1 John 5
1 John 5:1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ [atoning sacrifice for our sins 2:2] is born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves His child [He has fathered] as well NIV
5:1 Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him. NKJV
5:1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been fathered by God, and everyone who loves the father loves the child fathered by him. NET Bible
The Text
The NKJV is very challenging to understand, even the NIV needs some clarification. The NET Bible is very clear and accurate to the text. Simply meaning that if one has been Born of God, they will love others that also are Born of God. They will love those who believe in Jesus the Christ. This text says more than John has previously written.
Solemnly, see for yourselves that God has fathered you. He has placed Himself inside you (1 John 3:24), by His Spirit. He has given to you love from Himself into your heart. When we meet another with the same “undying love” (Eph 6:24) for the Father as we have, we see that the love of God is in them also. They simultaneously see that we love their Father as they do. We see a family resemblance. They automatically trust and love that person, with a divine love. This kind of “Love does no harm to a neighbor” (Rom 13:10). It can't.
Since God’s love, God’s presence is abiding in us, we will have faith in His Son. We can’t change this. Often without even saying a word between each other. We can feel it, see it and know it for what it is, God is their father just as much as He is our Father.
To Be Fathered by God, is to be Born of God
What an inestimable privilege to have God as “Our Father” (Matt 6:9). God is not our Father by DNA or through our mothers. Those who love, God and others, is the sure sign that God has adopted us. More than that. God has sent a part of His being, of His existence, of His nature into our hearts, changing our attitudes, toward everything.
God Fathers us by his Love, because “God is love” (1 John 4:8,10). It is proactive in our lives reproducing in us with a similarity to God Himself. Not in power. Not in perfect righteous behavior. Not in our outward looks. Not in our faces and bodies. Not in the power of our words to create something out of nothing. Not in our robust health that we become ageless as God is. Not in knowledge as He knows all things.
But in one thing. The one thing that moves into our lives, which permeates through everything about us—a budding flowing love. A flowing love, being in our feet, in our eyes, our hands, our mouths, our words, something that belongs to God, a love is inbred into our conscious souls. Even though we know that love is there, we also know it is not natural to us. It is the presence of God.
When God meets us, with His power to impart to us something of Himself. It is seen in us
with respectfulness, kindness, toleration and helpfulness in the spirit of love to others. “For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline” (2 Tim 2:7).
Automatically We Love, Feel a Kinship, for God’s Children
This is an important sign that we are fathered by God. We love others who have God’s love in them, with a special love that is different then the general love we have for all.
This is How the Father’s Love Behaves
Paul attested to the influence of God’s love saying: “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love” (Eph 4:2).
Peter knows what love does to a person: “be like-minded and sympathetic, love as brothers, be tenderhearted and humble” (1 Pet 3:8). They “have sincere love for each other,” they “love one another deeply, from the heart” (1 Pet 1:22).
Jude, the brother of James and Jesus says, “But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life” (Jude 20,21). In other words, if you sense that hard feelings have arisen inside your heart over some issue. Stop, take time to ask God to remove the tangled web of bitterness because you are helpless to its advance in your heart. Because hard feelings of bitterness are natural to the un-regenerated heart, however they are not allowed any time to grow in the heart that God’s has fathered His own love into.
Born of God
It is a figurative expression that John used nine times (2:29; 3:9; 4:7; 5:1,4,18), meaning to regenerate. It is in the passive voice, meaning that God has acted upon us, by his action. God is out of ahead of the believer and grants to us “love that comes from God” (1 John 4:7). We can love God only because God “first loved us” (1 John 4:19).
God shares His life with us, He gives to us a part of His life, His love, which comes into the soul. We did not deserve it. We did not love enough to earn it. We have not obeyed the law or commandments to such an extent that God would be obligated to share his life with us. Instead God obligates Himself to us, not due to our good behavior, but lovingkindness, as David prayed: “O Lord, Your tender mercies and Your lovingkindnesses, for they are from of old” (Ps 25:6 NKJV) God love is said to be from old…from time immortal. God has always been this way.
Listen to David again: “How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God! Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Your wings” (Ps 36:7 NKJV).
Listen to David again: “Do not withhold Your tender mercies from me, O Lord; Let Your lovingkindness and Your truth continually preserve me” (Ps 40:11 NKJV).
Listen to David again: “Have mercy upon me, O God, According to Your lovingkindness; According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, Blot out my transgressions” (Ps 51:1 NKJV)
Listen to David again: “Your lovingkindness is better than life, My lips shall praise You” (Ps 63:3 NKJV)
Listen to David again:
“Who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases,
Who redeems your life from destruction,
Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies,
Who satisfies your mouth with good things,
So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s” (Ps 103:3-5 NKJV)
Those who are Born of God, know all about the Love of God, because they “know God” they are able to love like God loves, not in the universal degree of God’s love, but in our blended human and God given love, we also come to love all the ‘children of God” (1 John 3:2,10; 5:2,19). “Everyone who loves has been born God and knows God” (1 John 4:7).
To be Born of God Means to Be: To Be Born of God is to be Renewed, to be Altered Differently, Day by Day
· Born again by the water and the Spirit (John 3)
· Baptized with the Holy Spirit.” (Mk 1:8)
· Have been washed, renewed and regenerated by the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5)
· Are renewed day by day (2 Cor 4:16)
· Are renewed into God image (Col 3:5-10)
· Are renewed in the spirit of your mind (Eph 4:23)
· Are transformed by the renewing of the mind (Rom 12:2)
· Are made alive (1 Cor 15:22; Eph 2:5; Col 2:13; 1 Pet 3:18)
We faint not; but though our outward man perishes [dies],
the inward man is renewed day by day.
2 Cor 4:16
Since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices,
and have put on the new self who is being renewed
to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him
Col 3:5-10
And do not be conformed to this world,
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind,
so that you may prove [know] what the will of God is,
that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
Rom 12:2
Lily of the Valley, Jason Crabb
Let Your sweet aroma fill my life -- Rose of Sharon show me
How to grow in beauty in God's sight -- Fairest of Ten Thousand
Make me a reflection of Your light -- Daystar shine down on me
Let Your love shine through me in the night
Being Disrespectful to God Our Father
The believers born of God will not mistreat another person whom God as Fathered. Because this is a great offense to God. To not love another Fathered by God is like hating your brother or sister. It is a potent spirit killer inside us and among a group of worshipers.
