1 John 5
OGC1 John 5:1-3
CHAPTER XIV
RIGHTEOUSNESSDEMONSTRATION OF LOVE
A.
The Text
Herein is love made perfect with us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgement; because as he is even so are we in this world. (18) There is no fear in love: but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath punishment; and he that feareth is not made perfect in love. (19) We love, because he first loved us. (20) If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, cannot love God whom he hath not seen. (21) And this commandment have we from him, that he who loveth God love his brother also. (1 John 5:1) Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is begotten of God and whosoever loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. (2) Hereby we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and do his commandments. (3) For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.
B.
Try to Discover
What is the relationship of obedience to righteousness?
What is the relationship of righteousness to love?
Why do Christians love their brothers in Christ?
Who is my brother in Christ?
How may I know that I am fulfilling the commandment to love my brother?
C.
Paraphrase
Herein hath love with us been made perfect, In order that boldness we might have in the day of judgment, In that just as He is We also are in this world. (18) Fear existeth not in love, But perfect casteth fear outside; Because fear hath correction: He that feareth hath not been made perfect in love. (19) We love, because he first loved us: (20) If one should say I love God and should be hating his brother, false is he: For he that doth not love his brother whom he hath seen God whom he hath not seen he cannot love! (21) And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also. (1 John 5:1) Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ Of God hath been born: And whosoever loveth him that begat Loveth him that hath been begotten of him. (2) Hereby perceive we that we love the children of God As soon as God we love And his commandments we are doing. (3) For this is the love of God That his commandments we are keeping, And his commandments are not burdensome;
D.
Comments
Preliminary Remarks
Righteousness is obedience to God’s commands. Love is commanded. When we love we are obeying God and therefore are doing righteousness. Righteousness, in this sense, is seen as a manifestation of love.
Translation and comments
a.
The perfection of love. 1 John 4:17-18
(1 John 4:17) In this love is being perfected with us, in order that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because just as that one, we are also in this world. (1 John 4:18) Fear is not in love, but perfect love is casting out fear, because fear is having punishment. The one fearing is not being perfected in love.
Just as God’s love for us reaches its intended end when we keep His commandments and love our brothers (see on 1 John 2:5), so our love is perfected when we no longer fear the judgment. The basis of boldness in the judgment is that we have lived as Jesus lived, by loving as Jesus loved.
No one has so lived who does not love his brother. To such a one the fear of judgment is well-founded! Some have seen in the preaching of love a softening or watering down of the sternness of the Gospel. Not so! The reason we must obey the command to love is it is appointed to men once to die, and after this cometh judgment. (Hebrews 9:27)
It is possible to counterfeit obedience to every other commandment of God; to deceive others and even ourselves. The only sure confidence in facing judgment comes in the unmistakable experience of sacrificing my life that others may live. When we love in deed and truth rather than in word. with the tongue, we may indeed assure our hearts before Him. (1 John 3:18-19)
The Hebrew writer informs us, … He also Himself in like manner partook of the same (flesh and blood), that through death He might. deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. (Hebrews 2:14-15) In other words, the Word became flesh in order to die; and he died to free us from the fear of death. When we keep the commandments of God in His name, that divine demonstration of love reaches its end perfection. So also, our love, when it is perfected, (i.e. when it reaches its intended end) frees us from the fear of the judgment. We have the confidence which comes from knowing that we have lived as That One lived who overcame death and was seated at the right hand of God.
We shall never have the confidence which comes from being as good as He, but we may have confidence which comes from knowing our lives were motivated by the same life giving love.
b.
The motive of love. 1 John 4:19
(1 John 4:19) We are loving, because He first loved us.
The hymn writer has said.
I love Him because He first loved me, and died on the cross of Calvary!
If we omit one word, Him, as the object of love in this poem, we shall have captured John’s inspired thought concerning the motive of Christian love. We do not love just Him, as John will soon show. The presence of love in our lives as His children is because He loved us first. Otherwise, we would have continued to prostitute our love on the things of the world and have perished as the consequence. (See on 1 John 2:15-17)
Again John echoes Paul at the heart of Christian life. The love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, that they that live should no longer live unto themselves, but unto Him who for their sakes died and rose again. Wherefore, we henceforth know no man after the flesh. (2 Corinthians 5:14-16.)
Because it has burst upon us that God loves all men, regardless of their station, we no longer recognize the artificial distinctions imposed by men upon men. Because He loved us and bought us with His life, we are constrained to also lay down our lives for the brethren. (1 John 3:16, The love of Christ thus becomes the motivating force of love in our own lives.
c.
The object of love. 1 John 4:20
(1 John 4:20) If any one should say, I love God, and should hate his brother, he is a liar; for the one who goes on not loving his brother whom he has seen, does not have power to be loving God whom he has not seen.
The claim of love for God in the life of one who does not love his brother is a fraudulent claim. It is simply unreal.
Such unreal love offered to the real God is as useless as the real sacrifices offered to unreal gods. No one has the ability to love God without demonstrating that love in love of his brother. To attempt to do so it to … love in word and with the tongue. (1 John 3:18)
d.
Love demonstrates righteousness. 1 John 4:21
(1 John 4:21) And this is the commandment we are having from Him, that the one loving God also love his brother.
In attempting to maintain the perspective of the overall evidence of life presented in I John, it is a good idea to re-read 1 John 2:3-11 in connection with this verse.
In both passages there is a definite relationship between righteousness, considered as keeping God’s commandments, and love which is the first of those commandments. In short, no one can lay claim to righteousness who does not love his brother. The moral obligation to walk as He walked, Who kept the commandments perfectly, comes into its sharpest focus in love. Without love, all other righteousness is as filthy rags.
e.
Who is my brother?. 1 John 5:1
(1 John 5:1) Everyone believing that Jesus is the Christ has been begotten from God, and everyone loving the One Who begat loves the one having been begotten from Him.
The tests of life and fellowship presented by John are intended to be subjective. They are to tell the individual personally whether he himself is in fellowship with God and thereby possesses life eternal. In 1 John 5:1, we find the single exception. Here is the objective test by which we may know whether someone else is a child of God and so our brother. Since love of our brother is essential to our own life, this test is necessary.
The test is the same as was presented in 1 John 4:1 as the standard by which to prove the spirits whether they are of God. There the evidence was the confession of Jesus Christ as having come in the flesh. Here the same evidence is concerned with the belief which is the content of that confession. Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ has been begotten of God, and is, therefore, my brother as we share a common Father.
In the rather involved discussion below concerning the begetting and birth of God’s children, we must hold fast to John’s chief concern in this verse. He has just reminded us that we are commanded to love our brothers. The necessity is thus placed upon him to answer the very pertinent question, who is my brother? The answer to this question forms the only legitimate test of fellowship for the Christian.
The main emphasis of the verse is focused on the verb gegennetai, from germao. It is not an easy word to translate. Gennao is used by John for the first time in John 1:12, where the American Standard Version renders it born, with the footnote, or begotten. The problem of the translator is to know which of these meanings to write down. It doesn-’t take a Ph.D. in zoology to recognize there is a difference between being begotten and being born.
Is John saying here that everyone who believes has been born from God or has been begotten? If born is intended, then being a child of God depends entirely on belief. If begotten is John’s intention here, then belief marks only the beginning of the process by which one becomes a child of God.
