Bibliotheca
Sacra 147 (1990) 216-230.
Copyright © 1990 by
An
Expositional Study of 1 John
Part 9 (of 10 parts):
An Exposition of 1 John 5:1-12
D.
Professor
Emeritus of New Testament
Mennonite Brethren Biblical
Seminary,
Beginning with 1 John 4:7 John
launched into a discussion of the
centrality of love in the Christian life as a
ground for Christian as-
surance. In 4:7-16a he dealt
with the nature of redeeming love, and
in 4:16b-21 he presented the results of this love
in human experience.
The
first five verses of chapter 5 are related to the concluding verses
of chapter 4, for they draw out the relationship
between true love for
God
and love for God's children. The presence and power of redeem-
ing love assure the
believer of his saving relationship with God.
Redeeming Love in the Believer's Relationship to God
Whoever believes that Jesus is the
Christ is born of God; and whoever
loves the
Father loves the child born of Him. By this we know that we
love the
children of God, when we love God and observe His com-
mandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep
His command-
ments; and His commandments are not burdensome. For
whatever is
born of God
overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has over-
come the
world—our faith. And who is the one who overcomes the
world, but
he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? (1 John 5:1-5).
In these verses John showed that the
varied relationships of
love are all related to God in the Christian life.
He stated the rela-
tionship between saving faith
and the experience of love (v. 1), he
noted that love is revealed in obedience to God's
commandments (vv.
2-3), and he portrayed the power of saving faith in a
life of victory
over the world (vv. 4-5).
216
An Exposition of 1 John
5:1-12 217
THE
REVELATION OF LOVE IN SAVING FAITH (v. 1)
John's assertion, "Whoever
believes that Jesus is the Christ is
born of God," declares the content and result
of Christian faith. The
designation, "Whoever believes" (pa?j o[ pisteu<wn,
literally, "ev-
eryone believing"), is
personal but includes every individual thus
characterized; it stresses the
universal scope of the fact presented.
The
present participle denotes that the individual exercises a per-
sistent, continuous faith. The
verb, a favorite term with John,1 means
more than intellectual apprehension of a truth or
assent to a creed; it
involves an active personal committal to the
truth believed. Smal-
ley notes that "such
(orthodox) faith is virtually synonymous with
the 'confession' or 'acknowledgment' demanded of
the true believer
according to 2:22-23; 4:2, 15."2
It is a faith that intellectually ac-
cepts and actively commits
itself to the fact "that Jesus is the
Christ"
(o!ti ]Ishou?j e]stin o[ Xristo>j). The name
"Jesus" involves
acknowledgment of His true humanity, a
fact denied by Docetic
Gnosticism,
while "the Christ" refers to Him as "the anointed One,"
the Messiah whose coming was announced in the Old
Testament.
Repeatedly John had said that
"Jesus" is indeed "the Son of
God" (1:7; 3:8, 23; 4:9, 15). The present tense
"is" declares that His
incarnate identity is a continuing, unchanging
reality. Acceptance of
Jesus
as "the Christ" involves acceptance of all His functions as the
incarnate Christ. It is a faith that accepts the
redemptive message
of the Old and New Testaments. John stressed that
salvation is not
merely for an elite few believers but is for all who
will personally
accept the apostolic message "that Jesus is the
Christ." Everyone
who commits himself to this Savior "is born of
God" (e]k tou? qeou?
gege<nnhtai, literally, "out
of God has been born") The emphatic
"out of God" stresses the source of the believer's
birth; the perfect
tense looks back to when God implanted new life in
the believer and
portrays his continuing possession of that new
life as a member of
God's family. John declared the
reality of the believer's new birth,
but, as Westcott observes, "nothing is said of
the relation between
the human and the Divine—the faith of man, and 'the
seed of God'
(iii. 9)—in the first quickening of life."3
1
The verb "believe" in its varied
forms occurs 98 times in the Fourth Gospel; it has
already been used three times before (3:23; 4:1,
16) in 1 John and occurs five times in
5:1-10.
The noun "faith" (pi<stij) occurs only in 5:4 in
John's epistles, and does not occur
in the Fourth Gospel.
2 Stephen S. Smalley, 1, 2, 3 John, Word Biblical Commentary, vol. 51 (
Word
Books, Publisher, 1984), p. 266.
3
Brooke Foss Westcott, The Epistles of St John, 3d ed. (1892; reprint,
Wm.
B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1950), pp. 176-77.
218 Bibliotheca
Sacra / April–June 1990
John's connective "and" (kai>) inseparably joins this
saving faith
with a loving relationship to the Father and His
children: "and
whoever loves the Father loves the child born of
Him." The use of
"whoever" (pa?j
o[) again
makes this assertion personal but inclusive
of all those so characterized, while the articular participle ren-
dered "loves" (o[
a]gapw?n) pictures the individual as marked by a
continuing love for "the Father" (to>n
gennh<santa), the One who as a
definite act begat him and so made him His child.
