We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true - even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
Who was John writing to? It certainly wasn’t the lost because four times in this single verse he used first-person plural pronouns - we and us.
Jesus, the Son of God, has come and given US (not them) understanding so that we (not they) may KNOW Him. Just as 1 Corinthians 2:14 says a lost man will never understand nor accept anything from the Holy Spirit, Jesus HAD to give us understanding because unless He had, we would never have understood. Just as He had to open the apostles’ minds to understand after the resurrection (Luke 24:45) and just as God had to open Lydia’s heart to enable her to respond to the Gospel (Acts 16:14). Without God opening her heart first, even though she was a God-worshipper, she would never have responded. Just as the Jewish leaders in Jesus’ day were worshippers of God, not only did they not respond, they were a huge part in Jesus’ crucifixion - they did exactly what God had planned for their lives (Psalm 57:2, 138:8).
A lost person is dead and unable to respond to ANYTHING spiritual. Everything they do is “in the flesh,” which means EVERYTHING they do is displeasing to God (Romans 8:8). That includes going to church and singing the hymns of praise, and that includes “accepting” Christ! Not only is it displeasing to God, because the lost have no faith, it is SIN because they are not doing it in faith and ANYTHING not done in faith is sin (Romans 14:23).
Bottom Line - Jesus gave us understanding, not them. God chooses man because man is unable to choose God. A regenerated man does not “choose” Christ, he is simply responding to what God has already done in him (John 6:29).
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