The problem of translation is complicated further by the diversity of renderings of gennao in the accepted English versions. Limiting ourselves to only two passages, both from John’s writings, we are confronted with no fewer than four different English words used to translate this single Greek word.
The King James Version has born in both John 3:3; John 3:5 and 1 John 5:1. However, in 1 John 5:1, when the word appears the second time, the King James Version has begotten. Here are two different meanings attributed to the same word in the same verse!
The American Standard Version (1901) was born in John 3:1-36 and begotten in 1 John 5:1.
The Revised Standard Version has born in John 3:1-36 but begs the issue by paraphrasing 1 John 5:1 with is a child.
Phillips follows the example of the Revised Standard by using born in John 3:1-36 and one of God’s family in 1 John 5:1.
The New English Bible repeats the rendering of the Revised Standard Version. Turning to the commentaries helps a little, but not much. Barnes notes the distinction between born and begotten and indicates a preference for the latter.
B. F. Wescott prefers born in commenting on John 3:1-36. However, his interpretation includes the whole process of regeneration.
Turning to Abbott-Smith’s Greek lexicon, we learn that gennao is to be translated beget when referring to a father’S contribution to new life. In reference to a mother, the same word means to bring forth.
Considered passively, from the standpoint of the child, it may be accurately rendered either born or begotten. However, even the lexicons seems rather arbitrary in their translations of this word when it refers to the means by which one becomes a child of God!
In our concern for the distinction between the begetting of God in the progeneration of spiritual life and the act of birth (re-birth), we are seeking to determine the point at which the individual is actually brought into the family of God as a brother.
From a purely linguistic view point, the preferred translation of gennao in its perfect passive form, (as in 1 John 1:5), is has been begotten, rather than has been born. However, John is not concerned with linguistics, but with the test by which one may know who his brother is. It would be tragic indeed to mislead some sincere seeker after salvation with a false rendering of so vital a word. How does one become a child of God?
Obviously, the fundamental answer to this question is faith. In John 1:12, where the writer presents the idea of re-generation for the first time, he says it is accomplished when one receives the Incarnate Word.
This receiving is accomplished according to the terms set forth in the following verse. To translate again, without regard for theology, one who receives the Word is, the one begotten, not from bloods, nor from fleshly will nor of a man’s will, but from God. (John 1:13)
But, how is one begotten from the will of God. The question is as old as Nicodemus.
In John 3:3 Jesus confronted Nicodemus with the necessity of being born (or begotten) from above. When Nicodemus asked how, Jesus answered … if one is not born (or begotten) from water and spirit, he does not have the power to enter into the kingdom of God. Here we are at the nub of the matter.
Obviously a begetting without subsequent birth is tragically futile. On the other hand, birth without begetting is impossible.
Perhaps the need for this entire discussion would have never arisen had the church not lost sight of the true nature of Christian baptism. Some have become so repelled at the sacerdotal doctrine of salvation by works that they have swung to the opposite extreme and said all that is necessary to become a child of God is to believe; that nothing else is involved in receiving Jesus. That to which they are reacting is the sacramental holy water concept which treats baptism as a rite, a sacrament by which one is ushered into the family of God as if by magic, even in the absence of belief. (This is especially apparent in the practice of infant baptism)
The matter of Divine Sonship, with which John is concerned in I John, and entrance into the kingdom of God, which Jesus is concerned in John 3:1-36, are much too vital to be settled on the basis of prejudice for or against baptismal regeneration.
Perhaps we can come to some conclusions concerning John’s meaning in his use of this term gennao by beginning with that upon which all are agreed. No one denies that John sets forth belief as absolutely necessary to regeneration. In John 1:12, it is those who believe on His name who are given the power to become the sons of God. In 1 John 5:1, it is whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ.
Secondly, we need to understand that baptism is not a religious work, so far as the candidate is concerned. Baptism is not something he does; it is something done to him. He submits to it in the Name of Christ; he receives it. To say that baptism saves us, as indeed Peter does say (1 Peter 3:21), is not to say we are saved by works. Peter’s own comment on the matter is that we are saved … through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 3:21)
The grammar of Joh 3:5 will not allow a separation of water from spirit. In that verse, hudates (water) and pneumatos (spirit) are inseparably joined by the co-ordinating conjunction kai (and). Whatever Jesus says of the spirit in this verse, He also says of the water, and vice versa. This verse is vital, for it is Jesus-’ own answer to our dilemma.
How can a man become a child of God? He must be begotten from above. How can this be? He must be born from (both) water and spirit. If we let spirit answer to faith, and water to the outward act of immersion, we have our answer. Faith is always obedient. John deals with obedience conclusively in the verses immediately following. Faith and love always submit, in full surrender, to be united with the life of the risen Lord. This is done for the first time in baptism (Cf. Romans 6:3-ff). From that point on, obedient faith becomes the hallmark of sonship for the child of God. Both belief and obedience constitute faith. They are two sides of the same coin where Christian faith is concerned.
In none of the references we have cited from John is the inspired author concerned with baptism per se. His concern is for the entire process of regeneration. Birth begins with begetting. Begetting issues in birth. When one has experienced the regeneration which takes its source in God, he is a child of God. The physical act involved is immersion in and resurrection from water.
The word except as it is employed by Jesus in John 3:5 is too narrow for some today. To John it is trust in and obedience to the divine revelation which marked a person as a child of God. No one else is to be considered a brother in Christ.
Just as Divine Sonship depends upon divine regeneration, so divine brotherhood depends upon Divine Fatherhood. One’s relationship to a child of God is determined by mutual parentage. No one becomes a brother in Christ by blood, or of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. When a person is one’s brother by right of common Fatherhood, one has no choice but to love him, just as one loves the common Father. Today’s divisions in Christianity can only be divinely healed on this basis. Love is not of party, but of persons. Christian unity can only be had by every Christian recognizing every other Christian as a brother, and loving him for the Father’s sake. It cannot, however, be fostered by considering those to be Christian brothers who have not been begotten from God through obedient faith!
f.
Hereby we know we love. 1 John 4:2-3
(2) In this we are knowing that we are loving the children of God, when we are loving God and doing His commandments. (3) For this is the love of God, that we shall keep His commandments; and His commandments are not distressing.
The urgent necessity of loving our brother fairly glows in this passage! In 1 John 4:21, John re-emphasizes the vital necessity of loving our brother. In 1 John 5:1, he sets forth the test by which we may recognize our brother. Now he will tell us how we know we are keeping this commandment.
Divine love is not recognized in God’s children by feeling but by obedience, There are those who are children of God whose personalities clash with our own. It is absurd to think we will ever come to the place where we feel good toward them. Is this proof that we do not love them? Are such feelings contrary to the love which we must have for our brothers in Christ? John does not say so.
We are commanded to love every one who is a child of God. When we remember what love is, this is not as impossible as it might at first seem.
It is from the example of Jesus that we learn the true nature of such love. He gave His life not only for His friends, but for His enemies. He prayed between clenched teeth for those who drove the spikes in His hands and feet. When other men would have kicked and cursed, He voluntarily lay down to be nailed on the cross for those who accused Him falsely, who spit in His face, and who scoffed at His claim to be God’s Son. If we love as He loved we will also lay down our lives willingly for those who treat us ill. Shortly, John will instruct us to pray for those Christians whom we see sinning. There is no greater sin than the failure of our brothers to lay down their lives for us, but we are to pray for the one who does this sin as well as other sins!
