Meditation on 1 John 5
Aug. 3, 2014
***
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the
Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the parent loves the
child. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God
and obey his commandments. For the love of God is this, that we obey his
commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, for whatever is
born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the
world, our faith. Who is it that conquers the world but the one who
believes that Jesus is the Son of God? This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not
with the water only but with the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one
that testifies, for the Spirit is the truth. There are three that
testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood, and these three
agree. If we receive human testimony, the testimony of God is greater; for
this is the testimony of God that he has testified to his Son. Those who
believe in the Son of God have the testimony in their hearts. Those who do not
believe in God have made him a liar by not believing in the testimony that
God has given concerning his Son. And this is the testimony: God gave us
eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life;
whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.
I
write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that
you may know that you have eternal life. And this is the boldness we have in him,
that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know
that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have obtained the requests
made of him. If you see your brother or sister committing what is not
a mortal sin, you will ask, and God will give life to such a one—to those
whose sin is not mortal. There is sin that is mortal; I do not say that you
should pray about that. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that is
not mortal.
We know that those who are born of God
do not sin, but the one who was born of God protects them, and the evil one
does not touch them. We know that we are God’s children, and that the whole
world lies under the power of the evil one. 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. Little children, keep yourselves from idols.
***
Our study of 1 John this summer has been an opportunity for us
to slow down and read through an entire book of the Bible, chapter by chapter,
verse-by-verse. In our careful reading, we demonstrate our faith that the Bible
isn’t just a book—that Scripture is truly the Word of God that guides and feeds
God’s children in every time and place, just as Christ taught us.
In
Matthew 4, when Jesus, at the beginning of his ministry is fasting for 40 days
in the wilderness, the devil comes to tempt him. But Jesus resists temptation
by quoting scripture. “It is written,” he says, “‘One does not live by bread
alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
We read the final
chapter of 1 John today just as we have read the first 4 chapters—that we may
listen for God’s voice, grow in faith, experience God’s presence and become
more like His Son.
1 John is, more
than anything, a call to a wounded and divided church to love—imitating the
perfect model—Jesus Christ. “And we know love by this,” says John in 3:16,
“that he laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for one
another.” God’s love continues to be revealed and perfected among us, says
4:17, if we love one another.
Today, in chapter 5, the discussion moves
from love to faith. While we hear in
4:7 that “everyone who loves is born of God and knows God,” we read in 5:1 that
love alone is not sufficient evidence that one is “born of God.” The children of God must also believe that Jesus is the Christ! Everything
in the Christian life flows from our faith,
which leads us to love God and obey his commandments. For his commandments,
John says in 5:3, “are not burdensome, for the one who is “born of God”— the
one who both believes and loves.
But let us remember the purpose of John’s
writing—to reassure his flock that God is still abiding with them and they are
still abiding with Him, though they have rejected the errors of the
“antichrists”—the “false prophets” that are “from the world,” have “gone out
into the world,” and are not “born of God.” The “antichrists” have, by this
time, left the church. But the wounds are still fresh; they stirred strife,
confusion, and fear when they argued that Christ was not a human being! John
describes the conflict within the church as a spiritual battle between the
children of God and “the world” that opposes Christ.
“Little children,” he comforts in 4:4,
“You are from God, and have conquered them; for the one who is in you is
greater than the one who is in the world.” And today in 5:4-5, we read, “And this is the victory that conquers the
world, our faith. Who is that
conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”
John
doesn’t hesitate to attack the erroneous beliefs of the “antichrists.” In 5:6,
when he writes, “This is the one who
came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with the water only but with the
water and the blood,” he seems to be defending his beliefs from those who say
that Christ came “with the water only.” So what does this mean?
Scholars think that when John says “not
the water only,” he is referring to Jesus’ baptism. The “antichrists” may have
believed like some of Jesus’ opponents that when the Spirit came down to rest
on him at his baptism, the human Jesus became the divine Christ from that point
on. And when John speaks of “blood,” he is referring to Christ’s death. John
believes that God accomplished our forgiveness for us through the crucifixion.
In 2:2 and 4:10, John says Christ is the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the
world. But the “antichrists” do not recognize Christ’s death as significant; it
is not something God used for His purposes. They may even deny Christ’s death, since
he may have only seemed to be human, as
some 2nd century groups believed.
