1 John 5:13-21 English Standard Version (ESV) That You May Know 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. 14 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. 16 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. 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. 19 We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. 20 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. Here's the summation of the entire book, not condemnation, but assurance and confirmation of your salvation. John has been very "in your face" as he dealt with rank hypocrisy and apostasy in the Church. We are saved not because of how good we are, but because of how good He is and His finished work that we can put our trust in as we abide in Him completely, trusting Him to change us, make us more like Him and provide for every need. We can be confident that He hears our prayers and answers them according to His good and perfect will.
This idea of "a sin unto death" is something I freely admit that I don't completely understand, but here's my take away from this part of the passage. First, it doesn't seem like something I have to worry about as long as I don't live in sin and deal with my sin immediately. When I die is completely up to God and I hope that He is never put in a position where the best thing for me and the Church as a whole is for life to end because I'm doing something that is a cancer to me and the entire Body of Christ (the Church universal). Also I know from this passage that I'm not just supposed to pray for myself, but for others that they might be in a right relationship with God--this might apply to people that have never been saved or people that have been saved but are currently in a state of broken fellowship because of unconfessed sin or living in rebellion against God. The last thing that I think we get from this particular portion of the passage is to not pray for the dead because there is nothing more that can be done for them after death. Their punishment or blessings whatever they will be are fixed at that point and there is no more chance for confession, repentance or salvation at that point. See the parable of Lazarus and the rich man in Luke 16:19-31. There are then some short thoughts to wrap things up and make sure that we've caught the main points of the letter:
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1 John 5:6-12 English Standard Version (ESV) Testimony Concerning the Son of God 6 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. 10 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. I'll be honest that this passage doesn't make total sense to me yet, so I'm going to do something that I don't normally do and turn to some commentaries to help me here. The best commentary that I know of points back to the idea of purification from the Old Testament and that in some situations to be made ceremonially clean you would need to wash yourself on the outside with water, but this was insufficient to make you clean on the inside and a blood sacrifice would need to be made to cleanse you from you sin that was on the inside that could not be washed away by water. God wants us to be clean on the outside and on the inside, and Jesus was the only one that was both and this is why He is the only acceptable sacrifice for us. The Spirit of God gives testimony to the fact that we have been cleansed because we know that He lives inside of us once we have been born again and all things have been made new and our sins have been taken away (not just covered over like they were in the Old Testament system).
Why then should we allow men or ourselves to tell us that we are something other than what God has made us in Christ, and why would we listen to them when they try to make Jesus out to be anything other than who we know Him to be--our Lord and Savior. Jesus is the only one that can give us eternal life. We'll see this throughout the book of John and the other gospels as we go back to study them. 1 John 5:1-5 English Standard Version (ESV) Overcoming the World 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. 2 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? This is a pretty straightforward passage as John is repeating what has already been said many times--you cannot love the Father without also loving the Son, the Living Word of God, but we must also love the written Word of God (the Bible) and the commandments of God as we must love everything that comes from God if we say we love God. If we love His commandments, then we will keep and obey His commandments, and will not do so begrudgingly or simply out of duty or obligation, but will desire to do so.
