People who believe in Jesus have true life with God
13 I write these things to you who believe that Jesus is the Son of God. I want you to know that you have true life with God for ever. 14 Also, we can trust God to help us when we turn to him. We know that he will hear us. When we ask for anything that he wants us to have, he listens to us. 15 Since we know that, we also know that God will give us the things that we ask for. It is as if we have already received those things from him.
16 If you see that another Christian is doing something bad, this is what you should do. If it is a sin that does not cause death, pray that God will help him. Then God will help that person to live for ever with him. That is for a sin which does not cause death. But there is a sin that causes death. If another Christian does that, I am not saying that you should pray for God to help that person. 17 Any wrong thing that a person does is sin. But not all sins cause death.
5:17A sin that causes death is a sin that makes a person separate from life with God. A sin like that causes a person to die in their spirit.
18 Nobody who has become a child of God continues to do wrong things. Instead, the Son of God keeps him safe. Satan cannot do anything against a child of God. 19 We know that we belong to God. We know that Satan rules all the people who belong to this world. 20 We also know that the Son of God has come into the world. He has helped us to understand what is true. As a result, we know the only true God. We live together with this true God, because we belong to his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the true God. He is the one who gives us life with God for ever.
5:19‘The people who belong to this world’ are people who do not accept God's authority to rule them.
21 My little children, be careful to keep away from idols.
