Real Life
Opening Prayer
Unto You, Lord, my heart is open. I am revived as I receive Your look of love, Your powerful embrace. I love You, Lord!
Read 1 JOHN 5:1–12
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. 2 This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. 3 In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, 4 for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
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. 7 For there are three that testify: 8 the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement. 9 We accept human testimony, but God’s testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son. 10 Whoever believes in the Son of God accepts this 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. 11 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
“Christ gives us a cause to live for, a standard to live by, a strength to live with, and a destiny forever” (William Barclay, 1907–1978). Surely, here is the life we have in Jesus!
John does not explain the heresy that he is refuting, a heresy which would have been known to his readers. There have been numerous attempts to explain what is meant in these verses by “water” and “blood.” It must mean, at its very least, that the cleansing power of Jesus (water) cannot be known apart from an understanding of his death on the cross (blood). A response to his atonement is a prerequisite to sharing in his life.
Although God created every human being, John is talking about something else when he writes about being “born of God” (1,4). In his Gospel John draws a line between those who received Jesus and believed in his name and those who rejected him (John 1:10–13). Jesus spoke to Nicodemus about the need to be “born again” (John 3:3–7). The person who is truly “born again” is not simply a person who says “Christian” when asked what is their religion, but someone who believes that Jesus is the Messiah, keeps God’s commands and overcomes “the world” (4)—everything out there that is not of God. The struggle between good and evil is not evenly balanced. Jesus has “overcome the world” and with his life in us we can do the same (John 16:33).
The “eternal life” John speaks of in verse 11 is not just something we will enjoy after we die. It is something we know here and now, a different plane of living, as “with unveiled faces [we] contemplate the Lord’s glory, [and] are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18). The Spirit within us fills us with love and joy and gives us the power to overcome temptation and the strength to do his will (Gal. 5:22). Is this your experience?
Being born again does not give us a free ride for the rest of our lives. Far from it—we are engaged in a cosmic battle.
Apply
How do you describe the life you have in Jesus (11,12)? How are you doing with loving God (3)? With loving others (1b)?
Closing prayer
Gracious Lord, pour Your presence into me. Fill me with passion, infuse me with the Holy Spirit, so that I can fully love You and others.
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