Since the Father is characterized as
a God of love, the child
born of Him is also marked by an attitude of love.
His love for the
Father
naturally means that he is to "love the child born of Him"
(a]gap%? to>n gegennhme<non e]c au]tou?,
"loves the one having been be-
gotten of Him"). John's use of the singular
throughout the verse indi-
cates that this God-prompted
love operates on an individual basis,
not merely in a group relationship. Each member of
the family of
God
is born not only to love but also to be loved. This family love is
the outward manifestation that new life has been
imparted. "This
love," Hodges remarks, "does not spring
from something loveable in
the person himself, but from his paternity."4
It does not necessarily
express itself as a warm emotional reaction
toward the one loved, nor
does it always run with the natural inclinations of
one's individual
nature, but it does seek the true welfare of the one
loved. It reveals
itself in its beneficence toward others.
THE
REVELATION OF LOVE IN OBEDIENCE TO GOD (vv. 2-3)
In verse 2 John insisted that true
love operates in two directions:
"By
this we know that we love the children of God, when we love
God
and observe His commandments." In 4:20-21 he insisted that true
love for God also involves love of one's brother in
Christ. Now John
stressed the converse truth; every instance of
love and obedience to
God
is assurance that one loves His children. Unfortunately at times
the tense relations between believers raise the
question whether
they truly love each other. John now pointed out
reassuring evidence
that true believers do "love the children of
God." Because of the
very nature of Christian love, believers have
evidence of love for
God's children "when we love God and
observe His commandments."
The
temporal particle "when" (o!tan, better, "whenever") points to
the repeated occasions when they are aware that
they do indeed
"love God and observe His commandments" (to>n
qeo>n a]gapw?men kai>
ta>j
e]ntala>j au]tou? poiw?men) . These two present tense
verbs5 are
4 Zane C. Hodges, "1 John," in The Bible Knowledge Commentary, New
Testament,
ed. John F. Walvoord and
Roy B. Zuck (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1983), p. 901.
5 The use of the subjunctive mode with the
indefinite temporal particle indicates
An Exposition of 1 John
5:1-12 219
contemporaneous with the preceding verb
"we know" (ginw<skomen);
the conscious experiences of a person's love for
God offer assurance
that he does love His children. A Christian in
fellowship with the
Father
naturally loves His children. As Plummer remarks, "Love to
God
and love to the brethren confirm and prove each other. If either
is found alone it is not genuine. Fellowship with
God and fellowship
one with another (i. 3,
7) necessarily exist together."6
The nature of love for God is given
a double statement: it consists
in love for Him and obedience to His commandments.
A Christian
shows his love for God in each conscious effort to do
His known will.
The
plural "His commandments" suggests that God has given various
statements of His will for His people which relate
to various aspects
of Christian living. The present tense verb
"observe" (poiw?men) de-
notes the repeated occasions when they deliberately
act to do God's
will. Elsewhere in this epistle John used the verb
"keep" (thre<w) in
connection with "the commandments" (2:3,
4; 3:22, 24; 5:3), suggesting
the exercise of diligent care to carry out what God
enjoined. The
Greek
manuscripts are divided in their use of the verb here.7
The opening "For" (ga<r) of verse 3 introduces
a further comment
on the last clause of verse 2: "For this is
the love of God, that we keep
His commandments." "This" (au!th) looks forward to the
following
"that" clause, which gives a pithy definition of
"the love of God" (h[
a]ga<ph tou?
qeou?). The definite article
"the" "indicates that John
has in mind the particular selfless love that has
been under discus-
sion throughout the
epistle."8 The genitive "of God" is clearly objec-
tive, denoting one's love
for God as revealed in the fact "that we
keep His commandments" (i!na ta>j
e]ntola>j au]tou? thrw?men9). As
Stott
remarks, "Love for God is not an emotional experience so much
as moral obedience."10
The added words, "and His
commandments are not burdensome,"
explain the impact of these commandments in the
experience of the
that the time of these experiences is indefinite;
they do not occur according to a prear-
ranged time schedule.
6 A. Plummer, The Epistles of S. John,
(1883;
reprint,
7 For the textual evidence see United Bible
Societies, The Greek New Testament,
3d
ed. (New York: American Bible Society, 1975). On a scale of A to D
the editors rate
the reading (poiw?men) as C. It is probable
that this unusual term was changed in some
manuscripts to harmonize with John's usage elsewhere
in the epistle.
8 Donald W. Burdick, The Letters of John the Apostle: An In-Depth Commentary
(Chicago:
Moody Press, 1985), p. 345.
