God Is Life | 1 John 5:13-21

[Scripture Reading]

1 John 5:13–21 NLT

13 I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life. 14 And we are confident that he hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him. 15 And since we know he hears us when we make our requests, we also know that he will give us what we ask for. 16 If you see a fellow believer sinning in a way that does not lead to death, you should pray, and God will give that person life. But there is a sin that leads to death, and I am not saying you should pray for those who commit it. 17 All wicked actions are sin, but not every sin leads to death. 18 We know that God’s children do not make a practice of sinning, for God’s Son holds them securely, and the evil one cannot touch them. 19 We know that we are children of God and that the world around us is under the control of the evil one. 20 And we know that the Son of God has come, and he has given us understanding so that we can know the true God. And now we live in fellowship with the true God because we live in fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the only true God, and he is eternal life. 21 Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts.

Tonight is the end of our series in the book of 1 John. I want to use tonight to not only take a look at what our passage tonight is saying, but I also want us to get a bird’s eye view of the book of 1 John and take a look at the book as a whole.

Tonight’s passage is John’s closing remarks to his audience he is writing to. Going back to our very first message in this series, the intended audience of this book was most likely churches in Asia Minor. So John’s intentions was for believers to receive this letter.

And the motives that John has throughout the letter become clear the more you unpack the letter.

In 1 John 1:4 we see John say he is writing these things to bring joy to these churches. In chapter 2 verse 1 he says he is writing this so they won’t sin. In chapter 2 verse 26 he says he is writing this to warn them about those who want to lead them astray or false teachers. And in 1 John 5:13, the first verse of our passage tonight, it says he has written this so they may know they have eternal life.

It seems clear that John wrote this letter to provide security to these believers. To assure them that they have eternal life and joy in God and that He is protecting them from sin and from false teachers.

If you’re taking notes, I wanna give you a summary statement of why John wrote the book of 1 John. Keep in mind, this isn’t a summary of the entire book, just his motives for writing the book.

John wrote the letter of 1 John to provide assurance to the church that God is the source of joy, the protector from sin and false teaching, and the reason for eternal life.

This letter was likely a much needed letter for the churches in Asia Minor because these churches likely faced an array of false teaching. So these assurances were needed to assure the church of who the true God is.

And that’s what our passage tonight is all about. Assurance.

The word “know” shows up 7 times in this passage. John wants to assure the church that they know what they need to know. How fitting that John closes his letter to the churches in Asia Minor, which is a letter intended to provide assurance, with many assurances they have in Christ.

1. We know we have eternal life (v. 13)

Those two words “eternal life” are so often used in Christianity today that it’s so easy to forget the meaning of it.

1 John 5:13 NLT

13 I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life.

So let’s examine what we mean when we talk about eternal life. When you think about eternal life, what’s the first thing that pops into your head? It’s probably the fact that you get to have life for eternity in heaven. And that’s true, but Christians often just think of this as something God gives us, but what if I told you its even deeper than that?

Have y’all ever heard that God is His attributes? About a year ago I was right there with you if you haven’t heard that, but let me explain it.

John actually gives us a perfect example of this in 1 John. We know that God is a loving God. He loves us. And we’ve talked about that every way to Sunday as we’ve been diving deeper into 1 John. But let me go back and read to you 1 John 4 verse 8:

1 John 4:8 NLT

8 But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

God is not just a loving God, He IS love. In the same way God does not just do righteous things, He IS righteousness. God is not just powerful, He IS power.

And we can apply this to life as well. God does not just give life, He is life. We even saw this described in the verse right before this in verse 12:

1 John 5:12 NLT

12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life.

If you need more evidence lets read Psalm 36:9.

Psalm 36:9 NASB95

9 For with You is the fountain of life; In Your light we see light.

Life flows from Him. Jesus even mentions this with the woman at the well. He tells the woman at the well that those who drink the water He gives them becomes a spring of eternal life within them.

Don’t y’all see? Eternal life is not just something God gives us. Just being in His presence is life-giving. So being with Him for all eternity is eternal life. And this is gonna be a common theme throughout the rest of this passage.

I hope this encourages you to have a big view of God. God is so much bigger than we can imagine and its so easy as we go about our daily lives to think of God as separate from everything else. But next time as you look at a flower or or walk in a forest think, “All of this is God expressing Himself through nature; giving life.”

2. We know we can pray with confidence (vv. 14-17)

1 John 5:14–15 NLT

14 And we are confident that he hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him. 15 And since we know he hears us when we make our requests, we also know that he will give us what we ask for.

Now I want us to pause there for a moment and focus on these two verses. When we pray to God, we can be confident that He hears us. God is not just some distant God who doesn’t want to talk to you. He wants you to pray to Him.

But also understand that God is not just some genie. He’s not just gonna go around giving out cars like He’s Oprah. He is also completely good and righteous so He’s not gonna cause that guy that just stands in the middle of the hallway while everyone is trying to get to the next class to step on a lego (y’all ever get those lines of people stopped in the hallway?).

The key phrase here is “anything that pleases Him”. God will grant us what we ask if what we ask for pleases Him.

So it may not please God to make hallway blocker guy step on a lego, but it may please God to love him, save him of his sins that inconvenience everyone else in the hallway. Or if He doesn’t save His soul then maybe there’ll be a lego floor in hell I don’t know (have y’all ever stepped on a lego?).

But anyways, you might even ask God something that is good, but it may just not be God’s timing to grant it at the moment. Or He may have other plans. But He does want you to pray to Him.

