I John 5:4-21
This is He who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not by the water only, but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree. (vv. 6-8) My understanding… Here, John is confronting the Gnostics who say that Jesus was only man while He walked the earth, that He was born a man and died a man. (Maybe John can shed more light on Gnostic thinking.) But my understanding is that the “water” is Jesus’ Baptism, where the Spirit descended upon Him and the Father spoke. The “blood” is Jesus’ Crucifixion and Resurrection – His Resurrection proving His divinity. And the Spirit was given at Pentecost as Jesus had promised (John 14:16, John 16:7) at the Last Supper. So these three – the water (Baptism), the blood (Crucifixion and Resurrection) and the Spirit (Pentecost) all testify to Jesus’ divinity while here on earth. Yes, it’s confusing, but that’s how I put it together.
Today’s “one word” is “know”, appearing seven times in today’s reading:
- We know that we have eternal life. (I John 5:13)
- We know that He hears us and that He honors our requests. (I John 5:15)
- We know that everyone born of God does not keep sinning. (I John 5:18)
- We know that we are from God and that the world is in the power of the devil. (I John 5:19)
Finally, we know that Jesus has come and given us understanding; that we know Him and are in Him; and that He is the True God and Eternal Life.
If we know these things, all our “necessary” questions should be answered!!
Blessings!
See also:
I don’t know that I have much more to add about Gnosticism other than to reiterate what Fred said at the outset of our reading of I John 1 — that the Gnostics thought (think) of the physical world as evil. With that as a premise, then either Jesus the Man could not possibly be divine (because evil flesh obviously can’t be God) or if Jesus is God, then He wasn’t really physically here at all. And so, to counter such thought, John emphasizes at the outset that he is talking about Someone he has heard and seen and touched. And now he emphasizes again the very physical reality of Christ in water and blood (Baptism and Crucifixion) — and thus the very physical reality of the Resurrection — as well as the witness of the Spirit (Who is “untainted” by the physical), all in total agreement as to the Truth of Christ.
As Fred said, we have everything we need to know. (By the way, the root of “Gnosticism” is the Greek word, “gnosis,” which means “knowledge,” so John is very much poking the Gnostics in the eye when emphasizing what we know.) But do we, in fact, truly know as well as we ought?