1 John - Chapter 5

1 John - Chapter 5

A True Believer

Throughout all previous four chapters of 1st John, the Apostle John has been very deliberate in teaching that to be a true believer in Jesus, one must believe:

1. That Jesus is the Son of God, yet He is God
2. That He came in the flesh to die - shedding His blood for the sins of the world
3. That God raised Jesus from the dead
4. That Jesus is up in heaven with, and as God, interceding for His body
5. And that Jesus is coming very soon to gather His body unto Himself for all eternity. 

In the last chapter, the apostle expanded his teaching by adding that one who truly believes the truth in Jesus, confessing it for his own, the love of God permeates his spirit, and out of that love flows love for the brothers and sisters in the Lord.  In addition, true believers have a yearning to win unbelievers to Jesus so they too can come into the faith and experience the same kind of love that goes on within those who love Christ. 

The Apostle John begins this last chapter in the Book of 1 John with these same thoughts in mind:

1. Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him. 

As we begin chapter 5, the apostle continues on with this same message - that you believe that Jesus is the Christ...

• To believe that Jesus is the Christ, one must believe who Jesus is, what He has done for us - meaning the five points as listed in the introduction of this chapter.  That person is God's child, and as such, the automatic affect of that sincere belief will be a love connection for other brothers and sisters in the Lord similar to the nuclear family unit in which God created. 

The Family Unit

God created the nuclear family unit to run very much like the family of God.  The father loves, cares, and protects His wife, offering all that he has to her.  His wife, in return, loves, cares, and respects her husband, giving herself totally over to him.  The love between the two is a very strong bond.  Out of that love comes children who needs to be loved, cared for, nurtured and disciplined.   The hope then is that each child will grow to emulate his or her parents, carrying the same morals, values, and spirituality.  The children are taught to love, respect, and be obedient to the parents as well as to love and respect one another.  Each child, however, is unique in themselves, not all alike in gifts and talents.  They each bring whatever gifts and talents God created them with to the family unit to function as God designed for the family to run smoothly.  This is meant to bring diverse unity as each child develops to become the person God created them to become.  The morals, values, and spirituality of each child remains intact because they have been taught by loving parents who recognize each child's own individuality, yet disciplines them to emulate the same morals, values, and faith of their parents. 

The problem comes when one of the children within the family unit becomes rebellious and does not want to be obedient to the rules set downs by the parents.  This bring bickering and fighting amongst themselves.  That carnal (fleshly) behavior is rebellion against God and their parents. 

This kind of behavior divides and often destroys the family unit because the rebellious child or even children refuse to conform to the parents discipline, thus bringing on disfunctional future parents into the equation.

Carnality is Rebellion Against God

The Scriptures often refers to believers in Christ as children or sons of God, or even the bride or body of Christ.  If any of us choose (and it is a choice) to live a carnal life, meaning rebellion toward the things of God, we are no different than a rebellious child in the family unit.  That's why God says that rebellion toward the things of God is as the sin of witchcraft.  Totally demonic (I Samuel 15:22-23).  It is sometimes said that the best thing a father can do for his children is to love his wife and their mother, just as God love us unconditionally.  Even so, the first way for a child of God to love his brothers and sisters in Christ is to love God and to obey Him.  It all works together.

Sadly, even some Christians will look at Christians from other denominations or churches as "those" believers, and purposes to avoid them.  Somehow, we think we have all the answers in God, which none of us do.  Having said that, we shouldn't limit our fellowship to our own church or theological persuasion.  We are all the body of Christ - the universal Church.  We may be diverse in our gifts and talents and even doctrinal persuasions, but we do not want to be divisive when God wants us to be united together.  Our commonality is our salvation in Jesus Christ as we have learned in our last lesson when we compared cults with true Christianity.  When we see believers fight amongst themselves, we know it is not of God.  God is our Father, and surely He gets disgusted when He sees His children fight in a way that does not honor Him. 

Obedience Builds Our Faith

² By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. ³ For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. 

Just as much as our love for the people of God reflects our love for God, so our obedience to God is a demonstration of love to other believers and to the world as well.  God tells us that what He commands us to do is not burdensome.  In fact, He tells us that no temptation that we could ever concur would be too hard for us to bear (I Cor 10:13).

