First John 5:2

John is continuing on the great theme of love: love for God and love for the children of God. The Bible says in First John 5:2, “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.” Of course, the Apostle John was emphasizing just one of the commandments: the “new” commandment that Jesus gave back in the gospels to love one another. But there are other commandments, and the other commandments are important to keep also. You cannot say that you love God, unless you also desire to keep His commandments. That is what repentance is all about. Part of repentance is when you turn from doing wrong to doing right. Someone who loves God is someone who asks this question, “What is God’s commandment? What is the right thing? That is what I want to do.”

You cannot choose which commandments of Jesus to obey. You cannot say, “Okay, I will obey this one commandment, and then I am all right.” It is the highest of standards that we have been given, we who are believers in Jesus Christ. The same God who said, “Thou shalt not steal,” also said, “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” Are you loving God if you say, “I will not steal, but I am so lonely I am going to commit adultery.” No, you are not loving God, you are loving yourself. Would you be loving God if you say, “I love all the other believers, and I will show my love by joining the compromises and the unholy alliances that some other believers have joined?” No, you would not be loving God and you would not be loving the other believers because you would be encouraging the believers to do what they ought not to do.

You cannot do whatever you want in the name of love, because true love starts with God, and if you love God you will desire to keep all of His commandments: not just a select few. The Bible says in First John 5:3, “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.” The last phrase of this verse is an understatement: “his commandments are not grievous.” The word “grievous” means heavy, weighty, a burden that weighs down upon you. The problem is that some people think that one or more commandments are grievous. They think that the commandment will keep them from some pleasure or some personal desire and therefore the commandment is grievous, but actually the opposite is true. It is the sin that will be a burden to you and will weigh you down. Jesus said, “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavily laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Jesus also said, “I am come that you might have life, and that you might have it more abundantly.” “His commandments are not grievous.”

The challenge of life has a lot to do with keeping the commands of Jesus or not keeping them. It started out that way in the Garden of Eden, and it is still that way. Are you going to keep the commandments of God that you know full well, or are you going to listen to other ideas and break the commandments? Adam and Eve made their choice and the grievous results of that terrible choice are still with us today. Sin has terrible consequences. Jesus came into the world to save people from the consequences of their sin. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son…” If you are saved through faith in Christ, before you were saved your problem was the commandments that you so easily had broken. If you are now saved, you now have the capacity to keep the commandments of God.

The world, the flesh, and the devil will pull you in one direction; but God will call you to another direction. Every person on this earth is involved in a great personal battle. How will you win the battle? The Bible says in First John 5:4, “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” Two things are mentioned that give the victory over the world. The first is to be born of God, and the second is to have faith. Of course, the two work hand in hand. Jesus taught the importance of being born again. Jesus said in John 3:5, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” And Jesus said in John 3:7, “Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.” The phrase “born again” means literally “born from above” or “born from on high.” It is the same thing as being born of God.

There is a new birth, there is a spiritual birth, that comes only from God through Christ. If you have received that spiritual birth then you have gained the victory over the world; because you have the most important of all victories in relation to the eternal destiny of your soul. There is nothing more important than you soul ending up in heaven forever. If you have been born again, then no matter what else happens, because you will end up in heaven with the Savior, you have won the greatest of all victories. Never forget how that victory came to you, because it is the same way that all other spiritual victories will come to you: faith. “This is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith.” Victory over sin comes by faith in Christ. Victory over the world comes by faith in Christ. Christ is alive and can do anything, so when you put your faith in Him when you were born again, He accomplished that which He chooses to accomplish and you have the victory.

The thing to remember is that the victory comes by faith. Faith is important. Faith is critical. Faith is the only way to have the victory. When you rely upon Christ, when you depend upon Christ, when you look to Christ, when you believe Christ, then and only then you have the victory. “This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” You cannot gain the victory without faith. “Above all take the shield of faith whereby ye shall quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.” “Without faith it is impossible to please God; for they that come to God must believe that he is and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” Faith is so important that you want to make sure that you exercise your faith and build it up. Build up yourself on your most holy faith. That takes practice so that it becomes your habit to react to each situation that happens to you by faith in the Lord and what He promised about that kind of circumstance. When you fail to use the principle of faith to react to something, confess it for what it is: sin; and you will be well on your way to living a life of faith. “Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” Know the promises of God so that your faith will have a basis to stand on. “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.”

