1 John 5:6-9

1 John 5:6-9

This is the one who came through water and blood: Jesus Christ – not in water only but in water and in blood.  And the Spirit is the one who testifies because the Spirit is truth.  For the ones who testify are three: the Spirit and the water and the blood.  And the three are into the One.  If we receive the testimony of mankind, the testimony of God is greater.  Because the testimony of God is this: that He has testified regarding His Son. 

Thoughts for Today

First Thought:

There are many who would like to separate the words water and blood.  They desire to say that the water represents Christ’s baptism and the blood represents His crucifixion.  And it is certainly possible that they could be right.  Certainly there is truth in that both baptism and crucifixion bookended Christ’s earthly ministry and both are important events in Christ’s life.  However, knowing John’s context and knowing that John was writing at a time when Gnosticism was on the rise allows us to see that John may have had a greater point here.  In case you don’t know, Gnosticism is a belief that among many heresies taught that Jesus was only a spirit and although He “seemed” to have a physical body He never truly was flesh and never truly was human in any sense.  I think John is using the expression “water and blood” as a refutation against Gnosticism.

There are only three places in the whole of the New Testament where we have the words water and blood tied directly together with the conjunction “and.”  Two of them occur in these 4 verses.  The other one is in the Gospel of John during Jesus’ crucifixion.  See John 19:34.  There a soldier comes and proves Jesus is dead by driving a spear into Jesus and out comes blood and water.  Given that this expression only ever occurs in John’s writing, I believe that John is writing against Gnosticism rather than giving us a reference to baptism and crucifixion.  In a human birth, there is water and blood.  Human life begins in water and blood.  At Jesus’ death, the mix of water and blood was the proof that He physically died.  Jesus was wholly alive in water and blood.  Then Jesus was wholly dead in water and blood.  Both his flesh and His spirit died.  This is more fully enhanced by the ancient understanding that the body was composed of the flesh (water, if you will) and the blood, which they believed is what gave us our essence (spirit, if you will).  If we bring this into the reading for today from 1 John, what I believe John is claiming here is that Jesus came fully into the world.  He wasn’t just a spiritual being.  He wasn’t just a physical being.  He was both physical and spiritual.  He was capable of knowing God and being in relationship with God but also fully human and capable of knowing our trials and temptations, too.

Why is it important to you to believe that Jesus was a spiritual being?  Why is it meaningful for you to know that Jesus was also fully human?

Second Thought:

As this passage closed, John indicates to us that God witnessed about His Son.  Also remember that in Jewish law a single person’s testimony was not enough to stand in court.  Truth is to be established by two or three witnesses.  See Deuteronomy 19:15.  This is an incredible point to John both in these letters and in the Gospel of John.  We know that God the Father witnessed about His Son both at His baptism and at His transfiguration – and additionally through all the miracles that the Father worked through the Son!  We know that when the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost and continues to come to us after Pentecost that the Spirit testifies to us regarding His Son.  So here we have two witnesses in addition to Christ’s witness about Himself.  From a Jewish legal perspective, there is no reason to doubt Jesus’ witness about Himself because it is supported by two other testimonies, making three in total.

Does it make sense that God would testify about Himself?  Do you think it is neat that about 1,500 years prior to Christ God set up a passage with Moses in the Law that would speak so meaningfully about the number of witnesses that He would provide for the testimony for His own Son?

Third Thought:

Finally, John gives us a truth in this passage that we typically get backwards.  John tells us that the testimony of God is greater than the testimony of mankind.  On a spiritual level, of course we know this is true because God is greater than any man.  However, on an every-day-life level we don’t often live this out.  We are a people prone to listen to the media rather than finding truth in the Word of God.  We are much more apt to believe what our friends say about us on social media than listen to God’s opinion of us and what He desires for our life.  The truth is that while God’s opinion should have more weight – and we even confess that it does – we often struggle with putting that belief into action.  Unfortunately, it is far easier to believe what the world says.

Where do you listen to God and not the world?  Where in your life are you tempted to listen to the world’s opinion?

Passage for Tomorrow: 1 John 5:10-12