John points to the one way—the only
way—to salvation—and that is belief in Jesus the Christ—God come to us in flesh and blood. “And this is the
testimony,” he says in 5:11 and 12. “God gave us eternal life, and this life is
in his Son. Whoever has the Son has
life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.”
With 1 John’s emphasis on Christ’s
humanity, I can’t help but wonder if this is evidence the writer is truly John,
one of the 12 original disciples. After all, how could anyone who knew Christ
as intimately as one of his disciples ever deny that he was a human being? How
could anyone have lived and ministered with Christ and witnessed the horror of
the cross and not be moved by the shedding of his innocent blood for a world
that did not know him, as the gospel of John tells us?
But then, I also struggle with what is
missing from 1 John, if John the disciple is truly the author. Why doesn’t he include
Christ’s resurrection appearances and the sending of His Spirit at Pentecost as
part of his testimony? And why doesn’t John ever speak of his personal
experiences with Jesus—as Paul does when he describes more than once his
meeting of the risen Lord on the road to Damascus?
***
So here we are—at the end of 1 John—and I still
have questions. And I have to be honest with you. I don’t like the way it ends!
At the last verse of 1 John, where you would expect some kind of summary
statement or a greeting or blessing that you would normally see at the close of
a letter, we read, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.” And nothing
about love—which is the main theme of 1 John!
Actually, the entire section from verse
14 on is very confusing, especially when he discusses praying for our brother
or sister who is sinning. In 5:17, we read, “All wrongdoing is sin, but there
is sin that is not mortal” or a “sin that leads to death,” as the New
International Version translates. What is he talking about now?
One
theory is this. Some scholars believe that the last chapter of the gospel of
John—chapter 21—may have been added later (David Rensberger, The Epistles of John, p. 95); and since
1 John 5:13 so closely resembles the end of the 20th chapter of
John’s gospel, it seems possible that this verse was the original ending of 1
John—and all the rest was a later addition. 1 John 5:13 says, “I write these
things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know
that you have eternal life.” And John 20:31 says, “but
these are written so that you may believe
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may
have life in his name.”
But as much as I would like to, most scholars
don’t discount the ending of 1 John! They choose to struggle with it a little
more. For the “sin that leads to death,” some point to Hebrews 6:4-8 and
10:26-30 that talks about a sin that would lead to death, and that is the
rejection of Christianity after one has embraced it. This actually could fit
the situation of the “antichrists” in John’s flock that stir up conflict and
strife—and then leave the church.
And as for the strange, final
sentence in 1 John—“little children, keep yourselves from idols,” scholars ask
us to consider the definition of an idol. Idols in the Early Church were images
or statues of other gods used in temples or shrines that had come to be
identified as the gods themselves (Rensberger, 102). Paul in 1 Thess. 1:9
describes Gentile followers of Christ as those who had “turned to God from
idols to serve a living and true God.” For John, those who worshiped idols may
very well have been the “antichrists” that denied the one true God, who
revealed His love through the atoning sacrifice of His Son.
Seen in this light, John could
be reassuring his “little children,” once again, to stay clear of the
“antichrists”—those who left the church and “did not belong to us” or else they
would have remained with us!
Friends, there is only one way to salvation! And
you know the way!
Believe and love! For this is the testimony: God gave us eternal
life, and this life is in His Son! And this is the victory that
conquers the world, our faith! For who is it that conquers the world but the
one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
Let us pray.
Holy God, thank you for
your Spirit that opens our hearts and minds to hear and understand your Word. Help
us now to obey. Thank you for Jesus Christ, God come to us in the flesh, whose
death is the atoning sacrifice for all sin. Thank you for your gift of faith,
that gives us victory in our struggle against the power of evil in the world! Our
faith in Jesus Christ is the only way to eternal life with you. Lord, help us
to live as your Beloved Children without fear or anxiety for any of our
tomorrows. Draw us nearer to you, reassuring us that your grace, mercy and love
allow us to approach you in prayer with all boldness. Lead us to keep your
commandments, which are not burdensome as we seek to be pleasing to you. Help
us to believe and love one another, as you call us to do! In Christ we pray. Amen
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