1 John 5:1-12: Whoever has the Son has Life

Every believing-one [Nom MS Pres Act Part] that Jesus is the Christ, from God he has been born [Perf Pass Indic], and every loving-one [Nom MS Pres Act Part] of the Father [gennesanta Acc MS 1 Aor Act Part] loves [3S Pres Act Indic] the having-been-born-one [Acc MS Perf Pass Part] of him. 2In this we know [1Pl Pres Act Indic] that we love [1Pl Pres Act Indic] the children of God, whenever we love [1Pl Pres Act Subj] God and his commandments we do [1Pl Pres Act Indic]. 3For this is [3S Pres Act Indic] the love of God, that his commands we keep [1Pl Pres Act Subj], and his commands burdensome are [3Pl Pres Act Indic] not. 4For every having-been-born-one [Nom NeuS Perf Pass Part] from God overcomes [3S Pres Act Indic] the world, and this is [3S Pres Act Indic] the victory which overcomes [Nom FS 1 Aor Act Part] the world, our faith. 5But who is [3S Pres Act Indic] the overcoming-the-world-one [Nom MS Pres Act Part] if not the believing-one [Nom MS Pres Act Part] that Jesus is [3S Pres Act Indic] the Son of God? This is [3S Pres Act Indic] the having-come-one [Nom MS 2 Aor Act Part] by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not in the water only but in the water and in the blood. And the Spirit is [3S Pres Act Indic] the witnessing-one [Nom NeuS Pres Act Part], for the Spirit is [3S Pres Act Indic] the Truth. 7For three are [3Pl Pres Act Indic] the witnessing-ones [Nom MPl Pres Act Part], 8the Spirit and the water and the blood, and the three unto one are [3Pl Pres Act Indic]. 9If the witness of men we receive [1Pl Pres Act Indic], the witness of God greater is [3S Pres Act Indic]. For this is [3S Pres Act Indic] the witness of God that he has borne witness [3S Perf Act Indic] concerning his Son. 10The believing-one [Nom MS Pres Act Part] in the Son of God has [3S Pres Act Indic] the witness in himself; the not-believing-in-God-one [Nom MS Pres Act Part] a liar has made [3S Perf Act Indic] him, for he has not believed [3S Perf Act Indic] in the witness which God has borne witness [3S Perf Act Indic] concerning his Son. 11And this is [3S Pres Act Indic] the witness, that eternal life God has given [3S Perf Act Indic] us, and this life in his Son is [3S Pres Act Indic]. 12The having-the-Son-one [Nom MS Pres Act Part] has [3S Pres Act Indic] the life; the not-having-the-Son-of-God-one [Nom MS Pres Act Part] the life does not have [3S Pres Act Indic].
6 1

V. 1: John has already written extensively in this letter about the necessity of believing that Jesus is the Christ. The liar is the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ (1 John 2:22). It is Gods commandment that we believe in the name of Gods Son Jesus Christ (1 John 3:23). We are to test the spirits to ensure that they proclaim a message of Jesus Christs having coming in the flesh (1 John 4:1-6). John has also written already in this letter about what kind of love the Father has shown us by making us children of God (1 John 3:1), and he has described how those who practice righteousness have been born of him (1 John 2:29). Moreover, in chapter 3, John contrasted those who are the children of God, and those who are the children of the devil (1 John 3:1-10). Additionally, there are many references to our being of God (ek tou theou), which is merely a shortened form of being born of God (gegennetai ek tou theou). Finally, John has stressed as much as he has been able that we are bound to love the brothersthose who, like us, are also born of him (1 John 5:1). Loving one another is the old commandment that Jesus made new (1 John 2:7-11). The one who does not love his brother is not of God, and therefore is of the devil (1 John 3:10). Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, like Cain before them (1 John 3:11-15). Moreover, we are commanded to love because God himself is love (1 John 4:8, 16), and if God so loved us to give his only Son for us, then we also ought to love one another (1 John 4:11). But here in a single verse, John brings these three themesfaith in Jesus as the Christ, being born of God, and loving the brotherstogether seamlessly. What is fascinating is that both faith and love spring from being born of Godnot the other way around. Conservatives often speak of faith as the cause of being born of God, but faith is clearly the result of the new birth. Liberals (although they dont as often use born again language) tend to speak of love as the first priority, suggesting that showing love is what causes us to be genuine Christians. John rejects both ideas by proclaiming that whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ has [already] been born of God. As John Stott puts this: It shows clearly that believing is the consequence, not the cause, of the new birth. Our present, continuing activity of believing is the result, and therefore the evidence, of our past experience of new birth by which we became and remain Gods children.1 For now, though, John merely drops this controversial idea in our laps and moves onhe will return to spell out the importance of this doctrine later in the passage. V. 2: In v. 2, John states how we can know that we love the children of God, but my sense is that he is actually speaking in reverse. People typically know exactly what loving fellow believers looks like, but most often they downplay its importance by claiming to love God and to keep Gods commands in a personal, inward, pietistic kind of way. This (in my mind, at least) is the reason that John had just written: If anyone says I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother (1 John 4:20-21). Rather, what John has in view is this: loving God and keeping Gods commandments find inevitable expression in love for our brothers.

