1 John 5:6-12 The Possession of Life

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d. iv. 1-v. 12. The Sources of Sonship: Possession of the Spirit as shown by Confession of the Incarnation.

•     The Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Error (iv. 1-6)
•     Love is the Mark of the Children of Him who is Love (iv. 7-21).
•     Faith Is the Source of Love, the Victory over the World, and the Possession of Life (v. 1-12) 

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6 This is he that came by water and blood, [even] Jesus Christ; not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood

6. "This is he that came." The identity of the man of Nazareth with the eternal Son of God is again emphasized as the central truth of Christian theology, the reception of which is necessary to the attainment of victory over the world and of translation out of darkness into the marvelous light of His kingdom. Then follow the witnesses to this truth which are "the water and the blood." Many are the explanations of these words. The ritualists understand them to signify the sacraments of baptism and of the Lord's Supper. Others see only symbols of purification and redemption. But it seems to the writer that John uses these words as a summary of Christ's earthly life and mission, baptism in the water of Jordan and His sacrificial death by the shedding of His blood for the redemption of the world. The cardinal truths of His gospel are here briefly stated; for at His baptism with water was His baptism with the Holy Spirit attended by the Divine announcement of His Sonship to God in words implying that He is the Son in a sense unique and peculiar. This was a sufficient opening and explanation of the whole of His ministry. His public and tragic death is at once the close and the explanation of His life of self-sacrifice. "The Gnostic teachers, against whom the apostle is writing, admitted that the Christ came 'through' and 'in' water; it was precisely at the baptism, they said, that the Divine Word united Himself with the man Jesus. But they denied that the Divine Person had any share in what was effected 'through' and 'in' blood; for, according to them, the Word departed from Jesus at Gethsemane. John emphatically assures us that there was no such separation. It was the Son of God who was baptized; it was the Son of God who was crucified; and it is faith in this vital truth that produces brotherly love, that overcomes the world, and is eternal life." (The Cambridge Bible for Colleges.)

7 And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is the truth

7. "It is the Spirit that beareth witness." Besides the Spirit's testimony to the Divinity of Christ and the absolute truth of His Gospel (John xv. 26) there are six other witnesses cited in John's Gospel: The Old Testament Scriptures (v. 39-47), the Baptist (i. 7), the Disciples (xv. 27, xvi. 30), Christ's works (v. 36, x. 25, 38), His words (viii. 14, 18, xviii. 37), and the Father (v. 37, viii. 18). In this Epistle John adds two more witnesses, the water and the blood, thus making eight witnesses in all. That John is not a favorite with the so-called liberal religious teachers is not wonderful.

"The Spirit is the truth." Hence his testimony is absolutely infallible in glorifying the Christ (John xvi. 14) identifying him with Jesus.

"Just as Christ is the Truth (John xiv. 6), the Spirit sent in Christ's name is the Truth."

The Vulgate reads thus: "The Spirit is he who testifies that Christ is the Truth." On this unsubstantial version Bede comments in a very vigorous style, denouncing those who deny the reality of our Saviour's body: "Since therefore the Spirit testifies that Christ is the Truth, and since He surnames Himself the Truth, and the Baptist proclaims Him to be the Truth, and the Son of thunder in his evangel heralds Him as the Truth, let the blasphemers who dogmatically declare that He is a phantom hold their tongues; let their memory perish from the earth who deny either that He is God or that He is a real man." The whole truth revealed by Christ must be believed, however unpleasant. It is morally impossible to be an eclectic believer, receiving only the pleasant parts of Christianity. This is putting depraved taste above the infallible Teacher, to whom the human intellect as well as the human will must bow when we exercise saving faith. What is here said of Christ is said also of His representative, the Holy Spirit.

[For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.]

7. ("Three that bear record in heaven.") These words are not in the R. V. In the opinion of all experts this passage is not genuine, not being found in a single Greek manuscript earlier than the fifteenth century; nor was it quoted by any one of the Greek or Latin fathers in the third, fourth and first half of the fifth centuries, when the doctrine of the Trinity was most intensely discussed. This verse is first found near the close of the fifth century in the Latin version, and it occurs in no other language until the fifteenth century. It is supposed to have been at first a marginal comment on a part of the seventh and eighth verses. "For there are three that bear record, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood; and the three agree in one." Into these genuine words this marginal comment was probably copied innocently by some scribe, who supposed that they belonged to the text. This is called a gloss. The doctrine of the Trinity does not need any questionable proof-texts, being abundantly proved by those accepted Scriptures which ascribe Divine titles, attributes and works to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, in whose names every Christian is baptized and every Christian assembly is with benediction dismissed.