We have been given he power through the Spirit to be victorious both in the this world and the world to come and this is accomplished by faith and the object of our faith is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. John 4:7-21 English Standard Version (ESV) God Is Love 7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. 19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. It should not surprise us that love is the characteristic that sets us apart from the world--not just any kind of love, but the agope love that comes only from God. The world may be able able to love friends, family and spouses, but only God is able to love with an everlasting, unconditional love that led Him to make a plan to die for us--in our place--while we were still enemies of the King and the kingdom (see verse 9 and John 3, especially John 3:16). We return once again to the doctrine of election, we love Him because He first loved us--God chose us, not because we are special, but because it is the way that He gets all the glory. It was His choice and His actions from beginning to end that have saved us. The death of Jesus satisfies justice and makes atonement for us and redeems us (buys us out of slavery to sin). All who have been saved are now temples of the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of God indwells us. We know that we are saved because of the communion that we have with the Spirit and the fact that the Spirit is at work in our lives convicting us of sin, equipping us for every good work, and sanctifying us to make us more like Jesus and as Jesus promised, the Spirit will lead us into all truth and remind us to always give glory to the Son and the Father. Since we have the Spirit of God living in us, it should make sense that we should begin to look like and act like God the Holy Spirit. The first fruit of the Spirit is love. (See Galatians 5:16-26). Christians who are known by their love are showing evidence of the Spirit of God living in them and being at work in their lives, but so-called "Christians" who are known by the first things listed in the Galatians 5 passage referenced above are showing evidence that they do not know God and that He is not at work in their lives and that they do not belong to Him. We do not need to be afraid of standing in judgment before God because we know that God has made us blameless in His sight through Christ, but we also no longer need to fear met, even if they unjustly try and convict us and kill us as they did Jesus. They may be given authority to torture us and kill us, but they cannot take away the love of God from us and God's covenant with us is an everlasting one that transcends even death itself since death was conquered by the cross and the resurrection. We should never be afraid of doing what is right, it is always right to do right. Once again, we are told that we cannot say we love God and hate each other as brothers and sisters in Christ. It now comes back clearer than ever before in the gospel of John and the book of 1 John, "Whoever loves God must also love his brother." If we are out of fellowship with other believers, we are out of fellowship with God and God commands us to restore and maintain our relationship with each other because we are a model to the entire world of what His love looks like. The world is looking for us to mess up and be just like them and love those who we want to love and prove that nothing has changed about us. However, if we demonstrate love towards those that are difficult to love because we have been loved by God and have His love in us and flowing through us, then we can do it to bring about glory to God, and doing so proves to us and to the world that we belong to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 1 John 4:1-6 English Standard Version (ESV) Test the Spirits 1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. 4 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 5 They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Again, the early Church is warned about false teachers and false prophets, but John this time focuses on the origins of those teachings.....the work of spirits that are not from God (demons and even the souls of unsaved men). There is only one Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, the 3rd person of the Trinity. Therefore it is impossible for someone to "have a message from God" and have a different message than God has already given, because God is the I AM--the every-present, never-changing God. Everything He is, He always has been and always will be, and He always has been and always will be everything we ever need. He cannot contradict Himself and therefore, we should be able to test the spirits, by seeing if they are consistent about what we know about the Holy Spirit.
John 16:12-15 English Standard Version (ESV) 12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you. We see from John 16:12-15 that the purpose of the Spirit is to reveal the words of Christ which were originally the words of the Father, to guide those who belong to the Son in all truth, to declare to us the things that are to come, and to, in all things glorify the Son. The Holy Spirit though part of the Trinity and co-equal with the Father and the Son does not glorify Himself. This is one major way we know the work of the Holy Spirit as opposed to the work of man and the devil. Every spirit which does not glorify Jesus the Son is not of God and is therefore in the spirit of the antichrist(against Christ). We do not need to fear the spirits that are at work in the world because Jesus has already conquered them and has made us "more than conquerors." (See Romans 8:31-39). Remember that Jesus taught that "by your fruits, you will know them" when He taught about false prophets. John is saying the same thing here, but he's saying that there are specific litmus tests you can use. Do they glorify the Son? Do they speak from a worldly perspective? Does the world love them and listen to them? Do they listen to sound, biblical teaching? As part of that, where do they get their source material? By this we can determine truth from error and are responsible to do so. Isn't it great that we serve a God who is the same yesterday, today and forever, and we don't need to wonder if He is always evolving and changing His mind from day to day? If we served such a God, maybe He would even be able to change His mind about choosing us from before the foundations of the world, but we can be secure in His choice and His plan that brings Him glory because our salvation and our victory through Jesus is not based on a God whose opinion changes like the weather. We can be sure that His character, His nature, and His Word are the same yesterday, today, and forever. Love One Another