9 The subjunctive mode of the verb is due to
the i!na construction.
10
John
R. W. Stott, The Epistles of John, Tyndale
New Testament Commentaries
(Grand
Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1964), p.
173.
220 Bibliotheca
Sacra / April–June 1990
believer. Love-prompted obedience is not a
crushing burden that ex-
hausts the believer's strength
and destroys his sense of freedom in
Christ.
He finds that the new life in Christ makes obedience possible
and has implanted in him a desire to do the will of
God; for he real-
izes that God has given His
laws for the believer's own protection
and highest welfare. He finds in them guidance
concerning "what the
will of God is, that which is good and acceptable
and perfect" (Rom.
12:2).
For him "the statutes again become songs, and the
command-
ments prove to be the
stepping-stones to freedom."11 As Dodd points
out, John "does not mean that God's demands
upon us are less exacting
than we supposed, but that they are accompanied by
the assurance of
power to fulfil them."12
God's commandments become burdensome
whenever a Christian desires to do something
inconsistent with His
directives; when a believer attempts to carry out
his own will, God's
commandments seem cruel and
restrictive and fellowship with God is
broken. Then he finds that he must come back to a
loving obedience.
THE
REVELATION OF LOVE IN OVERCOMING FAITH (vv. 4-5)
That God's commandments are not
burdensome is because of the
faith-inspired victory that the new
birth brings into one's life: "For
whatever is born of God overcomes the
world." The neuter
"whatever" (pa?n
to>)
presents the victory impersonally, stressing not
"the victorious person" but rather "the victorious
power."13 And the
perfect passive articular
participle (to> gegennhme<non), "that which
has been begotten") presents this power as the
abiding result of the
new birth. The passive turns the attention from the
believer himself
to the God who wrought the new birth in him. This
God-implanted
power is the true dynamic that "overcomes the
world" (nik%?
to>n
ko<smon). The present tense
verb presents this victory as a continuing
experience gained through continuing struggle
against "the world."
The
term "gathers up the sum of all the limited, transitory powers
opposed to God which make obedience
difficult"14 for the believer.
The
new birth enables him to recognize the evil nature of the world
and "all that is in the world" (2:16) and
to reject its allurements. In-
cluded in this victory was the
successful struggle of the believers
against the heretics that had arisen in their
midst (2:18-29).
11 R. E.
O. White, Open Letter to Evangelicals: A
Devotional and Homiletic Com-
mentary on the First Epistle of John (
1964),
p. 126.
12 C. H. Dodd, The Johannine Epistles, The Moffatt New Testament Commentary
(New
York: Harper & Row, 1946), p. 126.
13 Plummer, The Epistles of S. John, p. 157 (italics his).
14 Westcott, The Epistles of
An Exposition of 1 John
5:1-12 221
John
identified this victorious power: "and this is the victory
that has overcome the world—our faith" (5:4b).
The demonstrative
pronoun "this" (au!th) looks forward to the appositional designation
"our faith," placed emphatically at the end of the
statement. The
noun "the victory" (h[
ni<kh) occurs only here in
the New Testament,
but the term was common in the contemporary Greek
world. John's
expression, "the victory that has
overcome" (h[ ni<kh h[ nikh<sasa,
literally, "the victory, the one which
overcame") indicates that
this victory has the character of a specific,
decisive conquest. The
articular aorist participle,
appositionally describing "the victory,"
points to some specific victory gained in the past.
The nature of this victory has been
differently understood. Some
take it as a reference to Christ's once-for-all
victory over Satan (John
12:31-32; 14:30) and the world (16:33) through
His work on the cross.
Then
the believer's victory is gained by appropriating the victory
already won by Christ. Thus
sus has been victorious is
to have the power that enables us also to
win the battle, for we know that our foe is already
defeated and
therefore powerless."15 Others
insist that the victory in view here
is not Christ's victory but the believer's
victory, since John described
it as "our faith" (h[
pi<stij h[mw?n).16 If "our" refers to believers, the
victory in view would be gained over the
heretics, causing them to
withdraw (1 John 2:18-19). More natural is a
reference to the conver-
sion of the individual
believer, his confession of faith in Jesus as the
Son
of God being seen as "part of the assault which inflicts defeat on
the world."17 Clearly the picture
is of the believer exercising ag-
gressive, personal faith in
overcoming the world. But since John at
once pointed out that the one who thus overcomes the
world has
placed his faith in "Jesus" as "the Son
of God" (5:5), he made it clear
that the believer's victorious faith derives its
true power from his
union with the victorious Christ. Each victory gained
by the be-
liever over his old self, the
world, and Satan is realized through an
appropriation of the power of Christ.
In verse 5 John's question turns
from the principle of victory to
the victorious individual: "And who is the one
who overcomes the
world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of
God?" The inter-
rogative "who" (ti<j) asks for the personal
identification of the one
15
the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1978), p. 229.