We know we love our brothers when we keep God’s commandments. If the habit of our life is to respond with instant obedience to any command of His, we will love those we cannot like before considering our feelings toward them. (See on 1 John 2:17 for the difference between phileo (like) and agape (love).)
Perhaps we should note here a favorite theme of the popular psychologist, Dr. George Crane. Dr. Crane is fond of saying that if we act like we love someone long enough and sincerely enough, we will learn to actually love them. In John’s language, we would paraphrase, if we love someone long enough and sincerely enough, we may even get to like them!
This, indeed, is the love of God! That the keeping of His commandments is not distressing to us. There is no other way to prove our love to anyone than to do that which is for his benefit. If we love God, we will do that by which His purpose is moved forward in man. This immediately necessitates the keeping of His command to love one another. God’s purpose in man is only accomplished when men are united in Christ by the bond of love. John does not say that the keeping of God’s commands is easy. It is a cross, not a cushion, to which we are called! The idea is that the commandments of God do not seem unreasonable to one who loves Him.
Jesus expresses the same idea when He says, Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest, and then immediately invites; take my yoke upon you and learn of me. for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. (Matthew 11:28-30)
E.
Questions for Review
How is righteousness said to be a demonstration of love?
What is the intended end of our love for our brothers?
Does one who loves his brother fear death? Explain.
Is the preaching of love soft pedaling the Gospel? Explain.
What is the one command of God which cannot be counterfeited?
What is the difference between these two statements:
(a)
I love Him because He first loved me.
(b)
I love because He first loved me?
How may I know who is my Christian brother?
What is the difference between being begotten and being born, in terms of entrance into the family of God?
Explain how regeneration covers both of these ideas.
Explain why the teaching that baptism is essential to salvation is not the same as teaching salvation by works.
Faith is always ________________.
Divine love in God’s children is not recognized by feeling but by __________________.
If we learn to love our brothers, and practice this love, we may even learn to ________________.
Explain how God’s commandments are not distressing to one who loves Him.
1 John 5:4-12
CHAPTER XV
FAITHTHE POWER OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
A.
The Text
For whatsoever is begotten of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that hath overcome the world, even our faith. (5) And who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? (6) This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ, not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood. (7) And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is the truth. (8) For there are three who bear witness, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and the three agree in one. (9) If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for the witness of God is this, that he hath borne witness concerning His Son. (10) He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in him: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he hath not believed in the witness that God hath borne concerning his Son. (11) And the witness is this, that God gave unto us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. (12) He that hath the Son hath the life; he that hath not the Son of God hath not the life.
B.
Try to Discover
What does John mean by overcome the world?
How does faith that Jesus is the Christ enable one to overcome the world?
How does the Spirit testify that Jesus is the Son of God?
What should be the Bible believer’s attitude toward textual problems such as the one found in some versions of 1 John 5:7 (b) ?
What has God testified concerning His Son?
Is it possible to have eternal life and not believe that Jesus is indeed the Christ, the Son of God? Explain your answer.
C.
Paraphrase
Because whatsoever hath been born of God overcometh the world; And this is the victory that hath overcome the worldOur faith. (5) Who is he that overcometh the world, Save he that believeth That Jesus is the Son of God? (6) This is he that came through means of water and blood Jesus Christ: Not by the water only But by the water and by the blood, And the Spirit it is that is bearing witness, Because the Spirit is the truth. (7) Because three there are who are bearing witness (8) The Spirit and the Water and the Blood; And the three are witnesses unto one thing. (9) If the witness of men we receive The witness of God is greater. Because this is the witness of GodIn that he hath borne witness concerning his Son, (10) He that believeth on the Son of God Hath the witness within himself: He that doth not believe God False hath made him, Because he hath not believed on the witness which God hath witnessed concerning his Son(11) And this is the witness: That life age-abiding hath God given unto us, And this life is in his Son: (12) He that hath the Son hath the life,He that hath not the Son of God hath not the life.
D.
Comments
Preliminary Remarks
In the late third or early fourth century A,D., a scribe who was copying this scripture probably inserted (in 1 John 5:7) a sentence which reads, for there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost. (King James Version)
It is not within the scope of this present work to discuss the relative merits, of this sentence. It is a matter of record that it appears first, not in the original Greek of the New Testament, but in the Latin translation. The earliest manuscript in which it appears in Greek is a copy made in the sixteenth century. It is not needed to complete John’s argument concerning the divine proofs of Jesus-’ identity as the Christ, the Son of God. Since we are following the text of the American Standard Version which omits this sentence, we shall not comment on it.
Translation and Comments
a.
The source of Christian strength. 1 John 5:4-5
(4) For everyone having been begotten from God is overcoming the world. And this is the victory which gets the world overcome; our faith. (5) Who is the one overcoming the world if not the one believing that Jesus is the Son of God?
For in this verse refers us back to 1 John 5:3. The reason the commands of God are not distressing to His children is that they are indeed His children. There is a power which comes through regeneration which is not available to the unregenerate. (Compare Acts 2:38-39 and Ephesians 3:14 ff) To put it bluntly, no one ever lived a Christian life without first becoming a Christian. There is a new kind of life to be had in Christ that is completely unknown outside of Him. It is identified with spirit rather than flesh.
The child of God is to expect victory. Much of the power of the early church found its source in this expectancy. They had stepped into a new kind of life, rather than merely adopting a new religion. The unseen things of eternity had become more real to them than the three dimensional materialism of this earthly existence. Friends marveled at it, enemies trembled at it, and emperors went mad trying to understand the dynamic with which the first century Christians faced both life and death.
Most of the crisis which now face civilization result from the loss of this eternal awareness, and its accompanying power. Karl Marx looked about him at the downtrodden masses of Europe; hungry, miserable, defeated creatures, who for centuries had been communicants in the ritualistic sacerdotalism which passed for Christianity. He concluded that religion was to blame for most of the economic woes of a civilization dominated by The Church. In his Communist Manifesto, Marx declared the only path to meaningful fulfillment was to abandon Christianity for pragmatic, materialistic atheism. Religion, he said, is the opiate of the people.
Much of what passes for Christianity today seems to support the creed of Karl Marx! The defeated, frustrated existence of the average church member does little to deny it. When the first glow of conversion has dimmed, we seem to soon forget that the inalienable birth-right of every born-again child of God is victorious life.
In our worship, the staid formalism has replaced heartfelt, awe. Spirit and reality so typical of the first century, also testifies against that for which it ostensibly stands. We have allowed the new life to become largely a spectator religion. We have placed faith in a liturgical straight jacket. In the verses before us, John pin-points the source of power. It is our faith. Faith in the firm conviction that, in Jesus, the word of power by which God sustains the worlds, became flesh! It is a personal trust in Him that makes His power our own, His victory ours.
New Testament faith is more than mental assent to a proposition. It is more than mere belief. It is more than the acceptance of theological dogma or conformity to doctrine. Faith is the assurance of our hope; a conviction of unseen realities. (Cf. Hebrews 11:1) The child of God knows from experience that the real values of life, both here and hereafter, lie in an other-wordly realm. We are not in the flesh, but in the spirit. (Romans 8:9) We no longer live according to the course of this world, (Ephesians 2:2) but according to the purpose and direction given those who are looking ever to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. (Hebrews 12:2) As He endured the cross, despising the shame, (Hebrews 12:2) so we learn in whatever our lot, therein to be content (Philippians 4:11). Not as those who have been stupefied by the opiate of the people, but as those who know that whatever the outward circumstances of life, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. (Romans 8:37)
The sons of God are not the victims of circumstance! When the eternal Word of God rose from the grave as a man, He demonstrated that God’s love for His human children is inviolable. He gave Himself to us, both in body and in spirit. He conquered both life and death, and He has promised to be with us to the culmination of human history, (Cf. Matthew 28:20)
No power in either the seen or the unseen world can prevent us from being victorious excepting our own failure to recognize that this is what He wants for us!
