Our Savior Lutheran Church

Open It

1. What makes a person’s testimony seem credible or incredible?

2. How do you demonstrate love for your parents?

3. What do you find burdensome or a drag to do?

Explore It

John concluded his discussion of the three tests (moral, social, and doctrinal) by affirming that it is important for the true believer to demonstrate all three signs of the presence of authentic Christianity (right actions, love, and belief). He showed how the three tests are closely related and intricately interwoven into an essential unity. All three are present in a true believer, and none can be missing in an authentic Christian.

4. Who is born of God? (5:1)

John began with a universal principle relating to the doctrinal test of belief: “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God” (5:1). The substance of the belief is acceptance that Jesus the man is Christ the divine Son who became incarnate. The tenses of the verbs are important as well. “Believes” is present tense, signifying a present and ongoing belief. “Is born” is perfect tense, meaning “has been born in the past and the results remain.” Ongoing belief is the result of the new birth – not the cause of it.

5. What can be said about the person who loves the Father? (5:1)

This new birth that brings about our believing also involves our loving. To be given birth by God naturally leads to loving God. “Everyone who loves the father loves his child as well” (v.1b). John applied a social proverb to the Christian family. Love for a parent carries with it love for the parent’s children as well. Anyone who loves God must also love God’s children.

6. How can a person know if he or she loves God’s people? (5:2)

Verse 2 shows the relationship between love for others and love for God as well as obedience to God. Authentic love for others is grounded in love for and obedience to God. Love and obedience are so related that that obedience defines love.

7. What is love for God? (5:2)

8. What unique quality do God’s commands have? Why is this true? (5:3-4)

John wrote, “This is love for God: to obey his commands” (v.3a). John also added that “his commands are not burdensome” (v.3b). Love is practical and leads to obedient actions – actions which are not difficult to fulfill.

Right belief, right actions, right love – all these sound burdensome. How can John claim they are not? He quickly gives the answer: “For everyone born of god overcomes the world” (v.4a). The new birth provides the power continually to win victory over the world and its evil powers. The burden of obedience is lifted because the power of victory is inherent within the new birth.

9. Who overcomes the world? (5:4-5)

John referred to victory over the world two more times. In verse 4b the verb points to a definite act. It is probably referring to their past victory over the false teachers. What was it that helped bring the victory over the heretics? It was not their new birth specifically, but their belief, “even our faith” (v.4c). The last occurrence is with a present tense (v.5), as was the first one (v.4a), signaling the present and ongoing victory. The person who has such a daily victory is the one who believes correctly that “Jesus is the Son of God.”

10. How can we overcome the world? (5:4-5)

11. How did Jesus Christ come? (5:6)

After John began and ended his last paragraph with the aspect of faith in Jesus, the natural question arises: How can a person come to faith in Jesus as the Son of God? John answered the question by claiming that faith is dependent on having the right kind of witnesses. In this section of John’s letter, he explained that idea by first presenting the three witnesses (vv. 6-9), the results due to their testimonies (vv. 10-12), and finally our resulting assurances (vv.13-17).

In verses 6-9 John presented three different witnesses who testified that Jesus is in fact the Christ. The first witness is the “water.” The second witness is the “blood.” The third witness is the “Spirit.”

Various interpretations have been given as to the identity of the first two witnesses: “water and blood.” They generally break down into three different lines of thought: (1) they refer to baptism and the Lord’s Supper; (2) they are symbolic references to the water and blood that flowed from Jesus’ side at His death as a result of the spear thrust (John 19:34-35); and (3) “water” refers to His baptism, and “blood” refers to His death.

The third interpretation seems to be the best, although John could be using these as terms with one primary meaning along with other shades of meaning. Blood would be an unprecedented symbol for the Lord’s Supper as well as the object that it is pointing to as a sign. Furthermore, it is difficult to see how John could say Jesus “came” (aorist) through the ordinances. In the same way it is difficult to see how Jesus “came” through the water and blood at His death when they actually flowed out of Him.

Baptism and death is the best interpretation for the meaning of “water and blood.” God voiced His approval of Jesus at His baptism (Matthew 3:16-17). He also voiced it again before Jesus’ death (John 12:27-30). Water and blood seem to be unique and strange words to represent these events, but they must have been understood by John’s readers because he didn’t explain them. If they do represent baptism and death, then John presented an objective witness to both the beginning and ending of Jesus’ earthly mission.