16 So Burdick, The Epistles of John the Apostle, pp. 346-47; Kenneth Grayston, The
Johannine Epistles, The New Century Bible
Commentary (
Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1984), p. 134.
17 Grayston, The Johannine
Epistles, p. 134.
222 Bibliotheca
Sacra / April–June 1990
characterized as overcoming the
world. Instead of leaving it as an
independent question (as in the NIV rendering), John
continued with a
suggested answer: "but he who believes that
Jesus is the Son of God?"
(ei] mh>
o[ pisteu<wn o!ti ]Ihsou?j e]stin o[ ui[o>j tou? qeou?, more liter-
ally, "if not the one believing that Jesus is
the Son of God"). The im-
plication is that if the one so
described is not victorious over the
world, then no one is. John closely combined the
victory of the be-
liever with what he believes.
No one who denies the apostolic
teaching that "Jesus is the Son of God"
can claim true victory over
the world, which is characterized by its rejection
of the Son'of God
(John
1:10-11). To deny that Jesus is the Son of God is to deny the fact
of the Incarnation. This article of faith
underlies all the other parts
of the Christian message; to destroy this truth is
to destroy the
whole gospel and effectively to nullify God's
provision for victory
over sin and the world. Acceptance of the apostolic
message that
"Jesus
is the Christ, the Son of God" (20:31) gives the believer per-
sonal assurance and sure
victory in his conflict with the forces of evil.
Assurance from the Witness of the Spirit
This is the one who came by water
and blood, Jesus Christ; not with the
water only,
but with the water and with the blood. And it is the Spirit
who bears
witness, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three
that bear
witness, the Spirit and the water and the blood; and the three
are in
agreement. If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God
is greater;
for the witness of God is this, that He has borne witness con-
cerning His Son. The one who believes in the Son of
God has the wit-
ness in
himself; the one who does not believe God has made Him a liar,
because he
has not believed in the witness that God has borne con-
cerning His Son. And the witness is this, that God has given us eternal
life, and
this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who
does not
have the Son of God does not have the life (1 John 5:6-12).
In verses 6-12 John spoke of another
basis for Christian assur-
ance, namely, the witness of
the Holy Spirit. In this section the con-
trolling factor is the term "witness,"
which in its varied forms as a
noun or verb occurs nine times in these verses.
Faith in Jesus Christ is
based on valid testimony. In verses 6-9 John pointed
to the historical
witnesses to Jesus Christ, and in verses 10-12 he
dealt with the hu-
man responses to the divine witness and their
divergent results.
THE
HISTORICAL WITNESSES TO JESUS CHRIST (vv. 6-9)
John called attention to two
historical facts that bear witness to
Christ
(v. 6), he indicated that the Spirit, as a witness, is the truth
(v.
7), he declared the agreement of these witnesses to Christ (v. 8),
and he insisted on the trustworthiness of the
divine witness (v. 9).
The historical facts connected with Christ's coming (v. 6). Con-
An Exposition of 1 John
5:1-12 223
cerning "Jesus . . . the
Son of God" (v. 5), John now asserted, "This is
the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ."
The demonstra-
tive pronoun
"this" (ou$to<j) refers back to the
designation "Jesus .. .
the Son of God" in verse 5, while the
appositional identification,
"Jesus
Christ" (v. 6), establishes His historical identity as Jesus of
came" (o[ e]lqw>n) suggests the familiar messianic title "the coming
One"
(o[ e]rxo<menoj).
The aorist participle portrays His coming as a
past historical reality; this assures that the words
"by water and
blood" (di
] u!datoj kai> ai@matoj) also point to historical realities.
The
coming in view here is not His condescension to the earth but is
His public appearing as the promised Messiah. The terms "water
and blood" serve somehow to depict His
messianic office. The usage
of the terms is obscure to the modern reader, but
obviously their in-
tended significance was familiar to John's readers,
and apparently
had arisen out of the theological controversy with
the heretical
teachers (2:18-19). Varied interpretations have
been advanced.
The oldest and most natural view
understands "water" as a ref-
erence to Christ's baptism
with the attendant witnesses to His iden-
tity at the commencement of
His public ministry, and "blood" to the
termination of His ministry on the cross. The two
terms serve to sum
up Christ's work of redemption. As Plummer notes,
Christ's Baptism, with the Divine
proclamation of Him as Son of God
and the
Divine outpouring of the Spirit upon Him, is not merely the
opening but
the explanation of the whole of His Ministry. The bloody
death upon
the Cross is not merely the close but the explanation of His
Passion.18
A second view, adopted by Augustine
(354-430)19 and some other
early interpreters, linked the "water and
blood" with the "blood
and water" that issued from His spear-pierced
side on the cross (John
19:34-35).
