"We Know"

Have you ever taken a walk through an old cemetery? If you do, take time to read the headstones and observe family history within a row of markers. In some places, without any prior knowledge of people personally, you can, in a matter of minutes, find yourself caught up in the sufferings and hardships others have gone through. You realize that in past generations people seemed to be more conscious of the realities of life and death – suffering, loss, loneliness and the haunting realization that life is uncertain … death is sure … and eternity is where we are all headed! It is here, among these reminders of truth and reality that, if we are quiet, we hear in our spirit that inner voice that calls us to be ready, to be sure we are prepared for the inevitable … an unavoidable encounter with the Living God. It is toward this appointment that the apostle John devotes much attention in his first epistle.

  The beloved disciple John is a very intentional writer, and he desires his readers to clearly know his purpose for each letter. In each of his books we find somewhere in his personal remarks his reason for writing. Whether it was to praise a faithful brother, or to expose a professing believer who had misrepresented the gospel, or to assure his “children” of his love for them and his joy in hearing that they walk in truth.
   In John’s gospel account, his purpose is for us to know (to comprehend and understand by faith) the deity of Jesus Christ, and find that through believing in Him (firmly clinging to, relying upon and totally trusting His faithful sacrifice on the cross) we may inherit eternal life (20:31). When he writes the epistle of I John, he addresses in several passages his intended purpose for these writings, and then sums them all up in 5:13 saying, “these things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may KNOW that you have eternal life.” In other words, the gospel of John was written so men could be saved and the epistle was written so that we could know we have been saved!
   John’s literary technique is to use contrasts. Throughout the letter he is comparing — light to darkness, truth to error, life to death and you see the earmarks of what it means to be born of God. These patterns along with the phrase “we know” give us the foundation for the doctrine of assurance.

Article Source/AAA RevivalMinistries