11 For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 12 We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous. 13 Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. 15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. 16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 17 But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. 19 By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; 20 for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. 21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; 22 and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. 24 Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us. I'm not sure if you're familiar with the hymn, "They'll Know We Are Christians By Our Love" or not, but I'd imagine this particular passage along with a few others were inspiration for that song. If you are not familiar with the account of Cain and Abel, the first two sons of Adam and Eve, you can find it in Genesis 4--immediately after The Fall when sin entered the world in Genesis 3. I do want to pull out verse 7 from Genesis 4 as something for us to memorize from that account, " 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.” This is the Lord talking to Cain right before Cain kills Abel. God knew what was going to happen and He knew Cain's life would be ruined because of the sin that he was letting take over in his heart and mind, and God gave Cain a chance to repent. Why was Cain angry, because God had accepted his brother's worship as an acceptable, pleasing sacrifice, but had not accepted Cain's worship--because He came to God with an offering that cost him nothing and which was all about him. He came the wrong way and with the wrong heart. Back to today's text....the world is going to hate us, especially when they see God's presence and favor on us and when they see us worshiping God in all that we say and do and refusing to accept the idea of some part of our life being "secular" that belongs to us and another part being "sacred" which belongs to God--100% of you, all that you are and all that you do, belongs to God. Paul tells us "we have been bought with a price" and we are now slaves to God instead of slaves of sin. We however must not act like the world and we must show love to each other because God is love, and His love must live in and through us. We do not love the world or the things of the world, or the lies that it spreads, but if we love God, then we must love God's people, and John will continue to tell us that we must also love God's Word--specifically His commandments. How far does this love go? John tells us that we should be willing to give up our material possessions to help a brother in need and we should be willing to go as far as to die for one another, because Jesus died for us when we were still enemies of God, so this is the least we can do for those that have been brought near to Him and which He now chooses to call "friends of God." Our actions should speak as loud or louder than our words. We cannot simply claim to love someone and then refuse them help (the book of James will talk about this later and how faith without works is dead just like the tree that bears no fruit is a dead tree). The Holy Spirit will convict us of sin and let us know when we are not in a right relationship with God and we will know we are out of fellowship with Him and with other believers as well. This is one of our assurances that we are truly saved. Those who are of the world aren't convicted of their sin in the same way. They may be afraid of getting caught and the consequences if they are, but usually they don't think about how their actions hurt God and their ability to have a relationship with Him and experience His presence and blessings in our lives because the world doesn't have a relationship with God. Because of the relationship that we have with Him--He is a good Father, we know that everything we ask in His name (that is in accordance with His will and is good for us to have) is something that He desires to give us already and is a prayer that will be heard and answered--just maybe not in the way that we expect it to be answered or in the time we expect it to be answered. Last, but certainly not least is the fact that it is not our righteousness--our adherence to God's laws and commandments--that makes God love us or find us acceptable. That is because of the love that He has for His one and only Son, Jesus and when we by faith accept the blood of Jesus as the propitiation for our sins, repent form sin and allow Jesus to reign as King of Kings and Lord of Lords in our lives now and forevermore, God sees His Son when He looks at us, and every good work we do is because of Jesus and the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus told us that all we needed to do was abide in Him because, "apart form me, you can do nothing." Thanks be to God for the forgiveness of sin through the cross and the victory over death by way of the Resurrection, and for every spiritual blessing that we need to be equipped for every good work that He has prepared for us to do by the work the Holy Spirit. 1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
4 Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. 5 You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. 6 No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. 7 Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. 8 Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. 9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God. 10 By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. Let's not mistake John to be saying that everyone is called a child of God. Jesus already had that debate with the Pharisees in John 8:42-27 42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. 43 Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. 44 You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 45 But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. 46 Which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? 47 Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.” John tells us that if we are abiding in Him, then we should not be surprised when the world treats us the same way it treated Him. They did not recognize God the Father as the Father of Jesus and they will not recognize God as our Father and Christ as our brother either. Only those that abide in Christ and are clothed in His righteousness will be able to enter the presence of God. Remember in Matthew 5 where Jesus told the people that "unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven." So, again, John is not talking about us and our own righteousness here, but the finished work of Jesus where He takes our unrighteousness and gives us His righteousness in exchange. Everyone who has been born again must have a new nature, this is taught over and over again and is the key principle that Jesus is trying to teach Nicodemus in John 3:3-7 and in the rest of the chapter as well. 3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ Everyone who says they have received a new life in Christ and claims that they have been changed and have repented and continues to practice sin in such a way where it is obvious to everyone that there has been no change in identity, they are only lying to themselves. It's a broken analogy because God makes us something completely new and different, but you know when the caterpillar has died and gone through metamorphosis and changed into a butterfly. Everything about it is made new, even its appetites are different as it no longer desires to eat leaves but drinks the sweet nectar from the flowers. It is impossible for a caterpillar to go through that change and then go back to being a caterpillar again. In the same way it is impossible for someone to be born again and continue to live in sin and act like the world. You are either of the kingdom of light or the kingdom of darkness.....you are a child of God or a child of the devil. Once your citizenship and identity changes, there is no going back and everything about you is supposed to change, most notably the way that we love God and love each other. |
Daniel WestfallI will mostly use this space for recording my "journal" from my daily devotions as I hope to encourage others to read the Bible along with me and to leave a legacy for others. Archives
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