1 JOHN CHAPTER FIVE - Verse-by-verse



1 JOHN chapter five

jack

assurance and Christian love

(CONTINUED FROM CHAPTER FOUR

(4:13-5:3)

SUMMARY VERSES 1-3

1. JOHN CONTINUES WITH THE THEME OF LOVE.

2. The Christian (child of God) is defined as the one who is born of God.

3. The way is through believing that Jesus is the Messiah (compare 4:2; 2:23).

4. Faith is the sole condition for the new birth (JOHN 1:12).

5. The evidence that one is born again is:

a. Love for God.

b. Love for believers.

c. Keeping the commandments.

6. One who does not do these things may be born again but there is no evidence and such a believer lacks assurance.

7. At salvation, for the first time, the believer loves God and fellow believers.

8. A normal Spirit-filled believer loves those who are born again.

9. Only the born again believer can love as God loves God and other believers. (He has the Holy Spirit and Bible doctrine.)

10. So if you love your heavenly Father, it follows that you love believers and vice versa.

11. Perfect love consists of specified actions and mental attitudes under the filling of the Holy Spirit.

12. In verse two John draws a conclusion from verse one that is not what we expect.

13. Usually John says that we show our love for God by how we love one another.

14. Here John's point is that the content for loving God's children is found in love for God and doing His commandments.

15. God's commandments specify how we are to carry out the general commandments to love one another.

16. Our love for God depends on knowing and keeping all His commandments.

17. Love for believers constitutes a large percentage of the commandments.

18. If you are regularly executing the royal imperatives, you know you are regularly loving believers.

19. In verse three John spells out what love for God is: keeping His commandments (compare 2:4; 2 JOHN 6; JOHN 14:15,21).

commandments

|-----------------------------| love for God

20. John says that these things are not beyond our ability to keep, or even an excessive burden.

21. The duties imposed on us are light where there is positive volition and a willingness to do what pleases Him.

22. People who find the Christian way of life a burden are unwilling to prioritize their life around Bible doctrine and stop pursuing the details of life.

23. The Lord's way is not hard, but the way of reversionism is

(MATTHEW 11:30; PROVERBS 3:31; 10:9; 13:15; 14:2,12,14; 15:9,10,19;

16:7,9,25; 19:16; 22:25; 28:6; PROVERBS 1:19; 2:13,15 compare to

PROVERBS 3:6,17; 4:26; 8:32; 9:15; 31:27; 16:7; 23:26).

our victory confirmed (verses 4-12)

SUMMARY VERSES 4,5

1. THE FIRST COMMANDMENT, IN SEQUENCE AND IMPORTANCE, WHICH WE ARE TO OBEY IS THE COMMAND TO BELIEVER IN CHRIST FOR SALVATION (SEE 3:23).

2. Obedience to this commandment leads to positional victory in the Angelic Conflict.

3. Which guarantees Ph3 victory.

4. The new birth makes us victors in the Angelic Conflict.

5. In verse five, John defines the overcomer as the one who believes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God (synonymous with Christ of verse one).

6. Our part is faith in Him; all the merit resides in Christ.

7. One simple act of faith in One Person, Jesus Christ, is all it takes for anyone to be victorious over the impending demise of cosmos diabolicus.

8. Whosoever is the subject since Christ died for all; the object is Jesus Christ; the mechanic is faith.

Summary verses 6,7

1. JOHN DEFINES MORE CLOSELY WHO THIS ONE IS IN HIS REFERENCE TO “WATER” AND TO “BLOOD”.

2. It is important that we think of the Son of God in the proper terms.

3. One must believe in the proper witness to who and what Jesus is.

4. To appreciate John's reference to water and blood, one must know what the heretics were saying about Jesus.

5. The Gnostics, led by John's contemporary Cerinthus, denied that Jesus was the Son of God (Christ) while on the cross.

6. Cerinthus and his followers taught that the heavenly Christ descended on Jesus at His baptism, but withdrew from Him before the cross.

7. Cerinthus also taught that the world was created by an angel who held it in bondage, not by God.

8. According to him, Jesus was a normal man, the son of Joseph and Mary, who differed from ordinary men in wisdom and righteousness.