Those not Born of God will:
1. Exploit others for their gain
2. Take advantage of others when they can
3. Sexually, verbally, physically or emotionally hurt a child Born of God.
4. Make another feel inferior, manage or control them to do as you wish.
5. Make themselves authority, excluding the opinion of others.
God is very serious to those that kill one of his children that He has Fathered. Paul says, “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple” (1 Cor 3:16,17). The Greek word “destroy” is phtheiró: To destroy, to corrupt, to spoil, lead astray and ruin.”
Think of that!! Just say, if someone should molest a young woman, causing her to go astray, that God has Fathered and put is love into her. To say the least, this makes God very upset, for she is His child. For “it is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb 10:31).
1 John 5:2 This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out His commands. NIV
5:2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. NKJV
What John is saying is that the evidence that we love God and keep his command He has given to us, is seen in the love of children that God has Fathered (5:1)—the children of God.
Anything that is not love, let’s make it plain. Any action we may do that is not of love does not carry out His commands. “I am writing to you a new command…anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light” (1 John 2:7-10).
We all know that it is against God’s Golden Rule to rob, steal, murder, rape, lie to one another and practice general “lawlessness” (1 John 3:4). These are sins against God and His love for his children, for “Anyone who does not love remains in death” (1 John 3:14). They are dead even while they live. They are walking dead.
The First Point John is Making
The commands(ments) of God can only be carried out while loving God. They cannot be separated.
The First Point Repeated
All the commandments of God can only be kept while loving God and the results of this is love for God is made visible by love for those Fathered by God.
The Second Point John is Making
Loving the Children of God, Loving God and Keeping his Commands, is all the same. They cannot be broken into their separate parts. There is no difference between obeying the Commandments of God and loving God. “If anyone obeys his word [Christ], love for God is truly made compete in them” (1 John 2:5).
Jesus made the same point when he said: “If you love me, keep my commands(ments)” (John 14:15). Keeping Jesus’ commands and love for His children are bonded together, inseparable.
Later Jesus repeated this same concept, so we can’t misunderstand: “Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them” (John 14:21).
God’s Two Commandments:
God’s First Commandment: And this is His command: to believe [have faith] in the name of his [God’s] Son, Jesus Christ. This is repeated in 1 John 2:23,24; 4:14,15; 3:23; 5:1,5,10,11,13 20.
God’s Second Commandment: And to love one another as He commanded us [He gave this commandment to us]. (1 John 3:23). “For love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God” (1 John 4:7)
People That Satan is at War With
John in his book of revelation says, “the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring—those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus” (Rev 12:17). The testimony about Jesus was first God’s command “to believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 3:23). Believers are to “hold fast” their belief in God’s Son and his authority which comes from God His Father. As Jesus said, “I am not here on my own authority, but he who sent me is true. You do not know him” (John 7:28).
Satan is at war with those who obey the commands of God. The who believes, has faith on His son. Those who love God and to love another. These are the three most important issues.
1 John 5:3 In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands [love His commands]. And his commands are not burdensome,
5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. NKJV
5:3 For this is the love of God: that we keep his commandments. And his commandments do not weigh us down. NET
5:3 This is the love of God: we keep God’s commandments. God’s commandments are not difficult. Common English Bible
5:3 We show our love for God by obeying his commandments, and they are not hard to follow. Contemporary English Version
The Commandments of God
Any command from God, given in love, based on love, expressed by love cannot be burdensome, but delightful as love is the best part of life. Why? Because ‘the one who keeps God’s commands “lives in him, and he in them” (1 John 3:24). If a God of love, who is love, who gives us love, lives in us—obeying God’s instructions for our lives is a pleasure
Keeping the commands of God, is not just the teachings of his Son, or the 10 Commandments. They include the daily instructions that God gives to us. That God directs us to do, to say, to teach, to repeat to others, to go on mission, near or far. Instructions for mothers who have the care of her children on her mind and praying to God for guidance and to teach her to be a wiser mother.
Instructions to fathers for wisdom and strength to carry out the tasks required to support his wife and children.
None of the personal, directions of God in answer to our prayer—are in the slightest way impossible or doomed to failure. When God gives us commands, he prepares the way for us to do them and directs the outcomes.
“The Lord makes firm the steps of the one who delights in him [Loves Him]” (Ps 37:23).
1st Command: God is speaking out loud: “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” (Matt 17:5)
2nd Command: God wants us to love others: “Let us love one another, for love comes from God” (1 John 4:7). The expression “let us” is a command John is telling us, that comes from God.
3rd Command: “God is light, in Him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). We live in the true light when we love our brothers and sisters. We are in darkness when we hate a brother or sister (1 John 2:7-11).
4th Command: “Whoever does the will of God lives forever” (1 John 2:17). What is the will of God? Is to know that “everything in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, comes not from the Father…If anyone loves the world the love of the Father is not in them” (1 John 2:15-17).
Whatever is not the way of love is not commanded by God. God never would give permission for a spouse to leave their spouse for greener pastures. This is not love, it the failure of love.
God’s Commands are Not Burdensome
God never commands us to physically deny ourselves of food, sleep or exercise, claiming such is God’s will. For example in the 5th-century ascetic Christian monk called Simeon Stylites, gained fame for living on top of a tall pillar for nearly 40 years. This is burdensome and unhealthy, to say the least.
God never asked us to dress in odd ways, to deny electricity, cell phones or internet as the will of God for all His followers. God never directs us to become vegetarians or vegans. We may choose to do this ourselves, but no one has authority to declare it is the will of God for all. God has not laid out a specific diet for all to follow to please Him. God never asks us to separate ourselves from the world and live in communes or in small groups isolated from others. Instead God wants to share the message of love within the larger communities we live in.
Jesus taught us in the Sermon of the Mount: “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matt 5:14-16).
