How do we know that we already have eternal life?
“We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death.” (1 John 3:14)
“Death” in the Bible is “spiritual death” that separates us from God, “physical death” that separates the body and soul, and “eternal death” that results in eternal and complete separation from God and eternal death (Chang She Kim). However, “eternal life” means being connected to God (reconciliation) through Jesus Christ (Rom. 5:10-11), knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ (Jn. 17:3), or having fellowship with the Father God and eternal life Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit (1 Jn. 1:2-3), and whether the body is changed (if alive until then) or resurrected (if dead) and united with the soul when the Lord returns and entering the new heaven and new earth and living there with God forever. The Apostle John frequently uses the word “eternal life” in the Gospel of John, which literally means two things: (1) eternal life not only means temporally ‘endless life,’ but also (2) qualitatively ‘divine life that is different from human life’ (Internet). Therefore, the word “eternal life” includes both the meaning of eternal life (endless life) in time and the divine life enjoyed in God. In particular, in the Gospel of John, “eternal life” means ‘eternal blessings to be enjoyed in the hereafter’ like the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), but rather emphasizes the ‘blessings of the present.’
The Bible says that those who believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, already have eternal life (1 Jn. 5:12). This is because they have in their hearts Jesus Christ (v. 12) who is the eternal life (1:2; 5:20). And the Bible tells us that those who have eternal life by having Jesus Christ in their hearts (3:14) love one another according to His command, just as Jesus loved us (v. 23; Jn. 15:12). And the Bible says that loving one another (1 Jn. 3:23) is what pleases God (v. 22), according to the command of Jesus Christ, who is eternal life (1:2; 5:20). And the Bible says, “Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us” (3:24). That is, if we love one another as the command of Jesus Christ, we will know that we abide in the Lord and that the Lord abide in us through the Holy Spirit, whom God has given us. And the Bible says that if we abide in the Lord and the Lord in us, we bear much fruit (Jn. 15:5). What does “fruit” mean here? If we ask ourselves again, what is the “fruit” that we bear when we love one another as Jesus loved us, according to the command of Jesus Christ, who is eternal life? I think the “fruit” is two things. Those two things, the twofold fruit, are that we become like Jesus and bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit. In other words, when we, who already have eternal life by believing in Jesus, love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind, according to the twofold command of Jesus, and love our neighbors as ourselves (Mt. 22:37, 39), the twofold fruit we bear is that we are 'partakers of the divine nature' (2 Pet. 1:4), which means that we become like Jesus through the sanctification of the Holy Spirit and also bear the fruit of the Spirit, “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Gal. 5:22-23). And the Bible says that if we bear much fruit, the Father God will be glorified, and we show that we are disciples of Jesus (v. 8).
As true disciples of Jesus who believe in Jesus and already have eternal life partially enjoy the blessings of the afterlife in the present are through intimate personal fellowship with the eternal God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit (Jn. 17:3; 1 Jn. 1:3). A typical example is participation in God's divine character. In other words, the blessing of eternal life that we partly enjoy in Jesus Christ while we live on this earth is to become like Jesus in the sanctification of the Holy Spirit. In the midst of this, the blessings of the hereafter that we partly enjoy now are God's love. We became the children of God because of the great love that our loving Heavenly Father (1 Jn. 4:8, 16) has bestowed on us (3:1, 2). That is, the Father God first loved us (4:19) and sent His Son Jesus Christ as the propitiation for our sins (v. 10) so that we might live through Him (v. 9) and become the children of God (3:1, 2). Also, through the love of Jesus, who laid down his life for us and became the propitiation for our sins on the cross (2:2; 3:16), our sins were taken away (3:5). Even now, the righteous Jesus Christ is our Advocate, defending us before our Heavenly Father, even if we sin (2:1, 2). And we not only have the Holy Spirit regenerated us [“born of God” (3:9; 5:1, 4)] so that we might live through Him (4:9), but also to partially enjoy eternal life that God has given us on this earth as well (5:11). The Holy Spirit enables us to do what is right (2:29; 3:10) by enabling us to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind, according to the twofold command of Jesus, and love our neighbors as ourselves (Mt. 22:37, 39) by bearing the fruit of the love of God that has been poured out in us (Rom. 5:5; Gal. 5:22) so that we can partly enjoy eternal life, that is heavenly life, and partially taste (Rom. 14:17) the fulness of the joy of heaven (1 Jn. 1:4) and wonderful peace (Jn. 20:19; Col. 3:15).
