In part 1, I identified the major difference between the tests-of-life and the tests-of-fellowship views of First John. We saw that assurance of everlasting life is impossible for anyone who believes in the tests-of-life view.
While someone might prefer one of these views over the other for emotional reasons, the issue is what the text of First John shows its purpose to be. We need to be people who seek out what God says, not people who seek to hold to the views of most Evangelicals.
There are four places in First John where he explains why he wrote some or all of the letter. Look at those four verses and see if you notice any differences and similarities:
…that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full (1 John 1:3-4).
My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous (1 John 2:1).
These things I have written to you concerning those who try to deceive you (1 John 2:26).
These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may [continue to] know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God (1 John 5:13).
What do these statements have in common, and how are they different?
Did you notice that all four are written in the first person, but only one is written in the first-person plural (1:3-4)?
Nearly every commentator says that 2:1 and 2:26 refer to the immediately preceding material, that is, 1:5-10 and 2:18-25. They don’t think that either of the two statements from chapter 2 gives the purpose of the whole book.
The tests-of-life view sees 5:13 as the purpose statement for the entire book. However, it is evident that 5:13 states only the purpose of 5:6-12. Those verses deal with assurance of everlasting life. The whole book deals with fellowship, not assurance. It makes sense that a book about fellowship with God would include a section on the importance of remaining certain.i Assurance promotes fellowship with God. Lack of assurance does not.
Here is what Hodges says about 5:13:
Strangely enough, the idea has taken hold in some circles that the words These things refer to the contents of the whole epistle. This view is a centerpiece for the school of thought that treats the entire epistle as a test of its readers’ salvation. We have already noted how completely far afield this perspective really is (cf. 2:12–14 and the discussions there). So far from wanting the readership to engage in self-examination to see if they are born again, the writer proclaims the high level of their spiritual attainments (again, cf. 2:12–14, 21).
The view, therefore, that the epistle is intended to test the validity of the readers’ eternal salvation, is an idea that grotesquely distorts the actual intention of the author, whose focus is on fellowship (1:3).
The phrase These things (Tauta) by no means refers to the entire content of the epistle, but rather to vv 6-12. Indeed, this near reference is consistent with John’s style elsewhere in the letter (1-3 John, p. 206).
What about 1:3-4? If that is not the purpose of the whole book, then it must be the purpose of only 1:1-4. But that doesn’t make sense. There isn’t enough information in 1:1-4 to fulfill the purpose of remaining in fellowship with God.
Here is what Hodges writes about 1:3:
…John now states the purpose, or goal, of the epistle. That purpose, simply stated, is fellowship. Fellowship translates the word koinōnia, which basically means “sharing”…
But the fellowship John speaks of is no ordinary kind of fellowship. To begin with it is fellowship with us—that is, with the apostolic witnesses who have “heard…seen…looked upon…and…handled” the original manifestation of eternal life (v 1). One might be tempted to ask whether such fellowship is truly possible, since the experience of the apostles with God’s incarnate Son seems so unique and so unrepeatable. Yet clearly John believes that it is possible.
In addition, the fellowship with us into which John invites the readers involves sharing the apostles’ own fellowship … with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. This is a stunning claim. The author of the epistle is stating that he is part of a circle so intimate with God that if one has fellowship with his circle, one also has fellowship with God the Father and with His Son! (1-3 John, pp. 45-46).
The evidence from First John shows that the letter’s purpose is for readers to remain in fellowship with the apostles and with God.
Keep grace in focus, and you won’t be led astray by those who use the Scriptures to teach the well-meaning but false gospel of Lordship Salvation.
i It does not follow that if the entire letter’s purpose was assurance of everlasting life, it would point people to anything other than the testimony of God concerning who has everlasting life (5:6-12). Pointing people to look at their works is a recipe for non-assurance, not assurance. Neither our works nor our feelings can give us assurance. Only the promise of the Lord Jesus to the believer grants assurance to those who believe that promise.
