1 John 5 Devotional

 1 John 5 Devotional
by Pastor Mark Hudson

First John is a helpful letter due to the if/then statements.  John will often say if … then.  He gives us categories to think through if a person is a believer.  If a person is an unbeliever and so on.  Notice the many ways John helps us with his many if/then statements.  Looking at the entire boo, one outline is found in Stephen S Smalley’s commentary in the Word series:

I           Preface: the Word of Life                                                       1:1-4

  1. Live in the Light                                                 1:5-2:29
  2. God is Light                               1:5-7
  3. First condition for living in the light: renounce sin 1:8-2:2
  4. Second condition: be obedient       2:3-11
  5. Third condition: reject worldliness       2:12-17
  6. Fourth condition: keep the faith       2:18-29

III.       Live as Children of God                                                         3:1-5:13

  1. God is Father       3:1-3
  2. First condition for living as God’s children;

Renounce sin                                                              3:4-9

  1. Second condition: be obedient       3:10-24
  2. Third condition: reject worldliness       4:1-6
  3. Fourth condition: be loving       4:7-5:4
  4. Fifth condition: keep the faith       5:5-13
  5. Conclusion: Christian Confidence             5:14-21

Looking at our outline, we see for this chapter the conditions required to live as children of God.  In chapter 5, the conditions are be loving (4:7-5:4) and keep the faith (5:5-13).  Then Christian confidence in 5:14-21).   For john one of the easiest ways to tell if a person is a believer is if they love God and love others.  Which sounds Biblical yet often hard to obey.  “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey His commandments.”  How gloriously clear and simple.  We have a duty to love God and others.  We were made to love.  Love is a God-like thing to do.  It is as freeing as it is simple and healthy.

Then in verses 5-13, we are told to live as children of God by keeping the faith.  Granted some of these verses are not easy to understand so we proceed with caution as we seek for clarity.  One of the sections that is not easy to understand is I John 5:6 where John says, “This is the one who came by water and blood.” Here are some options for understanding this phrase, “by water and blood.”

  1. By water refers His baptism at the beginning of His ministry and His death at the end of His ministry.  The expression by water found in John 1:26, 31,33 each times refers to the baptism of John.
  2. Jesus baptizes with the spirit at the same time he baptizes with water.
  3. By water refers to natural birth so that water refers to either amniotic fluid or a male’s semen.
  4. This phrase refers to by water and by blood must be taken together.  There was a view that stated the human body is made of water and blood.
  5. Finally, by water and blood refers to baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

We can rule out number 5 since John is dealing with a Christological heresy not discussing the sacraments. Collin G Kruse in the Pillar N. T. commentary prefers number 2.  In his view, the blood refers to Christ’s death and that is something Jesus did (not done to Him).  I John 3:16 states, “He laid down his life for us.”  So, essentially, this merges #1 and #2.

Then in verse 7, John points to three witnesses: the Spirit, the water and the blood.  “These three are in agreement” John writes.  Normally in the Greek, these three nouns are all neuter nouns, but here they are masculine (some languages, like Greek, have masculine, feminine and neuter nouns).  This could reflect a personal dimension to these nouns.  It may be, that by being consistent, we discover our clue.  The water and the blood refers to the same things: baptism of Jesus or Jesus’ baptizing ministry and the blood of His atoning work on the cross.

John uses simple, clear, and candid speech. John is clear as He gives guidelines for who is in the kingdom of heaven and who isn’t.  For those of you who have had or have cancer, you want your doctor to tell you the truth.  This is what John is doing, “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.”  Then John writes, “Whoever has the Son has life, whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.”   We can apply these statements to people in the first century in Asia Minor or the 21st century in South America.

One last tricky verse or verses.  In 5:16-17, Johns seems to be saying there is one sin or a sin that leads to death and we should not pray for “that.”  Many have attempted to identify a sin that cannot be forgiven.  At times, murder, idolatry, apostasy, even adultery were suggested as sins that could not be forgiven.  Others point to the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit that Mark 3:28-30 refers to.  Yet, this topic of blasphemy is never mentioned in I John.

John is addressing those who claimed to be believers but then repented of their initial repentance.  This may mean these people cannot repent since they think they know better.  This could also mean that once they have been a part of the church, listened, worshipped, maybe professed faith and then turn away, they will not come back.

So is it wrong to pray for people you think fit this description?  Of course not.  We do not know why people do what they do.  But not praying for people is not as strange as it sounds.  Read Jeremiah 7:16-18; 11:14; 14:11.  Jesus also did not pray for the world in John 17:9.  There is a time to keep silence, and a time to speak (Eccl. 3:7) so maybe there is a time to pray and a time not to pray.

Dear heavenly Father, You are our true Father who loves us eternally and Who also tells us about our salvation so we can know if we are going to heaven.  Thank you for Your Word that at times is relatively easy to understand and at other times makes us wonder if we will ever fathom the depths of Your word.   As we read, help us to take Your warnings to heart to be vigilant against the deceitfulness of  sin.  But may we also be encouraged to rest in our salvation provided for us.  May Your grace and mercy be as new to us as each new day greets us.  Strengthen Your church, keep us from public and scandalous sin, and draw and call those to Yourself who at present do not know and love You.  We pray this for the eternal glory of King Jesus.  Amen.