1 John Chapter Five

Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous (1 John 5:1-3 KJV)

Once you realize you need God, the next question becomes what does God require of me? Simple — obey His commandments. What about freedom? Individuality? (Cue Frank Sinatra, “I did it my way...”). God’s commands are love. To put this in perspective, suppose your child is grabbing for a pot on the stove. What do you do? Correct him. (As the saying goes, apply the board of education to the seat of learning). Bummer! You’re limiting his freedom. After all, he was only trying to express himself. But you had knowledge he didn’t. If he touched that stove he would be hurt. So your command is an act of love for him.

In the same way God cares for us — He is not trying to limit us, but protect us. Sin is not bad because it’s prohibited, it’s prohibited because it’s bad. In the Old Testament, the Jews had many strange laws regarding food and sanitation. Why were the laws in existence? To protect them. Today we know many of those strange laws protected them from disease — God was looking out for them, even though they didn’t understand.

What happens when God’s commands aren’t followed? You lose your compass pointing you in the right direction. We see this country adrift on a sea of situational ethics where everyone’s version of right and wrong is just as good as anyone else’s. The result? We find ourselves in the same situation as Israel at the end of the book of Judges where “everyone did what was right in their own eyes” (people say we’ve evolved. I don’t think so — we have the same problems Israel had thousands of years ago).

For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. (1 John 5:4 KJV)

It’s easy to get defeated until you realize satan has already lost. Whenever we see people who appear to get away with evil, just remember they will be held accountable for it. Every thought and action will be held accountable to the highest court — no legal dream team will be able to get someone off. What overcomes all the evil? The faith of a Christian — in the end, the good guys win. We need to avail ourselves of the awesome power available to us. We don’t just overcome, we conquer, as John McArthur explains “The word reflects a genuine superiority that leads to overwhelming success”.^[1]

However, you’ve got to know how to fight this war. Paul gives us our strategic intelligence report.

For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, (2 Corinthians 10:4 NKJV)

If you use worldly weapons you’re doomed to failure. You’re fighting a multi-dimensional battle and you’ve got to have multidimensional weapons to fight with. Fortunately, Paul (in his letter to the Ephesians) lists the weaponry you need. If you’ve never undertaken a serious study of Ephesians chapter six you’d better start now — when you need the battle gear it’s too late to acquire it. But more importantly, you can’t just know about it, you’ve got to practice with these weapons.

Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? (1 John 5:5 KJV)

This is a rhetorical question and was already answered in verse four.

This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. (1 John 5:6 KJV)

Your commentary on this is the Gospel of John chapters 10,16,17. However, it’s important to realize it’s the Spirit bearing witness of Jesus, as a few interesting verses from John demonstrate. Jesus says, on two different occasions:

If I bear witness of Myself, My witness is not true. (John 5:31 NKJV)
Even if I bear witness of Myself, My witness is true (John 8:14 NKJV)

This makes no sense! Yikes! We’ve got a contradiction in the Bible! Or do we? I’ve seen these two verses pounced on by skeptics who like to call it an “irreconcilable contradiction” — no possible explanation exists. But if the Bible is true and inerrant, we must be able to explain these verses — simply ignoring them only fuels the fires of doubt. And of course, a simple explanation does exist only a few verses later in John chapters eight and ten.

It is also written in your law that the testimony of two men is true. I am One who bears witness of Myself, and the Father who sent Me bears witness of Me.” (John 8:17-18 NKJV)

I and My Father are one. (John 10:30 NKJV)

It’s the trinity that explains how both statements are true. Yes, according to the Mosaic law it takes two witnesses to establish the facts; that’s the point of John 5:31. But since Jesus and the Father are one, we have two witnesses — separate yet one God. Far from a contradiction, these two verses show the deity of Jesus and a confirmation of the trinity. (As an aside, if you deny the trinity, you do have a contradiction).

In your studies of the Bible, you are going to have times when you don’t understand a passage. And when you do, rejoice! It’s an opportunity (as Chuck Missler explains) to conduct a scientific experiment in the supernatural and prove to yourself again God exists and reveals Himself to those who seek Him. What you need to do is simply close your Bible and ask the Father to explain the meaning of the passage to you. But a word of warning — you’d better write the reason you’re confused, because when the Holy Spirit reveals to you the meaning of that passage you’ll forget why you were confused in the first place. This is the promise of the Holy Spirit — to guide us into all truth — not just some of it. (John 16:13).

