“I write these things to you who believe in the name of the son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.”
– 1 John 5:13
This verse is one of my favorite verses to use in sharing the gospel, especially if I’ve just met somebody. So I’m in an Uber or a Lyft, and I’m having conversation with someone, I am very, very likely to ask them, “Hey, if something happened to you today and you died unexpectedly, do you know for sure that you would go to heaven?”
And very few people say in response to that, “Yes, I know for sure,” and that leads into sharing the gospel. And it starts with pointing out what God has said to us in 1 John 5:13, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the son of God, that you may know you have eternal life.”
This Verse Gives Us Confidence in Christ
So God has told us that we can know, not like a, “Hope so,” or, “I think so,” or “Maybe, if the good outweighs the bad in the end.” No, we can know we have eternal life. How? Through belief in the name of the son of God, belief in Jesus. What does that mean? And then to go into the gospel, the reality of who God is and how we have sinned against God, but how God has made a way for our forgiveness through Jesus.
When we repent and believe when we turn from our sin and ourselves and we trust in Jesus as savior and Lord, this is what it means to believe in the name of the son of God, that through belief, through faith in him, we can know we have eternal life. Isn’t that awesome news that you and I, who have put our faith in Jesus, can know that no matter what happens today to us in this world, or if our lives end today, that we can know we have eternal life?
1 John 5:13 Encourages Us to Pray Humbly
So I want to encourage you today. I want to lead us to pray according to this verse, but I want to encourage you to share that with somebody today, tomorrow, before you get too much past that. So sometime in the next day or two, maybe three, share this with somebody else. Ask them, “Do you know what would happen to you if you died? Do you know if you’d go to heaven?” And let that conversation lead you into the gospel and have 1 John 5:13 ready to share.
God, we praise you for the reality of 1 John 5:13, for the security that we find here, that through faith belief in Jesus, not through our own works, not through our good outweighing our bad. God, we praise you that we don’t have to put our hope in ourselves in any way, but that our hope is in the name of the son of God. Our hope is in Jesus and in him, we know that we have eternal life. We love this verse.
1 John 5:13 Reflects on God’s Promises
God, we love 1 John, feel like I’m praying that over and over and over again. It is so good to read these truths, reflect on them, to pray according to them and to pray, oh God, that you would help us to share them. God, help each of us over the next day or two to share this with somebody else, that when you believe in the name of the son of God, you can know you have eternal life. What amazing news we have to share! God, we praise you for it. We pray that you would help us to share it in the power of your Holy Spirit.
We pray the same over our brothers and sisters in Afghanistan. As we’re praying for that country and the church there this month, God, we pray that Muslims across Afghanistan would hear the truth about the name of the son of God, the name of Jesus, and that they would come to know Jesus and know that they have eternal life.
This Verse Leads Us to Pray for Muslims
God, please bring it about, we pray. May multitudes, more men and women and children across Afghanistan know that they have eternal life through faith in Jesus, not as a prophet but as the son of God, as God in the flesh, who came to die on across to make it possible for us to be forgiven of our sins, restored to relationship with you forever. God, we praise you for this security and we pray that the good news of eternal security in Jesus would spread through us today, tomorrow, right where we are and in Afghanistan specifically. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