⁴ For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. ⁵ Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

Born-again believers (born of God) have already overcome the world because we have God living within us through the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit.  One of the functions of the Holy Spirit is to protect and guide us into all truth.  In addition, the Word of God also tells us in Psalm 91:11 that God dispatches His angels to watch over us to guard us in all our ways, even if we stumble from time to time.  All this to say is that God protects us from within and outside of ourselves.  Our faith in God's protection sustains us through all situations.  We are literally overcomers.

I John 5:4  For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world.
And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.

God’s Witnesses

⁶ This is He who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not only by water, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth. ⁷ For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one. ⁸ And there are three that bear witness on earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree as one.

The Apostle John is stressing here that God's heavenly witnesses are far more superior to speak forth Truth than man's human wisdom.  God's witnesses began in heaven and then was transferred to earth. through His Son.

Jesus Christ is He who came by water and the blood.  While there is various denominational discussions on the details of what is the water and blood, in its simplest of terms, it speaks of Jesus' humanity.  He first came down from heaven from the Father by the water in the womb, and His earthly life stopped when He died by shedding His blood on the cross.  So we have "He came by water and the blood."  Even in Jesus' humanity, He was still part of the Godhead, and the Holy Spirit, who is truth, bore witness of Who He is.  Other good scholars will say that the water stood for His baptism, which would also be correct, and the blood meaning His shed blood on the cross.  This is the Holy Spirit's witness of Jesus upon the earth.

In heaven there are also three witnesses:  God the Father, the Word (John 1:14) meaning God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit - the Holy Trinity, the Three in One.  So then, the witness of Jesus upon the earth and the Godhead in heaven all bear witness of the same thing.  This is the strongest witness that man could ever receive.  This far outweighs any human wisdom.

The Witness of Men

⁹ If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for this is the witness of God which He has testified of His Son. ¹⁰ He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; he who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son. 

The witness of men are filled with lies and lacking in truth.  This earthly kind of temporal witness or testimony certainly is not greater than the witness of God because God's witness is Truth and is eternal.  For God to reveal His Truth to mankind, He sent His Son Jesus to become man.  God then testified of Himself through His Son Jesus to reveal Himself to mankind.  

God's Witness Offers Eternal Life

¹¹ And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. ¹² He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. ¹³ These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.

One then must believe in Jesus and all that He is and Has done in order to have eternal life - for God is Truth.  The apostles of Jesus then wrote down the words of Jesus through the Gospels and the epistles.  And then, Jesus then gave His believers the indwelling Holy Spirit to bring forth Truth.  We then, as believers have the written word of the Lord and the spoken word of the Holy Spirit that lies within to confirm Truth.  In that, we can rejoice. 

Confidence in Prayer

¹⁴ Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. ¹⁵ And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.

This is one of my favorite verses in the Bible because God is telling us that we can have confidence when we come before Him in prayer when we ask for anything that lines up according to His Word, which is His will.   Here is God's promise:  If we ask for anything that can be supported by God's Word, He then hears us.  That means that if we ask for anything that is outside of His will - which cannot be supported by His Word, He does not even hear us.  That certainly tells us that we must be familiar with the promises in God's Word so we can boldly and confidently come before God.  When we do, we have God's promise that He not only hears us, He grants us the petitions we have asked of Him.  That encourages us even more to get to know the hundreds of promises God has given to His people.  How comforting is that?

A sin that does not leads to death

¹⁶ If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death.  

First of all, we need to ask ourselves, according to the Bible, what is sin?  As we read in I John, chapter 3, "sin is the transgression or breaking of God's law" (I John 3:4).  Therefore, anyone, whether a child of God or an unbeliever who commits sin breaks God's law.  Romans 6:23 tells us that the wages of sin is death, so how can there be a sin that does not lead to death and a sin that does lead to death? 

The sin that does not lead to death refers to believer who have God’s Spirit dwelling in them and desire to repent whenever they realize they have sinned. Their major focus is to please God in every aspect of their lives. From time to time they stumble and sin, but quickly acknowledge their transgressions and humbly ask God for forgiveness.  As such, when they repent, they are forgiven.  If these believers continue to grow in the Lord until the end, they will inherit the promises of eternal life with God.  If, however, the person does not repent, he or she is on the slippery slope toward the penalty of death until they repent.

The Carnal believer

It is possible for a believer who has received the indwelling Holy Spirit to deliberately and willfully decided to live in the ways of the world.  The Bible calls this carnality or fleshly living.  For whatever reason they choose, it generally begins small with wanting to sin in a particular area and then grows downward from there. 

