Concluding Assurances and Admonitions (5:18–21) Ever pastoral, the Elder closes his letter with three statements of assurance, each beginning we know … Each statement points to a truth that John affirms as well as to a reality that his readers have experienced. By assuring them that they can properly claim these realities for themselves, the Elder reaffirms to the community its identity as those who are rightly related in fellowship to God. As he does regularly throughout the epistle, he tells his