1 John 5:16–17 NLT

16 If you see a fellow believer sinning in a way that does not lead to death, you should pray, and God will give that person life. But there is a sin that leads to death, and I am not saying you should pray for those who commit it. 17 All wicked actions are sin, but not every sin leads to death.

Now these are some tricky verses to interpret, but I want to focus on the premise of what these verses are communicating, then we’ll dive into which sin leads to death as it says here.

The premise of these verses is, if a believer is sinning, you should pray for them. If I’m narrating Mafia and I see Knox peek then maybe I should pray for him. Or maybe something more serious. If you see me lash out at someone in anger, maybe you should pray for me. Simple enough?

Now let’s interpret what John is saying about this sin that leads to death. There are many interpretations of this and I don’t know for sure the right answer, but I’m gonna give you what I think is the best option.

This sin that leads to death is likely total rejection of the gospel and Christ. Someone that has perversed the gospel message and Jesus and sought to deceive the church. And that comes from the context of what John has been writing about; John has wrote a ton about false teachers in this letter.

And notice John doesn’t say “don’t pray for these people.” He writes, “I’m not saying that you should,” or feel an obligation to pray for these people. But I still believe its good to pray even for those who seem hopeless.

But going back to the main point of these 4 verses, notice how it says in verse 16 that if we pray for someone that is sinning in a way that doesn’t leave them spiritually dead, God will give them life. That connects back to God being eternal life, He gives life.

So we should pray for believers who are sinning, because we know the wages of sin is death.

3. We know we can overcome sin (vv. 18-19)

1 John 5:18–19 NLT

18 We know that God’s children do not make a practice of sinning, for God’s Son holds them securely, and the evil one cannot touch them. 19 We know that we are children of God and that the world around us is under the control of the evil one.

Notice how John refers to these churches in Asia Minor as God’s children once again. We talked about this a good bit a couple weeks ago, but I’m sure this language of believers being God’s children was comforting to these churches needing assurance.

Then he goes on to write that believers don’t make a practice of sinning. This is because when we are saved by the blood of Jesus we are given the Spirit of God.

And this connects back to that first assurance John gave in this passage. God is life, and when we receive His Spirit, we are given life. And life and death can’t exist at the same time. Think about it, someone can’t be dead and alive at the same time.

So as the Spirit of God lives in us, giving us life, we will continually put to death our sin. And we can have comfort in knowing that God is going to accomplish this in our hearts. Whatever sin you might be struggling with, just know that God’s Spirit can overcome that sin, and He will.

Side note: notice how it says here that Jesus holds you securely and the evil one can’t touch you.

When Jesus died on the cross for your sins, He secured you. You’re good. And while the world around us might be in control of the evil one, he can’t take you from God. You can’t lose the salvation that Jesus has offered you.

Now I think it is a valid point that if we don’t see the fruit of the Holy Spirit living in our hearts we should wonder whether we are saved. Maybe you’ve just been going through the motions, maybe just went to church because a friend or family member encouraged you to, but you haven’t experienced that personal life change yourself.

And I encourage you, if you haven’t made the decision to repent of your sins and accept Jesus as your Savior to walk in newness of life with Him, don’t wait. You never know what tomorrow may bring.

4. We know we have fellowship with the true God (vv. 20-21)

1 John 5:20–21 NLT

20 And we know that the Son of God has come, and he has given us understanding so that we can know the true God. And now we live in fellowship with the true God because we live in fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the only true God, and he is eternal life. 21 Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts.

As we’ve talked about, the big problem facing the churches John is writing to is false teachers. How fitting is it that John closes this letter writing that we know who the true God is. And not only that we know of Him, but through Jesus we can personally know Him. Such a beautiful sentiment to think about in closing this letter.

Jesus has come and given us understanding so that we can know the true God. Think about that for a moment! You know God!

Think about it this way, I know we have some Taylor Swift fans in here. Imagine if you knew Taylor Swift. Like someone is talking about her new album and you just butt in with, “Yea I was texting her about that last night.” You’d know one of the most popular people in the world. That’s huge!

Imagine that times, I don’t even know what number to give because God is infinitely glorious. YOU KNOW HIM! It is through the Son of God dying for your sins on a cross that you get to know the God of the universe personally. You get to have fellowship with Him. He even lives in you.

And through you knowing Him, you have life. Life for eternity. He is constantly and always giving you life.

Why did John even have to close with verse 21:

1 John 5:21 NLT

21 Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts.

Why would you let anything take God’s place in your heart? You’ve been given the most incredible thing you could possibly be given, fellowship with God! Why would you forsake that?

I’ll tell you why. You’re a sinful person. I am too. And while the Spirit of God may live in you, you still have a heart of flesh that is constantly in rebellion to God.

But there is hope. If the Spirit of God lives in you, sin is not your story. Death is not your story. He will overcome darkness and bring you into marvelous light. He will create life in a dead heart.

Trust in God. And make Him a priority in your life. He’s better than Taylor Swift, I promise.

And that’s a major takeaway in 1 John. Don’t let anything take God’s place in your heart.

God gave us so many good things in our life to enjoy. But when a good thing becomes a god thing, it becomes the worst thing in our life. In other words, if you have let anything that God has given you to enjoy take His place in your heart (so that you prioritize it more than God), either cut it out or put it in its right place.

God is so worthy of our worship, He’s honestly worthy of everything in you. Yet He still gave you things to enjoy. Which honestly makes Him all the more worthy of worship. Put God in His rightful place in your heart.

And that’s 1 John. Took us a while but we finished the book. Our next series is actually gonna last us all the way till summer where we’re gonna do a deep dive into the Great Commission. Get ready for it, it’s gonna be a fun one.