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In this way, we who are loved by the Holy Triune God, “we also ought to love one another” (1 Jn. 4:11). Love comes from God. All who love are born of God and know God. But those who don’t love don’t know God. The reason is because God is love (vv. 7-8). In other words, if we truly say ‘I know God’ or ‘I love God’, then we ought to love one another (v. 11). If we have fellowship with the eternal Father God and Jesus Christ who is eternal life through the Holy Spirit (1:3) (vertical love fellowship), we ought to love our brothers and sisters in Christ (4:11), whom we are one in Christ through the Holy Spirit with the love of God, the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22) (horizontal fellowship of love). Because we love our brothers and sisters in Christ in this way, we know that we have passed from death and already have eternal life (3:14). In other words, the way we know that we have eternal life is through loving our brothers and sisters in Christ with the love of God. If we truly are the children of God who have eternal life, “we also ought to lay down our lives for our brothers,” because we know what love is: “Jesus Christ laid down his life for us” (v. 16). Also, if we are the children of God who have eternal life, we love our brothers and sisters in Christ not only in words or tongue but with actions and in truth (v. 18). Then we know that we belong to the truth, and set our hearts at rest in His presence (v. 19). Also, when we do this, the love of God will be truly perfected in us (2:5), there will be no cause for stumbling in us (v. 10), and our heart will not condemn us because we have confidence before God and will receive from Him anything we ask (3:21-22). But if we say, 'I know God' or 'I love God' and don’t love each other, then we never know God and we don’t love Him. How can we say we love God if we have a lot of money and see a poor brother or sister in Christ and don’t help him? (v. 17) Those who don’t love their brothers or sisters in Christ don’t belong to God (3:10) and still remain in death (v. 14). In other words, those who don’t love their brothers or sisters in Christ are still living a life that is not connected to the Lord (is separated from Him), who is love and eternal life, which is the state of the old man and living like unbelievers who are spiritual dead and thus have no choice but to die forever. Even the Bible says that everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and a murderer has no eternal life (v. 15). So the Bible says, “Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother's were righteous” (v. 12).
The purpose of the Apostle John's letter of 1 John is “so that you may not sin” (2:1). The “sin” that the Apostle John is talking about here is ‘walking in the darkness’ (1:6), ‘lying’ (v. 6; 2:4), ‘doing evil (is unrighteous) (3:12). In a word, the “sin” the Apostle John is talking about is ‘hating his brother’ (2:9). The Bible says that those who hate their brothers or sisters in Christ are still in the darkness and are living in the darkness (v. 11). Also, the Bible says, “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth” (1:6). That is, the Bible says, if we love our brothers and sisters in Christ with words or tongue (3:18), but hate them in our hearts, then we aren’t doing what is right or doing unrighteousness (v. 10), our actions are evil (v. 12), and we are murderers and there is no eternal life in us (v. 15). But the Bible says, “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers” (3:14). The way to know that we already have eternal life is to see if we love our brothers and sisters in Christ with the love of God. If we are saved by the love of the Triune God and have eternal life, if we are sharing love through the Holy Spirit with the eternal Father God and His Son Jesus Christ who is eternal life (vertical love fellowship), we will be sharing the fellowship of love with our brothers and sisters in Christ with the love of God (horizontal fellowship of love). In other words, we who have eternal life will become channels of eternal love of the Holy Triune God, and we will have no choice but to love our brothers and sisters in Christ with His love. If we truly believe in Jesus by the grace of God and already have eternal life, then we will be bearing the twofold fruit, that is we become like Jesus through the sanctification of the Holy Spirit, and by obeying the twofold command of Jesus by loving our God with all our heart, all our soul, and all our mind and love our neighbors as ourselves (Mt. 22:37, 39), and we bear the fruit of the Spirit, that is “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Gal. 5:22-23). By this twofold fruit, we can know if we truly have eternal life (cf. Matt. 7:16).
Wanting to do the Lord’s will according to His word, “the one who does the will of God lives forever” (1 Jn. 2:17),
James Kim
[On August 9, 2021, Praying for me to live for Jesus Christ and His gospel as I enjoy eternal joy and perfect peace of the heavenly eternal life partially on this earth by having fellowship with the eternal Father God and the eternal life Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit, and love my brothers and sisters in Christ with His love as I continue to know and understand how wide and long and high and deep the love of Christ is (Eph. 3:18), and then wanting to live forever in heaven with the Lord when He calls me to His home]