Though it has received some modern support,20
this view
is scarcely tenable. The reverse order of the two
terms is against it.
The
point of the two references is very different: here the terms are
used to support the reality of the historical
ministry of the incarnate
Son
of God; in John's account of the crucifixion the mention of "blood
and water" serves to establish the reality of
His physical death.
Nor
does this view explain John's added words, "not with the water
only, but with the water and with the blood."
18 Plummer, The Epistles of S. John, p. 158.
19 The dates are those given in J. D. Douglas,
ed., The New International Dictionary
of the Christian Church (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House,
1974), p. 86.
20 So W. Alexander, "The First Epistle
General of John," in The Speaker's Commen-
tary, New Testament (London: John Murray, 1881), 4:341-42, 348-50;
F. W. Farrar, The
Early Days of Christianity (
224 Bibliotheca
Sacra / April—June 1990
A third view, going back to the time
of the Reformers, sees in
the two terms a reference to Christian baptism
(water) and the
Lord's Supper (blood). This view encounters
the problem of the aorist
tense of the term rendered "came" as
denoting a past historical
event, while Christian baptism and the Lord's Supper
are recurring
observances that relate to the ongoing life of the
church. Further,
the simple word "blood" is a strange and
unprecedented symbol for
the Lord's Supper.
The view that "water and
blood" are shorthand references to
the inauguration and consummation of the public
ministry of the in-
carnate Christ is in accord
with John's added assertion, "not with
the water only, but with the water and with the
blood" (v. 6b). John
insisted that the realities denoted by
"water and blood" cannot be
separated in dealing with the coming and work of
Jesus Christ.
Clearly
John was countering the heretical views of the false teach-
ers. His refusal to
separate the two realities of Christ's baptism and
crucifixion may well be a denial of two kinds of
incipient Gnosticism.
Docetic Gnosticism denied that Jesus Christ
really had a human
body; He only appeared to be a real man. This was a
blatant denial
of the reality of the Incarnation; since He did
not have a real body,
He
could not be viewed as having experienced the physical suffer-
ings of the crucifixion. It
was also a denial of the heretical views of
Cerenthus, a late contemporary of the Apostle John
at
Cerenthus separated the man Jesus from the
spiritual Christ. He re-
garded Jesus as a mere man,
the son of Joseph and Mary; he taught
that the divine Christ came on the man Jesus at His
baptism, em-
powered His ministry, but left Him before His
crucifixion. The man
Jesus
suffered and rose again, but the divine Christ remained impas-
sible. John denied all such
attempts to sever the divine-human na-
ture of the incarnate
Christ, Jesus the Son of God.
John's change in the preposition
used in the two parts of verse 6
has evoked considerable discussion. He first spoke
of Christ coming
"by
[di ]] water and blood" and then as coming "not with [e]n] the
ter only,
but with [e]n]
the water and with [e]n] the blood." (The use of
the definite articles in the second part simply
points back to the
"water and blood" just mentioned). Some interpreters
hold that both
prepositions here have the force of
"by" or "through" and that the
change is simply "for the sake of literary
variety."22 Others, like
Lenski, hold
that some change in the picture is present.
The mission on which God sent his
Son and in which he came as "Savior
of the
world" (4:14) made him use these two means (dia<), water and
21 Irenaeus Heresies 3. 3. 4.
22 Burdick, The Epistles of John the Apostle, pp. 367-68.
An Exposition of 1 John
5:1-12 225
blood; when
he came, it was not "in connection with" water alone (as the
heretics
claimed) but "in connection with the water and in connection
with the
blood." ... The dia<
states what
the connection indicated by e]n
was: it was
the connection of means.23
Plummer noted that this use of
"with," literally "in," denoting the
element or sphere in which a thing is done may
be due to the Septu-
agint rendering in Leviticus
16:3: "Thus Aaron shall enter into the
holy place in a calf of the herd" (e]n
ma<sx& e]k bow?n), that is, "with
a calf."24 Whatever distinctions
may be intended by the two prepo-
sitions, both refer to the same
historical events.
The
witness of the Spirit (v. 7).25 Beside
the two historical
events that bear witness to Jesus as Messiah, John
further pointed to
the witness of the Holy Spirit:26
"And it is the Spirit who bears
witness" (kai>
to> pneu?ma< e]stin
to> marturou?n, "and the Spirit is the
One bearing witness"). The Spirit is now
described by His activity
as the Witness-bearer. The present tense
participle27 indicates that
"His
testimony is given now and uninterruptedly."28 Without His
testimony the true significance of the "water
and blood" remain unin-
telligible to the natural human
heart. In verse 6 the aorist tense
marked that Jesus Christ came once for all to carry
out His redemp-
tive mission; but the Spirit
is ever at work interpreting and applying
the significance of Christ's mission to human
hearts. The Book of
Acts
is essentially a record of the witness of the Spirit through God's
people and the Scriptures. He still continues to bear
witness "in the
believer's heart and in the believing community;
their experience of
His
power and guidance confirms the truth of the gospel to which
they have committed themselves."29
23 R. C.
H. Lenski, The Interpretation of
the Epistles of St. Peter,
(Minneapolis:
Augsburg Publishing House, 1966), pp. 525-26. See also
Epistles of John, p. 232, n. 6.
