I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. - 1 John 5:13 (ESV)

John is writing to believers after the church has begun and sometime after Jesus has ascended. The church is growing, and believers need to know how to be sure they are saved. John wants his children in the faith to know how they can be sure that they have eternal life, and this is by their love for God and their brothers, their hatred of sin, and their belief in Jesus Christ. John is concerned that the people love God and the brothers. He is also concerned that they not sin, but that they also not be concerned with perfection since that is why Jesus came. And he is concerned for them to not be deceived but to know the truth. We need to hear all the same things! We need the same love, the same clarity, the same encouragement away from sin.

The Big Idea of 1 John

I have taught the Big Idea of 1 John as the following: Be Assured of Eternal Life in Christ. The fact that people can know that they have eternal life in Christ, that they are really saved, is part of the main message of the letter. More than the ability to know, however, John positively wants his readers to cultivate and pursue the confidence that they can have that they are saved. The fact that they are saved does not mean they will never sin, but it does mean that they can know how to think about and respond to their sin as believers.

An Outline of 1 John

1:1-2:6 The Message

1 John begins with a summary of the message that will be repeated or drawn from multiple times in the book. John recounts the physical interactions that the apostles had with the risen Christ, making the point that what they experienced is what they are proclaiming now. A key point for John is that God is light. Because of this, no one can have fellowship with Him and yet live in the darkness. No one can claim to be free of the darkness of sin, but everyone can be cleansed from their sin by appealing to Christ.  

2:7-29 Stick to the truth

The rest of chapter two is about sticking to the truth. John reminds them that what he is writing is both old and new. It is old in the sense that it is the same message they have always heard. It is new in the sense that the darkness is passing and the true light is already present. The key for John is that his readers know the Father, stay away from the darkness of sin, and abide in Christ instead. All others who teach otherwise are antichrists who lie and lead people away from God rather than to Him. 

3:1-24 A Motivating Hope

In chapter three, John gives what I call “a motivating hope.” John begins by expounding on the great love of the Father in making us His children. The great hope of the Christian is to see the Father, something the world cannot look forward to because it does not know Him. In the meantime, we wait with patience, practicing righteousness and loving one another. To the extent that either of these things is not happening, our status as children of God should be something held in doubt by us. The Spirit of God helps with this since He has been given to us to abide in us. 

4:1-6 - Test the Spirits

In chapter four, John includes a brief exhortation not to believe every Spirit. There is, according to John, a spirit of truth and a spirit of error. The difference is found in whether Christ is confessed as coming in the flesh or not. This is the difference between one who speaks from the world and one who speaks from God. Christ’s physical presence on earth and his work as the Savior is the dividing line between Christ and the antichrists. Not everyone who claims to be from God really is.

4:7-5:5 - Assurance Comes from Loving Obedience

In 4:7-5:5, John teaches his readers that assurance of salvation comes from loving obedience. He begins by exhorting them to love one another since love comes from God. As God has shown His love to us in Christ, we should love one another. The Spirit of God that abides in believers confesses Christ’s saving work to believers, teaching them about God’s love and leading them from fear to love. Thus, John concludes that we can know we are saved by the confession of the true faith about Christ and the practice of true love toward God and His saints.

5:6-15 - It Starts with Belief

As John wraps up his letter, he reminds his readers that their life in God begins with belief in His Son, Jesus Christ. If we believe other people, then much more can we believe God. If we believe in God, then we have the Son. And in having the Son, we have eternal life. This is how we can be confident of eternal life in God. If we have eternal life with Him, then we can be confident in going to Him in prayer as well.

5:16-21 – Keep from Idols for God

John closes his letter by distinguishing between the kind of sin that leads to death and the kind that does not. This seems to refer to the kinds of sins that Christians commit as opposed to the kinds that Christians cannot commit and have any assurance that they are really saved at all. Believers do not make a practice of sinning as opposed to repenting. The world is under Satan’s power, but believers are from God. Everything hinges on Christ’s having come. Believers can be in Christ because He came to us, and so we can have eternal life. John’s last sentence is an exhortation to his readers to keep from idols.

Benefits of 1 John

The benefits of 1 John are most clearly related to how a person can be assured that he has salvation. It is common for people to rely on specific experiences, emotional moments, or particular prayers from the past. But John is insistent throughout the letter that the measure of our assurance is not past experience but present practice. To be saved is to be loved by God, and to be loved by God means that we believe in God, specifically that God the Son came in the flesh and died for our sins. But to be saved by God, and therefore loved by God, also means that we love as we have been loved. It begins with obedience, but it is summed up in love for God and others. 

John helps us to know whether and how we are saved. He teaches us to see sin in its proper light, as that which separates us from God, but also what Christ paid for on the cross. We can continue to ask forgiveness for our sins even as we continue to pursue the persistent practice of the love of God. If we are unsure, we should not look to the past but the present. Am I loving God? Do I believe in the Son of God? Do I love others? Our hearts can be assured toward God, but that assurance must come from the right place, lest we be deceived.