John Stott, The Epistles of John, an introduction and commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1964), 172.

V. 3: In v. 3, when John speaks of the love of God, he almost certain uses this as an objective genitive (For this is love for God). In other words, John is describing here how we go about loving God, not how God has gone about loving usand the answer is that we go about loving God by keeping his commandments (which are largely summed up in loving our fellow believers). But John says something striking here: And his commandments are not burdensome. Really? It isnt burdensome to love fellow believers who act so differently from the Jesus that you both claim to serve? How on earth can his commandments possibly be classified under the not burdensome category? John explains this in v. 4. V. 4: John tells us how keeping Gods commandments are not burdensome: we have overcome the world through the victory of our faith! John writes For (hoti), everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the worldour faith. Again, the chronological primacy goes to being born of God, not to faith. Everyone who has [already] been born of God overcomes the world. Being born of God leads to faith, which in turn overcomes the world. But what about faith overcomes the world? Read John Piper on 1 John 5:2-4: Read these sentences in reverse order and notice the logic. First, being born of God gives a power that conquers the world. This is given as the ground or basis (For) for the statement that the commandments of God are not burdensome. So being born of God gives a power that conquers our worldly aversion to the will of God. Now His commandments are not burdensome, but are the desire and delight of our heart. This is the love of God: not just that we do His commandments, but also that they are not burdensome. Then in verse 2 the evidence of the genuineness of our love for the children of God is said to be the love of God. What does this teach us about our love for the children of God? Since love for God is doing His will gladly rather than with a sense of burden, and since love for God is the measure of the genuineness of our love for the children of God, therefore our love for the children of God must also be done gladly rather than begrudgingly. Christian Hedonism stands squarely in the service of love, for it presses us on to glad obedience. 2 Our new birth grants us not only faith, but also a desire to love those fellow believers around us. When we act on that new desire, which stems from our new birth, we keep the commandments of Godand since we keep the commandments of God out of desire, not mere duty, those commandments are not burdensome. It is never burdensome for me to eat my wifes chocolate cake; it is, however, burdensome to go on a jog to work it off. I desire the former for its own sake; my duties of staying healthy for the sake of my family, my friends, and my ministry are a burden. Concerning the word for victory (nike), Donald Burdick writes: Although nike, victory, occurs only here in the New Testament, it was a common word in the Greek world, as both papyri and inscriptions reveal. On the Acropolis the Athenians had erected a small temple in honor of Athena Nike (bringer of victory). It was common to speak of the emperors nike as the ability to gain the victory. In 1 John the believers faith is the means of gaining victory over the world. 3

John Piper, Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist (Sisters, Oregon: Multnomah Publishers, Inc., 2003), 305. 3 Donald Burdick, The letters of John the Apostle : an in-depth commentary (Chicago: Moody Press, 1985), 346.

