I John 5

As I wrap up I John by going through it's 21 verses, the first question I am confronted with is the last question I left with from 4, what do I believe about Jesus? Is He truly the Savior of the world? If the answer is yes, then I am told that I am a child of God. Why does this question keep coming up? What we believe about Jesus, who He is, what He did, and continues to do, is foundational to the whole reason why He had to come in the way He did.

When we get to verse 3 we see that loving God and keeping His commandments are tied together. In our fallen nature we know that following God, obeying Him, and loving Him are hard. We are told that in our flesh we do the the things we should not do, and do not want to do, but yet we still do it. Romans 7 makes it clear we have a war going on between our flesh and our spirit and sometimes the flesh wins. When this happens our call from our Lord is to repent. To call our sin as it really is, sin and to seek forgiveness and to turn away from it and toward Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith. This goes along well with verse 4 which talks about overcoming the world. In Christ we can overcome even when we fall. The important truth to remember is that we get back up again and do not quit, and do not turn back. By this we show the world that Jesus is real and that we would follow Him anywhere and everywhere even being subject to our own humbling to do it.

Moving forward to verse 6 gives us a beautiful picture of who Jesus is. He came by water and blood. What does this mean? All through scripture water is representative of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is who overshadowed Mary in order for her to conceive in the first place. The Holy Spirit descended on Jesus like a dove when He was baptized and The Father spoke from heaven. The Holy Spirit is who indwells followers of Christ and bears witness and speaks truth to us when we are prone to listen to lies from the enemy. He came by blood in a couple of ways. First He was born physically like all men and women are with the exception of Adam and Eve. This is doubly true since His earthly mother was a virgin. In addition to this he came as the Passover lamb. He poured out His blood as a sacrifice to redeem that which was lost. Like the Passover lamb in the Old Testament who had its blood shed to cover the doorways of the Hebrews in Egypt so that the angel of death would pass over them, He was a member of the family before being killed by those that were supposed to love and care for Him. This is what gave safety to us all.

Verses 7-8 talk about witnesses. Three witnesses are declared, which is important. In a court of law 2 witnesses who were in absolute agreement were necessary to be considered credible. In this instance 3 witnesses of impeccable character are given so that we can know that their witness is accurate. In addition to this one of those witnesses, The Spirit, lives in followers of Christ. That witness increases the witnesses of the truth exponentially and shows a far greater witness than the world has ever seen to the truth of Jesus and who He is. What is this witness for? To declare that Jesus is real, He is the Savior, the Son, and in Him is life. That life is eternal. Anyone who has not received Jesus does not have life.

Verse 14 moves us to prayer. In Christ, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, we can talk to our Father and ask in Jesus name and it will be given to us. This is not a prosperity message, but one that recognizes that we want what God wants and will ask according to His character, not our selfish desires. In this we can be confident that He both hears us and will answer.  In addition, this section of verses tells us how important it is to watch out for one another. We do this by not ignoring each other's sins. If we see a fellow brother or sister sinning, we are to go to them and talk to them, in love, about it with the desire to see them restored to the Lord. We also see here that there is a sin leading to death, but we are not told what that is.

Our final section of verses, 18-21, tells us to reject what is false because we know the truth. Once again we see a passage that has caused many believers to despair because of its seeming perfection. This isn't about being perfect after we have received Jesus. None but Jesus has been perfect, for the entirety of their lives, who has walked this earth. What we are to do is to confess our sins, repent, or turn away from those sins and turn back to Jesus and walk in His way. It is an unfortunate truth that most of us have to do this many times a day. The key is that we feel that conviction of sin when we do it and we want to be right with God. This is how we know that we belong to Him and not to the devil who is the enemy.

Thought Questions

1. When you sin, do you feel that sense that you have done something wrong and you need to go to the Lord and ask for forgiveness? Think about the last time you sinned. What went through your mind to do when it happened?
2. How much time in a week do you spend in the Word of God? Are you washing your heart and mind in the water of the word so that your mind is being renewed? If not, what do you need to do to correct this so that you are not stumbling more each day?
3. What kind of a witness do you say you are for Jesus? What does your life actually show about that witness? If there are things that are hindering you from being a true witness, what are they and are you willing to purge them from your life? Keep in mind these things will not be people like husbands and children. 
4. When you see family and friends around you doing something sinful, what is your response to it? Do you care enough to speak up in love and help them? How can you show your love by stepping up to the plate and helping them turn away from those things that are holding them back from pursuing a wonderful relationship with Jesus?
5. What false teaching are you listening to or trapped by that need to be sifted through and rejected? How can you know what is false and what is true? When you sin, do you feel that sense of conviction by it, or is your heart hard?