Daily Manna, Year Two · Day 37 · February 6
That Ye May Know
“These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.”
A deed to a house, folded in a drawer, belonging to somebody who has lived there eleven years and still hesitates to call it his.
Know is the word John builds this letter on, and at the end he says exactly what the whole thing was for. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life. Know that ye have, present tense, about a life described two verses earlier as already handed over: this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
Set that beside how he finished his Gospel, where he also states his purpose and it is a different one. These are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ. The Gospel was to bring people to faith. The letter was for people who have it and cannot make themselves feel it, a category John evidently expected to be large.
He does not settle the question with reassurance. He hands over tests, and they are checkable. Hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. Both look outward, and neither asks how convinced you felt when you woke up.
Work the second one this week, since it is the one somebody else could verify. Pick the person in your church whose name produces a small internal sigh, and do one concrete thing for them that costs you an evening. John did not offer that as a way of earning the life. He offered it as a way of finding out you have it.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 37 is Trouble (Psalm 50:15).