1 John - Lesson 3

THE FIRST LETTER OF SAINT JOHN
Lesson 4: Chapter 5
PART III: Love for One Another Concluded and
PART IV: The Epilogue

Holy Lord,
By the light of the Holy Spirit, You instruct the hearts of the faithful in every generation. You have taught us through Your servants, like St. John, that faith in You is the foundation of love for You, our brothers and sisters in the covenant family, and those suffering in the world, and You have given us Your Holy Spirit to keep the fire of that love kindled in our hearts. Grant us, Lord, that by the same Holy Spirit, we may make wise choices on our journey to eternity as we strive to serve Christ and His Church. And, may we ever enjoy His consolations in this life and the next, as we pray in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

+ + +

To love the children of God is to love the Son of God; to love the Son of God is to love the Father. Nobody can love the Father without loving the Son, and anyone who loves the Son will love the other children as well.
St. Augustine, Ten Homilies on 1 John 10.3

CHAPTER 5

PART III: Love for One Another Concluded
1 John 5:1-5 ~ Loving God Means Keeping His Commandments
1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is begotten by God, and everyone who loves the Father loves also the one begotten by him. 2 In this way, we know that we love the children of God when we love God and obey his commandments. 3 For the love of God is this, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, 4 for whoever is begotten by God conquers the world. And the victory that conquers the world is our faith. 5 Who indeed is the victor over the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

John returns to the central theme of his Letter: the unshakable bond of love between God and His children, begotten by Him in the Sacrament of Baptism, and who obey His commandments. In addition to what he wrote in chapter 3 concerning the command to believe in the Son of God (3:23-24), John offers 4 more variations of this call in chapter 5:

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is begotten by God, and everyone who loves the father loves also the one begotten by him. (5:1).
Who indeed is the victor over the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God (5:5)?
Whoever believes in the Son of God has this testimony within himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar by not believing the testimony God has given about his Son (5:10).
I write these things to you so that you may know that you have eternal life, you who believe in the name of the Son of God (5:13).

1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is begotten by God, and everyone who loves the father loves also the one begotten by him. 2 In this way, we know that we love the children of God when we love God and obey his commandments.

For John, belief in Christ is the foundation of love. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Messiah begotten by God, and everyone who loves God the Father also loves the Son begotten by Him (Jn 1:14, 18; 3:16, 18 ; 1 Jn 4:9).

Question: How are the two statements, "everyone who believes" and "everyone who loves" related? How is John unifying two of his major themes in verses 1 and 2?
Answer: John is unifying the two themes of belief in God's only begotten Son and love for one another in the covenant family. The one who genuinely believes that Jesus is the Redeemer-Messiah and only-begotten Son of God shows that he/she has also been begotten by God.

Christian faith in Jesus is the wisdom that the "seed" of God (1 Jn 3:9) is alive and active in that person's life and bringing forth good deeds of love in action. In writing that Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is begotten by God, and everyone who loves the father loves also the one begotten by him, John is using the human experience of fathering children living in the love of a family as an example illustrating the vital link between love of God and love of the members of our covenant family begotten by God in the Sacrament of Baptism. There are two claims in verses 1 and 2. John is grounding both claims on the premise that if we are truly begotten of God and abide in Him, then we will also love our brothers and sisters because each is a demonstration of the reality of the other. If we love the Father just as we love our human parents, it follows that we will also love the other children in the family.

3 For the love of God is this, that we keep his commandments.
John repeats the earlier theme that we demonstrate our love for God by obedience to His commandments from 1 John 2:3. He will revisit it in 2 John 1:6, For this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, as you heard from the beginning, in which you should walk.

And his commandments are not burdensome
Question: What did Moses tell the new generation of the children of Israel about the commandments of God in his last homily as they stood on the east bank of the Jordan River preparing to begin the conquest of the Promised Land in Deuteronomy 30:10-11 and 15-16?
Answer: Moses told the Israelites that God's commandments were not too hard for them, and God intended for them to live by His laws as a source of life and blessings.

