When John concludes both his gospel and his first letter, he clearly states why he wrote each one. His intent is similar in each case, but reading closely you will notice a significant difference.
But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name. John 20:31
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
Did you notice the change? He writes his gospel that we might trust in Jesus and have life, and writes his first letter that we who already trust in Jesus may know that we have that life. His letter is assuring us of what the gospel declares to be true. The letter describes how we know we actually have that life, the life which the gospel says is ours if we trust Jesus. What is the sign or indication that we have the life of God that comes to us in Christ?
No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us. 1 John 5:13
God’s own life, eternal life, is not a “thing” to be seen any more than God himself can be seen. Evidently, one does not “feel” they have that life in them, or surely John would have indicated that. However, when we love others, John says, God lives in us. If God is living in us, then God’s own divine life, eternal life, the nature and essence of God’s own existence, is in us as well. The real sign by which we know that we have God’s gift of life is that we have come to live in and share his love.
The Christians to whom John wrote his letter had begun to doubt if, in fact, they had this life of God. At the very least, they were unsure of how they could know if they did. In response, John identifies that love for others is the clear and definite evidence that God abides in the believer, and that his love is being brought to its maturity in that person.
So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. 1 John 4:16-17
Our boldness in the final reckoning of God’s truth-telling (judgment) is because we can know that we are in God’s incomparable life through the love which becomes our dwelling place (abiding). John does not claim that this divine self-giving love is immediately complete or mature in us, but that by grace and time the gift of love is moving toward that end. Though we may not be able to perceive such change now, within ourselves or others, as we suspect it is needed, the promise remains that we will become like the One in whole we trust.
Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. 1 John 3:2
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