8 For there are three who bear witness, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and the three agree in one

8. "Agree in one." The Spirit, the water, and the blood are for the one object of establishing the Godhead of Christ. "The Trinity of witnesses furnish one testimony."

9 If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for the witness of God is this, that he hath borne witness concerning his Son

9. "If we receive the witness of men." An echo of Christ's word in John viii. 17, "the witness of two men is true." How credible, therefore, must the two witnesses be when they are the Father and the Son. The next clause should be reversed and connected with the following verse, thus: "The witness of God is this: He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself, " after the analogy of chap. i. 5. "To believe on," a phrase occurring nearly forty times in John's Gospel and elsewhere in the New Testament only about ten times, expresses the strongest reliance and trust. We may believe a person's word without trusting to him our property or our lives.

10 He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in him: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he hath not believed in the witness that God hath borne concerning his Son

10. "Witness in him." Here we prefer "himself" (Westcott and Hort) instead of "him" (R. V.). The external witness accepted as valid becomes internal certitude when the will bows in accordance with the truth believed. Absolute and irreversible self-surrender to Him who is the Truth brings a direct consciousness of His Divine nature and work. The witness of the Spirit, and of the water, and of the blood leads successively to an inner conviction and realization of pardon, newness of life and entire cleansing. Thus John's doctrine of assurance agrees with Paul's in Rom viii. 16; Gal. iv. 6. This blessed effect does not follow a mere speculative assent to a fact, but it follows trust in the person of Christ and sole reliance on Him This statement supplements the conditions of the new birth partly stated in the first verse of this chapter. Speculative or historical faith is not decisive of salvation, but it is the first step toward a saving trust.

"He that believeth not God." The fact that this clause is a direct antithesis to "believing on the Son," implies the Godhead or supreme Divinity of Jesus Christ. It also implies that a man cannot be a true believer in God while refusing to rely on His Son for salvation.

"Hath made Him a liar." This declaration John applies to two classes, to those who say that they have no sins (i. 10) which need a Divine Saviour; and, secondly, to those who deny that such a Saviour is the Son of God, our Lord Jesus. The Gnostics belong to both of these classes whose teachings impeach God's testimony that "all have sinned," and that there is salvation in no other name than that of Jesus Christ. The two errors are twins. To lie is a dreadful sin, but to be a liar is much worse. The one is a bad act, the other is an evil character. Hence the heinousness of failing to believe God, to say nothing about an avowed distrust and disobedience.

"Hath not believed." The perfect tense indicates a permanent state in the past continuing to the present hour.

11 And the witness is this, that God gave unto us eternal life, and this life is in his Son

11. "That he gave." As a historic fact in the mission of His Son 'He gave to us" who evangelically appropriate Christ, "eternal life." He who experimentally knows the truth of the Gospel has life eternal, which is present as well as future, or rather "eternal life" exists, and so is above all time. It is eminently a New Testament phrase occurring forty-four times. It is found only once in the Old Testament, Dan. xii. 2. It was manifested unto us (apostles). See i. 2.

"This life is in His Son." Its source and seat, its Prince or Author. See i. 4; Acts iii. 15.

12 He that hath the Son hath the life; he that hath not the Son of God hath not the life

12. "Hath the Son hath the life." If the Son is the fountain of life, then whoever has the Son has the life, and no man can have the latter without the former. What is it to have the Son? It must not be weakened to mean to hold as an article of faith that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God. To have Him we must appropriate Him by receiving Him as both Saviour and Lord in a manner so definite as to become the children of God (John i. 12), so consciously as to have the testimony of the Holy Spirit crying in the heart Abba, Father. (Rom. viii. 14-17; Gal. iv. 6.) If any one is in doubt in respect to this momentous question on which eternal destiny hinges, let him by penitent, all-surrendering faith in Christ ask for the witness of the Spirit of adoption. This life Paul calls "the life indeed" (I Tim. vi. 19, R. V.), and Ignatius styles it "the inseparable life" and "our true life."

"He that hath not the Son of God." The words "of God" added to the last antithetic clause emphasize the greatness of the treasure which persistent unbelief through probation has forever removed, even the unsearchable riches of Christ. They also accentuate the certainty of failure in such a case, for to His Son God has given to have life in Himself and to impart life to evangelical believers, and to such only.