However, over the generations, problems developed with how to interpret the laws and the additions religious leaders added. Jesus condemned the religious leaders for making God's Law a burden and murdering God's prophets who criticized them in Matthew 23:1-36. Jesus assured the Jews that His "yoke" (the obligations to follow His commandments) was not a burden (Mt 11:29-30). And at the Council of Jerusalem, St. Peter warned against making the conversion to Christianity too difficult for the Gentiles (Acts 15:10). As St. Paul wrote, the Law itself was "holy, just, and good" (Rom 7:12, also CCC 1962-63), and we are capable of keeping Jesus' commandments if we submit ourselves to God (Rom 8:3-4, CCC 1965).

4 for whoever is begotten by God conquers the world.
You have noticed in the last part of his Letter that John continually revisits earlier themes. In verses 4-5, he returns to the subject of Christians having the power to overcome the world (see 1 Jn 2:15-17 and 4:4-5).

And the victory that conquers the world is our faith [pistis]. 5 Who indeed is the victor over the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
The phrase in 5:4b is the only occurrence of the noun "faith" (pistis) in both the Gospel of John and his three Letters. John usually uses the verb "believe" (pisteuo) to describe the act of believing (98 times in his Gospel and 9 times in 1 John). John writes the victory that conquers the world is Christian faith.

Jesus commanded the disciples and all Christians of every generation in the Gospel of John 16:33 when He said, "Be courageous!" We can be courageous because, in the same verse, Jesus said: "I have conquered the world!" Jesus conquered the power of the world over humanity by His self-sacrificial death on the altar of the Cross (Jn 16:33; 1 Jn 2:1-2). He assured us that if He has conquered the world, then united with Him, we can also overcome the world with the power of the Gospel of salvation! As Jesus instructed St. John to write in His letters to the seven churches in the Book of Revelation, through our faith in Christ Jesus, Christians share in His victory over sin and the world by receiving His gift of eternal salvation:

"To the victor, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life that is in the garden of God (Rev 2:7).
"The victor shall not be harmed by the second death" (Rev 2:11).
"To the victor, I shall give some of the hidden manna; I shall give a white amulet upon which is inscribed a new name, which no one knows except the one who receives it" (Rev 2:17).
"To the victor, who keeps to my ways until the end, I will give authority over the nations" (Rev 2:26).
"The victor will thus be dressed in white, and I will never erase his name from the Book of Life but will acknowledge his name in the presence of my Father and of his angels" (Rev 3:5).
"The victor I will make into a pillar in the Temple of my God, and he will never leave it again. On him, I will inscribe the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God, as well as my new name" (Rev 3:12).
"I will give the victor the right to sit with me on my throne, as I myself first won the victory and sit with my Father on his throne" (Rev 3:21).

1 John 5:6-12 ~ The Testimony of the Spirit of Truth
6 This is the one who came through water and blood, Jesus Christ, not by water alone, but by water and blood. The Spirit is the one that testifies, and the Spirit is truth. 7 So there are three that testify [in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost. And these three are one. And there are three that give testimony on earth*], 8 the Spirit, the water, and the blood, and the three are of one accord. 9 If we accept human testimony, the testimony of God is surely greater. Now the testimony of God is this, that he has testified on behalf of his Son. 10 Whoever believes in the Son of God has this testimony within himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar by not believing the testimony God has given about his Son. 11 And this is the testimony: God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 Whoever possesses the Son has life; whoever does not possess the Son of God does not have life.
* The words in the brackets are called the "Johannine Comma" and appear in older, pre-twentieth-century translations like the Douay Rheims and King James versions.⁽¹⁾

In this part of his Letter, John leaves revisiting the main themes from earlier in the Letter to take up a testimony of three witnesses.
Question: What are the three witnesses that testify, and to what do they give their witness?
Answer: The three are the water, the blood, and the Spirit, intended to confirm the physical death of Jesus Christ.