24 Plummer, The Epistles of S. John, p. 159.
25 When
the English Revised Version (1881) dropped the spurious passage concerning
the three heavenly witnesses, the verse numbering
was moved back to give a more
balanced verse division. This numbering was also
used in the ASV (1901), the NASB,
and the RSV. The
verse numbering.
26 Henry Alford mentions five views concerning
the meaning of "Spirit" here, all of
which he rightly rejects as contrary to the context (The New Testament for English
Readers [reprint,
27
The
neuter form of the participle is due to the neuter gender of the Greek word for
Spirit,
pneu?ma.
28 Westcott, The Epistles of
29 F. F. Bruce, The Epistles of John (Old Tappan, NJ:
Fleming H. Revell Co., 1970), p. 119.
226 Bibliotheca
Sacra / April—June 1990
The agreement of the three witnesses (v.
8). John spoke of three
witnesses: "For there are three that bear
witness" (o!ti trei?j ei]sin
oi[ marturou?tej).30 The
exact force of the opening "for" (o!ti) is not
obvious. After noting varied suggestions,
Burdick concludes, "It is
certain that the conjunction is loosely used to
introduce the notewor-
thy fact that there are three witnesses, but to
attempt to penetrate
John's
exact train of thought any further is mere guesswork."31 Smal-
ley renders, "indeed,
there are three witnesses."32 The number
"three" stresses that the number of witnesses assures
that their tes-
timony is reliable and
authentic (cf. Deut. 19:15). The present tense
participle pictures them as living personal
witnesses; John named
them as being "the Spirit and the water and the
blood" (to> pneu?ma
kai>
to> u!dwr kai> to>
ai$ma).33 Though the three have already been
mentioned, John now drew them together and named
the Spirit first.
As
Alford notes,
The Spirit is, of the three, the
only living and active witness, properly
speaking:
besides, the water and the blood are no witnesses without
Him, whereas He is independent of
them, testifying both in them and
out of
them.34
Yet
John is fully justified in citing "the water and the blood" as wit-
nesses to Jesus Christ. Inanimate objects can bear a
strong witness
when their history is known and understood. In John
5:36 Jesus de-
clared that His own works bear
witness to Him; in Hebrews 11:4 the
author asserted that the faith-prompted sacrifice of
Abel still
speaks; in Genesis 31:48 a heap of stones put up by
Jacob and Laban is
30 The Textus Receptus, represented in the King James Version, here adds
the so-
called Comma Johanneum, which reads as follows: "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." The
italics mark the words for which there is no
valid authority in the Greek manuscripts. They are
absent from all Greek uncial
manuscripts; four late cursive manuscripts have them
where they appear to be a trans-
lation from the Latin Vulgate.
No version of the first four centuries gives them; none
of the Greek church fathers quoted the words in
their controversies concerning the
Trinity. Research has shown that the words
originated as a gloss on John's text in
Latin
that later was included as part of the text. The internal evidence is also decid-
edly against their
authenticity. See Bruce M. Metzger, A
Textual Commentary on the
Greek New Testament (London: United Bible
Societies, 1971), pp. 716-18.
31 Burdick, The Epistles of John the Apostle, pp. 369-70.
32 Smalley, 1,
2, 3 John, p. 281.
33 These three Greek nouns are all in the neuter
gender, yet the preceding numeral
and participle are masculine gender, constituting
"a testimony, the more striking be-
cause involuntary, to the personality of the
Spirit" (David Smith, "The Epistles of
mans
Publishing Co., n.d.], 5:195).
34 Alford, The New Testament for English Readers, p. 1750.
An Exposition of 1 John
5:1-12 227
called a "witness" (also see Josh. 22:10, 27;
24:27).
The witness of "the water and
the blood" in verse 8 has been un-
derstood in two different ways.
One view is that while in verse 6
they are historical, bearing witness to Christ's
baptism and crucifix-
ion, in verse 8 they refer to the Christian
ordinances of baptism and
the Lord's Supper.35 It is held that the
present tense "bear witness"
cannot refer to the past life and death of Jesus but
must refer to the
repeated sacramental testimony in the Christian
church. But such a
proposed change of the meaning of "the water
and the blood" here
"is rather arbitrary since there is nothing in the context
that indi-
cates that John has changed
the meaning of the two terms."36 It is
preferable to hold that the two terms have the same
meaning in
both verses.37 The present tense points
to the fact that the water and
the blood continue to bear witness whenever the
historical records of
Christ's
baptism and death are read or proclaimed.
