1 John 5:1-21

The most important information that is available to man through Scripture is how we can be saved and how we can be sure that we are saved.  John has written this book so that we might know this all important information.  Nothing that we know can be more important than this.  These truths must be carefully evaluated in light of our lives.
LOVE IS THE EVIDENCE OF SALVATION: When God saves us, the love of Christ is made evident in our hearts.  Love is what moved Christ to die for us and so our salvation will only naturally result in our having a deep love for God and for others.  The love of God will bring about a great desire to obey God.  If our hearts are cold towards God and lack affection for other people we have very good reason to doubt the reality of our salvation.  God saved us by His love so that we can experience His love and then demonstrate that love to others.  Love or the lack thereof can provide valuable information for us to evaluate our relationship with the Lord.
FAITH IS THE MEANS OF SALVATION: Salvation occurs in our lives when we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.  We must recognize that Christ is the Son of God and that He has come to the earth as a man to reveal God to us.  However, besides reveling God and His will to us, Christ came to die in order to satisfy God’s wrath on sin.  The question that each man must answer is if he believes these truths and has trusted in the sacrifice of Christ as his only hope for salvation.  God’s only requirement for salvation is faith in the work of Christ.  That entails recognizing who Christ is, what He has done and believing in Him as our only source of hope.
HOPE IS THE RESULT OF SALVATION: Because of the salvation that we have in Christ, we have a true and genuine hope.  We can be assured of eternal life as our ultimate hope.  However, we can also have hope in this life as we know that as believers God has instilled His will into our lives so that we know how to pray and we can be assured that God answers our prayers.  We have knowledge of the truth, the truth sets us free from sin through faith in Christ and fills our hearts with a hope that only Christ can give.  Sin no longer has power over us but we are free to live in obedience to the Lord.  That obedience that prior to Christ was impossible inspires us to hope for even greater things from the hand of God.

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