7 So there are three that testify [in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost. And these three are one. And there are three that give testimony on earth], 8 the Spirit, the water, and the blood, and the three are of one accord.
The words in the brackets are called the "Johannine Comma," from the Latin translation of the Douay Rheims Bible translated into English and other older translations of the Letter of 1 John, including the old King James Version. Most modern scholars believe this was a phrase inserted into the manuscripts of 1 John in the Western Church sometime in the later fourth or early fifth centuries. It does not change the meaning of verses 7-8 except to clarify that the three witnesses include the three persons of the Most Holy Trinity and places them "in heaven" in parallel to the three witnesses to Christ on earth. Most Biblical scholars assume it was originally a note written in the margin of a manuscript. The theory is that over time it was copied and then inserted into the text itself where it became part of 1 John in both Catholic and Protestants versions until the early twentieth century when it was no longer included in the Letter of 1 John 5:7-8.

Question: What does John mean when he refers to the "three that testify"? Why does he emphasize not by water alone but also by the blood and the Spirit? See Mt 3:13-17, Mk 1:911; Lk 3:21-22 and John 19:30, 34-35.
Answer: Water alone or water and the Spirit can refer to Jesus' baptism by St. John the Baptist and the descent of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove with God's announcement from Heaven that Jesus is His "beloved Son." However, this is not only what John wants his readers to recall. In John 19:30, 34-35, John wrote concerning Jesus' death on the Cross: and bowing his head, he handed over the spirit ... but one soldier thrust his lance into his side, and immediately blood and water flowed out. An eyewitness has testified, and his testimony is true; he knows that he is speaking the truth, so that you also may come to believe (bold added for emphasis).

John wants those who receive his Letter to connect verses 6-8 not only with Jesus' baptism but also with His death when He breathed out His Spirit upon the earth (Jn 19:30), and water and blood flowed from His pierced side, imaging the Sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist. The three: the Holy Spirit, water (baptism), and blood (Eucharist), symbolize the birth of the New Covenant Church.

Only the Gospel of John records that water and blood flowed from Jesus' pierced side. John obviously expects his readers to be familiar with his Gospel account of Jesus' death. St. John writes about these three elements that came from Jesus' dead body as three witnesses or three testimonies that converge, blood and water join with the Spirit to bear witness to the origin, mission, and the sacrifice of the Son who gives life! Pope St. Leo the Great (d. 461) wrote: "This means the Spirit of sanctification, the blood of redemption and the water of baptism, which three are one and remain distinct, and none of them is separated from union with the others. This is the faith by which the Church lives and moves (Pope Leo the Great, Letters 28).

9 If we accept human testimony, the testimony of God is surely greater. Now the testimony of God is this, that he has testified on behalf of his Son.
Question: According to Mosaic Law, how many witnesses did the Law require to testify to a truth? See Dt 17:6.
Answer: The Law required two or three witnesses to give testimony.

If we accept the testimony of the eyewitness in John 19:35 (the eyewitness is John himself) and the three witnesses in 1 John 5:7-8, then four witnesses give testimony concerning Jesus' death. We have more witnesses than required by the Law, and we should believe them. The witnesses include John and the three divine witnesses God sent: The Spirit, the water, and the blood. They testify "on behalf of his Son" to confirm and strengthen our faith in Jesus' physical death that was necessary for there to be a glorious Resurrection.

10 Whoever believes in the Son of God has this testimony within himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar by not believing the testimony God has given about his Son. 11 And this is the testimony: God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
To deny the testimony of the three witnesses in verses 7 and 8 is to deny God's truth, making God a liar (c.f., Jn 8:17-10) concerning the divine witnesses and their testimony to eternal life through Christ Jesus.

12 Whoever possesses the Son has life; whoever does not possess the Son of God does not have life.
Believing in God the Son is essential because whoever possesses the Son has life. Consequently, whoever does not believe does not possess the Son and does not have life. As John wrote in 1 John 1:2, for the life was made visible; we have seen it and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was made visible to us. John has taken his readers and us back to the theme that life comes from intimately "knowing God" through love generated by fellowship/communion with God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (also see Jn 10:10).