1 John 5:4 For everyone born of God overcomes the world [its temptations]. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.5:5 Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. NIV
5:4 For whatever [all, entire] is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. 5:5 Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? NKJV
Everyone, That Includes You
Everyone, every single one. None excluded. Every person that God has fathered, which has become “His child” (1 John 5:1) is not left to be defeated by the “evil one” in this world. They are overcomers. They are victorious over “the beast and its image” (Rev 14:9). Why?
Because they are Born of God, given "His Spirit" (1 John 4:13) as evidence of their birth. They are born to love God and others (1 John 4:7,12).
Because they have faith in God and His Son: absolute faith, unwavering faith, determined faith, unswerving faith, God-given faith, growing faith, upright faith, trusting faith and “patient endurance” with “faithfulness” (Rev 13:10). Will God desert his child, He has fathered, He as begotten? Never Ever, Forever, Not Ever. In your lifetime, in this world and in the world to come. “God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you’” (Heb 13:5). “For the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you” (Dt 31:6).
Know therefore that the Lord your God is God;
he is the faithful God
Dt 7:9
He has remembered his love and his faithfulness to Israel;
all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
Ps 98:3
But you, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God,
slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.
Ps 85:15
Who is like you, Lord God Almighty? You, Lord,
are mighty, and your faithfulness surrounds you.
Ps 98:8
If we endure, we will also reign with him.
If we disown him, he will also disown us;
If we are faithless, he remains faithful,
[note: our faith faulters temporary]
for he cannot disown himself.
2 Tim 2:12,13
Because God has promised to “keep them safe and the evil one cannot harm them” (1 John 5:18).
Because “God has given” has promised to give us “eternal life and this life is in the Son” of God (1 John 5:11). God does not give and then take away.
How shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation?
Heb 2:3
Those Born of God
They are born to love because they are fathered by God (1 John 5:1). To love God first and foremost and then love one another (1 John 4:7). With these tools they will overcome the world. They will not fall to “lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life” (1 John 2:16). They will have power arise from within themselves, by means of God’s Spirit bringing His presence. The presence of love inside us.
In the 17th-century Christian allegory called, Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan. There is account when Christian and his companion Faithful are in the marketplace called Vanity Fair. The merchants were selling all kinds of worldly goods. When they are asked what they want to buy, they respond, “We buy truth.” They did not have to think about their response. They did not have consider for a while, they knew right from wrong. Thus, they were able to overcome the temptation of the world.
Those fathered by God, are not taken in by the world of politics, music, sports or entertainment or the call to accumulate wealth, more and more real estate.
Overcomes the Word
To overcome is to gain victory from the temptations and allurements that lead to sin and to the denial of your faith in daily practice. From adopting the world’s values that dominate on social media.
John is repeating for emphasis when he said earlier, a person who “does what is right is righteous as He is” (1 John 3:7). Doing the right thing, when it cuts across the path of the world’s values, is overcoming the world. For instance, the world values the accumulation of material things, while the believers place value on all things that love would do to others; if they could do it, they would do it, without question.
They don’t look upon material things as the most important. They are more than satisfied with simple accommodations with fewer possessions. This is opposite of what the world values. When Jesus, after a night in prayer, chose not disciples, for He had many, but His apostles. To his apostles, Jesus gave them special instruction, commanding them not to accumulate material things, but value simple living without expensive homes and travel accommodations. “Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, ‘How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!’ (Mk 10:32).
Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God.
But woe to you who are rich,
for you have already received your comfort.
Luke 6:20,24
What Are We to Overcome—The World
John wrote to young men of the church fellowship that since God and his Son from the beginning of the Gospel story “have overcome the evil one” (1 John 2:13). Again to the young men John said, they were “strong” in the “word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one” (1 John 2:14). Notice that overcoming is directly related to our dependence on Scriptures.
Another reason why we overcome the world is we are God’s children and “because the one who is in you is greater than the one [the evil one] who is in the world” (1 John 4:4). Never let us underestimate the extreme importance of being fathered by God, which is being Born of God (1 John 5:1). The world loses its attractions that demand our hearts, our minds and our energies. We work and live in the world, while still serving God in our hearts. The world and all its glamor is seen as having no comparison to the wonderful presence of God’s Spirit that lives in us while we are grounded in Scriptures and “rooted and established in love” (Eph 3:17)
All Our Victories are By Our Faith
Our overcoming temptation is accomplished by an act of faith in Christ. By means of the Spirit, both the Father and Son come to make their “home” (John 14:23) with us. In this sense we will arrive at an on-going dismissal of sins, because God who dwells in us is stronger than the sin that dwell sin us. For “the One who is in you is greater than the one [evil one] who is in the world” (John 4:4). When the world tempts us to follow its self-promoting, self-focused and permissive values, it loses its appeal.
Overcoming is not by strong self-will. Not by self-denial. Not by doing good works, even by loving our neighbor. Not by attempting to keep the 10 Commandments—but by the means of our faith alone, in the message of the gospel.
“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom 5:1). We receive peace, knowing we are made children of God. This is the path of the overcomer. God does a work inside us, on the bases of our faith in Him. Faith that we have all received, “Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given” (John 1:16). God starts with grace, then gives us more grace heaping powerful currents that counter, to defeat the strongest influences and bents to do evil, to love evil and promote it as a pleasure in our lives.
“We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the One who was born of God keeps them safe, and the evil one cannot harm them” (1 John 5:18). What a promise that God has given to us! Satan cannot harm us! There is no controversy between Christ and Satan—because Satan is defeated, has been defeated, will be defeated—again and again. Satan may be strong, but in the presence of those born of God—Satan is weakened and put on the run.
To the one who is victorious,
I will give the right to eat from the tree of life,
which is in the paradise of God.
Rev 2:7
The one who is victorious will, like them, be dressed in white.
I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life,
but will acknowledge that name before my Father and his angels.
Rev 3:5
To the one who is victorious,
I will give the right to sit with me on my throne,
just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne.
Rev 3:21
Those who are victorious will inherit all this,
and I will be their God and they will be my children.
Rev 21:7
(Repeat) 1 John 5:5 Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. NIV
5:5 Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? NKJV
The World’s Temptations
The World’s temptations come to us because we live in this world that is controlled by the evil one. For “the whole world is under the power of the evil one” (1 John 5:19).
