I John 5:9-13
9 If
we receive human testimony, the testimony of God is greater; for this is the
testimony of God that he has testified to his Son. 10 Those who
believe in the Son of God have the testimony in their hearts. Those who do not
believe in God have made him a liar by not believing in the testimony that God
has given concerning his Son. 11 And this is the testimony: God gave
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.
13 I write these things to you who believe in the
name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.
The theme of I John 5:9-12 , which concludes a segment that began
at verse 4b, is faith as conqueror. In verses 4b-8, John gives the
Christological content of faith in terms of water, blood, Spirit, while verses
9-12 is God’s testimony concerning the division of believers from nonbelievers.
This last unit arises out of the suggestion in John 20:31, emphasizing that the
Gospel of John is itself is a testimony the author hopes will bring people to
believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the promised Messiah and therefore the Son of
God. Through such belief, the reader will have life.
I
John 5: 9-12 have the theme of God’s testimony. The human testimony is John the
Baptist. What is God’s testimony? His reflections upon the testimony God gives
the believer leads John to make some sharp distinctions between those who
believe and those who do not believe. I have an admission to make. I would
rather find some common ground with the world. I John challenges me to make a
sharp distinction between the church and culture. Without that distinction
which leads to tension and maybe even battle, of what use would the church be?
9 If we receive
human testimony, the testimony of God is greater; for this is the testimony of
God that God has testified to the Son.
John reflects on the difference between
the "human testimony" and the "testimony of God." God has
demonstrated the greatness of God's testimony to humanity by the fact that the
Divine has "testified to his Son." However, to understand what John
is talking about in the word "testimony," we must move back to verses
6-8. Even the opponents of John recognized the baptism of Jesus as a testimony
to the identity of Jesus. However, they did not recognize the anointing by the
Spirit and they did not recognize the testimony of the quite real death upon
the cross as genuine testimonies. Water and blood mark the public ministry of
Jesus. The Spirit is the one who translates for us the meaning behind the water
and blood. The various human responses to the proclamation in verse 9 are the
focus of verses 10‑12. 10
Those who believe (human response to the divine testimony) in the Son of God have the testimony in
their hearts. The believer already has an
internalized relationship with God.
Those who do not believe (another human response to divine testimony) in God have made God a liar by not believing in the testimony that God has given concerning
his Son. Just
as I John does not hesitate to discuss such messy marks of faith as blood and
water, he does not shy away from describing the loss that awaits the one who
"does not believe in God." To deny God's witness in Christ means
calling God "a liar." If we declare God's witness is false, God's
essence must be false as well. To take such a stance cuts one off
from the mission and sacrifice of Christ. 11 In addition, this is the testimony: God gave us eternal
life, and this life is in the Son.
Here is the key to what God’s testimony actually is. God’s testimony is eternal
life given to those who believe. Possessing testimony within oneself is the
same as possessing life.[1] While the
witness God offers has been given by external events ‑‑ the water of baptism,
the blood of the cross ‑‑ the witness of a believer will result when these
externals are internalized as an experience of faith in God's testimony. The
unbeliever who does not accept as truth the witness God gives about the Son
cannot expect to receive the gift that this God's testimony bears witness to,
that is, the gift of eternal life. The witness of the water, the blood and the
Spirit do not point toward the identity of Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God,
only for Christ's own sake. These witnesses work together to open our eyes to
the divine gift God is offering humanity through Christ's sacrifice. 12 Whoever has the Son has life. The
relationship of the believer has the characteristic of the gift of eternal
life. Whoever does not have the Son of
God does not have life. The letter seems to end on a sadly negative note. For those with no belief in God's witness to the Son, there
is no life.
The
theme of I John 5:13, which begins a conclusion that continues to verse 21, is
a concluding a reflection on John 20:31, where John says he has written the
Gospel so that the reader may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the
Son of God, and that through believing the reader will have life in his name. I
John 5: 13-17 have the theme of confidence in possessing life in spite of sin.
The author affirms the reality of assurance before God, especially the
assurance of eternal life. This assurance is practical when the believer comes
before God in prayer.
13 I write these things to you
who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know, reassuring
the readers that they do have knowledge,
that you have eternal life. He closes this discussion with the attempt to
instill confidence and clarity in the hearts of the Christians he is
addressing. Theological nuances and arguments may come and go, but I John
assures his readers that they may find enduring strength and comfort in a
single promise. If you believe in the Son, you have life.