PART IV: The Epilogue
1 John 5:13-21 ~ Having Confidence That God Protects Us From Evil
13 I write these things to you so that you may know that you have eternal life, you who believe in the name of the Son of God. 14 And we have this confidence in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in regard to whatever we ask, we know that what we have asked him for is ours. 16 If anyone sees his brother sinning, if the sin is not deadly, he should pray to God, and he will give him life. This is only for those whose sin is not deadly. There is such a thing as deadly sin, about which I do not say that you should pray. 17 All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that is not deadly. 18 We know that no one begotten by God sins; but the one begotten by God he protects, and the evil one cannot touch him. 19 We know that we belong to God, and the whole world is under the power of the evil one. 20 We also know that the Son of God has come and has given us discernment to know the one who is true. And we are in the one who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. 21 Children, be on your guard against idols.

In these verses, John gives a summary of what he has covered in his Letter. He concludes his message with his concern that his readers know the truth of God and His gift of eternal life that comes from the knowledge of God through the shared communion of their covenant relationship with the Most Holy Trinity. John will use the Greek verb "to know" seven times (1 Jn 5:13, 15 twice, 18, 19, 20 twice.

14 And we have this confidence in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in regard to whatever we ask, we know that what we have asked him for is ours.
As children of a Divine Father, we have confidence in our prayers because of our intimate relationship with our Lord. Earlier, John assured his readers that they could approach God confidently in prayer; however, like what he wrote in 2:22, he adds a qualification in verse 14. Earlier he wrote: Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence in God 2:22 and receive from him whatever we ask because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him (1 Jn 2:21-22).
Question: What two conditions does John list in 2:22 and 5:14?
Answer: We must live in obedience to God's commandments (2:22) and make our petitions "according to His will" for our lives (5:14).

By asking according to God's will and purpose for our lives, John means we should pray for those things that are consistent with His commandments and what He has revealed as right and just in our lives. We can ask Him for assistance with necessary material needs (Mt 6:11), but not for extravagant desires. We should also ask for Him to strengthen our faith, holiness, knowledge, unity with Him and His Church, and for the salvation of others (Jn 17:9-21).

16 If anyone sees his brother sinning, if the sin is not deadly, he should pray to God, and he will give him life. This is only for those whose sin is not deadly. There is such a thing as deadly sin, about which I do not say that you should pray. 17 All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that is not deadly.
Since God commands us to love our brothers and sisters in the Church family and those in the human family, we pray for those who are in sin. However, more than our prayers are necessary for those trapped in what John calls "deadly" sin. He is making a distinction between venial and mortal sin that can cost a person his or her eternal salvation. Under the New Covenant in Christ, mortal sins require the Sacrament of Reconciliation for forgiveness. It is from 1 John 5:16-17 and Numbers 15:30-31 that the Church differentiates between venial and mortal/deadly sin (deadly sin is a sin that can cause spiritual death and eternal separation from God).

CCC 1854: "Sins are rightly evaluated according to their gravity. The distinction between mortal and venial sins, already evident in Scripture, became part of the tradition of the Church. It is corroborated by human experience."
CCC 1855: "Mortal sin destroys charity in the heart of man by a grave violation of God's law; it turns man away from God, who is his ultimate end and his beatitude, by preferring an inferior good to him. Venial sin allows charity to subsist, even though it offends and wounds it."
CCC 1856: "Mortal sin, by attacking the vital principle within us that is charity, necessitates a new initiative of God's mercy and a conversion of heart which is normally accomplished within the setting of the Sacrament of Reconciliation..."
CCC 1857: "For a sin to be mortal, three conditions must together be met: Mortal sin is sin whose object is a grave matter and which is also committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent."
CCC 1858: "Mortal sin requires full knowledge and complete consent. It presupposes knowledge of the sinful character of the act, of its opposition to God's law. It also implies a consent sufficiently deliberate to be a personal choice. Feigned ignorance and hardness of heart do not diminish, but rather increase, the voluntary character of sin."