The present world struggle with materialism in the guise of Communism will be won if Christians will recapture a real trusting awareness in Him Who came into the seen to demonstrate the reality of the unseen. It will be lost if Christians continue to cower before the great god Science and to believe the answer to materialistic communism is to be found in materialistic Americanism. We stamp the means of victory on our coins. We must stamp it on our hearts. In God We Trust!
b.
The object of faith. 1 John 5:6
(1 John 5:6) This is the one who came through water and blood, Jesus Christ; not in water only, but in the water and the blood.
In the American revival which filled the church houses just following World War II, signs could be seen on every major highway entreating passersby to, find yourself through faith. Perhaps the revival proved to be more a bust than a boom because the signs failed to tell us faith in what?
Faith is not merely a positive attitude toward life. It is more than self-confidence. Faith must have an object. It is a trusting-awareness of that object. The object of the Christian faith is a Galilean Carpenter, who, through certain phenomenal events in His life, was revealed to be the uniquely begotten Son of God; a visitor to this dimension from another arena of activity. Of these phenomena, John selects two which suit the purpose of this epistle: His baptism and His death. One form of gnosticism, propounded by the followers of a philosopher named Cerinthesus, claimed that whatever was divine about Jesus came upon Him at His baptism and left Him on the cross. This John flatly denies. This One did not come from water to blood, that is, from His baptism to the cross. He came through both.
He was Deity incarnate before His baptism, and when He shed His blood on the cross, He was still God as man. Otherwise, the death of Jesus loses its meaning. If Jesus was not God from the beginning, before His baptism, the Word was not as man but in man and Jesus-’ victorious life of obedience to God was a farce. If He did not remain God as man when He died, then God did not express His love to the world on Calvary.
c.
Evidences of faith. 1 John 5:7-10
(1 John 5:7) And the Spirit is the one testifying, because the Spirit is truth. (1 John 5:8) For they are three, the ones testifying; the Spirit and the water and the blood; and the three are for the one thing. (1 John 5:9) If the testimony of men we are receiving, the testimony of God is greater; because this is the testimony of God, for He has testified concerning His Son. (1 John 5:10) The one believing in the Son of God is having. His testimony in him. The one not believing God has made Him a liar because he has not believed in the testimony which God has testified concerning His Son.
To the evidence of Jesus-’ baptism and death, John now adds the testimony of the Spirit. Perhaps the most obvious allusion here is to the descent of the Spirit upon Jesus at His baptism. To the skeptic this is no evidence at all, but to the one who has been begotten of God and himself been anointed by the Spirit (See on 1 John 2:20) this argument is nearly conclusive in itself. It will never make sense to the one who thinks as a materialist, refusing to accept anything as real unless he can understand it through the physical senses. But the testimony of the Spirit is conclusive proof to the one who has learned from Christ that the realm of the spirit is the real world.
The testimony of all these three witnesses is for one thing: That ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye may have life in His name. (John 20:31)
In our day the testimony of the Spirit includes not only our awareness that He is within us as well as His testimony throughout the life of Jesus; it includes the written word which He inspired John and the others to write. Such evidence is also meaningless to the person who must subject everything to the test of human reason. Inspired scripture is unacceptable to one who will not believe what he cannot dissect in a laboratory or analyze chemically. But it is the precious proof to the one who is in tune with the infinite. The attack of modern rationalism against the deity of Jesus began with an attack on the written testimony of the Spirit. The claim that Jesus was a deceiver rather than a deliverer depends upon the destruction of Scriptural evidence to the contrary.
For this reason we are told that the Bible is a collection of forgeries and myths. No honest scholar can deny that the writings of the Scripture claim for Jesus exactly what the rationalist (as well as the gnostic) cannot accept; that He is God as man. Since this is obviously the claim of these writings, it becomes necessary to disprove the reliability of the writings themselves. To do so is to deny the inspiration, or to use John’s term, the testimony, of the Spirit in the Bible, and especially the New Testament.
To the child of God, the most meaningful evidence available to prove the incarnate nature of Jesus is the testimony of the Spirit in written word.
John’s statement, in 1 John 5:10, that the believer has God’s testimony in him is another allusion to the presence of the Holy Spirit in the believer. Perhaps the greatest need among modern Christians, in this respect, is to realize that the Holy Spirit is not simply a divine influence, but a person. The Bible never refers to the Holy Spirit as It, but always as He or Him. The presence of this Divine Guest within our lives is evidence of the Deity of Jesus, for it was Jesus Who promised Him to us. (Cf. John 16:7-ff) It is upon obedience to Jesus that the Spirit comes to us. (Cf. Acts 2:38-39)
The person who does not believe that Jesus is the Incarnate Son of God has made the Spirit a liar. It is impossible to imagine any greater sin. It is impossible to imagine any more certain assurance of being eternally lost than this denial of what the Holy Spirit has claimed to be true. This is the epitome of self-worshipping egoism. It is through the presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of the child of God that faith becomes power. Firm conviction, even personal trust, alone is not enough to bring about victory over what John calls the world.
Real victory comes through an acute awareness of unseen reality. The awareness must be deep-seated within the heart of a person. It is not something which can be understood academically and then clung to tenaciously in the face of apparent contradiction. Awareness of the kind necessary to give us victory over the limitations of physical senses is ours only when our trust opens our hearts and allows the Divine Representative to live in us. One is less likely to doubt the reality of spiritual life when the Spirit Himself is his constant companion. To put it another way, a great deal of our failure to overcome the world is our inability to keep to the spiritual point of view. We can see and feel and smell the things of the world. The awareness of temporal values is so strong we seem ever able to rationalize the control they have over our behavior. Only when, through faith, the unseen is constantly real because the Holy Spirit is in us, can we overcome the inclination to act as though the physical world were more real than the spiritual. Perhaps a word of caution is needed here. The distinction drawn between the seen and the unseen as well as the insistence that the spirit dimension is more real than the physical are for the sake of blasting away the scales from our spiritual eyes. We must not be deluded into believing a dualism in which the physical is separate from and irreconcilable to the spirit. This was the fundamental error of gnosticism. What we must realize is the meaning of victory over the world. The physical is intended to be the servant, not the master. The body is to be used as a dwelling place of the soul. The physical senses are the means by which we maintain contact with the present environment. We simply must not let the tail wag the dog by reversing the divine order. This we do when the world, with its materialistic values, rather than God’s Spirit, becomes the motivating force of our lives.
Although John does not deal with the matter directly, he has laid down the reason God requires His children to give money to the church as an act of worship. It is not as though He needed anything. (Acts 17:25) Rather, we are required to give for our own good, because in so doing we learn to subject material values to spiritual. As Jesus put it, where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. (Matthew 6:21)
d.
The testimony identified. 1 John 5:11-12
(1 John 5:11) And this is the testimony, that life eternal God gave to us, and this life is in His Son. (1 John 5:12) The one having life; the one not having the Son of God is not having life.
