… the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has testified to his Son. Those who believe in the Son of God have the testimony in their hearts … And this is the testimony: God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. (1 Jn 5:9-11)
If eternal life is real life, life abundant, life in line with the potential and capabilities that God placed within you … then not having eternal life is to go through the motions, waiting for some kind of meaning. John reminds us that meaning resides in our relationship to God through his son.
Sometimes we have to make radical change to stop ourselves from going through the motions, to cease doing it the way it’s always been done. Big bold steps can reorient us within the big picture – believe, love, obey (in John’s language).
For example, If you are human you were probably raised on us/them thinking, but John’s epistle is not about exclusion but encouragement and reassurance of what “we know (experience) as children of God.” We may have assumed exclusion or were outright taught to compare ourselves to others so that we could claim something that made us better than them. But that is rubbish – we are no better than others. There is no special trait or chromosome that makes us more “God-image,” more worthy of God’s love, or more able to live eternal life. So, we change, we shift, we open ourselves up to the transforming power of God’s spirit (1 Jn 3:24). Because God calls us to love, we love inclusively, in our failures, all the while being changed from “children of wrath” to people of love, acceptance, compassion. (Eph 2:3)
We make big steps and live eternal life, real life. We live as Jesus did with love, even laying down our lives for others. (1 Jn 3:14-16) We love and serve because that is what Jesus did. Loving is not about “winning” for Jesus, it’s about obedience to God.