Jesus has taught us to pray that God will “deliver us from the evil one” (Matt 6:13). Paul called the evil one, the “ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient” (Eph 2:2). Also called this “present evil age” (Col 1:4), made up of lustful passions, that we live in, a “land full of adulterers” (Jer 23:10). A world that sponsors and broadcasts soul damming lust appealing to our inherited fallen natures and “pride of life” (1 John 2:16), which is self-centered, self-focused, at the disadvantage of others.
“Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Gal 5:24).
Overcoming the World’s Temptations
First and foremost: By faith in God’s son. This is simple, so easy, that we often lose sight of it while we look for something to do. To go to Masses, repeat the Rosery, keep the commandments, learn Bible facts, fast often, deny ourselves of something--to qualify ourselves, for such great benefits, as being an overcomer in life. “To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God” (Rev 2:7 NKJV).
Jesus said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life” (John 5:24). No judgment day because we have already been declared children of God. “This is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day” (John 6:39).
Don’t look for complicated formulas. Don’t use rosery to count your prayers. Don’t think of any things you have accomplished, the deeds of charity, the money given to worthy causes, when approaching God in prayer.
Don’t recount the Sabbath’s or Sunday's kept, the amount of tithe paid, the church position you have held. Don’t count your consistent church attendance. Don’t believe the doctrine which the church teaches is of first importance. No, nothing at all, should be placed first. Except to say, “I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal 2:20).
One Thing Needful
Now, right now. In your prayers for help, for guidance and knowledge to know the will of God Just remain centered on one thing: Faith in the name of Jesus, “the Son of the living God” (Matt 16:16). Peter speaking for the disciples declared, “We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God” (John 6:69). It is our privilege to believe “that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:31).
But more, what an honor to believe that “Jesus is the Son of God” because then “God lives in them [us] and they [us] in God” (1 John 4:15).
1 John 5:6 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. 5:7 For there are three that testify: 5:8 the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement. NIV
5:6 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. 5:7 For there are three that testify: 5:8 the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement. NKJV
The Longer Version of the Text
The King James Bible gives the longer version of 5:7: “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one” (KJV). Most Greek Scholars say, no manuscripts before the 15th century have included the longer passage. Which nearly all modern versions have eliminated, accepting the fact that the longer phrase was added by monks that made copies of the Bibles. It made sense to them to add this phrase. But let’s keep it just as John wrote it, supporting the older copies of the Bible.
One Who Came by Water and Blood—Jesus Christ
Water at His baptism.
Blood by His human flesh, born as the “son of man” (Lk 9:44).
Spirit who testifies was present at the birth of Jesus; “After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit” (Matt 1:18). At the baptism of Jesus the Holy Spirit was present, “As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him” (Matt 3:16).
Three That Bear Witness
John is not teaching the doctrine of the trinity, but the three most significant events in the life of one that declared, “Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” (John 5:58).
Three that Testify: The Spirit, the Water and the Blood:
John is repeating this theme, first seen at the beginning and at the end of his public ministry. John is repeating what he saw from himself, at the death of Jesus.
The water and blood are in reference to his public death, as John witnessed. “One of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water (John 19:34).
These three give witness—Water, Blood & Spirit, to the real fact the Jesus died for our sins. Paul agrees saying “as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor 15:3).
Now there is another fact: “Son of Man has been raised from the dead” (Matt 17:19). This is the reason, the indisputable reason why we can trust, with absolute faith. We all can say, “Truly you are the Son of God” (Matt 14:33). This is an absolute fact—John tells us. He was there, now he verifies it as the truth.
The Second Meaning of Water, Spirit and Blood
Water—"You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you” (John 15:3).
Water & Spirit—"But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:4,5).
Spirit—"You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ” (Rom 8:9).
Spirit—"And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you” (Rom 8:11).
Blood—"In him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace” (Eph 1:7).
Blood—"God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith” (Rom 3:25).
Jesus declared The Spirit, “the Advocate whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me” (John 15:26). The Spirit leads us to have faith in Christ. By faith, by this means, we receive forgiveness and justification from God. Because the “Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29), has forgiven and cleansed us “by the washing with water through the word” (Eph 5:26).
What a privilege to have our names, your name, “written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev 13:8 NKJV). Yes, can you agree from within your spiritual heart? If God puts it there, you can’t deny it.
1 John 5:9 We accept human testimony, but God’s testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God [Himself], which He has given about His Son. NIV
5:9 If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for this is the witness of God which He has testified of His Son. NKJV
The Text
The NIV speaks of God’s testimony, while the NKJV calls it the witness of God. The Greek word is marturia meaning, “testimony or witness.” The word testimony is more fitting in understanding the text.
God’s Testimony is Greater and the Greatest
Because it is God Himself that is speaking to the world. There is nothing greater, more truthful, more long lasting, with irresistible power, because all “Power belongs to you, God” (Ps 62:11).
God’s testimony about His Son is greater than the Ten Commandments (see Ex 20). Because belief in God’s son gives to us eternal life” (1 John 5:11). The ten Commandments cannot offer us eternal life. God’s testimony does not point to the world, the Commandments, but His Son.
God’s Testimony Is Public
More has been written, spoken, preached, taught, listened to, read, printed and publicly proclaimed—then any other person in all of human history. God’s testimony concerning His Son—is greater, has been explained more than any other person living or dead. God’s testimony is compelling, engaging and moving on the most harden hearts.
Nobody can match the testimony God has given to his Only Son, that he loves. It is impossible. Because humans have limited influence to their time and place in history. God’s son transcends all time, is found in all history, is relative to every culture, it appeals to all tribes and languages of the earth. It is as present on earth as the sun and rain. It is impossible for anybody encompassing all of humanity to blot out the testimony of God about his Son. It can’t be done. No it can’t!
Why? Because the “glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Cor 4:4).
Every year there a more believers, more lovers of God, more and more voices heard in prayer, song, petition, praise, conviction that moves millions all at one time in their individual space they occupy on earth. Jesus said, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one [His Son] He [God] has sent” (John 6:29).
Peter testified: “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah” (Acts 2:36).
