The Fist Epistle from John
Chapter 5
CHAPTER FIVE
It is paramount that to be a child of the Father, you must
believe that Jesus is the very Christ, and believing that you can
be begotten of God, and so it is that everyone who loves God the
Father that begat someone, also loves those who are begotten of
God. John is back once more to giving emphasis that the children
of God, love each other.
He goes on to inter-twine the loving of people with the
loving of God and the keeping of His commandments. They are
inseparatable, glove and hand, horse and carriage, as we say. It
is like blood and air, we cannot separate the two, both are
absolutely tied together. We cannot live without blood in our
body and we cannot live without air to breath into our body.
Love of God and the keeping of His commandments, means,
automatically, we shall love the children of God (verses 1-2).
HERE IT IS AGAIN! A straight to the face, clear definition
of what IS the love of God:
"FOR THIS IS THE LOVE OF GOD, that we KEEP His COMMANDMENTS:
and His commandments are NOT grievous!" (verse 3).
Some would try to tell you God's commandments are grievous,
especially the FOURTH one. They would try to tell you that it is
just near impossible in the working world today to observe the
fourth commandment. That is simply not true. Many millions around
the world observe the fourth commandment each and every week.
It does take FAITH to follow and obey God's commandments,
but John knows that those who are begotten of God have overcome
the pressures of the world, and it is their faith that gives them
the victory. It is those who truly believe that Jesus is the very
Son of God. It is they as Paul said about himself, who have Jesus
living in them, Christ in them, and the life they live is by the
very faith of Christ (Galatians 2:20).
John reaffirms the fact that Jesus did live on this earth,
that He did become human flesh. The "water" and "blood" that John
speaks about in verses 6-8 are probably two sets of the facts.
Jesus was born of a woman, came as a physical child comes into
this world, water and blood come forth in the natural child birth
process. Also Jesus had blood running through His body, showing
He was very human in the physical life, and He was baptized in
water by John the Baptist, that as Jesus Himself said, "that all
righteousness should be fulfilled."
And with all of that, there was the very SPIRIT of God to
testify that all this was true. So the three together make a bond
and intertwined cord that cannot be broken. All three are in
agreement that Jesus was the Christ, the very Son of God.
Verse 7 in the KJV Bible WAS NOT in the original Greek. Many
Bible Commentaries (such as the Wycliffe Bible Commentary) will
give you the facts on that verse, and tell you how that verse
entered the KJV Bible. The NKJV Study Bible, says that most
scholars now agree that starting with the word "heaven" in verse
7 through to "on earth" in verse 8, were not in the original
Greek.
There are then three that bear witness to Jesus as the
Christ, the Son of God; water; blood; and the Spirit of God.
The witness of men, who lived and many of them still living
in John's latter life, bear witness that Jesus was the Christ and
was indeed a physical human person who lived not that far back in
Jewish history (from when John was writing this epistle). But, if
the witness of men was great, the witness of God through the Holy
Spirit was even greater.
If you do not believe God, and His witness of the Spirit,
then you make God out to be a liar, you are saying the Father
really did not send His Son into the world. It must be just that
clear cut in your mind and belief, either God is witnessing with
the truth or He is a liar.
For those who are fully assured that the three (blood, water
and Spirit) do agree and do witness to God sending His Son, then
there is the concrete record that God has given to us eternal
life, through His son. And he that has the Son of God in their
life as personal Savior and Lord, they have eternal life in them.
He that does not have Jesus as Lord and Savior, does NOT have
eternal life in them. Once more it is just that simple. As all
the New Testament teaches, their is NO SALVATION, NO ETERNAL
LIFE, outside of Christ Jesus. The religions of the world that do
not have Christ as Lord and Savior, as the very Son of the Most
High One, do not have salvation or eternal life. There is indeed
only ONE name under heaven whereby you can be saved - Jesus
Christ, see Acts 4:12 (verses 6-12).
