Top Level Notes for 1 John 5:11-17
Verse 11&12: This is the testimony a person HAS that believes in the Son of God:
- God gave us eternal life, and this life is in His Son
- He who possesses the Son, HAS eternal life
- He who does not possess the Son, does not have that life
Verse 13: John writes this to believers so that they who believe in and trust the Son of God will know with settled and absolute knowledge they already have eternal life.
Verse 14: With this knowledge we can have the assurance and privilege of boldness which we have IN Him.
- This confidence is the knowledge that whatever we ask according to His will, He listens to and hears us.
- What we ask will be in His will because we are following in His truth. His will becomes our greatest desire.
Verse 15: We can rejoice over our prayers to the Lord offered in faith and seeking His purposes; we can trust they will be answered and give Him the glory when we see those prayers come to pass as we had faith they would (how we expected).
- I must get better at obtaining this type of prayer life.
Verse 16: If I see a fellow brother in Christ committing a sin they routinely struggle with and that sin is not sin that leads to death (willfully denying the truth and existence of the One True God) then I can pray for God’s power to forgive and restore his life. If I know that someone has openly renounced Christ then praying for forgiveness for that sin is ineffectual.
Verse 17: All wrongdoing is sin. There are sins that do not lead to spiritual death that may be repented of and forgiven.