1 John 5 gathers up the whole letter. Faith, love and obedience belong together: “this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.” Faith overcomes the world. God Himself bears witness to His Son, and the record is simple: “God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” John closes with confidence in prayer, a word on sin unto death, and a last tender warning: “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.”
A study in 1 John 5 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 17 min read
His Commandments Are Not Grievous
“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. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?”
1 John 5:1-5
In the last chapter of his letter John weaves together his three great themes. Faith: “whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.” Love: everyone who loves the Father loves His children too. And obedience: “this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.” They are not three separate tests. They are three sides of one new life.
“His commandments are not grievous.” They are not a crushing burden. To the unconverted heart God’s law feels like a cage. To the heart that has been born again, it is the way of life it loves, because it describes the character of the God it loves.
“In the new birth the heart is brought into harmony with God, as it is brought into accord with His law. When this mighty change has taken place in the sinner, he has passed from death unto life, from sin unto holiness, from transgression and rebellion to obedience and loyalty.”
Ellen G. White · The Great Controversy, p. 468
And the power that makes obedience possible is faith. “This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” Not faith in ourselves, but faith that “Jesus is the Son of God,” the One who said, “be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). The believer overcomes by trusting the Overcomer.
Three That Bear Witness
“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. 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. 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. 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 5:6-10
“This is he that came by water and blood.” Jesus’ public ministry began with water, at His baptism in the Jordan, where the Father’s voice and the Spirit’s descent declared Him the Son of God. It ended with blood, at the cross. Some of the false teachers in John’s day said that the divine Christ came upon the man Jesus at His baptism and left Him before He died, so that God never truly suffered. John answers: “not by water only, but by water and blood.” The One who was baptized is the same One who died. John had seen the “blood and water” flow from His side (John 19:34).
A word should be said honestly about verse 7. The words “in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one,” together with “in earth” in verse 8, are found in the Latin tradition but are missing from nearly all Greek manuscripts of 1 John, appearing only in a handful of late ones. They entered printed Greek Testaments in the sixteenth century, and so came into the King James Version. Many careful students of the Bible therefore do not build doctrine on these particular words.
Nothing is lost by that honesty. The truth the words express stands firmly on other scriptures: the baptismal command “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” (Matthew 28:19), the apostolic blessing of 2 Corinthians 13:14, and John’s own record of the Father sending “another Comforter” in the Son’s name (John 14:16, 26).
“There are three living persons of the heavenly trio; in the name of these three great powers—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—those who receive Christ by living faith are baptized, and these powers will co-operate with the obedient subjects of heaven in their efforts to live the new life in Christ.”
Ellen G. White · Evangelism, p. 615
John’s main point in these verses is witness. The Spirit, the water and the blood “agree in one”: they all testify that Jesus is the Son of God. We accept human testimony every day; “the witness of God is greater.” And the one who believes “hath the witness in himself,” the inner assurance the Spirit gives. To refuse that testimony is to call God “a liar.”
This Life Is In His Son
“And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. 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 5:11-13
Here is the heart of the gospel in two sentences. “God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.”
Notice what this means. Eternal life is not something every human being has by nature. It is a gift, and it is found in only one place: in Christ. “He that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” Scripture never teaches that the soul is naturally immortal, or that the lost live forever in torment. God “only hath immortality” (1 Timothy 6:16), and He gives it to those who receive His Son. The lost do not have life to keep; they perish (John 3:16).
And when does the believer receive this life? In one sense, now: “He that hath the Son hath life,” present tense. The life of Christ begins in the heart the moment we receive Him. Its fullness, immortality, comes at the resurrection, when Christ raises His people “at the last day” (John 6:40).
“Christ became one flesh with us, in order that we might become one spirit with Him. It is by virtue of this union that we are to come forth from the grave,—not merely as a manifestation of the power of Christ, but because, through faith, His life has become ours.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 388
Then John states the purpose of his whole letter: “that ye may know that ye have eternal life.” Not hope so. Know. The believer does not need to live in uncertainty. If you have the Son, you have life. That is God’s record, and God cannot lie.
If We Ask According To His Will
“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. 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 5:14-17
Assurance of life leads to confidence in prayer. “If we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us.” That condition is not a limit on prayer. It is its safety. We would not want God to give us what is against His will, because His will is always better than our wishes. And some things we know are always His will: forgiveness, the Holy Spirit, victory over sin, a Christlike character.
“Prayer is heaven’s ordained means of success in the conflict with sin and the development of Christian character. The divine influences that come in answer to the prayer of faith will accomplish in the soul of the suppliant all for which he pleads.”
Ellen G. White · The Acts of the Apostles, p. 564
One use of prayer John singles out: praying for a brother who has fallen into sin. “He shall ask, and he shall give him life.” Instead of gossiping about a brother’s fall, pray for him. But John adds, “there is a sin unto death.” He does not name it, but the whole letter points to it: the settled, deliberate rejection of Christ and His Spirit, the sin Jesus called blasphemy against the Holy Ghost (Matthew 12:31-32). It is not one particular act. It is a heart that has hardened itself until it no longer responds to God.
“They had committed the sin against the Holy Spirit, a sin by which man’s heart is effectually hardened against the influence of divine grace.”
Ellen G. White · Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 404
Anyone who is troubled that he may have committed that sin shows by his very concern that he has not. The Spirit is still speaking to him, and he can still come.
Keep Yourselves From Idols
“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. And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness. 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. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.”
1 John 5:18-21
The letter ends with three things “we know.” We know that the one born of God does not go on in sin, and that “that wicked one toucheth him not.” We know that “we are of God,” while “the whole world lieth in wickedness,” in the grip of the evil one. And we know that “the Son of God is come,” and has given us understanding to know the true God.
“This is the true God, and eternal life.” The nearest person named is “his Son Jesus Christ.” John ends his letter as he began his Gospel: “the Word was God” (John 1:1). Jesus is not a lesser divine being. He is the true God, and He is eternal life.
Then one last line, as tender as the first: “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.” John lived in Ephesus, the city of the great temple of Diana. But idols are not only statues. An idol is anything that takes the place of the true God in the heart, including a false picture of God Himself.
“It is as easy to make an idol of false doctrines and theories as to fashion an idol of wood or stone. By misrepresenting the attributes of God, Satan leads men to conceive of Him in a false character.”
Ellen G. White · The Great Controversy, p. 583
After all the tests of this letter, John’s last word points back to its first. The true God has been seen, heard and handled in Jesus Christ. He is light, He is love, and in Him is life. Everything else is an idol.