That to which the witnesses testify, indeed the entire message of the Bible, is brought into sharp focus in these verses. God gave us eternal life; eternal life is in His Son, those, and only those, having the Son have eternal life. There is no hesitancy, no philosophical perhaps. The issue is life and death. The declaration is straightforward and simple. Nothing is more needful today than the reiteration of this same vital truth. The institutionalized church, muscle bound by over-organization and flabby from too much material wealth, has offered to the world a cheap substitute for this faith, and a counterfeit for the life only this faith can bring. The materialistic rationalism so prevalent among today’s protestant theologians has done nothing to restore the life-giving power of the Gospel to its rightful position as the focal point of the Christian message. Stripped of its liturgical and creedal straight jacket, and purged of the nauseous egoism represented in materialistic, rationalistic theology, the Gospel, God’s glad news of life, is still the power of God unto salvation to all those who believe!
E.
Questions for Review
Why is the statement concerning the three witnesses which is found in the King James Version of I John omitted from more recent versions? (1 John 5:7)
Why are the commands of God not distressing to the children of God?
What is the source of victorious power in the life of a Christian which is not available to the world?
How does the life of the average church member today support the doctrine of Karl Marx that religion is the opiate of the people?
Give a definition of faith as John uses the word in 1 John 5:4.
Explain the statement, The sons of God are not the victims of circumstance.
Faith must have an _____________. It is not just a positive attitude toward life.
One form of Gnosticism called Cerenthic claimed that whatever was divine about Jesus came upon Him at _______________ and left Him at _____________.
What is John’s answer to this claim?
The Spirit and the water and the blood all testify to one thing. What is the purpose of their testimony?
In our day, the testimony of the Spirit includes the as well as His testament in the life of Jesus and His presence in our own lives.
In order for rationalism to destroy belief in the deity of Jesus it must first destroy the ________________ of Scripture.
The person who does not believe in the deity of Jesus as the Incarnate Son of God has made the Spirit a ___________.
Real victory over the world comes from faith which gives us a constant awareness of _______________.
A great deal of our failure to overcome the world comes from our inability to keep to ___________________.
To have victory over the world is to make ___________________ the master and _________________ the servant.
How does our giving to the church aid in our overcoming the world in our personal lives?
1 John 5:13-21
CHAPTER XVI
HEREBY WE KNOW
A.
The text
These things have I written unto you, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, even unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God. (14) And this is the boldness which we have toward him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us; (15) and if we know that he heareth us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions which we have asked of him. (16) If any man see his brother sinning as sin not unto death, he shall ask and God will give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: not concerning this do I say that he should make request. (17) All unrighteousness is sin: and there is a sin not unto death. (18) We know that whosoever is begotten of God sinneth not; but he that was begotten of God keepeth himself, and the evil one toucheth him not. (19) We know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in the evil one. (20) And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. (21) My little children, guard yourselves from idols.
B.
Try to Discover
How does one remove the maybes concerning his hope of eternal life?
What is the source of confidence in prayer?
If no one who is born of God sins, why does John ask that we pray for a brother when we see him sinning?
What is the sin unto death?
Does 1 John 5:18 support the doctrine of eternal security?
How is idolatry related to the danger of gnosticism against which this letter was written?
C.
Paraphrase
These things have I written unto youIn order that ye may know that ye have Life Age-abidingUnto you who believe on the name of the Son of God. (14) And this is the boldness which we have towards him: That if anything we ask according to his will He doth hearken unto us. (15) And if we know that he doth hearken unto us Whatsoever we ask We know that we have the things asked Which we have asked of him, (16) If one should see his brother committing a sin not unto death He shall ask and He will grant unto him life, For them who are sinning not unto death There is a sin unto death: Not concerning that am I saying that he should make request. (17) All unrighteousness is sin, And there is a sin not unto death. (18) We know that whosoever hath been born of God Is not committing sin, Nay he that hath been born of God He keepeth him, And the wicked one doth not touch him. (19) We know that of God are we; And the whole world in the wicked one is lying. (20) We know moreover that the Son of God hath come, And hath given us insight So that we are getting to understand him that is Real, And we are in him that is Real, In his Son Jesus Christ. This is the Real God, and life age-abiding. (21) Dear children! Guard yourselves from idols.
D.
Comments
Preliminary Remarks
In this paragraph, the author uses the synonym oida for know with emphatic repetition. He has not previously avoided it; but has used it sparingly; preferring its synonym, ginosko.
As was indicated in Words We Must Understand, and in the comments on 1 John 2:4, the Greek ginosko (know) was a favorite word of the gnostic. As opposed to the word employed here, oida (know), it emphasizes the part played by experience in gaining knowledge, whereas, oida (know) means to know through reflection, study and mental deduction.
John’s repeated use of oida (know) here is intended to call the readers-’ attention to the authority of what he has written. He introduces this section with These things I wrote that you may know.
The Christian’s knowledge of his personal salvation is attested to by his experience, and in this sense John may say, Hereby we know, (ginosko). However, it is not just our experience upon which the certainty of our eternal life rests. We may know, (oida) with the knowledge which comes from study, reflection and mental deduction as we read what is written by inspired writers.
Peter confirms this when he says, … no prophecy of Scripture is of private interpretation. For no prophecy ever came by the will of man; but men spake from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:20-21) We are not to reach conclusions concerning the will of God on the basis of our own preconceived notions. Man is not to form his own theological concepts entirely in light of his own religious experiences. It is the Inspired Word which gives meaning to our experiences, and not vice versa.
Paul also supports John in this respect. Every Scripture inspired of God is profitable. that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17) The Inspired Record contains all that is needed to assure the person whose life conforms to it that he has indeed passed out of death into life.
Translation and Comments
a.
Reason for the writing. 1 John 5:13
(1 John 5:13) These things I wrote to you in order that you may know that you are having eternal life, the ones believing into the name of the Son of God.
As in the Fourth Gospel, so here, John states his reason for writing. There, it is, in order that you may go on believing that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God, and in order that believing you may go on having life in His name. (John 20:31) This verse is an echo of the same inspired motive. John is here concerned, in the face of the gnostic controversy, that his readers not only have life eternal through faith in Jesus as the Christ. He desires also for them the certain knowledge that they do in fact possess this life.
The Gospel of John was written to present the evidence by which to strengthen the faith of believers, and thereby insure their continued life. The First Epistle of John was written to provide certain knowledge that this life does indeed continue in those who remain in Him. A word needs to be said about eternal life. It is far more than forever existence. Because man is essentially in the nature of God, man can never cease to be.
This in and of itself is no blessing. In fact it can become the greatest possible curse. It is this same inspired writer who warns us of the danger of being tormented day and night forever and ever. (Revelation 20:10)
Eternal life is the kind of life that finds its fullest expression in God Himself, It is His life, and men come to it through Jesus, and no other way. (John 14:6)
It is this to which Paul refers when he says we were raised with Him to walk in a new kind of life. (Romans 6:4)
That life which is limited by time and space and weakness, which is subject to the corrosion of the elements and the desires of the flesh is changed in Christ for something new and glorious. (1 Corinthians 15:42-ff) That which produces from within itself fornication, uncleaness, lasciviousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, wraths, factions, divisions, parties, envyings, drunkeness, revellings and such like; is changed in Him for that which results in love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control. (Cf. Galatians 5:20-ff)
Eternal life is the kind of life that vibrates in the very being of God and which, as Jesus demonstrated, cannot be held by death. In the believer it is a present reality and not merely a doctrine of the future. John has written in this epistle, and now reminds his readers, that eternal life is characterized by certain qualities and that one who has those qualities may know with certainty that he has eternal life. Such a person will accept divinely revealed truth in preference to human philosophy. This is especially true as revealed truth is concerned with personal morality, human relationships, and the identity of the Son of God. Such a person will practice righteousness, will love God’s children, and will have a great deal of personal confidence in Jesus Christ. Believing into the name of the Son of God means personal surrender to Him that answers to total commitment, and a reliance upon Him which amounts to complete trust for life itself.
b.
