Day 236, 1 John 5
What a rich feast this letter has been! The Apostle of Love, John, has shown us again and again that God IS love, and His love lights our lives so that we love others just as God loves us.
Today, John concludes this first letter with the promise that victory belongs to lovers who are believers.
The truth of this assertion comes from three witnesses: the Spirit, the water, and the blood. In other words, the baptism (“You are my Son whose I love, with you I am well pleased”), the cross (“It is finished”) and the Spirit (tongues of fire and supernatural languages reversing Babel’s separation). That’s a pretty formidable array of testimony that leads John to declare “case closed, Whoever has the Son has eternal life.”
And so John concludes with the purpose of this letter: that you will know without a doubt that you have eternal life. Today that sounds like an ethereal concept, but to John’s readers in persecuted settings in the Roman Empire it was profoundly reassuring. Many of those readers, along with all of John’s contemporaries, would go to their death trusting in the promise of eternal life.
Given the centrality of love, and the certainty of eternal life, the only focus of our worship is Jesus. He’s worth it all!
Have a great day!
Mark.