John added the further fact that
"the three are in agreement"
(kai> oi[ trei?j
ei]j to> e!n ei]sin, "the three are [witnesses] unto one
thing"). All three agree in proclaiming the
truth concerning Jesus
Christ,
the Son of God. This witness is in striking contrast to that of
the false witnesses at the trial of Jesus who could
not agree in estab-
lishing a valid charge against
Jesus (Matt. 26:59-61; Mark 14:55-59).
The trustworthiness of the divine witness (v.
9). John used a
conditional sentence to present the trustworthiness
of this witness:
"If
we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater."
John's
"if" implies no doubt and is an argument from the lesser to the
greater. If a person did not believe the
testimony of those around
him in everyday life, he simply could not get
along. People receive
the testimony of others as reliable unless they
have reason to doubt
their honesty. John implied that there is no reason
to doubt God's
witness because it "is greater" (mei<zwn
e]sti<n), is more reliable and
trustworthy. The unbeliever is less reasonable with
God than he is
vv:ith men. The threefold
witness of verse 8 is, really "the witness of
God" because He is behind it all.
The divine witness is "that He
has borne witness concerning His
Son"
(o!ti memartu<rhken peri> tou? ui[ou? au]tou?). The force of the con-
junction (o!ti) may be understood in
different ways. It can be taken (a)
as a relative conjunction (o[
ti<, "that which, whatever") as simply
recording the fact that God has given testimony
concerning His Son,
without indicating its contents; (b) as causal,
"because He has wit-
35 So Rudolf Bultmann,
The Johannine
Epistles, Herrnenia (
Press,
1973), pp. 80-81; Dodd, The Johannine
Epistles, pp. 130-31.
36 Burdick, The Epistles of John the Apostle, p. 370.
37 Ibid., pp. 370-71; and Smalley, 1, 2, 3 John, pp. 281-82.
228 Bibliotheca
Sacra / April–June 1990
nessed concerning His
Son"; or (c) as declarative, the witness is "that
He
has indeed borne witness concerning His Son." The third view
seems the most probable.
John declared that God has placed
Himself permanently on
record (perfect tense) as having borne witness to His
Son. He did so
prophetically in the Old Testament.
He did so explicitly on at least
three occasions as recorded in the Gospels—at His baptism
(Matt.
3:16-17;
Mark 1:10-11), at His transfiguration (Matt. 17:5; Mark 9:7;
Luke
9:35); in the hearing of the multitude during Passion Week
(John
12:27-29)—as well as nonverbally in the miracles at His cruci-
fixion, as well as at the
resurrection. According to Hebrews 1:1-2 the
Son
Himself was the embodiment of God's highest and final self-
revelation to mankind.
THE
EFFICACY OF THE DIVINE WITNESS (vv. 10-12)
John now turned to the impact of
this divine witness on mankind.
In
verse 10 he set forth the contrasted result of men's response to the
witness, and in verses 11-12 he declared the
relationship of the Son
to the possession of eternal life.
The responses to God's witness (v. 10).
Individuals respond ei-
ther positively or
negatively to God's witness. The results are cru-
cial. Positively, "The
one who believes in the Son of God has the
witness in himself." The articular participle, "the one who be-
lieves" (o[
pisteu<wn) portrays the
individual as exercising a continu-
ing faith centered on the
Son of God. The verb "believe," occurring
thrice in this verse, embodies the essence of man's
response to God's
witness. It involves not merely an acceptance of
the truthfulness of
the message but also a personal trust in or
committal to the One to
whom witness is borne. The expression "believes
in the Son" (pis-
teu<wn
ei]j to>n ui[o>n) pictures faith as
moving toward and resting on
the Son.38 Such a personal committal to
the incarnate Son of God is
central to the Christian faith. A result of such
faith is that the
believer "has the witness in himself" (e@xei th>n
marturi<an e]n
au]t&?); he possesses it as an
inner reality. The content of the witness
is the reality witnessed to by "the Spirit
and the water and the
blood" (v. 8) and confirmed by God's witness to
His Son (v. 9). The
indwelling Spirit makes this witness a vital inner
reality for the be-
liever. The expression
"in himself" (e]n au]t&?)39 indicates
that this
38 This is the first occurrence of
"believe" with ei]j ("into") in 1 John; it occurs 34
times in the Fourth Gospel and only 10 times in the
rest of the New Testament.
