Knowing We Have Eternal Life

Born of God and Given His Love

“Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God,” John says, “and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him” (1 John 5:1). The life of God's family comes from God. In the age when John wrote, many proclaimed belief in Yahweh while rejecting His Son. They could not love those born of God through Christ while refusing the Son. Jews and Gentiles who believe in Christ belong to the same body; the dividing wall has been broken down in Him, but many did not see this reality.

John joins love for God with love for His children and says His commandments are not burdensome (1 John 5:2–3). He has already named the command: believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another (1 John 3:23). These are not the commandments of the Law brought back as a new ladder to salvation.

When God draws a person to Christ and reveals His love, that love is given within them. Belief and love are bound together in the new birth. We do not supply a missing human effort to complete God's work. He gives the life that makes His command possible. Trying to turn the order around takes us back into the religion of works from which Christ set us free.

That is why the command is not burdensome. If we treat belief as our contribution and love as a second obligation we must fulfill to stay saved, we have divided God's work into two tasks for us to manage. John has been showing throughout this letter that life and love come from the Father through His Son. His children are called to live from what He has given.

The Victory of Faith and the Testimony of God

Everyone born of God overcomes the world, John says, and the victory is our faith. Who overcomes except the one who believes Jesus is the Son of God? (1 John 5:4–5). He is encouraging the people who already belong to Christ. Faith is God's gift, not a trophy earned by a perfect record. Their confidence is in the Son who has overcome.

John then speaks of Jesus Christ coming “by water and blood,” and says the Spirit testifies because the Spirit is truth (1 John 5:6–8). He has already insisted that Jesus Christ truly came in the flesh. Here the water and the blood probably affirm His human coming and the blood through which He sanctifies. The Spirit's testimony agrees with them. John is setting God's witness to His Son over teaching that would deny the Christ the apostles proclaimed.

The testimony reaches its point in verses 11–12: God gave us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. Whoever has the Son has life. Whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. No amount of religious confidence outside Christ can change that. The person rejecting the Son is rejecting the testimony of the Father who sent Him.

The Spirit's witness is greater than the testimony of men. John is not asking believers to choose which teacher sounds most impressive. He is pressing them to believe God concerning His Son. This reaches all the way back to his opening chapter: the apostles proclaimed the Word of Life whom they had seen and heard so others could share in that life.

You May Know You Have Eternal Life

John tells believers why he has written: “that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13). After the warnings about false teachers and unbelief throughout the letter, he does not leave God's children guessing about whether they still have the life Christ gave them.

That assurance carries into prayer. We have confidence toward God that if we ask according to His will, He hears us (1 John 5:14–15). John is inviting believers to rely on the God whose will is done. Prayer is not a technique for bending Him to ours. It is a way to seek His will with confidence that we are heard.

A Brother's Sin and Sin Leading to Death

John then asks his readers to pray when they see a brother committing sin that does not lead to death (1 John 5:16–17). A brother caught in sin needs the love and prayers of the body. Restoration can turn his mind again toward what gives life, rather than leaving him to follow what harms him and others.

John also says there is sin that leads to death. Read that warning in the light of the letter's repeated contrast between faith in the Son and unbelief that rejects Him. Without Christ there is no eternal life. The sin leading to death is unbelief, not a believer's stumble that cancels the everlasting life God has given. John does not make the life in verse 16 a second salvation that comes and goes as brothers pray for one another.

He says he is not telling his first-century readers to pray about that deadly sin in the same way he has told them to pray for a brother. This does not become a ban on praying for unbelievers in every generation. They were living amid persecution and opposition; John urged them to care for one another while the gospel was still going out to those who opposed them.

Kept by the Son

John ends where his assurance began: everyone born of God does not keep on sinning, and the One born of God protects him so the evil one does not touch him (1 John 5:18). This is spiritual protection in Christ, not a claim that a Christian's physical conduct is now flawless. Chapter 3 showed why God's seed remains in the person He has made new.

The whole world lay in the power of the evil one, but the Son of God has come and given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true. We are in His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life (1 John 5:19–20). John's abrupt final word, “keep yourselves from idols,” belongs with that contrast. Do not trade the living Son for another object of trust, whether an old religious system or something else promising life apart from Him.

John has not given believers a reason to fear that God will punish them out of His family. He has given them the testimony of the Father concerning His Son. Whoever has the Son has life. Rest in the One who protects His people and gives them confidence before the Father.