John writes all these things in this epistle so they that do
believe in the name of Jesus as the Son of God, can have
assurance, can KNOW that they have eternal life in them. How can
you KNOW that you KNOW you have eternal life in you, well by
reading the things John has written in this epistle. We have been
reading them. If you believe them and are living them as a way of
life, then God is in you. If that is so, if you are living the
things John is writing about, then we can have confidence in Him,
if we ask anything that is according to God's will, He will hear
us, and we shall be given them. We do have to remember in all
that being said, God will answer in His time and will give what
is best for us concerning the answers to our petitions. We should
also have the attitude as Jesus had in being able to say, "Not my
will be done, but your will be done" with some of our petitions
to the Father.
I often pray that God will bring more and more people, each
and every day, around the world, to find and study from this
Website. The Lord has written that His word shall go forth and
shall not return to Him void. I know His will on that issue. He
does answer it. I also pray that He will guide me as I write
studies, as I expound His word to you, as I find other studies by
other people that are truth, to upload to this Website, to serve
people in growing in grace and knowledge. I know His will on
this, and I know He hears and answers it. Those petitions, I do
not have to say, "Not my will be done, but your will be done."
Then other petitions I may have to add those words, as Jesus did,
when He prayed to the Father the night of His arrest in the mount
of Olives and Gethsemane (Mat.26).
SIN NOT UNTO DEATH?
What is John talking about in verse 16? A sin not unto
death? We have seen from John that although we should not want to
sin, we fool ourselves if we say we have no sin. Christians fight
against the pulls of our nature that tug us to sin, then there is
help from the world all around us, in various forms, that tempt us
to sin, and on top of all that, we have Satan and his demonic
helper that nag at us to sin. We have the help of God's Spirit,
but with all the bombarding of the three aforementioned pulls, we
sometimes do not have a great flow of the Spirit in us, and we do
at times then, sin! We can at times feel like the apostle Paul
did in Romans 7. We do not want to sin, we desire to not want to
sin, but the things we want to do, we sometimes do not, and the
things we do not want to do, we find ourselves doing them.
But our overall attitude of mind is as Paul's was in Romans
7. Our foundational frame of mind is we do not want to sin, we
desire to perform God's will and way of life and commandments.
That is our basic living attitude of mind. We have not given up,
we have not walked away from God and His way of life. We have not
said, "This is too hard to try and live the Lord's way and
commandment, so I'll just throw in the towel and not try, I'll
just go back into the world, and do my own thing, and the world's
own things."
We do not have that attitude, and our brothers and sisters
in Christ, who are "sticking with it" - trying to follow the
righteousness of God, have the same determination in mind as we
do.
Then one day we see, or we hear that our brother or sister
in Christ, have sinned. If you are very close to a brother or
sister in Christ, they may even confide in you, that they have
sinned, or they are having some trouble conquering a particular
sin. We go to bat for them in our prayers, we ask God to give
them the power to rule over that specific sin in their lives. And
God will appreciate your prayers and request for them. He will be
merciful, He will still forgive their sin, and they will still
have eternal life. Their mind, bottom line, foundation, is NOT
giving it all up, and just throwing their arms in the air and
leaving the Father. They are not being the seed that gets on to
the stony ground and withers up, or the seed that gets into the
weeds, grows a little, but the pressure of the world and sin just
chokes them off, and they finally give up on trying to follow the
Lord's way. And because they are the seed that takes root and
moves forward, some 10 percent, some 20 percent, some 40 percent
.... whatever the forward moving percentage is, they want to stay
with God, walk the pathway to eternal life.
So indeed God hears their prayers asking for forgiveness of
sin, and He hears your prayer on their behalf when you know they
are having a fight in some specific sin.
THEY HAVE NOT SINNED UNTO DEATH! They have not GIVEN UP,
they have not stopped battling the downward pulls of the flesh,
the evil of the world around them, and the power of the Devil. So
mercy and forgiveness is still coming from God the Father, and
the death penalty for sin does not hang over their heads. They
are still under the grace of God.
And remember Jesus in heaven also works for us. He is our
High Priest interceding for us, so we can be given mercy,
forgiven, and remain under grace. We saw in the book of Hebrews
all that wonderful truth.
Yes, as physical beings, with weaknesses, we do sin at
times, but unless we "pack it all in" - "go back to the world" -
"tell God to get lost" - our sin is NOT UNTO DEATH. We sinning
Christians still have eternal life in us, because we have NOT
packed our suitcase and walked out of God's house and life, so we
have not sinned unto death.