9. To him, Jesus was chosen by God to proclaim Him and to release the world from bondage.

10. For this task, the Christ descended on Him at his baptism and left before the cross.

11. To him, it was only Jesus who suffered and rose again.

12. Tradition says that he and John were opponents and lived in Ephesus.

13. With this heresy in mind, John's somewhat obscure statement in verse six becomes meaningful in light of the then current theological debate.

14. What John is saying is that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God, before, during, and after His baptism and the cross.

15. The prep dia, (dia) with the genitive means through.

SON OF GOD

NOTE: Just above, in the space to the left of the words “SON OF GOD” there is a drawing that can be seen in page layout mode. it is the one that Jack had in his handwritten notes. This drawing will show on the page when the notes are printed. SO WILL THIS MESSAGE UNLESS YOU REMOVE IT.

16. “Water” refers to Jesus’ public baptism which is recorded in all four gospel; when He received the Holy Spirit and officially began His Messianic ministry.

17. The fact that he came to John demonstrated that He was genuine as John was sent from God.

18. The ritual symbolized Jesus’ identification with the Messianic program for first advent which was inaugurated by John.

19. “Blood” refers to Christ's sacrificial death for sins, a doctrine cleverly denied by Cerinthus.

20. That is why John says in verse six “not with water only.”

21. To associate water and blood with His birth (or JOHN 19:34) is unsatisfactory since singling out blood makes no sense. (Only in the case of the Cerinthian heresy doe it make sense. Neither does it make sense to say that this refers to the Christian rituals of the Eucharist and water baptism; He didn’t come by these.)

22. The voice from heaven, the descent of the dove, confirmed that Jesus is God's Son.

23. John baptized Jesus upon His word that He was the Christ.

24. Then came the clenching sign previously revealed to John, the descent of the Holy Spirit as a dove.

25. Then a voice from heaven acknowledged His Sonship.

26. The Holy Spirit continues, via the Word of God and His convicting ministry, to bear witness of who and what Christ is.

27. It is the responsibility of God the Holy Spirit to reveal who and what Christ is (JOHN 16:8-11,13-15).

28. God the Holy Spirit cannot lie as He is absolute veracity (verse 7b).

29. One of His titles is Spirit of Truth.

Summary verses 8,9

1. JOHN WRITES OF THREE WITNESSES.

2. WATER AND BLOOD ARE PERSONIFIED, PLACING THEM ALONGSIDE THE HOLY SPIRIT.

3. He insists that they are all united in their testimony.

4. Their witness stands or falls together.

5. The Holy Spirit rightly stands first in the list since He also witnesses through the two events signified by water and blood.

6. Jesus’ baptism is an event (recorded in the four gospels) that bears witness to Jesus’ Person.

7. The second event that bears witness to who He is the cross.

8. His spiritual death during the three hours, speaks of His special qualifications to do what only the Chosen One of God could do.

9. Not only did these two events bear witness of Him to those present, but to us who have the Word of God.

10. Events, even past events, continue to bear witness.

11. Abel speaks via the Old Testament Canon even though dead.

12. History is full of lessons to be studied and profited by (see 2 PETER 2:6ff).

13. Verse nine adds the observation that we regularly receive the witness of men (on a variety of subjects).

14. When we were saved, we received the witness of men (JOHN 5:36).

15. Of course, the Holy Spirit bore witness through their witness.

16. John's point is that if we are accustomed to receiving mankind’s witness, we ought not to refuse to receive God's witness.

17. Because God Himself is a more reliable witness, and usually what He bears witness to is of far greater value.

18. Foremost among things He has borne witness to is His Son.

19. Those living at the first advent were eyewitnesses and saw the Divine attestation to the Son (compare 1 JOHN 1:1; JOHN 19:35; 21:24;

2 PETER 1:16).

20. They in turn were witnesses to the second generation of Christians

(JOHN 15:27; 1 JOHN 1:2,3).

21. Further, they were commissioned to write down four separate accounts of what they witnessed for posterity (LUKE 1:1-4; JOHN 21:24).

22. John's gospel contains seven selected signs to convince men of the truth pertaining to Jesus (JOHN 20:30,31).

23. Men who ignore (and, therefore, reject) this witness are still culpable.

24. The Holy Spirit continues to bear witness with our human spirit that we are His and have the truth (ROMANS 8:16).

25. This unseen but real witness of the Father via the Holy Spirit is the greatest of all witnesses (JOHN 5:32,37 compare 38-40).

