That We May Know Series

Scripture

The Apostle John corrects false teaching by setting down three tests by which one may evaluate whether one has a saving relationship with God. The tests are moral, social, and doctrinal, also known as tests of obedience, love, and belief. John has repeated and restated these three tests throughout his letter.

As John comes to the end of his First Letter, he wants to instill certainty in his readers about the assurance of their salvation. So, he takes up the theme of what it is that we know in 1 John 5:13-21. John uses the word “know” (oidamen) seven times in these nine verses. These are not ideas or suggestions for John’s readers to think about. No. These are bold, dogmatic assertions that are beyond dispute and they summarize the truths he has already written about in his letter.

Let’s read about what we may know in 1 John 5:13-17:

13 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. 14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.

16 If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life – to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that. 17 All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death. (1 John 5:13-17)

Introduction

In 2009, Daniel Gilbert, a psychology professor at Harvard, drew from the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index and stated that the Index showed “that Americans are smiling less and worrying more than they were a year ago, that happiness is down and sadness is up, that we are getting less sleep and smoking more cigarettes, that depression is on the rise.”

He stated that the real problem is not financial – not having enough money, but something else: Uncertainty. People don’t know what’s going to happen. Will I have a job next week? What’s ahead in the future for me?

Professor Gilbert pointed to a Dutch experiment where some subjects were told they would be intensely shocked 20 times. The researchers told a second group that they would receive three strong shocks and 17 mild ones, but they wouldn’t know when the intense shocks would come. The results? Subjects in the second group sweated more and experienced faster heart rates. Uncertainty caused their discomfort: they didn’t know when the strong shocks would come next.

Another study showed that colostomy patients who knew that their colostomies would be permanent were happier six months after their procedures than those who were told there might be a chance of reversing their colostomies. Once again, uncertainty caused the unhappiness.

Professor Gilbert summarized, “An uncertain future leaves us stranded in an unhappy present with nothing to do but wait…. Our national gloom is real enough, but it isn’t a matter of insufficient funds. It’s a matter of insufficient certainty.”

We live in a time of significant and growing uncertainty. We also live in a time of cultural and moral relativism. The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition, defines “relativism” as “the doctrine that no ideas or beliefs are universally true but that all are, instead, ‘relative’ – that is, their validity depends on the circumstances in which they are applied.” We have people insisting that there is “your truth” and there is “my truth.” All of this just adds to the massive confusion in our culture.

In John’s day, there were false teachers insisting that one had to be enlightened with special knowledge to know God. John cuts through that theological gobbledygook with a surgeon’s knife and instead teaches with dogmatic certainty that there are a number of truths that can be known in order to have a relationship with God.

Lesson

First John 5:13-17 shows us what we know as Christians.

Let’s use the following outline:

1. We Know That We Have Eternal Life (5:13)

2. We Know That God Answers Prayer (5:14-17)

I. We Know That We Have Eternal Life (5:13)

The first truth we know as Christians is that we have eternal life.

John wrote his Gospel to help unbelievers become believers, as he said in John 20:30-31, “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”