusive franchise on Jesus. Churches may point men and women to Christ — in fact, they must — but the actual life is found in association with Him and with Him alone.
Eternal life is not some kind of irrevocable life insurance policy issued at conversion that can be presented to St. Peter upon arrival at the “pearly gates.” It is a living relationship. The life can’t be separated from the Son. Life is bound up in the faith relationship between you and the Son — a relationship based on God’s amazing grace.
At this point, the heretics were found out. They believed in Jesus as a pious man, not as the divine Son of God. John is, on the one hand, reassuring the true believers, and on the other, drawing a line between true faith and the false teaching that had divided the church.
- “He who has the Son has life” (5:12). “Has” is the present participle of the very common verb echō, “have, possess.” Here it means, “to stand in a close relationship to someone, have, have as.” The word is sometimes used of intimate relationships, such as of having a father, a wife, children. We see a similar usage in the Bible only in John’s letters:
“He who acknowledges the Son has the Father also.” (2:23)
“Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son.” (2 John 9)
To “have” the Son means to enjoy living, personal fellowship with him, to be able to reach him in prayer, to share his blessings, to receive his forgiveness, to experience his eternal grace. Conversely, not to “have” the Son of God means you don’t have eternal life and are missing out on all His blessings.
The purpose of John’s statement is not to make the true believer agonize over whether he “has” the Son, but to give assurance. However, dear reader, I ask you this question: Do you ‘have’ the Son? Do you believe in him, put your trust in him, enjoy fellowship with him? If so, praise God! But if you’re not sure, right now, where you are, bow your head, confess your sins to him, promise to be his disciple, and put your faith in him. Do that! Then receive him by faith. For in him is bound up your eternal destiny, your eternal life.
Three important truths in these verses:
- Eternal life is not a prize to be earned, but an undeserved gift.
- Eternal life is found in Christ.
- This gift of life in Christ is a present possession to be enjoyed now.
Assurance of Eternal Life
“These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.” (v13)
The purpose of this letter is not only to clarify and refute the opponents who have spread false teaching. It is also to encourage the believers who may have been shaken by the turmoil in their congregation, so that they might “know” assuredly that they have eternal life. This verse sounds much like the purpose statement at the conclusion of John’s Gospel:
“But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.” (John 20:31)
A certain brand of Christianity denies that a person can have any real assurance or confidence that he or she will go to heaven. “Only God knows,” says the sceptics. But this verse clearly states that a believer can and should have assurance of salvation and eternal life. It tells us that a person can have such a witness or testimony in his or her heart (5:10). If you’ve been in doubt, take hold of verse 13, memorize it, and make it your own, “that you may know that you have eternal life” (5:13).
Assurance of Answered Prayer
“Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.” (vv14-15)
John has developed the idea of confidence in Him. In the previous verse, 1 John 5:13, he wrote to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know you have eternal life. Now, for those who know they have eternal life, John relates the idea of confidence in Him to prayer.
“If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us”: In this, we see the purpose of prayer and the secret of power in prayer. It is to ask; to ask anything; to ask anything according to His will; and once having so asked, to have the assurance that He hears us.
- First, God would have us ask in prayer. Much prayer fails because it never asks for anything. God is a loving God, and a generous giver — He wants us to ask of Him.
- Secondly, God would have us ask anything in prayer. Not to imply that anything we ask for will be granted, but anything in the sense that we can and should pray about everything. God cares about our whole life, and nothing is too small or too big to pray about. As Paul wrote in Philippians 4:6: Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.
- Next, God would have us ask according to His will. God wants us to see and discern His will through His Word, and to pray His will into action. When John wrote this, John may have had Jesus’ own words in mind, which he recorded in John 15:7: If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. When we abide in Jesus — living in Him, day by day — then our will becomes more and more aligned with His will, and we can ask what you desire, and more and more be asking according to His will. Then we see answered prayer.
If something is God’s will, why doesn’t He just do it, apart from our prayers? Why would He wait to accomplish His will until we pray? Because God has appointed us to work with Him as 2 Corinthians 6:1 says: as workers together with Him. God wants us to work with Him, and that means bringing our will and agenda into alignment with His. He wants us to care about the things He cares about, and He wants us to care about them enough to pray passionately about them.
“We know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him”: When we ask according to God’s will, when we pray the promises of God, we have this confidence; and so, pray with real and definite faith. It is not necessarily wrong to ask for something that God has not promised; but we then realize that we are not coming to God on the basis of a specific promise, and we don’t have the confidence to know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.
Prayer to Restore Sinners
“If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death. There is sin leading to death. I do not say that he should pray about that. All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to death.” (vv16-17)
When we see a brother in sin, John tells us the first thing to do is to pray for that person. All too often, prayer is the last thing we do, or the smallest thing we do regarding our brother having a difficult time. God promised to bless the prayer made on behalf of a brother in sin. Perhaps such prayers have special power before God because they are prayers in fulfilment of the command to love the brethren. Surely, we love each other best when we pray for each other.
Sin Leading to Death!
Because John wrote in context of a brother, it is wrong to see him meaning a sin leading to spiritual death; he probably meant a sin leading to the physical death of the believer. This is a difficult concept, but we have an example of it in 1 Corinthians 11:27-30, where Paul says that among the Christians in Corinth, because of their disgraceful conduct at the Lord’s Supper, some had died (many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep). This death came not as a condemning judgment, but as a corrective judgment (But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world [1 Corinthians 11:32]). Apparently, a believer can sin to the point where God believes it is just best to bring them home, probably because they have in some way compromised their testimony so significantly that they should just come on home to God.
“I do not say that he should pray about that”: Apparently, when a Christian is being corrected in regard to a sin leading to death, there is no point in praying for his recovery or restoration — the situation is in God’s hands alone.
John takes pains to recognize that not every sin leads to death in the manner he speaks of, though all unrighteousness is sin.
Three Things We Know
“We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him. We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one. And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.” (vv18-20)
We know these 3 things:
- Whoever is born of God does not sin: In the battle against sin, it is all-essential that we keep our minds set on who we are in Jesus Christ. If we are born of Him, we then have the resources to be free from habitual sin. If we are born of Him, we then have a protection against the wicked one, a unique protection that does not belong to the one who is not born of Him. Knowing this gives us godly confidence in spiritual warfare.
- We know that we are of God: If we are born of Him, we are set off from the world — we are no longer under the sway of the wicked one, though the whole world still is. Knowing this means we can be free to be what we are in Jesus and separate ourselves from the world system in rebellion against Him.
- We know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. In the conclusion of this letter, John returned to his major theme: fellowship with Jesus Christ. We must know Him, and the word John uses for “know” (ginosko) speaks of knowledge by experience. That is how Jesus wants us to know Him.
Final Exhortation
“Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.” (v21)
Because John has just exhorted his readers that Jesus Christ the Son is “the true God and eternal life” (5:20). The essence of idolatry is substituting something false and unworthy in the place of the true God. So, John seems to be using idolatry in a figurative sense here. He is saying: little children, watch yourselves so that you don’t let anything false or unworthy take the place of your true faith in the true God — a fitting way to conclude!