Summary verses 10-12

1. WHEN A PERSON RECEIVES, BY FAITH, THE DIVINE WITNESS, HE AUTOMATICALLY HAS THIS WITNESS IN HIM.

2. THE WITNESS REFERS TO THE INDWELLING HOLY SPIRIT.

3. The one who rejects the witness concerning the Son, blasphemes.

4. In that he makes God out to be a liar (compare 1 JOHN 1:10 on a different subject; also see JOHN 3:33).

5. When a person refuses to accept a doctrine, that person is saying that God didn’t say this.

6. When you call someone a liar who isn't a liar, then you are the liar.

7. In this instance it amounts to blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, the unpardonable sin.

8. The witness is very simply that God has given to us eternal life and that this life is tied to His Son (compare 1 JOHN 2:25).

9. For apart from having the Son, eternal life is not possible

(compare JOHN 14:6).

Christian certainties (verses 13-21)

SUMMARY VERSE 13

1. AS WITH THE GOSPEL, JOHN GIVES US A GENERAL PURPOSE FOR WRITING THIS EPISTLE (COMPARE JOHN 20:31).

2. HE WRITES TO BELIEVERS THAT WERE KNOWLEDGEABLE CONCERNING BIBLE DOCTRINE (2:21) AND WHO WERE BEING SUBJECTED TO HERETICAL VIEWPOINT (2:26).

3. Such a situation could prove to be quite destabilizing.

4. All the things that John has dealt with are designed to bolster their confidence with respect to their standing in the plan.

5. John's warnings about antichrists (2:18-26; 4:1-6), his exhortations to love believers (2:7-11; 3:10-24; 4:7-21; 5:1-3), the necessity of keeping God's commandments (2:3-6; 3:22,23; 4:21; 5:3), of practicing righteousness and avoiding sin and lusts (1 JOHN 2:1,15,16; 3:4-12; 5:21), of self-purification (1 JOHN 1:9; 3:3), of confidence (2:28; 3:19,21), or reassurance (2:12-14) all of it designed to build their confidence.

Summary verses 14,15

1. ONE IMPORTANT RESULT OF THE BELIEVERS ASSURANCE OF ETERNAL LIFE IS THAT HE CAN HAVE BOLDNESS AND CONFIDENCE IN RELATION TO GOD.

2. IN PARTICULAR THIS APPLIES TO PRAYER REQUESTS.

3. JOHN REPEATS THIS PRAYER PROMISE FROM 3:21,22.

4. “TO HEAR” MEANS TO HONOR OUR PRAYERS.

5. GOD WILL ANSWER ANYTHING WE ASK OF HIM PROVIDED THE CONDITION OF HIS WILL IS ACKNOWLEDGED.

6. THE EQUIVALENT EXPRESSION “IN HIS NAME” IS USED (JOHN 14:13FF; 15:16; JOHN 16:23-26).

7. IN JOHN 15:7 THE CONDITION IS ATTACHED TO THE FILLING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT AND RESIDENT BIBLE DOCTRINE.

8. IN 3:22 ITS ONLY FOR THOSE WHO KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS AND HENCE PLEASE HIM (TO THAT EXTENT).

9. ACCORDING TO VERSE FIFTEEN, THERE ARE TWO THINGS THE CONFIDENT BELIEVER KNOWS:

a. GOD HEARS HIM.

b. God answers him.

10. Things that we must keep in mind when we make requests:

a. We don’t always know what is God's will for us or those we pray for.

b. We must learn to wait upon the Lord to bring it to pass (right time).

c. We must recognize that His ways are many (right way—faith/rest).

d. We must isolate our STA (unbelief, lust).

e. We must pray according to the Bible doctrine in us.

f. We must ask and be persistent.

g. We must accept no for an answer. (The desire if legitimate may be satisfied in another way.)

h. Always keep in mind the dictum “Your will be done.”

