1Jn 5:13-21

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Practical results of assurance (1Jn 5:13-21)

When Christians know with assurance that God has accepted them and given them eternal life, they will have confidence to come to him with their requests. First, however, they must consider God’s will, and not make requests from the wrong motives. They can then be assured that God will hear and answer their prayers (1Jn 5:13-15).

John encourages them to pray for one another, but he points out that there may be some cases where a person, through his sin, sets in motion a course of events that no amount of prayer can reverse. Christians must train themselves to see the difference between those cases where they should pray and those cases where they should not (1Jn 5:16-17).

Sin is not a characteristic of Christians, because Christ keeps them from coming under the power of Satan. Since they belong to God, their lives are different from those of worldly people in general (1Jn 5:18-19).

John repeats that Jesus Christ, the Son of God who died for sinners, is the true God and he gives believers eternal life. The substitutes invented by the false teachers are false gods and must be avoided (1Jn 5:20-21).