Assurance in and limitation of prayer. 1 John 5:14-15
(1 John 5:14) And this is the confidence which we are having toward Him, that if we should ask something according to His will He is hearing us. (1 John 5:15) And if we have known that He is hearing us the thing we may ask, we have known that we are having the request which we have asked from Him.
The reality of eternal life in the individual is measured by the freedom with which he prays! If praying aloud in the privacy of ones own prayer closet sounds foolish, it is time to re-examine one’s entire relationship to God. If praying aloud in public results in stage fright to the extent that it becomes impossible, the same need is apparent. Perhaps the first thing that needs to be examined is our understanding of prayer itself. John, in the Fourth Gospel, and in this epistle, has given us five limitations which God has placed upon prayer. Perhaps we would have a great deal more inclination to pray if we understood these limitations:
First, all prayer is to be in accordance with God’s will, the eternal grand design for which man was created and redeemed. This limitation was even evident in the praying of Jesus Himself. (John 17:25-26, compare with Matthew 26:42)
Probably the greatest mistake we make in prayer is the expectance, unvoiced but present, that earnest prayer can alter the will of God. This simply is not true. Prayer is not the means of getting God to do our own rather arbitrary desires. It is an earnest seeking after His will as a given circumstance may relate to the grand design. With this lesson learned, we will ask in prayer for those things which expedite the bringing of His will to earth, rather than for those things which can only result from getting our will done in Heaven! Prayer can be no more profound than Show me thy will in these circumstances, and provide what is needful for its accomplishment!
Second, prayer is to be in His name. That is, committed completely to Jesus alone, and fully dependent upon Him. It is true that we have access to God directly; that no man can intervene or intercede. But we cannot pray effectively until we realize also that our access to God was paid for by the Suffering Servant, Christ. Jesus Himself placed this limitation upon prayer. (John 14:14)
In His name is not a formula with which to close a prayer, nor an easy way to let the congregation know the prayer is ended. It is very possible to pray in His name and never pronounce the formula. It is equally possible to pronounce the formula and not really pray in His name. An intimate relationship to Him is necessary for prayer to be made in His name. There is no statement in the Bible that sinners ought not pray. Cornelius-’ experience may be taken as evidence that such praying ought to be encouraged. However, the promise of answered prayer is only to those whose personal commitment to Jesus Christ is such that they can pray in His name.
Third, answered prayer is for those who are remaining in Christ; whose commitment is constant. (John 15:7) John has gone to great lengths in I John to present the tests by which we may know we are remaining in Him, and He in us. (Cf. 1 John 2:10; 1 John 2:27)
Just praying in the name of Christ because we were at one time baptized into Him, (Galatians 3:27), is not enough. Our remaining in Him is to be the constant continuing course of our lives.
To remain in Him so is to daily live in the awareness that we are part of His body. That which brought Him into the world, continued through His commission to us, must be our ever present and over-riding concern. All else fades into relative insignificance. The person who treats the church, Christ’s body, as merely a place to go or an extracurricular activity, has no right nor reason to expect God to hear, much less answer his prayers! Answered prayer is for those who are personally involved in the steadfast continuing of the apostles teaching, the fellowship, the breaking of the Bread, and the prayers. (Cf. Acts 2:42)
Fourth, answered prayer is directly related to personal obedience. (See above on 1 John 3:22) Obedience is the outward expression of the attitude expressed in Thy will be done.
Every sin that has ever been committed can be summed up in two words, I want. This is the opposite of obedience. The person who will not obey, can not pray!
Fifth, we seldom think of awareness of God’s hearing as a condition of prayer. John affirms, however, that we may ask; if we have known that He is hearing. (1 John 5:15 [a])
Prayer is meaningless unless we are aware that we are talking to God; a transcendent, all-wise, all-powerful living God, Who by virtue of the gift of His own Son has become our Father. Many have tried to reduce prayer to a mere psychological exercise, a sort of mental gymnastic in which we talk to our own best selves. John will not allow this. It is only when we are conscious that God is hearing us that what we say may properly be called prayer at all. With these conditions met, we may go to God in prayer in the certain assurance that we have that for which we ask! John does not say that we may be sure we shall get what we ask for, but that we already possess it.
Perhaps this may be illustrated simply like this: If I have money in the bank, I have it, even though it is not yet in my pocket. To get it I must meet certain requirements. It is available to me on certain conditions. When the conditions are met, I will then have the money in my hand. So it is with the assurance we have in prayer. On certain conditions I possess what I have asked from God, even though it may not yet actually be in my hand. What I will then possess is not some bauble of my own choosing, but the will of God.
c.
The exception. 1 John 5:16-17
(1 John 5:16) If any man should see his brother sinning sin not toward death; he is to ask and He will give him life, the one sinning not toward death. There is sin toward death; Not concerning this am I saying that he should ask. (1 John 5:17) All unrighteousness is sin, but there is sin not toward death.
These verses create an insurmountable problem for those who say that a child of God is not able to sin at all. So far as John, and indeed the other New Testament writers, are concerned, there is a constant possibility and a danger that we will in fact sin.
Paul has something to say about the attitude of a Christian toward his brother who is found in sin. As we might expect, what Paul says, is in complete harmony with this statement by John. Paul writes, Brethren, even if a man be overtaken in any trespass, ye who are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of gentleness; looking to thyself, lest thou also be tempted. (Galatians 6:1)
John gives us, in prayer, the practical means of restoring such a one. He also sets forth a limitation. We are not to expect an answer when we pray for the life of one who is sinning unto death. Even in this extreme case, however, John does not say we should not pray. The attitude of both Paul and John is a far cry from the common reaction of one church member toward another who has fallen. Those who fancy themselves to be spiritual, often seem much more apt to talk to God in the sinner’s behalf. Condemnation of one’s brother is itself a sin, and the one committing it must be prayed for! Before we decide to pray or not to pray for someone on the basis of our arbitrary judgment of what he has done, we will do well to keep these two verses strictly in their context. John is not primarily concerned here with the one who is caught in the act of sinning. The total context of I John is concerned with the assurance of his own life by a child of God, and with the tests by which one may know certainly that he is himself a child of God. John is suggesting that the fact of answered prayer is evidence of such sonship. However, there is a condition in which one’s prayer may not be answered. There is an exception to the certainty of prayer.
John now, in 1 John 5:16-17, identifies that exception. He does not do so in order to prevent us from praying for anyone. Rather he does so in order that we will not doubt our own divine sonship when this particular prayer is not answered. If we pray for one who is sinning sin toward death, (and John explicitly says he isn-’t telling us to do so), we are not to be surprised when nothing happens.