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:
The old has gone, the new is here!
All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ
and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:
that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ,
not counting people’s sins against them.
And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
2 Cor 5:17-19
1 John 5:10 Whoever believes in the Son of God accepts this [God’s] testimony. Whoever does not believe God has made Him out to be a liar, because they have not believed the testimony God has given about his Son. NIV
5:10 He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; he who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son. NKJV
5:10 The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself; the one who does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has testified concerning his Son. NET Bible
The Text
The text is more accurately translated by the NKJV and NET Bibles than the NIV. The Greek says that the one who has faith or believes on the Son of God as a witness in himself, herself, or themselves. The NIV leads us to think that we just accept God’s testimony about his Son. Which many Christians can believe in Jesus without the internal witness.
The NKJV says that when we believe the testimony of God about His Son, we know it from within ourselves. Inside our minds and hearts, we know it is the absolute truth, no doubt about it. Our conviction is witnessed, not from viewing the Christ, examining him with our own eyes. It is a heart conviction. A past event made ever-present. God the Father has made this possible, He has birthed it into us, we are able to believe in the Christ, without seeing. We are “born of God” (1 John 5:1).
God’s Testimony
Is our hope “of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time” (Titus 1:2). As it has been shown in the above verse that God has not lied about His Son. It has been declared true by God Himsef. Who does not lie to us at all. “The Glory of Israel [God] does not lie or change his mind; for he is not a human being, that he should change his mind” (1 Sam 15:29).
God is the greatest evangelist in all human history. God is constantly speaking to humanity about His Son. God’s testimony is in the printed pages, web pages, U-tube accounts, sermons and thousands of other places in our human pathway. However, God has access to our conscience, our convictions, our heart, our minds, our dreams, our feelings, our impressions and all the other cannels God can used to share His testimony.
To Not Believe we Make God a Liar
This is not a good thing. When the day of judgment comes, who would want to be on record of calling their judge a liar? By denying Jesus Christ is not the Son of God. When God together with his Son come to “judge the world” (Acts 17:31). What excuses can they give?
God has revealed His testimony about His Son. He frees our fallen human will, to make choices. With our freed will we can reject God’s testimony, which is in effect calling God’s testimony to us, a lie.
Declaring that God to be a Liar—Is Not a Good Idea
Many have tried to deny the Christ, making the testimony of God to be a liar. Some try to substitute Allah for Jesus. The only way they can do this is by force. By making laws that forbid the Christian faith. If they did not, not many would not remain Muslim but be followers of Jesus.
China has tied to forbid Christian faith, but in spite of pressure from the government, faith in God’s Son has flourished. . Iran has tried to suppress faith in Christ, but they cannot stop belief in the Son of God arising from within thousands of hearts. They cannot stop belief from moving from the pages of the Bible, from the testimony to truth that it gives.
If we could read the hearts of men and women in North Korea, that has publicly banned faith in Christ. We would see a large number of people secretly believe in Jesus, because God Himself sent to them His witness. We would be amazed at the large number of believers in that hostile environment.
1 John 5:11 And this is the [God’s] testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life [eternal] is in his Son. 5:12 Whoever has the Son / has life. Whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. NIV
5:11 And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. 5:12 He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. NKJV
This is the Testimony
As seen in the last verse God’s testimony about His Son is the most widely known, written and known biography in all human history. God has not hidden the opportunity but instead has made it very public. Presenting to all of humanity—there is eternal life made available by belief in His Son. This fact is widely known to everyone that reads, hears about the life and gospel of Jesus Christ.
In absolute truth we should “"Praise God, from whom all blessings flow; Praise Him, all creatures here below; Praise Him above, ye heavenly host; Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!” By Thomas Ken 1674.
Eternal Life
When we believe God’s testimony about His Son, having God’s witness in themselves, God will give them eternal life. This is so simple. No previous requirements, no promises—just acceptance of God’s testimony about His Son.
This is not casual faith; it has profoundly moved into to heart with conviction and whole hearted desire to yield to these influences.
Eternal life VS Just Life
John declares a well-known fact; eternal life comes from the Son. Having the faith in God’s Son affects this life, in the present on earth. The certainty of the Fathers presence, His witness in our conscience our minds that generates faith in God’s testimony, is the guarantee that we will be with God on the last day. Think of it this way. God does not just give a written testimony in the New Testament. Not just cause it to be proclaimed on 100,000 pulpits every week. Not just have the name of Jesus and his Apostles mentioned in millions of homes every hour—He gave a consistent stream of witnesses to the fact that Life is found by faith in His Son—“We know it by the Spirit He gave us” (1 John 3:24).
Just think having the witness of the Father inside our hearts and conscience. When God witness is believed, when faith in His Son becomes personal, our eternal life begins. While present anywhere you live on earth. God’s witness is not just on the factual level, as we know the periodic table of elements.
First God’s witness is inside us. For God “send His One and Only Son into the world,” into your heart and conscience, for the purpose that we “might live through Him” because “He loved us” (1 John 4:9,10). How do we know that God dwells in us, in our body temple? Because we learn to love. “Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God” (1 John 4:7).
Revelation pictures those that Satan hates have the testimony about Jesus in their lives. “The dragon [Satan] was enraged at the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring—those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus” (Rev 12:17). Where did they get their conviction about Jesus—From God the father’s witness to them personally. Once they receive “God’s testimony” (1 John 5:9) they hold it dear and near to their hearts, freely confessing that they belong to Jesus, the Son of God.
He Who Does Not Have the Son
They do not have faith in the Son of God, this life is all they have.
They not have love for God and others around them. This is a sure sign that God has yet to be welcomed into your lives.
Those who don’t believe in God’s Son, all they get is the few years here on earth. They give up for the pleasure of sin, an unmeasured life, just like God’s life. A life of greater love, greater joy that comes from love, greater peace that comes from being loved and loving in return. They chose not to believe the indisputable witness, given in millions of ways on earth every second.
Instead, they chose to hold a boxing match with hate and unrest. Then they exit this world as an unbeliever of the greatest witness to anything on earth—the gospel account of God’s love, pointing to His Son.