By referring to the water and the blood (Jesus’ baptism and death) as witnesses, John gave a valid testimony for establishing faith as well as refuting the false teachers. Gnosticism taught that Jesus was born a man and died a man, that the Christ came upon Him at His baptism and left Him before His death. John refuted this teaching when he claimed, “He did not come by water only, but by water and blood” (v.6b). In other words, He is Jesus Christ – the man who was simultaneously the Christ at both is His baptism and in His death, as He always was and will be just one person.

12. Why does the Spirit testify? (5:6)

The third witness is the Spirit. The content of John’s testimony is not mentioned, but the context of the letter as well as John’s Gospel indicate that it must have been a testimony about Christ (4:2; John 15:26). John indicated the Spirit testifies because He “is the truth” (v.6c) and, therefore, is trustworthy. John must have referred to the inner testimony of the Holy Spirit (2:20, 27; 4:1-6; 1 Corinthians 12:3), and he may have included as well the total witness of the Spirit (including that at Jesus’ baptism, and Pentecost).

13. What three things are in agreement? (5:7-8)

Jesus went on to establish the validity of these three witnesses. First, he claimed the witnesses are in agreement in their testimonies (vv. 7-8). The law required the collaboration of two or three witnesses before a testimony was considered admissible (Deut. 19:15: cf. John 8:17-18). John showed that the testimonies describing who Jesus is meets even these requirements. Second, John gave both objective (baptism and death) and subjective (the Spirit’s inner testimony) witnesses

14. Why is God’s testimony greater than man’s testimony? (5:9)

. Finally, the testimonies are valid because they are the testimonies that God Himself, through these three vessels, “has given about his Son” (v.9, perfect tense indicating continuing validity).

15. Who has made God out to be a liar? (5:10)

There are two different types of responses to the testimonies about Christ. One response is to believe in the Son of God (v.10a). This is described by John as being synonymous with accepting the testimony of God about Christ (v.9). The other is not to “believe God” (v.10b), which is the same as not believing in the Son and not accepting the testimony of God. To believe means to rely upon, to trust in, or to commit to the Son of God. Not to believe is to not make such commitments.

The result from not believing is simply stated by John: “Anyone who does not believe God has made him out to be a liar” (v. 10b). As in 1:10, this does not mean it shows God to be a liar; rather, it means that the unbeliever is accusing God of a lie. Therefore, unbelief is not simply a lack of faith, but it is a deplorable sin. The unbeliever hears the true testimonies of God and tags them false, thereby rejecting Christ, accusing God of lying, and forsaking salvation (“does not have life,” v. 12b).

16. What testimony has God given concerning His Son? (5:10-11)

John continued to discuss the results that come to the believer. The first result is that “this testimony” is “in his heart” (v.10a). In other words, he is given a deeper and inner assurance of his salvation by the testimony of the Spirit. It is the historical testimony of “water and blood” and the objective/subjective testimony of the Holy Spirit that leads to belief, but, also, it is the deeper subjective testimony of the Spirit that results from belief.

17. What do we have if we have Christ in us? (5:12)

The second result for the believer is the assurance of eternal life. The “testimony” of verse 11 is not the deeper testimony of the Spirit that comes as a result of belief. The Spirit assures the believer of his “eternal life.” This is John’s special term that encompasses salvation, the Kingdom of God, and relationship with Christ. It includes eternity in time, but it is much more than that. Before John restated the two different resulting conditions of the believers and the unbelievers, he claimed that the Spirit assures the believer of this grand result of faith – eternal life.

Get It

18. What does it mean to be born of God?

19. How can we know that we are born of God?

20. How do you know that you are a child of God?

21. What are the commands of God with which you struggle with obeying?

22. In what way should we love the children of God?

23. When have you thought that God’s commands were burdensome?

24. What does it mean to overcome the world?

25. How have you overcome the world?

26. What is your relationship to the Son?

27. How can a person receive eternal life?

Apply It

28. How will you demonstrate your love for the Father today?

29. What steps do you need to take in order to be certain you are a child of God?

30. What will you do to celebrate your life in the Son today?