PT-1 "Eternal Life" (1 John 5:13)

 

EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/30/2025 10:35 PM

 

My Worship Time                                                                               Focus:  PT-1 “Eternal Life”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                         Reference:  1 John 5:13

 

            Message of the verse:  “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.”

 

            I have to say in the beginning of this SD that 1 John 5:13 is one of my very favorite verses in all of the Word of God.  The highlighted portion of the verse is what makes it so very special.

 

            Now the phrase these things sweeps backward to encompass the entire letter, as is evident from several considerations.  The first one, the shift from the second person in verse 12 (“He who has the Son…he who does not have the Son…”) to the first person (These things I have written…) and this suggests that verse 13 does not merely continue the flow of thought from the previous verse.  Now second, in 1:4 John announced his purpose in writing:  (“These things we write, so that our joy may be made complete”), now in verse 13 he looks back on what he had written.  Together, the two verses state John’s purpose in writing, since it is assurance of eternal life that produces fullness of joy as seen in 1 John 1:4.  Now John 20:31 says “these things have been written so that believing you may have life in His name.”  Since that verse unquestionably refers back to the entire gospel of John, the parallel expression found in 1 John 5:13 most likely refers back to the entire epistle.  Now it is my belief from my studying of the Bible that all of John’s letters were written about the same time in history that would be in the A.D. 90’s.  Now remember when the Lord was restoring Peter in the 21^st chapter of John that he told Peter how he was going to die for the cause of Christ, and would be by crucifixion, and the story that I heard about that event was that Peter’s wife was crucified before Peter, and Peter had to watch that event.  Then Peter was crucified upside down because he did not want to be crucified like his Lord was.  During that time in the 21^st chapter of John we read:  18 "Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to gird yourself and walk wherever you wished; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you, and bring you where you do not wish to go." 19 Now this He said, signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God. And when He had spoken this, He said to him, "Follow Me!" 20 Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them; the one who also had leaned back on His bosom at the supper and said, "Lord, who is the one who betrays You?" 21 So Peter seeing him said to Jesus, "Lord, and what about this man?" 22 Jesus said to him, "If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me!" 23 Therefore this saying went out among the brethren that that disciple would not die; yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but only, "If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you?" 24 This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and wrote these things, and we know that his testimony is true. 25 And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written.”  These are the last verses found in the gospel of John, so take your time and read over them as they will show what I have been writing about. 

            It looks like that I will finish this section in my next SD.

 

3/30/2025 10:58 PM