The most frequent question asked in response to these verses is what is the unpardonable sin? Asked against the backdrop of the whole gist of I John, and particularly in the context of this fifth chapter, the question is superfluous. It is so much so that John doesn-’t identify what he refers to as sin toward death. The first step toward possible clarification of the wide-spread confusion in this matter is the realization that the Bible nowhere uses the term the unpardonable sin. John has something more in mind than a single unrighteous act.
Jesus did not use this phrase, the unpardonable sin, although He is generally credited with it. A careful reading of the synoptic references usually cited in support of the doctrine of the unpardonable sin will prove enlightening. These references are Mark 3:29, Matthew 12:32, and Luke 12:10.
Mark 3:29 quotes Jesus as saying … whosoever shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is guilty of eternal sin.
Matthew’s version of the same quotation is, … but the blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. whosoever shall speak against the Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in that which is to come. (Matthew 12:31-32)
Luke has … but unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Spirit it shall not be forgiven. (Luke 12:10)
On the surface, and in the context of Jesus-’ statement, the most obvious conclusion is that attributing to Satan the work of the Spirit is unforgiven. However, as we pursue the matter deeper into the New Testament, we discover there is a great deal more to it than merely stating that Satan has done some work which is in fact the work of the Holy Spirit. That such blasphemy is not to expect pardon will no doubt prove true, but we ought not suppose that the making of the statement per se, pre-empts all possibility of subsequent salvation.
It has been suggested that denial of the deity of Jesus, since it, in effect, calls the Holy Spirit a liar, is the sin referred to here. If we are to identify sin toward death as one particular act, the denial of Christ probably comes closer to the truth than any other single sin.
John has just said that the testimony of the Holy Spirit supports the incarnation of the Word in the person of Jesus. (1 John 5:7-11) To call Him a liar certainly comes under the heading of blasphemy. However, the absence of a definite article, the, with sin in 1 John 5:16-17, suggests the probability that John is not speaking of one single act of sin.
The denial of Jesus by those who have come to know Him, as opposed to the denial that is made by others who have never confessed Him, has been suggested as the sin unto death. Hebrews 6:4-6 would seem to support this conclusion. However, when read in the original language, even these verses do not close the door forever upon the one who has fallen away. It is true it is impossible to renew them again unto repentance. (Hebrews 6:6), but there is no indication that they cannot themselves repent.
The Hebrew writer comes back to this same vein in Hebrews 10:26. A literal translation of that verse would read For we, going on sinning deliberately after we have received the knowledge of the truth, not concerning sins is there left a sacrifice.
Such literal renderings in English are always awkward reading, but often very helpful. The key word here is the participle translated going on sinning modified by the adverb translated deliberately.
Going on sinning describes a continuing state, rather than a single misdeed. Deliberately underscores that state as one of choice.
One can violate the will of God out of ignorance, compulsion, inability to resist some strong temptation, or he can violate the will of God as a matter of deliberate choice. In the case of the former he will probably hate the sin, both during and after its commission, and even hate himself for his weakness. He will shrink in horror at the thought of repeating the disobedience to God, and yet may yield again to the same temptation.
So long as he is honest in the revulsion, fundamentally sorry for the guilt, and faces his own responsibility for it as well as the reality of it, the blood of Christ is equal to cleansing it. (See on 1 John 1:8-10)
On the other hand, when one violates the will of God cold-bloodedly, aware of his transgression but determined to have his own way regardless of God’s will and delighting in his sin, he has removed himself from the reach of the cross. To continue in such a state is to sin toward death.
The overt act committed outwardly may be the same in both cases. Sin toward death is not necessarily measured by the deed done. It is the state of a man who has heard the call of sin and has decided to serve it rather than God. He has listened to falsehood and decided to accept it rather than truth. He will readily commit any and every act that has ever been identified with the unpardonable sin, and do so without remorse.
Such a person cannot be said to walk in the light. The light reveals the nature of sin and the personal guilt involved in it, and he has preferred to live in sin; possibly even to deny guilt. The light has revealed the eternal nature of the things of God, but he has chosen the love of the things of the world; to be a materialist. The light has revealed Jesus to be God’s Son and he has chosen to deny Him. He has loved darkness rather than light, because his deeds are evil. (John 3:19) His life will not meet any of the tests presented in I John.
One who has made this final choice has forfeited all hope of divine forgiveness. Consequently, the child of God is not expected to pray for him, and if one does pray for such a person, he is not to take the absence of an answer as a slur against the reality of his own eternal life.
d.
Three Christian certainties. 1 John 5:18-20
(1 John 5:18) We are knowing that everyone having been begotten from God does not keep on sinning, but the One Who was begotten from Him is keeping him and the evil one is not touching him. (1 John 5:19) We are knowing that we are from God, and the whole world is living in the evil one. (1 John 5:20) And we are knowing that the Son of God has come, and has given us an understanding that we may know the True One and we are in the True One in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and life eternal.
Nothing is more needful to Christians in the face of pseudo-intellectual attacks on the faith than divine assurance. The need is not new, but it is probably more pronounced today than at any time since the first century. For his reason, I John needs to be read and re-read in today’s churches. It is very popular among modern liberal scholars to say, nothing is absolute. Not only the present-day church, but twentieth century society in general has slipped the moorings of divine certainty. One cannot watch the televised congressional investigations of long-range government policy without sensing the bewildered lack of any certain base. Our world is teetering on the brink of total race suicide, and no one seems to know any more than any one else where the handle is by which it can be steadied. Perhaps such befuddled uncertainty is to be expected in the world, which denies the existence of objective truth or error, but the worse tragedy of all is the evidence of similar confusion among Christians. The naive statement that it doesn-’t really matter what one believes, as long as he is sincere, is a verbalizing of spiritual uncertainty and confusion. John will have none of this irresolute wavering. No writer of scripture has earned the title, Apostle of Love, as has this disciple whom Jesus loved, but his statements regarding revealed truth are among the most dogmatic in the Bible. There is no contradiction between love and insistence upon truth. Compromise with error at the expense of another’s eternal life cannot be excused on the ground of high sounding tolerance or the teaching of a sacerine spiritual pablum. The Apostle of Love closes his epistle with the reiteration of three distinct certainties upon which the child of God can literally stake his life. *Hereby we know!
First,* we know that righteousness is the normal course of life for the child of God, Nowhere does John, or any other Biblical author indicate that it is impossible for a Christian to commit a sin. In fact, the triple insistence of this epistle in respect to sin is that we are to recognize the reality of it and depend upon Christ Jesus for cleansing from it.
However, we may be assured that the constant attitude of God’s children toward sin is to avoid it. The marked distinction between the Christian and the worldling in respect to righteousness is that the worldling accepts sin as the normal pattern of behavior, while the Christian is constantly on the alert to avoid sinning. The reason a Christian instinctively avoids sin, even though he may on occasion commit sins, is that the One Who was begotten from God is keeping him, and the evil one is not touching him. We are not alone in the battle for good. The hymn writer has captured the truth beautifully.
Jesus keep me near the cross There a precious fountain Free to all a healing stream Flows from Calvary’s mountain.
A Christian is not a person who never sins; he is a person who does the very best he can to avoid sin, because of an inner revulsion against it, and who recognizes his efforts must be sustained by One Who is mightier than himself. He not only does his own best, he relies on Christ Jesus to make up the difference between what his behavior is and what it ought to be.
