1 John 5:1-6 (NRSV)
Read 1 John 5:1-6 on biblegateway.com
Chapter 5Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the parent loves the child. Verse 2By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. Verse 3For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, Verse 4for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith. Verse 5Who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
Verse 6This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with the water only but with the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one that testifies, for the Spirit is the truth.
Devotion
In a fitting summary of this Easter season’s sequential reading of the First Letter of John, the writer points to the Holy Spirit as the one who testifies in us to the true faith that is victorious over the world. How does that testimony in us work? It helps us know that everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, has been born as a child of God and has already overcome the power of evil in the world. And what is the sign of that power at work in us? It is the love of God shown in our keeping of God’s commandments—namely to love and care for God’s children. Finally, to seal the deal, the writer returns to the testimony to that truth in us through the witness of the Spirit of God to the One who came among us “by the water and the blood,” Jesus Christ. I take that to refer to the water of baptism and the power of the cross and resurrection of our Lord.
Prayer
Spirit of Truth, may your testimony ring true in our hearts, that in Jesus Christ our Risen Lord we have been claimed as your children and empowered to live in love for you and for all your children. Amen.
Interested in digging deeper into today’s text?
Read more here with Enter the Bible.