V. 5: But this overcoming of the world is not a generic faith that causes us to rise above our circumstancesthis is a specific faith; namely, faith in the fact that Jesus is the Son of God. To believe this happens only if it is revealed to us from heaven. The mere fact that we believe something as foolish as the idea that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God is proof itself that we have been born of God. V. 6: As I understand the discussion, many people believe that Johns reference to water and blood refers to Jesus baptism and his crucifixion. There is good reason to believe this, since one of the disputed points of Gnostic theology was that the divine Christ only descended upon the human Jesus at his baptism, but then abandoned the human Jesus before the crucifixion. So, on this reading, John is saying, NoJesus came not only by water (i.e., by baptism), but by water and blood (i.e., by crucifixion. There is a strong case for reading the passage this way; however, John also writes this in his gospel: [34] But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. [35] He who saw it has borne witnesshis testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truththat you also may believe. (John 19:34-35 ESV) On this reading, the water and the blood both occur at the same eventthe cross. When Jesus side was pierced to demonstrate that he was indeed already dead, both water and blood flowed out. John then immediately testifies to the truth of this blood and water, and he testifies to its truthfulness that you also may believe. I honestly dont know how to interpret this. John Stott argues against looking to John 19 for interpreting this passage. He explains: The second interpretation (adopted by Augustine and other ancient commentators) links the passage with the spear thrust and the issue of blood and water from the side of Jesus recorded in John xix. 34, 35. Certainly, both passages are Johannine, and both are associated with testimony, and the flow of blood and water was a past, historical event. Even so, it would be forced to say that in this incident Jesus came by (that is, through) water and blood, when in fact they came out of Him. Moreover, the link between blood and water and testimony, which we have observed in both passages, is not identical. In the Gospel it is the Evangelist who bears witness to them; here it is they which bear witness to Christ. Again, if in the Gospel they are taken as bearing any witness it must be to the reality of Christs death, and perhaps to the saving efficacy of it; but [page] here in the Epistle they bear witness to Christs divine-human Person. We need therefore to find an interpretation of the phrase which makes water and blood both historical experiences through which He passed and witnesses in some sense to His divinehuman Person.4 Burdick also chimes in against seeing John 19 as the referent of 1 John 5:6: Others have understood the expression as referring to the piercing of Christs side on the cross (John 19:34) and the consequent appearance of blood and water. But 1 John 5:6 stresses the fact that Christ came not by water only, which suggests that some were insisting that He did come by water alone. There would be no reason, however, for anyone to assert that water alone came from Christs pierced side. The denial assumed by Johns refutation does not fit the picture as seen in John 19:34. Furthermore, it is difficult to see how the event in John 19:34 could be described by saying, This is the one who came by water and blood.5

4 5

John Stott, The Epistles of John, an introduction and commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1964), 177-78. Donald Burdick, The letters of John the Apostle : an in-depth commentary (Chicago: Moody Press, 1985), 365.

