By the water and the blood

Testimonies abound in 1 John 5 | 1 John part V

May 16, 2024

After more than a month walking through the letter of 1 John, we’ve reached the end of our journey through this short, dense epistle.

As we’ve seen over the last several weeks, 1 John is an ideal book to study if you’re looking to practice meditating on scripture. It’s pretty short, so you can reasonably read it in its entirety in a sitting.

It’s also written in a looping rhetorical style, where main points and themes are repeated over and over again for emphasis and clarity.

There were many problems facing the church John is addressing in this first letter. Though history hasn’t preserved all the specifics, we can assume at the very least that they were dealing with divisions stemming from disagreements about Jesus’ identity.

John refers to “antichrists” and “those who went out from us,” implying that the Christians on the receiving end of his letter had not only dealt with opposition to their message, but also a schism that was likely based on similar disagreements.

So, what’s the best response in the face of trials like these? John presents several options: affirmation of Christ and acceptance of his claims; obedience to God’s commands and cessation of sinful behaviors; and love, the gift of God that we are called to reflect to our brothers and sisters are chief among his teaching.

Additionally, our obedience to God isn’t the coerced behavior of a fearful servant, but a loving response to a perfect, perfectly loving God. The demand for justice has been met; Jesus has already provided the perfect sacrifice for sin through his life, death, and resurrection. Believers need only respond in faith to appropriate that sacrifice; though we are called to live a moral life and avoid sin, we need not fear a harsh master who is waiting for us to slip up so that he can remove his forgiveness from us.

With all that in mind, let’s dive in to the last chapter of 1 John. We’ll be spending most of our time in verses 6-12, but as usual the chapter is packed full of good stuff.

1 John 5:1-5

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

John reminds the readers of some of the main themes of his letter while also providing a larger perspective. Despite all the challenges and difficulties facing these early Christians (and the readers of this letter throughout its long history since then), there’s no need to fear or become discouraged—they (we!) will overcome the world.

God’s children, who are equipped by him to follow his commandments, are imbued with the very stuff that will make even these trials seem small in comparison to his glory.

1 John 5:6-12

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. If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son. Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son. And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

In my opinion, this is one of the coolest sections of the entire letter—though it sounds a bit cryptic on the first read.

It’s obvious what the author is referring to when he mentions the Spirit as an agent that testifies to the truth, but what does he mean by the water and the blood? Likely a few things.

The first and most obvious interpretation is that the water refers to Jesus’ baptism and the blood to his crucifixion. What is the connection between these two moments? For one, they effectively bookend the period of Jesus’ life that he spent in public ministry.

These moments were also revelatory in nature. Read the account of Jesus’ baptism from Mark 1:9-11 below:

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

These three short verses are rich with symbolism, which we unfortunately don’t have the space to fully unpack here. Regardless, the voice of God identifying Jesus as his “beloved Son” and the physical manifestation of the Spirit descending upon Jesus are powerful indicators of his identity as the Messiah, which he would spend the next three years proclaiming.

Likewise, the blood Jesus shed during his crucifixion was equally essential to his role as Israel’s promised Messiah, though its necessity was unexpected and even unwelcome for those who had been hoping for a victorious, Davidic king instead of a suffering servant a la Isaiah 53.

So, Jesus’ baptism (water) and crucifixion (blood) are not only signifiers of his true identity as God’s son and Israel’s Messiah, but also events that remind us of the legitimacy of his claims.

But there’s one more layer I want to unpack here, and that’s the sacramental significance of the water and the blood to believers today.

I won’t try to make a claim about how many sacraments there are, but I will say that the two that all Christians—Protestants, Catholics, and Orthodox alike—have in common are represented here. Those are baptism (water) and communion (the body and blood of Christ).

So, not only do the record of Christ’s baptism and crucifixion stand as testaments to his true identity and all that implies, but each individual Christian also has a personal testimony, represented in their participation in these two essential sacraments, that testifies to the same. Next time you remember your baptism or participate in the Lord’s Supper, thank God for the reminder of who Jesus is.

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.
If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life—to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death.
We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.
We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.
And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

John finishes his letter with further encouragement to his readers, reminding them that they do, indeed, have the gift of eternal life. He reminds them that God will freely give life to those who ask for it—but also that those who have removed themselves from the fellowship of believers are not guaranteed the same.

Finally, John’s parting words implore his readers to avoid falling into the trap of idolatry. This final exhortation in a letter that doesn’t seem to address idolatry outright struck me as a bit odd, but N.T. Wright contextualizes it this way in The New Testament in its World: “An idol is anything that, though not itself divine, invites worship and service as if it were. The whole letter is about wrong views of Jesus, which are ultimately wrong views of God, and about the behaviour which, as always, follows from worshipping that which is not the true God.”

So, with that—and the preceding four chapters—in mind, I encourage you, dear friends, to fix your eyes upon the real, true Jesus. Meditate on the scriptures. Ask God to reveal himself to you. Turn away from anything that claims to give life but doesn’t draw from and reflect back on the True Source. He loves you, and he will be faithful to you; of that I am sure.