How to Pray
1 John 5:13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know [are assured] that you have eternal life. 5:14 This is the [reason for] confidence [boldness, assurance] we have in approaching God [near in prayer]: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 5:15 And if we know [truly, really] that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know [from inside us] that we have what we asked of him NIV
5:13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God. 5:14 Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 5:15 And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him. NKJV
The Text
The NKJV, not the KJV, added the words you may continue, to the text. It is better to let the passage read as it is. True belief is not flighty, easily frightened, like a flock of birds. It does not have to be told to keep on believing, because belief is not merely intellectual, it is a burning conviction that is real like anything else in our lives.
I Write These Things—The Settings for Prayer
John had just said that God’s testimony about his Son is greater than any human testimony (5:9). When we believe in God’s Son, it is because we have been led to believe, because of God’s testimony (5:10) about His Son.
God’s second testimony is the God has promised and provided eternal life, because the Son has life in himself (5:11,12). God has appointed His Son to be the means for which we can receive eternal life. For the words and commands of the Son of God are “words of life” (1 John 1:1) which is “full of the Spirit and life” (John 6:63). “God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in the Son” (1 John 5:11).
John writes to his “dear children” (1 John 2:1), to those who a part of his “fellowship” (1 John 1:3) with great encouragement. John is speaking to those who believe in the name of the Son of God. Not that John hopes they are believers, but he affirms that indeed they have embraced Jesus where they can be assured, they “will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (1 Pet 2:11)
God’s First Conditions to Answered Prayer—Believe God’s Testimony
We affirm that Jesus is God’s Son, accepting God’s testimony. This is God’s designated portal for our prayers to be heard by God and always answered by God Himself.
Give to God’s Son authority over your life. Be students of his teachings and that of his Apostles. Then the Father wants us to ask anything of Him, in the name of His Son.
Jesus promises “I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (John 14:13).
Both the Father and Son want us to pray in the Name of His Son. We are to accept God’s testimony about His Son. Not in an abstract way, but personal. When you hear the song “Fairest Lord Jesus” or another similar song, it should warm our hearts with love of the Son of God. In this way we meet the first condition of answered prayer.
God’s Second Conditions to Answered Prayer—Know you Have Eternal Life
What does it mean to know you have eternal life?
It points to having a deep longing for God, that is never satisfied.
Our longing for God is greater, above, and beyond, professional or material satisfaction.
It is something God has revealed to you about Himself.
God and eternal life cannot be separated. We cannot have one without the other. We believe God’s testimony about His Son, and God imparts to us at the same time assurance of eternal life.
From time-to-time God makes his presence known, through heart awareness. For no outward reason, the eternal God gives witness to you, giving you assurance you are His child. Sometimes it comes with a call to prayer. Sometimes with tears, as you express out loud, “I love you Lord,” arising spontaneously from deep in your heart. “He [God] has also set eternity in the human heart” (Ecc 3:11).
Knowing that you have eternal life, is through the witness of the Spirit. We know it, because we have “the witness in himself” (1 John 5:10 NKJV), knowing that we have eternal life. God leaves us with a witness of what he promises, “everyone who believes may have eternal life in him” (John 3:15). God does not use just words; he reveals His presence in our lives. He makes Himself known to us and we know it is from God.
Question? Why is it so important to know that we have eternal life, when we come to God with our prayer requests?
· First Answer: We cannot have any, “0,” assurance of eternal life, while we “hate a brother or sister.” For such a person “is a murderer and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing [dwelling] in him” (1 John 3:14,15). Thus, we cannot have confidence that God hears us when we pray.
· Second Answer: First because God put the knowledge in Him, in your mind, your heart and your soul. You have “tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age” (Heb 6:5). You know they are real, because you are “born of God” and “God’s seed remains” abides in union with you (1 John 3:9).
If you don’t have this assurance, ask God for it. Once you have it, don’t grieve it by failure to love others as you know you should.
Eternal life is the greatest, most lasting, most significant, most important of all God’s gifts. If God has given the ultimate gift of life eternal, as coming from Himself. We can count and expect that he will answer our prayers. God has committed Himself to us, thus He is attentive to our needs and “graciously give us all things” (Rom 8:32). Since we are so honored to “live our lives through Him’ (1 John 4:9).
Thus:
We can come near to God with confidence, boldness, and assurance that God does hear us.
If we know our prayers are in accordance the will of God, what Jesus has told us about God’s will. We can believe it will be answered; we have what we asked of Him.
If we are uncertain our prayer is His will for us, we wait for God to answer us, maybe re-directing us to know His will in a different way. God always answers. God hears us. To be heard by God, answers are always given.
Thus:
Now we know, we are assured that God will answer our prayers, giving to us “endurance and patience," sourced from God's "All Power" (Col 1:11).
Now:
Start a list of your specific prayers, not general prayers for the missionaries around the world. But personal and specific. Be amazed but surprised to record answers across these prayers.
May Know and May Have Eternal Life
The entire reason John as written his letter is that we as his readers can find faith in his Son. This letter should be at the center of all gospel presentations. It will generate faith and a love in God’s Son. It will be a witness to this fact. This truth about God’s Son, is to be real, personal, as much as the things our hands hold.
It is the witness of God to us that awakens our love for God and generates faith in His Son’s message. It is not our free will that finds God then God gives us His assuring witness. Thankfully, God does not wait for us to make the first move. Instead “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). We are glad that God found us first.
It is by God first and direct action that we can give “joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of His holy people in the [His] kingdom of light.” Because God “has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and [He] brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves” (Col 1:12,13).
We are glad that when we have wandered away from Him, God seeks us out first, so we can repent and renew our faith and love.
“Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them.
Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?
And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home.
Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me.
I have found my lost sheep.’
I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner
who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent”
Luke 15:4-7
Confidence in God’s Witness—YOU HAVE
The word confidence also means boldness, because we know personally about the person we are speaking to. We know about their witness, the Father and His Son, to help us, about the assurance they have given to us, many times, about their love for us. Thus, there is no hesitation, no doubt, no fear that they will be too busy to listen to us. No fear that they will regard our needs as too trivial for them to attend to. No fear that our request for help is too difficult for them or impossible for them to render any help at all. So, they send us away empty-handed. So, he leaves us all alone to figure it out or seek help from another source.
