OVERVIEW:
People with the assurance of their salvation confess sin (chapter 1); people with the assurance of their salvation don’t love the world’s system (chapter 2); people with the assurance of their salvation purify their lives (chapter 3); people with the assurance of their salvation love God and His children (chapter 4); people with the assurance of their salvation believe the Bible (chapter 5).
HIGHLIGHTS & INSIGHTS:
There are three things every person on this planet wants:
- PEACE.
- JOY.
- SECURITY.
Interestingly enough, from a DEVOTIONAL standpoint, it is precisely those three things for which the book of 1st John was written and included into the canon of Scripture!
- Peace with God.
First of all, chapter 1 and verse 3 says, “That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, THAT (or in other words, “FOR THIS PURPOSE”) ye also may have FELLOWSHIP with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.” PEACE with God is the result of our FELLOWSHIP, or our RELATIONSHIP with God through the Lord Jesus Christ.
- Fullness of Joy.
Secondly, chapter 1 and verse 4 says, “And these things write we unto you, THAT (again, “FOR THIS PURPOSE”) your JOY may be full,” which is actually the result of the first purpose (PEACE with God) and the third purpose…
- Security for the Future.
Chapter 5 and verse 13 says, “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; THAT (and there it is again, “FOR THIS PURPOSE”) ye may KNOW that ye have ETERNAL LIFE.” This third reason is really the key to the other two, because we will never really experience the PEACE of God or PEACE with God, nor the fullness of JOY, until we know beyond any shadow of a doubt that we have genuinely been born again. Again, from a DEVOTIONAL standpoint, the book of 1st John is in the Bible for that specific purpose: to provide the ASSURANCE of our salvation. (Note: Do recognize that there are people who are genuinely saved that simply don’t have the ASSURANCE that they are!) This book is about PEACE with God and the fullness of JOY that comes from the ASSURANCE of our salvation. It is written so we can KNOW we’re saved. In fact, the word “KNOW”, or some form of it, is found 27 times in this book.
Be it known, the Bible is very clear that every person that is genuinely born again is eternally secure. The book of Ephesians was written to teach us that as members of the body of Christ, upon our salvation, we were actually placed “IN CHRIST”, and then “SEALED with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest (i.e. down-payment, literally, “engagement ring”) of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.” (Ephesians 1:13-14) If we have genuinely been born again, there is no question about it, we are eternally secure. The only question is, “Have we genuinely been born again?” And if we have, how can we have the ASSURANCE that we have?
God tells us in 1st John 5:13 that the criteria we are to use to provide the ASSURANCE of our salvation is the book of 1st John. The verse says, “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.” Understand that the “THESE THINGS” that John said were “WRITTEN” to let us “KNOW” that we have “ETERNAL LIFE”, are specifically, chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 of the book God was using him to write!
What the book of 1st John actually does is present two simple tests that provide us what we need to give to us the ASSURANCE of our salvation. There is both a DOCTRINAL test, and a MORAL test. Basically, all John does throughout this entire book is present and expound upon these two tests.
Let’s talk, first of all, about the DOCTRINAL TEST. The Doctrinal Test has two parts, or asks two questions:
1. What did you say about SIN?
Chapter 1 is clear that those who are born again are those who have confessed that they are sinners. John says, “If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and HIS WORD IS NOT IN US.” (1:10) Salvation is dependent upon the Spirit of God reproving or convicting us of sin, righteousness, and judgment (John 16:8–11), and us responding to the Spirit’s conviction by confessing to God that we are helpless and hopeless sinners before Him.
2. What did you say about CHRIST?
To be saved, God says that you must believe that “Jesus is the Christ.” (2:22) “The Christ” means “anointed”. The Hebrew word “anointed” is the word “Messiah”. The Jews understood that Messiah (“the Christ”) would be God in a human body (Isaiah 9:6 “THE MIGHTY GOD”). To be saved, one must believe that Jesus Christ is GOD, not “A” God… and not One who was created at a point in time by God, but “THE” one true GOD that alone can take away sin. (2:22-23)
In short, the DOCTRINAL TEST says that those who are saved are those who believed that God became a man in the Person of Jesus Christ because mankind was hopelessly separated from Him by their sin, and that He is the only hope for the forgiveness of sin through the confession of sin. If you (or any other person, regardless of their “profession”) did not believe those two things, you very simply are not saved.
So, first of all, there is the DOCTRINAL TEST, which asks, “WHAT DID YOU BELIEVE?” Then, there is the second test, the MORAL TEST, which asks, “HOW DO YOU BEHAVE? The Moral Test, likewise, has two parts:
1. The OBEDIENCE test.
This entire book is screaming out that you can “KNOW” that you are genuinely saved by your OBEDIENCE. Make sure that you understand that your obedience doesn’t MAKE you saved, or KEEP you saved, the blood of Jesus Christ applied to your sin secured that! (1:7) Again, the issue here, from a devotional standpoint, is that your obedience provides you the ASSURANCE that you are saved! John says in chapter 2, verses 4-6, “He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.” Certainly, Christians do sin (2:1), and are capable of walking in disobedience (as did the Corinthians!), but when they do, they will find that they struggle to have the ASSURANCE of their salvation, and thus, will likewise struggle to experience PEACE and JOY.
2. The LOVE test.
The love test has three parts. John says, first of all, that those who are saved LOVE GOD. Again, this is repeated in various ways throughout the book, but is put very succinctly in 4:19, “WE LOVE HIM, because he first loved us.” Secondly, John says that those who are saved will LOVE THEIR BROTHERS (AND SISTERS). As with each of these tests, it is repeated throughout the book. One of the clearest examples of this reality is found in 2:9-11: “He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him. But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.” Then thirdly, John lets us know that those who are born again will NOT LOVE THE WORLD. Chapter 2, verses 15-17 say, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.”
But CAN truly born-again people, and DO truly born-again people at times, wane in their love for God, or struggle at times to love their brothers and/or sisters, or struggle to not love the world and the things in it? Absolutely! But when we do, the result will be lack of ASSURANCE, which inevitably leads to lack of PEACE and JOY.