39 The
manuscripts are divided between au]t&? and the reflexive e[aut&?. For the evi-
dence see Nestle and Aland, Novum Testamentum Graece. In the
22d ed. (American
Bible
Society, 1956) they used au]t&? in
the 26th ed. (
stiftung, 1979) they used e[aut&?. Whatever the form, the meaning is clearly reflexive.
An Exposition of 1 John
5:1-12 229
message "which for others is external is
for the believer experiential
...
an inner conviction of life and cleansing and
redemption."40
Negatively, "the one who does
not believe God has made Him a
liar." The construction, "the one who does
not believe" (o[
mh> pis-
teu<wn), again describes the
individual by his characteristic refusal
to trust God enough to accept the testimony He has
given. This re-
fusal means he has no
personal relationship with God. Indeed he
"has made Him a liar" (yeu<sthn pepoi<hken
au]to<n).
His unbelief is
an attack on the very character of God.
"Unbelief," Stott remarks,
"is not a misfortune to be pitied; it is a sin to be
deplored."41
John underlined the nature of the
individual's unbelief, "because
he has not believed in the witness that God has
borne concerning His
Son." The perfect tense verb "he has not
believed" (ou]
pepi<steuken)
marks his state as a confirmed unbeliever. He has
placed himself on
record as not accepting God's witness concerning His
Son.
The witness concerning God's gift (vv.
11-12). John's "and" (kai>),
again links his further assertion with the preceding
discussion. The
dernonstrative pronoun
"this" in the words "and the witness is this"
(kai> au!th e]sti>n h[ marturi<a), stands emphatically forward and
looks to the following "that" clause which
unfolds the content of the
witness, namely, "that God has given us
eternal life" (o!ti
zwh>n
ai]w<nion
e@dwken h[mi?n o[ qeo<j). When the external witness is inter-
nally appropriated, it bears
witness to the fact that God has im-
parted "eternal life." The forward position
of the words "eternal
life" marks this life as the key concept in
these verses. Used with-
out an article, the term is qualitative; "it
is the highest kind of spir-
itual and moral life,
irrespective of time, which God enables the be-
liever to share in
relationship with Jesus."42 While this life contin-
ues on in the timeless ages
of eternity, God has already "given"
(e@dwken) this gift to the
believer as a present possession. The aorist
verb "given" naturally looks back to the
reception of this life at the
time of one's new birth. With "us" John
again included himself
among those possessing this precious gift.
Grammatically, the further
assertion, "and this life is in His
Son"
(kai>
au!th h[ zwh>
e]n t&? ui[&? au]tou?
e]stin), may be taken as "a
new independent statement, coordinated with the
first clause."43 So
understood it is John's own explanation concerning
God's gift of eter-
nal life to us. Others hold
that this clause is still part of God's wit-
40 Westcott, The Epistles of
41 Stott, The Epistles of John, p. 182.
42 Smalley, 1,
2, 3 John, p. 287.
43 Plummer, The Epistles of S. John, p. 163.
230 Bibliotheca
Sacra / April—June 1990
ness, that "God's 'testimony' relates not only
to his bestowal of life,
but also to the fact that the sole medium of its
bestowal is to be found
in Jesus."44 This view enriches
the content of the message and under-
lines the importance of adhering to the apostolic
message concerning
the incarnate Son. Our relationship with the Son is
crucial. As
Boice points out, "It is as impossible to have
life without having
Christ
as it is impossible to have Christ without at the same time
possessing eternal life."45 To be
united with the incarnate Son of God
is to be united with the Father who sent Him (Rom.
6:23; 2 Tim. 1:1).
The positive and negative statements
in verse 12 stress that
eternal life is inseparably related to God's Son
and personally ob-
tained only in union with Him.
Positively, "he who has the Son has
the life." The present tenses mark this
possession of life as a present
reality. It is only through this close and
living union between Christ
and the believer that eternal life can be
experienced. Smalley notes
that this possession of life in Christ involves a
reciprocal relation-
ship: "we have life 'in' Jesus (v. 11); but,
when this is appropriated,
God
through Christ lives 'in' the believer (cf. 3:24; also 2:24, 27, 28;
3:6,
9; 4:12, 13, 15, 16)."46
Negatively, "he who does not
have the Son of God does not
have the life." The full title "the Son of
God" spells out the true
identity of the One whom the unbeliever is
spurning. In the preced-
ing statement John placed
the articular designation "the life" after
the verb; now "the life" is placed emphatically
before the verb,
indicating that this life is beyond the grasp of
the one "who does not
have the Son." Apart from the Son he is
spiritually dead. Personal
repentance and true submission to and acceptance of
Jesus Christ as
the Son of God is the only hope for attaining
"the life" that is life
indeed.
44 Smalley, 1,
2, 3 John, p. 287.
45
James,
ing House, 1979), p. 166.
46
Smalley, 1,
2, 3 John, p. 288.
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