Gal 6:1 tells us that if a believer is overtaken in any sin, we who are more spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted.  Christians are encouraged to help and pray for believers who are stumbling, but we must recognize that not even God, who is all merciful, will take away a person’s freedom to choose how he or she will live.  We can be a source of encouragement or even warning, and of course we can pray for them.  We must always remember, however, that sin can feel good for the moment, so we need to guard ourselves so we don't get pulled into the very sin of the believer whom we are trying to help.

The sin that leads to death

There is sin leading to death. I do not say that he should pray about that. ¹⁷ All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to death.

For those believers who refuse to repent, the sin they commit grows to become THE SIN that leads to death.  It is very sad that these carnal backslidden Christians often willfully make a conscious decision to reject God and His ways over and over.  If a carnal Christian allow him or herselves to keep flirting with temptation, each temptation of that sin will becomes easier and easier.  Other sins generally attach themselves to that sin as well.  Through a process of time, that person will stubbornly refuse to even acknowledge God and eventually will be unable to repent or feel remorse or sorrow for the sins he or she committed.  That is precisely that which is the sin which leads to death.  Their heart becomes so hardened to where that former believer rejects Jesus by pushing the Holy Spirit out of his or her life; thus committing the unpardonable sin - the blaspheme of the Holy Spirit.  It wasn't that the Holy Spirit left them, they pushed the Holy Spirit out.  They then are worse off than an unbeliever because they can never be able to come back to Christ.   Their heart is so hardened towards God.  They will be condemned to the Eternal Lake of Fire for all eternity. 

Hebrews 6:4-6 “For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift,
and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit … if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance,
since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to open shame.”

While the Bible tells us never to judge a person, the Bible also tells us we can see the life of a person by the fruit displayed in his or her life.  In most cases, we will not know if a stumbling brother or sister has reached the hardened, unrepentant state or not.   Only God knows.  He is the only One who knows their heart.  He knows all Truth and is the only One who knows whether their spiritual condition has reached the point of their sin being unto death. 

So then, how do we pray for a person who was a believer and no longer wants anything to do with God?  If they continually refuse any godly correction, I personally treat them like a rebellious child whose parents are unable to reach their child and just let the child go to fall on their own.  I turn them over to God, trusting that God is working behind the scenes and that there will be a day when they will come to their senses.  When or if that day comes, then the prayers for their repentance unto salvation will continue. 

The Unpardonable Sin

The sin called the blasphame of the Holy Spirit - the unpardonable sin - brings eternal death.  Because that person did not repent, certain judgment awaits them.

Hebrews 10:26-29 “For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment...

Thus, these former believers have become unbelievers committing the blaspheme of the Holy Spirit, pushing the Holy Spirit out of their life, and can never return to Christ.  They are doomed to eternal damnation.  While we as believers are grieved over someone rejecting Christ, the person themselves, carries no remorse.

Mark 3:28-29  Assuredly, I say to you, all sin will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they may utter; but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is subject to eternal condemnation.

Again, we cannot judge a person on whether they have committed the blaspheme of the Holy Spirit.  We are not their judge, and only God knows their heart.   

Unbelievers

Then, of course, there are unbelievers who willfully, and even unconsciously sins continuously, giving no thought of repentance toward the God they have already rejected.  Again, God is the knower of all truth and knows whether they will ever repent and accept the lordship of Jesus Christ.  As we are led, we continue to pray for them to repent and come to Christ.  If, however, they never accept Christ, they will stand before God..but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account” (Hebrews 4:13).  

Rejecting the false

¹⁸ We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him.

We know that we all sin from time to time.  I John 1:8 tells us that if we say we have no sin, we make ourselves to be a liar. Here we read that whoever is born of God does not sin.  Reading other versions help us understand this scripture a little more accurately.  Many other versions give more of a correct rendering of this verse.  It reads who is born of God does not PRACTICE or CONTINUE in sin.  

^{When we do not give in to the practice of sin, we first of all avoid harm to our life, and second, we know that the Lord is watching over us because our hearts are right with Him.}

¹⁹ We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.

We have learned that to continue in sin is very dangerous for us spiritually and could possibly lead to the unpardonable sin.

²⁰ And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.

As a repeat of verses 6-8 with God's witnesses from heaven and upon the earth, Jesus is the one Who came to give us an understanding of our God, to know the Jesus is the Christ, and He IS God - who gives eternal life to all who would believe in Him.

²¹ Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.

As a footnote, yet one of importance to believers living in an idolatrous society - stay away from idols.  That is the 1st and most important commandment given by God.