Now there is a SIN UNTO DEATH! If you GIVE UP on God's way,
pack it all in, decide to turn your back on God, decide to have
nothing more to do with Him and His way of life, and you no
longer care if you sin or how you sin, then yes, you are in deep
troubled water, water that will drown you eventually, unless you
pull yourself (with God's help) out of that dirty smothering
water. Your attitude has now changed, as a practicing way of
life, you have chosen to turn from God's way of life, you now
couldn't careless if you sin. With that attitude of heart, you
have sinned the sin which is UNTO DEATH. Death reigns over you
again, you have been willing to be a slave to sin. Paul wrote it
this way: "Know you not, that to whom you yield yourself servants
to obey, his servant you are to whom you obey; whether of sin
UNTO death, or of obedience unto righteousness" (Romans 6:16).
The sin unto death is when you KNOW the WAY of the Lord, the
WILL of God, the COMMANDMENTS of the Most High, and with a
planned, cold calculated heart, not under stress, or weakness of
the flesh, but a very clear mind to just turn away from God, THEN
you have sinned unto death.
Certainly, no Christian should be praying that another
Christian sins the sin unto death.
John gives another definition of sin, "all unrighteousness
is sin." And the Bible interprets "righteousness" for us. I've
given it to you before, but here it is again - Psalm 119:172.
"All Thy commandments are righteousness."
But even with all that said - a pretty large area that can
be classified as sin, John wants us to clearly know that there is
a sin NOT unto death. And that, we have covered above (verse
16-17).
KEEPING SAFE FROM THE WICKED ONE
The AMPLIFIED BIBLE brings out the Greek tenses of verse 18.
"We know (absolutely) that anyone born (begotten it should
be - for the truth about being 'born again' see the study
under that name - Keith Hunt) of God does not (deliberately
and knowingly) practice committing sin, but the One Who was
begotten of God carefully watches over and protects him
(Christ's divine presence within him preserves him against
the evil), and the wicked one does not lay hold (get a grip)
on him or touch (him)".
The children of God have set their minds to love God, to
serve Him, to follow His commandments. Their practice and way of
life is not the way of living without God's will being done in
their lives. They do not practice as a way of life, sinning. The
person begotten of God watches themselves in their daily actions,
words, thoughts, emotions, deeds, to keep close to the Lord. In
so doing they walk with Him and then with the presence of the
Lord with and in them, the wicked one, Satan the Devil, cannot
hold them in his power.
Speaking personally, I know Satan is very real, and his
demon helpers, but I do not go around each day, worrying and
fretting over them coming after me to do me physical or mental
harm. I have walked with the Lord for so long now, I am at ease
and peace of mind, I am calm and tranquil of mind. I know God and
Christ are with me, in me through their Spirit, so fear of the
wicked one is cast away, and the love of God in me, gives me
peace.
Their is a peaceful wonderment when you know you are of God,
in God, or the other way is more correct, when you know THEY
(both the Father and the Son) are IN you. The world may lie in
wickedness, sin, and deception, but the child of God is free from
the world and from Satan.
We know that Jesus did live and did die for us, and the Holy
Spirit gives us understanding of all things important to
spiritual life. Through the Son we can know the Father, know that
He is true, and that we are IN Him that is true. We are in His
Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God, Jesus is part of the very
Godhead, that is the only one true God, and the only one true way
to eternal life (verses 19-20).
In a few verses John is putting the whole of the Gospels,
(certainly his own Gospel) together. This is what Jesus taught
over and over again. God the Father sent Jesus to show us in a
personal form, what He is like. If we know Jesus we know the
Father. And it is THEIR desire, both of them, to LIVE in us
through their Holy Spirit, to teach us, to give us understanding
of spiritual matters, and finally to give us GLORY, change us,
from human to divine, to give us birth into the very Family that
is God.
If you have not done so, please study my study called "A
Christian's Destiny" and see the wonderment that the Father wants
to give to us.
John ends this his first epistle with the admonition that we
will keep ourselves from idols. And anything that comes before
serving God with all your heart, mind, body, and life, is an idol
for you. So indeed may you keep yourself from idols (verse 21).
..................
Written October 2007
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