Thankfully, this is never the case. Don’t give it a thought for one moment, because “now we are children of God” (1 John 3:2). We are children that God has “lavished” His “great love” on us (1 John 3:1). God’s love cannot be indifferent to His children that he loves.
“God is with us; He is our leader” (2 Chron 13:12), who said I “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” (Heb 13:5). Never is a long word with a world of meaning. Stand on that word NEVER, today in your prayers.
Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
1 Pet 5:7
So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Isa 41:10
What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—
How will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.
Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—
more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Shall trouble or hardship or persecution
or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
Rom 8:31-35, 37
Now, right now You Can Have
Bring your burdens, your cares, your hurts, and difficulties that you face—to God. With boldness, based on the true knowledge that He, God Himself, has given you witness about His Son and along with that witness God as placed a longer to be with Him—into eternity.
1 John 5:16 If you see any brother or sister commit a sin that does not lead to death, you should pray and God will give them 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 you should pray about that. 5:17 All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death. NIV
5:16 If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death. There is sin leading to death. I do not say that he should pray about that. 5:16 All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to death. NKJV
We leave these verses purposely unexplained. Because we want to know what you think they mean?
Send us your explanation, we are interested in what you think.
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Appendix
The Practice of Lawlessness (1 John 3:4)
The Practice of Sin (1 John 3:8)
The acts [works] of the flesh are obvious:
sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery, idolatry and witchcraft,
hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition,
dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.
I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. Gal 5:19-21
“It is one thing to be provoked by the flesh, and another thing to assent to the flesh,
and without fear or remorse to perform and fulfill the works thereof,
and to continue therein.” Martin Luther
Sexual immorality--(Greek: porneia—fornication, pornography, promiscuity) "Fee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit.” (1 Cor 6:18-19)
Adulterers, adultery—1 Cor 6:9; Matt 5:28, [violence to the inner soul]
Acts against nature—Rom 1:26-28; 1 Cor 6:9; 1 Timothy 1:10
Debauchery, orgies—Gal 5
Impurity, lewdness—Mk 7:22; Gal 5 (coarse, vulgar, indecent)
No one should wrong or take advantage of a brother or sister 1 Thess 4:6
Human Activity:
Thieves, swindlers, greedy—1 Cor 5:10,11; 6:10
Murder—Mk 7:21; Rom 1:29; 1 Tim 1:9;
Folly, recklessness—Mk 7:22
Reject the truth and following evil—Rom 2:8
Drunkenness, drunkards—1 Cor 6:10
Idolatry, witchcraft—Gal 5 (pharmakeia, drugs that cast spells)
Human Emotions:
anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer—1 John 3:15
rage, anger, malice, abusive, treacherous—Eph 4:31; Mk 7:22; 2 Tim 3:2,4
discord, dissensions, jealousy, bitter envy, selfish ambition — Rom 13:13; 1:29; James 3:14
arrogance, boastful, proud, insolent—2 Cor 12:20; 2 Tim 3:2; Rom 1:30
conceited, provoking each other, ungrateful, envying each other—Gal 5:26; 2 Tim 3:2
lying to each other, false testimony, gossip, slander —Col 3:9; Matt 15:19; 2 Cor 12:20; Titus 3:2
lovers of themselves, lovers of money, without self-control —2 Tim 3:2,3
lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, not lovers of the good —2 Tim 3:3,4
disobedient to their parents, no fidelity, no love, no mercy, unforgiving—2 Tim 3:2,3; Rom 1:31
filthy language, invent ways of doing evil, rash—Col 3:8; Rom 1:30; 2 Tim 3:4
unthankful, ungrateful, unholy, quarreling over disputable matters—2 Tim 3:2; Rom 14:1
comparing ourselves to someone else—Gal 6:4
Summary of ways to Practice sin—Is to do evil deeds to others.
To be harsh, unkind and demanding
To excuse rudeness as deserved
To use vulgarity when others offend you or things go wrong.
To be unforgiving
To be abusive
To be difficult to live with or get along with
To make others feel it’s all their fault, while they admit nothing.
To borrow and never return
To have sexual thoughts/plans toward the innocent or those under your authority.
To keep the attention and focus on yourself, showing how good you are for the praise of others, with fake humility.
To slander and destroy another person’s reputation, often for no good reason.
To be jealous of others that threaten you.
Give nothing without gaining something in return.
To show partiality and favoritism, neglecting the less socially acceptable.
To use their authority for the primary object of benefiting themselves.
To love the praise of others and be jealous overs are preferred.
To make as much money as possible so every luxury can be afforded to be self-centered with your means.
The Practice of Righteousness (1 John 3:7)
l When you stand praying, forgive or your Father will not forgive you—Mark 11:25-26
l Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you—Eph 4:32
l Forgive others 70 X 7—Matthew 18:21–22
l Settle matters quickly with your adversary, restore broken relationships—Matt 5:25
l Do not resist an evil person, turn the other cheek—Matt 5:38-39
l Do not retaliate when injured or abused.
l Love and pray for your enemies—Matt 5:43-45
l Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen…Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice—Eph 4: 29,31
l Do everything without grumbling or arguing—Phil 2:14
l Do as the Good Samaritan did—Luke 10:30-37
l Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful—Luke 6:36
l Care for the distress, thirsty, stranger, need clothes and sick—Matt 25:34-36
l Servant Leadership, be a servant to others—Matthew 20:26–28
l Serve one another humbly in love.
