Friday, November 27 –
It’s
the end of the week, and also the end of our reading in this first letter of
John. Please read 1 John 5:1 – 21, and
then come back to look at it with me again.
The last chapter of John’s letter has always been one of my favorite passages. John has been taking us through themes that relate
to Jesus as God in flesh, the priority of love – first to God, and then to others
– and various warnings about false teachers who deny Christ. Now, in this last chapter he sums up his motivation
and purpose in writing when he says – I write these things to you who
believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal
life (5:13). What’s interesting in
this last section of his writing is that John uses the word for faith for the
very first time in his letter. He had
used the verb form (believe) several times, but not the noun “faith”. Yet, in summary, it is the Christian’s faith
that makes love possible –
“Everyone
who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who
loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. By this we know that
we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.
For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his
commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God
overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our
faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes
that Jesus is the Son of God?” (5:1-5).
It
is a consequential, and necessary set of statements that define faith. First, we believe and are born of God (thus our
believing is not our initiative). The
emphasis is on “who” we believe in, the object of our faith, and not on the
experience of believing. This is difficult
for many Christians to understand when they have been schooled in truth defined
by our existential experiences. In the
modern world, what you believe in is fine, but optional. It might make sense to you, but someone else
doesn’t feel the compulsion to act on the “person” of faith, but rather on the
experience faith – believing something, whatever it is all the faith anyone
needs to have. John negates that upfront,
saying “everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God”. It is not faith in something that is
important, but faith in “the Someone” of Jesus.
Anytime a person claims faith without Jesus Christ, they are hanging
their hat on a false faith.
John
has been relentless in his clarity about Jesus.
David Jackman in his commentary on 1 John summarizes this wonderfully. “To
believe in Christ is to believe in his deity (1:1-3), in the power of his death
to cleanse from all sin (1:7) and to avert the righteous wrath of a holy God (2:2).
It means that we believe that the love of God is expressed in its fullest
measure by the cross of Christ (4:9-10) and that eternal life is experienced only
by a faith-union with him, which is the product of his grace, appropriated by
faith (5:11-12)”. [1]
As
a result of a faith that believes “in Christ”, we have planted within us – by the
Holy Spirit – both the ability to love (God and others), as well as obey His
commandments. The best obedience flows
out of love. I am faithful to my wife,
not because of the fear of shame or divorce, but because of my love for God’s
commands, and for her. John reminds us
that God’s commandments “are not burdensome”. The reason why there is so much resistance in
the church to affirm the need to know God’s commandments is because of legalism
– a non-love orientation to obedience.
Yet is it clear that the difference between believing and not believing
is most evident in our affections to want to obey. John ends this first part by speaking about the
victory that is the final evidence of real faith – “everyone born of God
overcomes the world” – looks back to 2:15-17, speaking of a world system
that lives in defiance to God’s commandments.
Our victory is not a day by day experience for most of us, but John is
not after the day by day experience, but the victory that comes with a faith
that is in Jesus Christ – “…this is the victory that has overcome the
world—our faith” (5:4).
As
he ends his opening words in verse 5, he reminds us that it is faith in Jesus
as the Son of God that is the essence of Christianity. What follows needs the context of the book to
understand what he is saying.
“This
is he who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by
the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the
Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: the Spirit
and the water and the blood; and these three agree” (5:6-8).
Some
have suggested that this refers to the baptism and crucifixion on the cross.
Others think it has to do with the Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. While they could be possible, it seems that
the context of John is to emphasize the real flesh and blood aspect of Jesus. It
was blood and water that came from Jesus’ body when the Roman soldier pierced
His side that attested to Jesus’ human body, and the reality of his death. It was the reality of Jesus’ human body suffering,
and his physical death that the Gnostics denied. Verse 7 in most versions is very short – “for
these are three that testify”. The King
James Version included more in the text.
It read, “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father,
the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that
bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these
three agree in one.” The reason this
is omitted is not because it is anti-trinitarian, but rather that of all the
manuscripts that scholars have the ability to reference, this is only in eight,
and three of them are in later centuries. It may have been that a person copying the
text added this to clarify his belief that the text connects to the doctrine of
the Trinity. “The three that testify
which now includes the Spirit who adds this testimony – I believe – to the Trinity
as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit give testimony to the incarnation, death, and
resurrection of Christ. Put it all together and we see John making a final statement
about the deity and humanity of Christ as being equally together, and absolutely
necessary for faith –
“Whoever
believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not
believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that
God has borne concerning his Son. And this is the testimony, that God
gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son
has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life” (5:10-12).
The
final words of John’s letter sum up the whole letter. John wrote this letter to give believers
assurance of eternal life in Christ, but also the life of Christ for them, us
too, as we live for Christ –
“ I
write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you
may know that you have eternal life. And this is the confidence that we
have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.
And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have
the requests that we have asked of him” (5:13-15).
The
promise of eternal life for those who believe does not begin after death but
at the moment of believing. The language
of prayer is very similar to what Jesus had taught in the Upper Room (John 14:14),
that whatever we ask in Jesus’ name, he will do it. Of course, this is not a carte-blanc for selfish
prayers. The prayers he hears are “in
his name”, i.e, prayers Jesus would pray.
Lastly,
we get to 5:16-17, which have proved so difficult to scholars that one renowned
scholar wrote: “The present writer confesses his utter inability to
understand this verse . . . and he will not attempt to offer even a suggestion
as to its possible interpretation.” [2]
Although some might wonder why he would say that, they might change their mind
after consulting commentaries written over two thousand years that speculate on
many different theories as to what John is saying. Personally, the issue revolves around “sin
that does not lead to death…sin that leads to death”. Given the context of the whole book, I
believe John is writing about the choice of believing in Christ as Savior
versus rejecting him as Savior and Lord – but I might be entirely wrong.
John
adds, and ends, with three “we know” statement.
All of them are summary – like a Pastor at the end of a teaching say, “let
me tell you what I told you”. “We know
that the life of Christ changes our desires and puts a check on our willingness
to live in sin” (5:18). We know that the
world is the abode of the “anti-Christ” and is controlled by the evil one
(5:19). We know that the Son of God has
come, and gives us the saving knowledge of God that leads to eternal life in God”
(5:20). That last sentence is not an add-in,
but a reminder that not believing, not loving, not obeying will lead to
idolatry (5:21). We, who believe, know
that the world will never satisfy like Jesus will. Our new life in Christ is what gives us a new
perspective on the world around us, and leads us to a new awakening of God, our
Father – the Son has come…that we might know Him…and we are, by faith, in
Him”.
Peace
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