As John wraps up this sermon to the family, he reminds us of what we must hold onto because these basics are the things if we forget, we will be in trouble and these are things that are frequently attacked.
1 John 5:1
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.
John begins with reminding us what a true Christ-follower is…..a person who believes that jesus is the Christ, the anointed son of God….if you love the Father you will love all of those who are born again not of flesh but of the Spirit.
1 John 5:2-5
By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. 4 For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
John is laying it out here in a way that is very logical
– If we love God and show it by obeying His commandments, we will naturally cherish His children, our brothers and sisters in Christ.
– We show our love for God by keeping His commandments, which are not burdensome but reflect what is within us. Since we have all been born again and made new, that new nature should overcome our old nature.
– When we live this way—learning to walk by faith and loving others by faith—we will always be overcomers, triumphing over the world, the flesh, and the devil through faith.
– We realize we don’t have the power to do it on our own, but instead recognize that Jesus, the only begotten Son of God (made of the same nature as God), is empowering us because he gave us the Holy Spirit to overcome the world through the fruit and gifts he sacrificed for us to gain on the cross.
– We must also understand that we currently overcome and will always overcome by faith in Him.
1 John 5:6-9
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. 7 For there are three that testify: 8 the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree. 9 If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son.
John is stating here through the Holy Spirit that who Jesus is, is true. Hebrew law stipulated that nothing should be believed unless supported by two or three witnesses. It was a law designed to protect the innocent from scandal. However, with two or three witnesses, someone could be charged or affirmed. (Deuteronomy 19:15) Like today, during John’s time, there were differing views of Jesus, some claiming he was a man filled with God’s power and others asserting he was merely a spirit, not flesh and blood.
The Holy Spirit clarifies through John that there are three legal witnesses to Jesus being God: water, blood, and the Spirit.
There are several valid interpretations of what this means; all of them hold potential accuracy, but I will present the interpretation that I consider the most precise. None of the various perspectives contradict each other; they merely offer a different viewpoint.
When John writes his Gospel, he uses the same term for “came by water” three times. Each reference pertains to John the Baptist’s baptism. It is at this baptism that the Holy Spirit descends on Jesus as a witness to his unity with the Holy Spirit and the Father. After this, the ministry of Jesus begins, and his purpose on earth is fulfilled by the shedding of his blood on the cross and his resurrection. John makes it clear that we have the proper witnesses to declare Jesus Lord, and it was the Father who declared this through Christ’s baptism, sending the Holy Spirit as a sign of the Father’s choosing and his acceptance of the sacrifice of Christ’s blood and his raising from the dead.
1 John 5: 10-13
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. 11 And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. 13 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.
Who is Jesus? Is Jesus God in the flesh? Did He die for our sins? Is He fully God and fully man? Did He take our sin on the cross? Do we now have the gift of eternal life because of Him? Did He defeat Satan, for those who believe, on the cross? Did He enable the Holy Spirit to be released so we could be filled with power to overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil and be empowered to witness to the whole world? Is He coming again? The Holy Spirit is revealing, through John, the challenge: “Do we really believe who Jesus said that He is and who the Father gave witness to while Jesus was on earth? If we believe all of this about Jesus and all that He said about Himself, then we are Christ-followers and will live eternally with Him. If not, then we will live eternally away from God in hell, then the lake of fire.
1 John 5:14,15
And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15 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.
First, we see that one aspect of the Father’s heart is His willingness to answer prayer. John used the word “know” for one of the 36 times in this book. It means to have an experience with Him—not just to have read about Him—but to have a deep connection to the Father through the Son, which allows for our connection with the Holy Spirit. I need to mention this because this verse is often taken out of context. The idea the Holy Spirit conveys here is that, because of our relationship, we can have complete confidence that God is hearing our prayers. God will answer one way or another, and we can trust that! It is all about really knowing God. Do you know Him as your Lord and savior? Are you living a life of repentance from sin and growing in love? Do you experience Jesus every day in your walk? If not, in a few minutes, I’m going to give you the opportunity to have that experience through accepting Jesus as Lord and savior!
1 John 5:16,17
If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life—to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that. 17 All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death.
John emphasizes that it is our responsibility as Christians to pray for our brothers and sisters when they commit sin. This is not just an internal sin, but one that can be seen, and we must intercede for them. Our primary response should be to pray for them so that our hearts align with them and our love and intercession can help guide them back to following Jesus. It seems quite severe when he mentions that you don’t necessarily need to pray for those whose sin leads to death.
What is a sin that leads to death? There are two that we know of: one is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit(by the way, you cannot blaspheme or grieve a spirit; you can only do that to a person. This is one of the reasons we see that the Holy Spirit is a person), and the other is rejecting Jesus by believing He is less than the Son of God, God in the flesh. Why would God not want us to pray for them? We have a couple of examples in Scripture. The first is in Jeremiah, in chapters 7, 11, and 14, where God instructs Jeremiah not to pray for the nation. In John chapter 17, Jesus says He does not pray for the world. Jeremiah’s instruction is given to him so that God can directly deal with the nation of Israel and not frustrate Jeremiah due to their rebelliousness toward God. Jesus chooses not to pray for the world in His high priestly prayer for us because He is praying for our strength and trusting that we will have the power to be His witnesses to the whole world. I believe the Scripture tells us that sometimes God just wants to handle the problem; we have to trust that He will take care of it. He will draw the people back to Himself, and then He will encourage us to pray for them.
1 John 5:18
We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.
The Holy Spirit reminds us again that a Christ-follower is not going to continue in repetitive sin. I know this is hard in our culture, where we have allowed the false notion of repetitive grace without accountability. Yes, God is full of grace and mercy, but the continual, purposeful abuse of that grace will cause us to walk away from the Lord, and we may not even recognize it! But the promise in this verse is amazing: if you continue to walk away from sin and keep your heart aligned with His, God will protect you from the evil one and his schemes. What a gift from God!
1 John 5:19
We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.
In the whole world, only those who are “born again” are not subjected to the power of the evil one. We may suffer indirectly at times because of leaders in our lives who do not know God, but God is with us and will protect, strengthen, bless, and fill us every day as we choose to obey Him!
1 John 5:20,21
And we know 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, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. 21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols.
Jesus showed us what God is like, we read about it in the Gospels. Our prayers and reading His word draw us closer to him so we know Him.
As John shared in this sermon, “knowing” Him means
– living in his love and power
– walking in the freedom only He can give
– understanding that the enemy has been defeated in our lives
– we are His children because we have been born of the spirit…”born again”
This verse removes any doubt about who Jesus is: He is the Son and the true God. There is only one God, and He is revealed in three persons. They exist in complete harmony and unity, being one God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit!
Where are you today? Are you living a life that reflects Christ, living in his love, knowledge, hope, understanding and freedom. Do you know Him as your Lord and savior? If not today is your day!