I John has emphasized the
division between believer and non-believer, between church and world. We can
think of the church has having four ways it might interact with its surrounding
culture. In the proper setting, each may have validity. One can be
anti-cultural, like the Amish. One can be en-cultural, where the church becomes
so anxious to fit into its culture that it loses its distinguishing
particularity. It becomes the world. The world throws a stick, and the church,
like a friendly and faithful dog, fetches the stick. The church can be
counter-cultural, isolating itself from what it thinks is the dominant culture,
only to discover that it now identifies itself with a sub-culture. It becomes
friendly with isolationist language. The church is the beachhead, outpost,
colony, or resident alien, all the while oblivious that it has switched one
culture for another culture. It creates an artificial wall between the church
and world, in which the church assumes its chosen sub-culture is superior to
its understanding of the dominant culture. God loves this world so much to the
send the Son to die for it. Yes, that capitalist and western culture that so
many hip theologians reject is the one God loves. The church can be
in-cultural, using knowledge of the current culture to incarnate Christ in this
culture, recognizing that the culture will change. Such a viewing of viewing
church and culture requires much prayerful discernment to know where to stand
with culture on common ground and where to move lovingly against it. Faithful
Christians and churches will differ widely as to where and how this tension
finds resolution.[2] Such issues are practical.
If you find your cultural home sweet, you are a beginner. If every native soil
is sweet, you are strong. It may well be, however, that when every culture
feels like a foreign place, we have reached a level of spiritual maturity
rarely reached.[3] Yes, I am including the
highly valued sub-culture of the self-described resident alien as finding
itself far too much at home in a sub-culture. It may well be that the only
ultimate disaster for the church is to be at home on earth. As long as every
place on earth feels like a foreign place and we long for the true homeland
proclaimed by Jesus in the rule of God, then we have not forgotten what
concerned Jesus and what ought to concern followers of Jesus of every age and
culture.[4]
The letter of I John
challenges us to reflect upon the relationship between church and world. The
church is in the world, obviously, but must never be at rest or at peace with
the world. The church needs to recognize that, regardless of the specific
culture, the world can be a rough place for those who love God more than the
world.
A student at Duke called the
pastor, William Willimon, and needed to talk.
He began by saying: I have had the worst night of my life. Last night, after the fraternity meeting, as
usual, we had a time when we just sit around and talk about what we did over
the weekend. This weekend, during a
party we had on Saturday, I went upstairs to get something from a brother’s room
and walked in on a couple who were, well, in the act. I immediately closed the door and went back
downstairs, saying nothing. Well, when
we came to the time for sharing at the end of the meeting, after a couple of
brothers shared what they did over the weekend, one of the group said, “I understand
that Mr. Christian got a real eye full last night.” With that, they all began to laugh. Not a good, friendly laugh; it was cold,
cruel, mean laughter. They were all
laughing, all saying things like, “You won’t see nothing like that in church! Better go confess it to the priest.” Stuff like that. I tried to recover, tried to say something
light, but I could not. They hate
me! They were serious. I walked out of the meeting, stood outside,
and wept. I have never received
treatment like that in my life. The
pastor responded: that is amazing.
Moreover, you are not the greatest Christian in the world, are you? And yet, just one person running around loose
who can say “No” is a threat to everyone else, has to be put down, ridiculed,
savaged into silence.”
The difficulty is that the
church may well give a loud voice and clear exposition to every portion of the
Bible. Yet, the challenge is that at some specific moment and place, the truth
in the Bible finds itself under attack. If the church is too fearful to engage
the place where the battle rages, where the loyalty of the soldier has its
test, and instead flees or flinches, it shows its weakness in standing with
Christ and against culture.[5]
I need this reminder today.
[1]
Note that the two antitheses at 4:10, 12 suggest a similar thing.
[2]
H. Richard Niebuhr, Christ and Culture,
[3]
Hugo of St. Victor wrote long ago:
Those who find their homeland sweet are still tender
beginners; those whom every soil is as their native one is already strong; but
those who are perfect regard the entire world as a foreign place.
[4]
Malcolm Muggeridge once put it this way:
The only ultimate disaster that can befall us is to
feel ourselves to be at home here on earth.
As long as we are aliens we cannot forget our true homeland which is
that other kingdom You proclaimed.
[5] Luther, vol 3, p. 81ff. If I profess with the loudest voice and
clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that
little point at which the world and the devil are at that moment
attacking. I am not confessing Christ,
however, boldly I may be professing him.
Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and
to the steady on all the battlefield besides is mere flight and disgrace if he
flinches at that point.
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