1 John 5
v.3-4
This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, 4for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.
The meaning is, that his laws are not unreasonable; the duties which he requires are not beyond our ability; his government is not oppressive. It is easy to obey God when the heart is right; and those who endeavor in sincerity to keep his commandments do not complain that they are hard. All complaints of this kind come from those who are not disposed to keep his commandments. Indeed, they object that his laws are unreasonable; that they impose improper restraints; that they are not easily complied with; and that the divine government is one of severity and injustice. But no such complaints come from true Christians. They find his service easier than the service of sin, and the laws of God more mild and easy to be complied with than were those of fashion and honor, which they once endeavored to obey. The service of God is freedom; the service of the world is bondage. No man ever yet heard a true Christian say that the laws of God, requiring him to lead a holy life, were stern and “grievous.” But who has not felt this in regard to the inexorable laws of sin? What votary of the world would not say this if he spoke his real sentiments?
The nature of his commands, though exacting, is not oppressive (Matt. 11:30). There is divine enablement (v.4). Birth from God overcomes the evil world. The victory which overcame historically is Christ’s, won at the cross (John 16:33). The believer’s faith enables him to share in Christ’s victory.
God’s commandments had never been too heavy for those in whose hearts they had been written (Deut 30:11-14). Many Jewish teachers regarded some parts of the *law as “heavier” or “weightier” than others (as in Mt 23:23), but they meant that some were more crucial for daily life, not that any of them were too hard to keep.
v.5
Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
Where is there one who can pretend to have obtained a victory over the world, except he who believes in the Saviour? All else are worldly, and are governed by worldly aims and principles. It is true that a man may gain a victory over one worldly passion; he may subdue some one evil propensity; he may abandon the “happy” circle, may break away from habits of profaneness, may leave the company of the unprincipled and polluted; but still, unless he has faith in the Son of God, the spirit of the world will reign supreme in his soul in some form. The appeal which John so confidently made in his time may be as confidently made now. we may ask, as he did, where is there one who shows that he has obtained a complete victory over the world, except the true Christian? Where is there one whose end and aim is not the present life? Where is there one who shows that all his purposes in regard to this world are made subordinate to the world to come?
v.6
This is the one who came by water and blood - Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.
John makes it clear that the Jesus he speaks of is not the Gnostic, “phantom” Jesus who was so holy that He had nothing to do with this world. The Jesus we must believe on is the Jesus who came by water and blood; the Jesus who was part of a real, material, flesh-and-blood earth.
v.8
the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and the three are in agreement.
A priest was always ordained by sacrificial blood, cleansing water, and oil that spoke of the anointing of the Holy Spirit. So Jesus also had these three witnesses to His priestly ministry.
The Spirit, the water, and the blood: These are all consistent witnesses in telling us who Jesus is. We can know that these three agree as one. It isn’t as if the Spirit tells us one thing, the water another, and the blood says something else. Jesus’ life, death, and the Spirit all tell us who Jesus is, and they tell us it in agreement.
v.14
This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
See more in prayer and wealth,work.
v.16
If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that he should pray about that.
When we see a brother in sin, John tells us the first thing to do is to pray for that person. All too often, prayer is the last thing we do, or the smallest thing we do in regard to our brother having a difficult time.
But what type of life and death is John talking about? This is a modern question; it was not one for John’s readers, for the brevity of his reference assumes that they would know what he was talking about. We have to discover this from the rest of his letter. We note, then, that 1 John uses the term life thirteen times, seven of them in this chapter. Since he means spiritual life (eternal life) in every other case in which he uses the term, we would expect that this would also be the meaning here. Likewise the two other places where he uses death (both in 1 John 3:14) refer to spiritual death, not physical death. So even though in the New Testament sin can lead to physical death (1 Cor 11:30; compare Acts 5:1-11; 1 Cor 5:5) and physical sickness (Jas 5:15-16), it is unlikely that that is the meaning here.
In the light of John’s concern in this epistle to combat a heresy that did not confess Jesus as God who came in the flesh (see 1 John 4:2-3), it is likely that this sin “unto death” is denying Christ and subsequently failing to obtain salvation through him. In this case, John would simply be saying that we should not pray that God would forgive the sin of rejecting Christ and even teaching seriously heretical doctrine about him.
v.20
We also know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true - even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
Significantly, this understanding must be given. We cannot attain it on our own. If God did not reveal Himself to us, we would never find Him. We know Him, and can know Him, because He has revealed Himself to us.
More than any other way, God has revealed Himself to us by Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. Jesus is the key and the focus of it all. We see the personality and character of God by looking at Jesus.
v.21
Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.
Teknia in the Greek for children. This is the deeply loved conotation for the children.