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John tells us genuine believers will confess that Jesus is the Christ — the Jesus who was confirmed by three witnesses: “water”, “blood” and “the Spirit.”
Review
1 John 1-3 – God is light and in Him there is no darkness. Therefore His children, true believers will:
- know they are sinful
- love things of God and not things of the world
- confess that Jesus is the Christ
- pursue a lifestyle of rightness and holiness
- love with a self-sacrificing love
1 John 4: Exhortation: “Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God.” Those from God will: love with the love exemplified by God sacrificing His Son and confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
Passage
4:20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also. – 1 John 4:20-23 NASB
- 1 John 4:20-23 summarize chapter 4 by repeating his original exhortation: If we are children of God, then we will seek to be like Him and love like He loves.
- Up to this point, John raised the question: who will inherit eternal life? He answered, the children of God will inherit eternal life.
- Here he explains more fully who are the children of God; and he answers, those who love their brothers/sister in Christ.
- Those who do not love their brothers/sisters in Christ — who are tangible manifestations of God’s values and priorities — do not love God.
- This raises the question: who is my brother/sister? 1 John 5;1-5 answers that question.
5:1Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him. 2By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments. 3For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome. 4For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world–our faith. 5Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? – 1 John 5:1-6 NASB
- 1 John 4:2-23 – To love the Father (whom we have not seen) involves loving His children (whom we can see).
- 1 John 5:1-5 – Anyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ, the promised Messiah, and trusts him for salvation is one of God’s children.
- John is NOT saying love is limited to the family of God. Rather, he’s saying it must at least include the family of God.
- We know we are loving our brothers when our actions arise out of desire to do the right thing.
- How do you overcome the world? With faith.
6This is the One who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ; not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood. It is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. 7For there are three that testify: 8the Spirit and the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement. 9If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater; for the testimony of God is this, that He has testified concerning His Son. 10The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself; the one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given concerning His Son. 11And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. 12He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. – 1 John 5:6-12 NASB
- 1 John 5:1-5 explains who are believers: those who believe Jesus is the Christ. That raises the question: Jesus who? 1 John 5:6-12 answer that question.
- “Water” represents baptism and points to the humanity of Jesus. “Blood” represents his death on the cross.
- Jesus’s death and resurrection is what separates Christianity from all other religions.
- The resurrection moves the question “is Christianity valid” out of the realm of philosophy and theology and into the realm of history.
- Three independent testimonies bear witness to the identify of Jesus as the Christ: 1) the voice of God declaring him to be God’s Son at his baptism; 2) His death on the cross as predicted in Scripture, and 3) the Spirit of God at work in our lives giving us the eyes to see the truth.
- See John 1:28-34; Matthew 3:13-17; John 12:20-33
- There are only 3 recorded incidents of a voice from heaven: 1) at Jesus’ baptism; 2) at the mount of transfiguration and 3) in John 12 referring to the crucifixion.
- In 1John 1:1-4, John claimed he was a witness to the “word of life” and he was bearing witness and proclaiming the way to eternal life. He’s back to that point. If you want eternal life, the way to gain it is through trusting his Son; and God himself has told us that Jesus of Nazareth is His son.
For more detail and explanation, please listen to the podcast.
Next: 11 1 John 5:13-21 Confidence in the Gospel
Previous: 09 1 John 4:7-19 Perfect Love
Series: 1 John: Discerning the True Gospel
Study: 1 John Resources
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