(MATTHEW 14:36).

the sin unto death

SUMMARY VERSES 16,17

1. VERSES SIXTEEN GIVES US AN EXAMPLE OF A PRAYER REQUEST WE MIGHT CONFIDENTLY OFFER TO GOD.

2. THE EXAMPLE CITED IS IN KEEPING WITH THE DOCTRINE OF PERSONAL SINNING THROUGHOUT 1 JOHN.

3. Thus far John has said the following about sin and the believer:

a. Those who advocate sinless perfection are liars (1 JOHN 1:8,10).

b. When we sin, we are to name it to God who restores us to fellowship

(1 JOHN 1:9).

c. Preferably we are to avoid personal sin (1 JOHN 2:2).

d. Christ is our Advocate with the Father (2:2).

e. He is our propitiation, also the propitiation of the whole world (2:2; 4:10).

f. Sin is lawlessness and rebellion against God (3:4).

g. No one who has a history of complete STA rule is born again (3:6b,8a,9,15).

h. You can't be filling of the Holy Spirit and simultaneously sin and still be filling of the Holy Spirit (3:6a).

i. The primary purpose of first advent was to take away sins (3:5a).

j. Hate is a mental attitude sin that is characterized by unbelievers like Cain (3:12 et al).

k. Fear is a mental attitude sin that cannot coexist with the filling of the Holy Spirit called “perfect love” (4:8).

4. John mentions two categories of sin that believers commit:

a. Sins which are not unto death.

b. The sin unto death.

5. He encourages prayer for the former, but not for the later.

6. Obviously, the sin unto death is much more serious as it entails maximum punitive judgement on the born again in time.

7. Namely the taking of the believer’s life by God.

8. Those who experience this “capital punishment” from God obviously do not glorify God in their dying.

9. The sin unto death is to become negative to MPR and Bible doctrine.

10. When a believer turns away from Bible doctrine, he is on the way to the sin unto death.

11. This notion of physical death being a coup de grace (termination) for negative volition see PROVERBS 1:32; 4:13; 8:36; 9:6; 10:27; NUMBERS 15:30-31 compare 32-36).

12. Sins not leading to death can lead to severe Divine discipline but are not technically the sin unto death.

13. If a believer commits a sin that leads to Divine discipline producing sickness, but is not a hard core negative type then you can pray for such a one.

14. Such a person is one who acknowledges his sin. (Another reason to confess sins to one another).

15. Obviously, all sickness of common human problems are not Divine discipline.

16. But Divine discipline that is not of the sin unto death kind you can pray for those.

17. John's audience knew the difference and he does not explain what the sin unto death is.

18. James 5:14-16 is referring to a believer who is a candidate for intercessory prayer.

19. Such a believer may be:

a. One who has come under Divine discipline due to carnality.

b. One who is under reversion recovery (JAMES 5:19,20).

20. When interceding for others you must have the facts. (Bible doctrine plus the circumstances of the particular case.)

21. John discourages prayer for those who have openly broken with the faith. (Compare the case of Jeremiah and the nation; JEREMIAH 7:16).

22. God restores the sick believer who has sinned where:

a. The individual acknowledges his sin.

b. Another positive believer prays in faith for him.

23. Should you commit sins which lead to severe Divine discipline, you should solicit the prayers of believers. (their restoration)

24. When others have to pray for your recovery, it is God's way of emphasizing the fact that you should no go on putting yourself above the rest of us.

25. Sin is to arrogantly place self in the category of immunity and now the believer needs our prayers!

26. John makes it clear that anything that violates God's +R is sin (unrighteousness = sin ( 1 JOHN 1:9).

27. So whether the sin is conscious or unconscious, it is a sin.

28. But all sin is not unto death in that positive volition recognizes the wrong and rebounds.

three final affirmations of Christian doctrine and

A FINAL EXHORTATION (VERSES 18-21)

SUMMARY VERSES 18,19

1. WE KNOW REFERS TO ANOTHER AFFIRMATION OF THE BIBLE DOCTRINE THEY UNDERSTOOD.

2. FEW REALLY UNDERSTAND JOHN'S INTENT WHEN HE SPEAKS OF BORN AGAIN BELIEVERS NOT SINNING.

3. As in 3:6,9 and 15, he refers to a state of perpetual unremitting STA enslavement.

4. The born again believer at the point of salvation, experiences the setting aside of the STA for the first time.

5. And as often as he used rebound and refuses to sin.

6. The unbeliever sins in the durative or linear sense.

7. The other alternative which advocates sinless perfection in Ph2 contradicts Scripture in general (ECCLESIASTES 17:20) and this epistle in particular.