l The entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: Love your neighbor as yourself—Gal 5:13,14
l Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ—Eph 5:21
l Take care of the poor and disabled when you have a large feast—Luke 14:12–14
l Do not swear at all, be truthful in your speech—Matt 5: 34-37
l Blessed are the meek—Kindhearted, sweet natured and not prideful—Matt 5
l Blessed are the merciful—Kind and compassionate—Matt 5
l Blessed are the pure in heart--Those with integrity—Matt 5
l Blessed are the peacemakers—Keepers and promoters of peace—Matt 5
l I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you —Matt 6:27,28
l Giving more than is demanded, above and beyond, the extra mile—Matt 5:40-42
l Give to please God, not to be seen by others—Matt 6:1
l Speaking the truth in love… each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor—Eph 4:16,25
l Beware of covetousness for material things—Luke 12:15
l Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands—Eph 4:2
l Don’t lust in your heart, it is as serious as to adultery—Matt 5:27–30
l But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality—Eph 5:3
l Be kind to children and welcome them—Matt 18:19
Do not Judge others, treating others as unworthy—Matt 7:1-2
l Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful—Lk 6:36
l Your faith has saved you; go in peace—Lk 7:50
l pend your money on things that matter eternally, do not store up treasures—Matt 6:19–21
l Golden Rule—Do to others as you would have them do to you—Matt 7:12; Lk 6:31
l Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers—Gal 5:9,10
l Be on your guard against any kind of greed—Luke 12:15
l Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others--Phil 2:3,4
l Don’t break a marriage up, what God has brought together, let no one separate—Matt19:4–6
l Take are for the outcast, blind, cripples and poor—Luke 14:12–14
l Freely you received, freely give—Matthew 10:8
l Lend expecting nothing in return—Luke 6:35
l Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience—Col 3:12
l Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone.
l Forgive as the Lord forgave you—Col 3:13
l Over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity—Col 3:15
l “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends…they may invite you back… But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous—Lk 14:12-14
“Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.” John 14:21
My new command is to love each other, as I have loved you. (John 13:34-35)
We know for a fact we know Christ if we keep his commands (1 John 2:3)
To keep his commands—is to walk in love (2 John 1:6)
9 Fruits of the Spirit
But the fruit of the Spirit is (1) love, (2) joy, (3) peace,
(4) forbearance, (5) kindness, (6) goodness, (7) faithfulness,
(8) gentleness, and (9) self-control.
Against such things there is no law. Gal 5:22,23
1—Love
Love is showing goodwill for another, it is altruistic and benevolence,
Serve one another humbly in love. Do everything in love —Gal 5:13; 1 Cor 16:14
Love with a gentle spirit—1 Cor 4:21
Be devoted to one another in love, honor one another above yourselves—Rom 12:10
Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good—Rom 12:9
God loves a cheerful giver—2 Cor 9:7
Pursue righteousness, faith, love, & peace—2 Tim 2:22
Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers—1 Pet 2:17
Whoever would love life and see good days must keep their tongue from evil and their lips from deceitful speech—1 Pet 3:10
Greet one another with a kiss [warm affection] of love [agape]—1 Pet 5:14
Love does no harm to a neighbor, Do everything in love—Rom 13:10; 1 Cor 16:14
This is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more—Phil 1:9
2—Joy
Chara-- joy, joyful, delight, gladness, feminine noun
Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer—Rom 12:12
Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! —Phil 4:4
Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs—Ps 100:2
3—Peace
Eiréné-- quietness, rest, feminine noun
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God—Matt 5:9
If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone—Rom 12:18
For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit—Rom 14:17
Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace—Eph 4:3
Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way—2 Thess 3:16
For God is not a God of disorder but of peace—1 Cor 14:33
Encourage one another, be of one mind, live in peace—2 Cor 13:11
Be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and always to be gentle toward everyone—Titus 3:2
Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace—2 Tim 2:22
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts… you were called to peace, and be thankful—Gal 3:15
The peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds—Phil 4:7
Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification—Rom 14:19
They must turn from evil and do good; they must seek peace and pursue it—1 Pet 3:11
4—Forbearance
makrothumia: patience, long-suffering, self-restraint, Feminine Noun
Correct, rebuke, and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction—2 Tim 4:2
You know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance—2 Tim 3:10
Through faith and patience inherit what has been promised—Heb 6:12
Patience in the face of suffering—James 5:10
Being strengthened with all power…that you may have great endurance and patience—Col 1:11
5—Kindness
chréstotés: goodness, uprightness, gentleness, feminine noun
The islanders showed us unusual kindness. They built a fire and welcomed us—Acts 28:2
In purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love—2 Cor 6:6
Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience—Col 3:12
6—Goodness
agathosune: To do good, feminine noun
Make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge—2 Pet 1:5
May see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven—Matt 5:17
A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him—Matt 12:35
Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you—Luke 6:27
Give…good measure, pressed down, shaken together…will be poured into your lap—Luke 6:38
Overcome evil with good—Rom 12:21
Please our neighbors for their good, to build them up—Rom 15:2
No one should seek their own good, but the good of others—1 Cor 10:24
Bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God—Col 1:10
Never tire of doing what is good—2 Thess 3:13
Holding on to faith and a good conscience—1 Tim 1:19
Command them [the rich] to do good, to be rich in good deeds—1 Tim 6:18
Lovers of the good—2 Tim 3:3
Be hospitable, one who loves what is good—Titus 1:8
Teach what is good. Eager to do what is good. Ready to do whatever is good—Titus 2:3,14; 3:1
Be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good—Titus 3:8
Trained themselves to distinguish good from evil—Heb 5:14
Spur one another on toward love and good deeds—Heb 10:24
And do not forget to do good and to share with others—Heb 13:6
Must turn from evil and do good; they must seek peace and pursue it—1 Pet 3:11
Anyone who does what is good is from God...does what is evil has not seen God—3 John 1:11
7—Faithfulness
pistis: faith, belief, trust, confidence; fidelity, feminine noun
Faithful in prayer—Rom 12:12
Faithful to his wife and his children… faithful to her husband—1 Tim 3:12; 1 Tim 5:9
Faithful stewards of God’s grace—1 Pet 4:10
8—Gentleness
prautés: mildness, meekness, feminine noun
Let your gentleness be evident to all, Not violent but gentle—Phil 4:5; 1 Tim 3:3
By the humility and gentleness of Christ—2 Cor 10:1
Be peaceable and considerate, and always to be gentle toward everyone—Titus 3:2
Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love—Eph 4:2
a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight—1 Pet 3:4
A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger—Prov 15:1
9—self-control
egkrateia: self-mastery, one who masters his desires and passions, feminine noun
Younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure—Titus 2:3,4
Similarly, encourage the young men to be self-controlled—Titus 2:5