In any case, however, John states emphatically that it is the Spirit who bears witness, for the Spirit is truth. We can (and should) believe the testimony of John, since he was there, and saw it for himself, but we have even stronger, more truthful testimony: the testimony of the Holy Spirit. V. 7-8: John then states that these three witnessesthe water, the blood, and the Spiritall agree. This is important, for no charge was to be upheld without the testimony of two or three witnesses (Deut. 19:15; 1 Tim. 5:19). Burdick also notes that: It is not enough to explain, as Marshall does, that the Spirit is able to bear witness. The expression to pneuma estin he aletheia is a very explicit declaration grammatically identifying the Spirit and the truth as one and the same. When both the subject and the predicate nominative in a copulative sentence have the article the two are usually interchangeable. To understand the extent to which this rule applies, it is helpful to look at a parallel in John 14:6 where Jesus declares, I am the way, and the truth, and the life. Jesus is the very embodiment of the truth. He is the truth in person. [William Hendrickson, The Gospel of John, The New Testament Commentary, p. 268.] In the same way it must be said that the Holy Spirit is the truth in person or the truth personified, which is much stronger than saying that He is truthful. He is the very source of truth. As such He is supremely qualified to bear witness concerning Jesus.6 The Spirits role as Truth Himself is indeed vital to the message of this passage. If he is not Truth Himself, then we are of all men most to be pitied. Should note the difference from the KJV: The KJV inclusion following the words, three that bear record, is as follows: in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth. These words do not appear in a single Greek manuscript of the New Testament prior to about 1520. The earliest Latin Vulgate manuscripts in which they are found come from about A.D. 800. The oldest appearance of the words was in a Latin work from the fourth century, known as Liber apologeticus. Because of a rash promise to include the questionable material if it could be found in a Greek manuscript, Erasmus reluctantly placed it in his text of the New Testament. There is no doubt but that the Greek manuscript shown to Erasmus was prepared for the occasion. The Erasmus text, with some alterations, became the basis for the Textus Receptus, from which the KJV was translated.7 V. 9: But more importantly, John wants us believing the testimony of the most authoritative source: If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son. No matter if a thousand men line up to testify against Jesus being the Son of God, we should throw out their case immediately upon hearing the testimony of God himself. The Holy Spirit, John intimates, is the person of the Trinity charged with bearing Gods official testimony to us concerning Jesus. V. 10: But then John says something striking: Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony
6

Donald Burdick, The letters of John the Apostle : an in-depth commentary (Chicago: Moody Press, 1985), 369. Donald Burdick, The letters of John the Apostle : an in-depth commentary (Chicago: Moody Press, 1985), 372. Burdick notes that The above material concerning 1 John 5:7-8 is based on Bruce M. Metzger, The Text of the New Testament, pp. 101-2.

that God has borne concerning his Son. Somehow, God actually puts this testimony in us, in which case we come to believe the Son of God. And, as we have seen already twice in this passage, the testimony in oneself precedes faith: Whoever believes in the Son of God already has the testimony in himself. On the other hand, whoever rejects the testimony of God concerning Jesus makes God out to be a liar. If you recall, making God out to be a liar was the blasphemous sin of 1 John 1:10: If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. V. 11: In v. 11, John finally spells out the nature of this testimony that God puts inside of us: And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Concerning the testimony of God, John Piper writes: And what is that testimony of God? It is not merely a word delivered to our judgment for reflection, for then our conviction would rely on our own reflection. What is it then? Verse 11 is key: This is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life. I take that to mean that God testifies to us of his reality and the reality of his Son and of the gospel by giving us life from the dead, so that we come alive to his self-authenticating glory in the gospel. In that instant we do not reason from premises to conclusions; rather we see that we are awake, and there is not even a prior human judgment about it to lean on. When Lazarus wakened in the tomb by the call or the testimony of Christ, he knew without reasoning that he was alive and that this call awakened him. 8 The testimony is not a rational statement that we interact with through our mindsit is life that we experience with every part of our being! The testimony is overwhelmingly real to the point where faith almost seems like a strange word to usewe simply cannot deny either Gods existence or Gods love for us in Jesus Christ. In many ways, this statement is the fulfilling of what John promised at the opening of his letterthat he was about to testify the eternal life which was with the Father from the beginning, but which had now been made manifest. What John proclaims about Jesus, the Spirit confirms and makes real to us by actually putting the testimony of eternal life right into our hearts. V. 12: The summary statement of Johns theology is radically Christocentric: Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. The single criterion for whether or not a person has life is determined by whether or not the person has the Son. Knowing Jesus is so crucial to our faith that we cannot really state anything beyond this to get at how it is that someone can have eternal life. The Holy Spirit, then, is seen to give us Jesus when he puts the testimony in our hearts. By introducing us on a radically person, intimate basis with the Son of God, the Spirit gives us new birth and life through Christ, leading us to believe and love.

John Piper, God is the Gospel (Wheaton: Crossway, 2005), 80.