18 We know that no one begotten by God sins; but the one begotten by God he protects, and the evil one cannot touchhim.
The first part of verse 18 is a summary of what John wrote in 3:9. It is not that Christians are incapable of sinning, but that God's life within the Christian leads to a way of righteousness free of sin. And when Christians follow that way, he/she will not sin. However, even when the Christian (one begotten by God in the Sacrament of Baptism) sins, God's divine life within him or her protects that person from being eternally damaged by his/her sin and falling under the power of Satan. The power by which every baptized Christian receives protection is in the Holy Spirit's call to receive the Sacraments of Penance/Reconciliation and the Eucharist and restoration to a state of divine grace.

20 We know that we belong to God, and the whole world is under the power of the evil one.
John restates the condition of the great divide between God and temptations in the world that Satan uses to damage our relationship God with and pull us away from Him. As John wrote in 1 John 3:8, the Son of God was revealed to destroy the works of the devil.

20 We also know that the Son of God has come and has given us discernment to know the one who is true. And we are in the one who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
Here is the crux of our faith: Jesus is God, and He possesses the power to forgive sins and give the gift of eternal life. As St. Peter told the Sanhedrin at his trial: There is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved" (Acts 4:12).

21 Children, be on your guard against idols.
To be on guard against idols is John's final warning. He ends his Letter as it began with an admonition to worship the One true God alone and no other. Everything that John communicates in his Letter is contained in this one rule.

A Question for reflection or discussion: What does John mean when he warned Christians to guard themselves against idols? Does he only mean pagan images, or is there something more that requires vigilance to guard against what is subtle and less obvious than a created object? The first of the Ten Commandments begins: "You shall not have other gods besides me" (Ex 20:3). In other words, you shall not place anything above your loyalty and devotion to God. What else in a person's life could be a temptation to set that thing above God, resulting in the definition of "idol worship"?

Jesus did not come to save us from temptation, turmoil, or suffering, just as He did not promise that belief in Him would exempt us from those conditions in our earthly lives. He came as God enfleshed to suffer (Lk 24:26-27, 44-45) and die for the forgiveness of our sins and to unite our pain to His so that one day we could be united to Him in glory (Rom 8:17). Through His suffering, Jesus came to redeem us as individuals and as members of His Body the Church. He told us to have the courage to take up our crosses in life and follow Him, and He assured us of His deep abiding love with the promise of the peace that comes from faith in Him. It is only through Jesus Christ that we will experience peace in a world filled with violence and injustice, peace within ourselves, and peace in our relationship with God. We can have faith in His promise if we persevere to complete our faith journeys in obedience to His commandments that we will be one with Him for all eternity in peace and love.

As long as the Church remains on earth, this will be our continuous struggle: having the courage to choose Jesus over the world! This victory can only be ours through faith in Christ Jesus: for whoever is begotten by God conquers the world. And the victory that conquers the world is our faith. Who indeed is the victor over the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? (1 Jn 5:4-5). And, as St. Paul wrote, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us (Rom 8:37) and thanks be to God who gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ! (1 Cor 15:57).

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful and kindle in them the fire of Your love. Send forth your Spirit, Lord, to strengthen the resolve to keep our oath of obedience to You and Your commandments for all Your Christian servants on the face of the earth. Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus! Amen.

Endnote:
1. The Douay Rheims Bible was a translation from St. Jerome's late fourth-century Latin Vulgate Bible ;into English. The Catholic Church commissioned the translation made by members of the English College of the University of Douai in France. The New Testament portion was published in Rheims, France, in 1582, in one volume with extensive commentary and notes. The Old Testament was published in two volumes twenty-seven years later in 1609 and 1610.

Catechism references for this lesson (* indicates Scripture quoted or paraphrased in the citation):
5:1 (CCC 2780*, 2790*); 5:6-8 (CCC 1225*); 5:8 (CCC 694*); 5:14 (CCC 2778*, 2827*); 5:16-17 (CCC 1854*-1864); 5:18-19 (CCC 2852); 5:19 (CCC 409); 5:20 (CCC 217)