1st, 2nd and 3rd John Week 6

Like all lost people, the false teachers called Gnostics needed to know the gospel. They need to know who God is. They need to know about sin. They need to know about repentance, They need to know that sin separates. They need to know Christ, the one who saves us from our sin. They need to know His love.

1 John 5:1-12

Verse 1 - The phrase "born of God" is a reference to the virgin birth of Jesus. If we are to love God, we must love Christ.

Verse 2 - Be clear, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. That curse, according to Paul's letter to the Romans, is sin and death. But Paul also says that Christ has redeemed us from the law. Jesus fulfilled the law.

Some take that to refer only to the ceremonial law. If that is the case, we are not saved. It is not from the ceremonial law that we have been saved, it is from the Mosaic Law. Ceremonial law did not condemn us, the Law of Moses condemned us. The book of Hebrews is clear, the Old Covenant is no longer relevant to us.

Remember, though, that Jeremiah and Hebrews teach that God's Law would be written on our hearts. We know what is right and wrong by the leading of the Holy Spirit who indwells us. And because we know God and have Him in our hearts, we keep His commandments...not as some kind of ritualistic behavior, but as an out-spewing of His Law of Love in us.

Notice that verse 2 does not say that others will know we are Christians by how we follow God's commandments. It says that we will know we are Christians by how we follow God's commandments.

Verse 3 - God's commandments are not grievous. They are joyful. They are fulfilling. They flow out of us from within.

Verse 4 - That which comes from God overcomes the world. Remember, the Gnostics sensed that the world is evil, but they reacted to its evil in an inappropriate way. John does not suggest that we do away with the world, but that we overcome it.

Verse 5- The only ones who can overcome the world are those who believe that Jesus really, truly is the actual Son of God.

Verses 6-8 - In a direct confrontation to the false teaching of the Gnostics, John proclaims that Jesus was physically born (water and blood). The Holy Spirit gives testimony in our hearts to the reality of Jesus. He also testifies to the physical nature of Jesus, who was 100% man and 100% God.

Verse 9 -In a court of law, man's testimony is accepted. John tells us that God's testimony is greater than man's. Men's testimony might contradict itself. God's never will.

Verse 10 - If you believe in the Son of God (another reference to Jesus' physicality), Jesus Christ, He lives in your heart. God gave testimony to His Son in the Old Testament Scriptures. He testifies to His Son today in the hearts of His people.

Verse 11 - God's testimony is that in Christ we are given eternal life, and that life is in Christ.

Verse 12 - You either have eternal life or you don't. There is no half-way. There is no "I guess so" or "I hope so." If the Holy Spirit is not testifying to your salvation, you are not saved. You need to repent of sin and turn in faith, trusting in and only in the finished work of Christ at the cross of Calvary. If you do not, you are dead in your sin.