Of course, this faith is faith in Jesus Christ, and it is faith in the divine Jesus Christ. First John 5:5 says, “Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?” It is not enough to say that you believe in Jesus. You must also say that you believe that He is the divine Son of God. That is the central issue concerning belief in Christ and having faith in Christ that overcomes the world. Jesus asked His disciples, “Whom do men say that I am?” If you have the wrong answer to that question, then you do not have true faith and you are yet in your sins.

In First John chapter 5:6 John tells us three important things about Jesus Christ. He writes, “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.” Jesus Christ came by water and blood. It seems to me that John is most likely speaking of the public ministry of Jesus Christ: the public ministry that started with the baptism of water and ended with the shedding of His blood on the cross. The public ministry was the manifestation of Jesus as the Christ. Up until His public ministry very little is know about Jesus from the standpoint of His day to day activities other than the fact that He lived a quiet life as a carpenter in a small town. If God chose to live a simple, quiet, hard-working life for most of the time that He was upon this earth then maybe that says something about the kind of life that you and I should aspire to.

Jesus came by water and blood, not by water only. John is emphasizing the importance of the blood of Christ, just as we all should. If you were to study the life of Christ and leave off the blood you would be missing the most important part. “Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission.” Without the shedding of blood there would be no forgiveness of sins. Without the shedding of the blood of Christ, we would have no hope because we would have no one who could save us from our sins. Jesus came by water and blood. His public ministry started with the water baptism, and His public ministry ended with His death on a Roman cross. What is there to let you know that the story about Jesus is true? That is the third thing that is said about Jesus in the verse that we are looking at: the Spirit bears witness of Jesus. You have the witness of the Spirit. Listen to the Spirit and you will know what is true, because the Spirit speaks what is true and He speaks of Jesus the Son of God.

In the world there are many different voices that pronounce their various beliefs or unbeliefs. Of course, the most important witness is the witness from God Himself. The witness of God is the only witness that is heard in heaven. In heaven there is only truth. There is no falsehood there. Concerning the witness that takes place in heaven the Bible says in First John 5:7, “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.” Of course, this verse is a great statement of the trinity. The concept of the trinity is found many, many places in the Bible; and this is one of them. The Word is Jesus Christ. “These three are one.” That is the trinity. You will never be able to fully explain the trinity, but you can believe it and declare it because of verses like this in the Bible.

Of course, the truth is known in heaven, and the truth can also be known on the earth. God has given witnesses so that the truth can be known. No one needs to be ignorant of the truth. How can people know the truth? They can know the truth by paying attention to the witnesses that God has given. There are three witnesses in the earth according to the next verse of the Bible. It says in First John 5:8, “And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.”

The Spirit is the first of the three witnesses that are mentioned here. Spiritual truth is only understood by the Spirit. You can teach until you are blue in the face, but unless the Spirit applies the truth to someone’s heart, no one will learn. That is why Jesus said that the greatest sin is to blaspheme against the Spirit. There is a point at which someone resists and says no to the Spirit, and that is a point of no return. No one can learn the truth without the Spirit, and if someone has cast away the Spirit forever, they can never learn the truth and thus they are doomed forever. What a terrible thing. Make sure that you listen to the Spirit. He will teach you wonderful things about Jesus that no human can ever teach you.

But humans are involved in the witness that God has given to the world, because the second witness is “water.” How is water a witness? Water is a witness by the baptism of water. That is one of the purposes of baptism and is probably the main purpose of water baptism: to be a public witness when someone makes a public declaration of their faith in Christ and in their belief that He has cleansed them from their sins. The water does not save. Only Jesus saves. But the water is a witness that this person has trusted in Christ to cleanse them. Salvation can take place in the privacy of one’s own home or anywhere where someone bows before the Savior. But water baptism is a public presentation. The water does not cleanse, but the water is symbolic of the cleansing that Jesus already gave to this person. That is why and how “water” is a witness just as First John 5:8 says that it is.

“Blood” is also a witness. The blood of Christ declares the seriousness of sin and its terrible consequences. The blood of Christ declares how much God loves the world. God sent His only Son to die a bloody death so the world could have a Savior. The blood of Christ declares that even you can be saved no matter how great are your sins because Jesus shed His blood for you. There is plenty of reason for everyone to believe. There are witnesses that God has put into the earth so that everyone can know and believe the truth. Listen to the witnesses. If someone comes to the end of their life and they did not believe, it is because they did not believe the witnesses. “There are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.”

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