The Culture of Hope Founded on Faith
1 John, Part 12 – The Summary
In this final installment of the 1 John series, we will summarize the answer John gives to the question of how we know we belong to God. Quite simply it is found in 1 John 3:24, “And he that keeps His commandments dwells in Him, and He in him. And hereby we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit which He has given us.” As John MacArthur states, “…Good works do not save a man. …Obedience is, however, the external, visible proof of salvation” (The MacArthur New Testament Commentary‒1-3 John. Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2007. 259). As we have seen over the course of this series, the writer of 1 John communicates this theme in terms of both doctrinal and moral truths related to the demonstration of salvation.
Chapter five sums up the proofs and certainty of our salvation in both the witness of God, who is greater than man, and the record of outcomes that support the witness God has given us concerning Jesus Christ:
“If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater. For this is the witness of God which He has testified of His Son: he that believes on the Son of God has the witness in himself; he that believes not God has made Him a liar, because he believes not the record that God gave of His Son.
And this is the record, that God has given to us eternal life and this life is in His Son. He that has the Son has life; he that has not the Son of God has not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may believe on the name of the Son of God.”
All this is established with the recognizable assurances of our life lived in Christ: eternal life (vs. 13), answered prayer (vss 14-15), and victory in spiritual warfare (vss 18-19).
1 John 5:20 sums up the overall message of this little book with “… we know that the Son of God is come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him that is true and we are in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.”
John’s final remark is a warning. “Little children, keep yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21). The reference is not to physical idols that are carved of wood or cast in metal. According to William Macdonald, the reference is to teachings that would be in opposition to the truth as set forth in Scripture. “He wants believers to guard themselves from any ideas concerning God, other than those which have been handed down by the apostles. Jesus Christ is God. Any other thought is idolatry. An idol is a substitute or false god taking the place of the true. Here an idol is…false teaching.” In other words, beware of adding anything to your understanding, service, and worship of God that is not Scriptural.
Again, this series is not a definitive or exhaustive study of the book of 1 John. But I hope you have learned a little more than you knew before about this highly misunderstood epistle, as I have. Though the series is at an end, the devotionals will continue as long as God leads me to write them. So I’ll “see” you here again next week.
Update/Prayer Request: We continue to heal from our collision injuries and the pain has subsided substantially, but is not entirely gone. Dan still has more bad days than good days with his side-effects from immunotherapy. Thank you for continuing to pray especially for his healing.