John’s statement that the evil one is not touching him means literally that the evil one is not touching with harmful results. The Devil cannot snatch away from Christ one who remains trustfully aware that he is, in Christ, a son of God. (Cf. John 6:38-ff)
Second, we are knowing that we are from God, and the whole world is lying in the evil one. This again is absolute knowledge. The cleavage between the sons of God and sons of Satan is sharp and sure.
It is presently very popular to preach tolerance, to say that all men are the sons of God. This is diametrically opposed to everything John has written! There are, no doubt, many men of good will outside of Christ. It is true that the Christian Gospel for nearly twenty centuries has served as salt and leaven in western civilization. The moral and ethical standards that are the unwritten mores of our ethic as well as the foundation of our written legal code are essentially Christian. But the rapidity with which these standards are being abandoned in our time is evidence alone that there is still evil in the world. Satan is still very much alive and at work. The child of God who makes a determined effort to meet the tests of life set down in I John is going to find himself part of a peculiar people.
Third, we are knowing that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding. Of all the areas of conflict between the certain assurance of the Christian and befuddled bewilderment of the world, the most marked is in relationship to Jesus as the incarnate Christ.
The self-centered agnosticism which permeates modern Protestantism denies the inspiration of the Scriptures. This is followed, quite logically, by denial of the incarnation of the Word. Since the New Testament is the only source book by which we know of God’s visit to earth as a man, the person who cannot accept the New Testament as reliable has no ground upon which to base a belief in Jesus as the Christ. The practical result of modern agnosticism is identical to that of the gnosticism which called forth John’s writings. John’s claim is that he personally witnessed the incarnation of God in the person of Jesus. Anyone who denies the fact of the incarnation makes John a liar, just as he makes God a liar. Once a person has succeeded in convincing himself that the Bible is unreliable, and the incarnation a myth, he cannot take the problem of sin seriously. He may get carried away in the broad torrent of civil demonstrations. He may spend his time and energy fighting social injustice and insisting upon the rights of minority groups, but he cannot be concerned seriously with the fact of personal, social and moral responsibility to God.
But God’s children are not confused. We know that the Son of God has come. He has given us an understanding of life which the world cannot grasp. Just as He opened the minds of the twelve that they might understand the scriptures, (Luke 24:44-ff) so he has given us the divine approach to reality.
The world tests reality in terms of materialism and human reason. To the world the only reality is that which can be explained in terms of three dimensional matter. The only sound conclusions are those which can be demonstrated within the closed system of cause and effect which is called science. The only recognizable criterion by which to form opinions and determine the course of our actions, says the world, is the deductive power of the human mind.
The Christian, on the other hand, judges reality in the light of the incarnation. God’s visit to this planet in the person of Jesus Christ is seen as the single all-determining gauge of truth. It is the fullness of all preceding time (Galatians 4:4) and the meaning of all that has followed. (Colossians 1:16-20) In Christ alone we reach the ultimate reality which is God Himself. (John 14:6)
In saying that Christ has given us understanding in order that we may know God, John again returns to ginosko, the knowledge of experience. The world wonders if there is a God, the philosophers have speculated as to what God is like, and the modern fool has decided God is dead! (Cf. Psalms 14:1) But the child of God has experienced the reality of God in his own life. One who daily walks and talks with Him can scarcely be persuaded God is dead!
God’s child has seen demonstrated in the person of Jesus of Nazareth that God is. (John 14:9) He has come to know what God is like through the cross of Christ, and through the daily living of the eternal life bought for him there; especially in the practice of life-giving love, The Christian’s life takes its source in his divine begetting and re-birth. He has been begotten of God.
The daily experience of facing his own guilt as well as the blessed cleansing from it, the practice of loving his brother in tangible demonstrable ways, and the personal confidence which he daily places in his atoning Friend. these are the certainties which come from experience. It is in these experiences that we know God is and that all else is but refuse. (Philippians 3:1-11)
e.
The final plea. 1 John 5:21
(1 John 5:21) Little children, guard yourselves from idolatry.
Ephesus, the cultural and religious center of influence in the area of Asia Minor, where John’s readers lived, was the temple keeper of Diana. The whole tenor of the society was flavored by the presence of idols everywhere. Since most of those John addresses as dear children had come out of such pagan background, there was the ever present danger of lapsing back into it. Gnosticism could easily form the catalyst that would make the lapsing even easier. It was, after all, a mixture of paganism with Christian philosophy.
The warning of 1 John 5:21 was more readily applicable to life in the first century than in our own time. That is not to say that it was any more needed then than now. Idolatry is a threat to the Gospel in any age. It happens that in our age of scientific sophistication the threat is more subtle than in past ages. However, this fact in itself makes the danger more deadly.
The word eidolon (idol) is from the root word eid meaning see. It is concerned with that which is seen, as opposed to that which is invisible. The making and worship of graven images is the most gross expression of life that is concerned primarily with the created rather than the Creator.
Romans 1:18-23 traces vividly the downward progression which results from refusal to have God in our knowledge or to glorify Him as Deity. The end result is the worship of the likeness of an image.
We ought not think, however, that because our sciences have done away with the worship of stone gods that we are no longer subject to the fundamental threat of idolatry. The foot note on 1 John 5:21 in the Oxford Annotated Bible, (H. G. May and B. M. Metzger, Oxford Press, New York, New York, 1952) observes that idolatry is, any rival of God.
1 Corinthians 10:14 seems to confirm this observation. The words of this Pauline passage are identical to those of our present text. Paul issues this warning immediately following the sweeping statement, There hath no temptation taken you but such as man can bear, etc.. This certainly includes any rival of God.
From this it is easy to support the present preoccupation with rationalism, materialism, existentialism, scientism and humanism are, at their root, highly refined forms of idolatry. Just as did the worship of graven images, so have these modern philosophies exchanged the truth (reality) of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator. (Romans 1:25)
Idolatry is essentially self-worship. It may take the form of some animal associated symbolically with a particular lust. It may take the form of some good or evil in self. These are the gods of the Greeks and Romans. Self-worship in modern times is more apt to be expressed in the worship of man’s achievements and possessions. It is idolatry, nevertheless.
E.
Questions for Review
In addition to our experience in Christian living, we also may rely upon _________________ to confirm the certainty of eternal life.
What is John’s reason for writing I John, as stated in his own words?
How does this reason for writing correspond with his reason for writing the fourth Gospel?
Because man is created in the image of God and so can never cease to be, eternal life is more than mere _______________.
Eternal life is that kind of life that finds its fullest expression in _________________.
While life identified with this present world produces ______________, eternal life produces ___________________. (Cf. Galatians 3:20-ff)
Believing into the name of the Son of God means _________________.
Name five limitations which John places upon prayer ______________.
What is the single exception to the certainty of prayer which meets these limitations?
Why does John discuss the certainty of prayer in this letter which deals with the evidences of eternal life?
Condemnation of a brother taken in sin is itself ____________________.
What significance do you attach to the fact the Bible never uses the term unpardonable sin?
What does John mean by sinning sin toward death?
Going on sinning describes a _________________ rather than a _________________.
List three distinct certainties upon which the child of God can stake his eternal life.
What is meant by understanding in 1 John 5:20?
A Christian not only does his best to avoid sin, he relies upon ____________________ to make up the differences between what he does and what he ought to do.
How is the danger of idolatry as present, and even more dangerous now than when John wrote?