For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one. (1 John 5:7-8 KJV)

Depending on what translation you use, these verses may not read exactly as the King James; they omit the words in bold print. Why? It’s long been a debate, with many people fiercely supporting one side or the other. This brings up an issue called textual criticism — finding out what exactly the original writer said. Did John say these words or not? Were they deleted earlier or added later? We could spend considerable time espousing one side or the other, but instead let’s do something more productive.

We don’t have the originals, all we have are copies of John’s letter. Some manuscripts we posses are extremely close to the originals, but none of the originals survived. The Bible has been copied thousands of times over the years by meticulous men who were zealous about their work. Nevertheless, some errors have crept it. Is this a problem? Do we really know what the Bible originally said? Does this belong or not? Instead of arguing this or that point, let’s just demonstrate two ideas.

The Bible is extremely accurate.
No different rendition affects doctrine.

A quick glance of the following chart^[2] illustrates the accuracy of the New Testament as it has been passed down to us:

Document	Date	Copies	% Purity
Homer’s Iliad	800 BC	643	95
Herodotus	480 BC	8	?
Plato’s Tetralogies	427 BC	7	?
Caesar’s Gallic Wars	44 BC	10	?
New Testament	50-95 AD	25,366	>99.5

The skeptic may argue about this reading or that reading, but it does not affect any doctrine — you may have complete confidence in the reliability of the Bible. There is no other ancient text with as much manuscript evidence as the Bible. Men may get the Ph.D.’s by arguing one point or the other, but it doesn’t really matter much — what we have is extremely accurate. Many of the differences are in spelling only.

As a side issue this means different Bible translations all have their uses — all have advantages and all have translational errors. There is no way to translate Greek into English precisely. Many people have a preferred translation, and that’s fine. Mine is for the King James / New King James, but if you use the New American Standard that’s fine also. I also keep a New Living on hand as it sometimes renders the text a little more clearly. You see, the issue isn’t which translation is best, but how is it translated.

Suppose, for example, you are translating English into some other language. You come to a simple figure of speech like “that’s cool” and immediately face a problem. If you translate it literally (as in temperature) people won’t understand it. If you paraphrase it slightly (as in good), people in a different language will understand the meaning, even though the translation is not literal.

So which is the best translation? Pick from the KJV, NKJV, NASB, or NIV as your primary Bible, and supplement it with a good paraphrase like the New Living. If you come to something in your King James that doesn’t make sense, try it in the New Living and see if it’s any clearer. (For people who are interested, the King James text is used here due to the copyright restrictions the publishers of the other versions place on the use of them — you can’t quote a whole book, for example).

But we haven’t answered the original question — do these verses belong or not? It really doesn’t matter much. Chuck Missler uses an analogy with a hologram. Holograms have some interesting characteristics, but one of the more interesting ones is the information is spread out evenly across the surface. If you cut part out, you don’t lose part of the image since you can turn the photo to “view around” the cut out area.

The Bible is like a hologram — if you take out some verses it doesn’t affect the meaning of the whole. Let’s suppose these verses don’t really appear. Some would argue we are losing a powerful statement of the trinity. But are we? Look at the baptism of Jesus in Mark chapter one. All three elements of the trinity exist there and are separate — Father, son and Holy Spirit.

In the end I can’t say for sure whether these verses are from the apostle John or not as I’m not a textual scholar (I’m a mathematician / physicist, not an archeologist). What I can say with overwhelming confidence is it doesn’t really matter. Let other people fight over it; we’ve got more profitable things to do so we’ll move on.

If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son. (1 John 5:9 KJV)

This is the main issue. If we accept the lesser credibility of man, we must accept God’s word. We just saw how man can fight over a few words and we accept what they say. We debate 10 words, yet miss the volume God has said. If we accept man’s word, why do we ignore God’s? Remember God doesn’t lie — so He has credibility (Titus 1:2). Man’s credibility? Well, need I remind you “what does ‘is’ really mean anyway”?

He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. (1 John 5:10 KJV)

Another point missed on the “Jesus Seminar” people. God said it — so if you don’t accept it, you’re calling God a liar — that’s not something I would recommend. Recall earlier in verse 6 — the sprit is truth, thus unbelief is calling God a liar. We speak of god in general terms (small g), and even go so far as to say Jesus was a “good teacher”, but as we mentioned you only get three options — Lord, liar or lunatic. If you don’t believe, you call God a liar. You have an absolute choice to make, and skeptics hate absolutes. There are some things in life that are black and white with no gray area — this is one of them.

But if we know His testimony is true, what exactly is His testimony?