8. There is no support for the ideal Christian theory or the willful sin view.

9. John denies that born again believer has a history of total STA rule.

10. Paul teaches the same doctrine in Romans (ROMANS 6:17-23).

11. Furthermore, they know that they can't lose their salvation to the strongest and most antagonistic foe, Satan.

12. For the Lord Himself guards them (compare JOHN 17:12).

13. John refers to Jesus as the One who was born of God.

14. This One is sinless and has greater power than Satan.

15. The second affirmation is that mankind is divided into two camps.

16. And we who are positive know who we are.

17. The principle of verse eighteen is applied to believers in verse nineteen.

18. Unbelievers, by contrast, remain under the power of Satan.

19. Satan cannot keep men who are positive under his rule (COLOSSIANS 1:13) nor can he abduct us from God's kingdom.

20. Man, apart from positive volition and God's intervention, remain Satan's prisoners.

the third affirmation

SUMMARY VERSE 20

1. JOHN'S THIRD DECLARATION TELLS HOW IT IS POSSIBLE FOR THERE TO BE ANOTHER ALTERNATIVE FOR MANKIND UNDER SATAN'S POWER.

2. GOD'S SON HAS COME INTO THE WORLD TO SET THE CAPTIVES FREE.

3. He (the Father) has given us understanding of the truth so that we may know the way to freedom.

4. The result is that we know the One who is true and who is Deity.

5. It is interesting to note that the task of Jesus is clearly presented as that of bringing knowledge of salvation.

6. This is the true knowledge as contrasted with the pseudo-knowledge of the Gnostics.

7. This background explains the use (2x) of the adjective “true” to describe Jesus.

8. Gnostics taught that ignorance was what Jesus came to save men from, not sins as John had insisted (2:2; 3:5; 4:10).

9. The Gnostic knowledge was not true as He is true.

10. For man to find the way to God and eternal life, he needs revelation from God.

11. So God sent His Son and has revealed to us the only true knowledge of salvation.

12. John says that we are in union with the One who is true.

13. Position truth is mentioned also at 2:5 and 4:15 (3x).

14. Finally John concludes that Jesus Christ is the true God and eternal life.

15. Here, as in the gospel of John, Jesus’ Deity is declared (JOHN 1:1; 20:28).

16. The statement “this is the true God” refers to what has just been said.

17. The way to God and eternal life is to know the truth about the Father and the Son (JOHN 14:6,9 is the inspiration for verse 20).

final warning

SUMMARY VERSE 21

1. IF ALL THAT JOHN HAS SAID IN THIS EPISTLE IS TRUE, BELIEVERS MUST AVOID ASSOCIATIONS WITH ANYTHING THAT WOULD TAKE THEM AWAY FROM BIBLE DOCTRINE.

2. THE WARNING ABRUPTLY ENDS THE EPISTLE AND CONTAINS UNEXPECTED REFERENCE TO IDOLS.

3. Nowhere has John referred to material icons and false deities whose cults flourished then (see 1 THESSALONIANS 1:9; 1 CORINTHIANS 10:7,14).

4. In the context of 1 John we see a more sophisticated definition of idolatry to include false conceptions about God.

5. So anything that a man is devoted to that takes him away from the true God is idolatry.

6. We should think of idolatry as any human viewpoint philosophy or religion that is contrary to the truth and to which men are devoted.

7. Whether or not there is any external genuflecting or material icons.

8. So while John's exhortation would include commonly understood devotion to cultic objects, it is a much broader statement, including the systems of thought that men are bound to (i.e. TULIP).

9. If the particular system one exposes takes the individual away from sound doctrine, and the MAJG, then it is an idol.

10. In the U.S. we have many idols including the STA lust for material things.

11. Any STA lust on devotes his life to is an idol (1 JOHN 2:160.

12. We must be ever vigilant to see that we do not become enslaved to idols such as:

a. Those that arise from the STA lust grid.

b. False systems of belief.

c. Superstitious-occult devotion.

13. The Bible doctrine you have heard will protect you (1 JOHN 2:24).

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download