Our Daily Bread -- We Can Know

October 1, 2015

Read: 1 John 5:10-15
Bible in a Year: Isaiah 11-13; Ephesians 4

I write these things to you . . . that you may know that you have eternal life. —1 John 5:13

As I sat on a train headed for an important appointment, I began to wonder if I was on the right train. I had never traveled that route before and had failed to ask for help. Finally, overcome by uncertainty and doubt, I exited at the next station—only to be told I had indeed been on the right train!

That incident reminded me how doubt can rob us of peace and confidence. At one time I had struggled with the assurance of my salvation, but God helped me deal with my doubt. Later, after sharing the story of my conversion and my assurance that I was going to heaven, someone asked, “How can you be sure you are saved and going to heaven?” I confidently but humbly pointed to the verse that God had used to help me: “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13).

God promises that through faith in His Son, Jesus, we already have eternal life: “God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son” (v. 11). This assurance sharpens our faith, lifts us up when we are downhearted, and gives us courage in times of doubt. —Lawrence Darmani

Dear Lord, during my times of doubt help me remember the promise of Your Word. Since I have invited Jesus into my life and placed my faith in His payment for my sins, You have promised me eternal life with You.

Recalling God’s promises destroys doubt.

INSIGHT: The Bible Knowledge Commentary says of John’s first epistle: “The letter contains no hint about the identity or location of the readers [to whom the letter was sent] beyond the fact that they are Christians. Since early church tradition associates John with the Roman province of Asia (in western Turkey), it has often been thought that the readers lived there. . . . [They] had been confronted with false teachers, whom John called antichrists (1 John 2:18-26). The exact character of these false teachers has been much discussed. Many have thought they were Gnostics who held to a strict dualism in which spiritual and material things were sharply distinguished.” Bill Crowder

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