And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. (1 John 5:11 KJV)

God is credible, His word is credible and has been passed to us with extreme accuracy, thus we must believe His testimony. Skeptics guess what Jesus meant, but John tells us again — eternal life is in Jesus and is available to anyone who wants it.

He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. (1 John 5:12 KJV)

This is a very simple statement. If you have Jesus you have life. So many people try to find the path to heaven; John just boils it down to a simple statement. Jesus is eternal life — you can take it or leave it but you can’t change the reality. Before you became a Christian you were dead — without life. You were dead in sin, as Paul explains “you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, (Ephesians 2:1 NKJV)”. You need to be awakened (or born again, if you will); dead people can’t respond to anything, that’s why you can’t even accept Jesus without the supernatural intervention of the Holy Spirit.

These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. (1 John 5:13 KJV)

God wants you to know you have eternal life. Many religions teach a path of works; you can never really know until after you die if you made it or not. Not so with the true God — he wants you to have the assurance of salvation. Of course, that assurance can only come if I have nothing to do with it, because if I have something to do with it you can be sure I’ll mess it up. What do you have to do to be saved? Accept Jesus as savior for your sins — that’s it. And it’s the only way you can have assurance of salvation — to believe God is in charge of it for you. If you do, then you can know you have eternal life.

How? Verse ten speaks of the witness of God, which according to verse nine is credible and reliable. Thus, by verse twelve you know you have eternal life. It’s really that simple — don’t make it complicated. Now that you’re sure, we’ll move on to other matters.

And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him. (1 John 5:14-15 KJV)

God is not a genie for you to get whatever you want. The key phrase is according to his will. Don’t let the “name-it-and-claim-it” crowd distort these verses. Is it according to His will you be rich? Or have a Mercedes? I don’t know. For some people, perhaps. For others, perhaps not. If we ask not according to His will, He wisely ignores us.

For example, if my child asks if they can borrow the car (and they’re not yet 14) I don’t even respond — I didn’t really hear that, did I? But if they say gee dad, can I mow the lawn, then yes, I hear you! The same rule applies to God. I say I want a new car. But God has different plans for our life, so He doesn’t hear. Maybe you need to break down on the road so you can speak to someone. Maybe a new car would be an idol for you. I don’t know — but God has your best interests at heart, so he wisely looks out for our welfare. Recall verse 3 — rules are for our protection, not a bummer.

We don’t know what’s best for us, but God does, thus we must learn to trust Him instead of our feelings. Sometimes No is the answer; we just don’t like it.

If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it. All unrighteousness is sin: and there is a sin not unto death. (1 John 5:16-17 KJV)

Even for the Christian, you can go so far God will remove you from the earth — not for judgment, but for your protection. See Acts 5:1-11, 1 Corinthians 5:5-7

We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not. (1 John 5:18 KJV)

Living in habitual sin is incompatible with being a Christian and walking in the Light (John 3:19-21). If sin doesn’t bother you, that should bother you. Some people I deal with are very concerned about the unpardonable sin, salvation and so on yet don’t need to worry about it. Because they are so convicted by sin means the Holy Spirit is dealing with them. But for the person who hangs out at the local bar every night and says he doesn’t worry about it, after all God forgives him — that person I have reservations about. If you can walk through the cesspool we call earth and not have it distress you every day it might mean you need to re-evaluate your relationship with Jesus.

And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness. (1 John 5:19 KJV)

Everyone today likes to compartmentalize people — you’re not just an American, you’re an African-American or a Italian-American or something else. Yet John tells us only two groups exist — you’re either on God’s side or satan’s side. No other choice exists. Recall during the temptation of Jesus satan makes the claim the whole world is his to do with as he pleases. Jesus never challenges that statement because it’s true. The world is satan’s. You, as a child of God, are on enemy ground — essentially behind enemy lines.

And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life. (1 John 5:20 KJV)

John shares his personal experience — he spent several years with Jesus and had first-hand knowledge of Him. John knew beyond a doubt Jesus was exactly who He said He was — the son of God.

John concludes his letter with a warning.

Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen. (1 John 5:21 KJV)

An idol is anything between you and God. It can be a statue in your house you bow down to, or a car, or a job, or a person, or money or anything else coming between you and God. God must be number one — and nothing else should be on the list.

“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” (Matthew 6:24 NKJV)

^[1] “The McArthur Study Bible”, page 1973

^[2] Eastman and Missler “The Bible: An Extraterrestrial Message” page 10

1 John Chapter Five

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