1 John Chapter 5

I am sure when you read today’s chapter, you will find that there are so many teachings that one can reflect and meditate upon.

For me today, I was drawn to the heading that prefaced verses 6 – 13.

The Certainty of God’s Witness

These verses are most familiar to us as we often use this passage of the Bible when we talk about Water Baptism that has to do with our salvation.

We are indeed blessed by the grace of the Lord that in our Church, we can truly understand this passage not just by the Word but also by other signs and miracles that has accompanied many of our baptism sacraments.

We have heard and maybe also know of members who have seen blood during baptism. We have heard or even witness for ourselves how those who were sick entered into the water and came up better. Even recently, we heard Pr Kong mentioned about how a chain-smoking man stopped smoking completely after baptism and that when he came put of the water, the baptists all could strangely smell cigarette smoke around the waters – as if all the cigarette habit was washed away from him along with his sins and he became a new man.

This is He who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not only by water, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness on earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree as one.

~ 1 John 5:6-8

All this helps confirm our belief that water baptism washes away our sins as we have not just witnesses in heaven – the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit. But we also have witness on earth – the Spirit, the water and the blood.

All these agree as one.

If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for this is the witness of God which He has testified of His Son. He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; he who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son. And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has [d]life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.

~ 1 John 5:9-12 ~

These verses are very clear that God Himself testifies of Jesus who came by water and blood. And if we believe in this, we have eternal life.

Which leads me to why I chose this passage to reflect on today.

We have this tremendous grace in our Church. And yet, there are some who have chosen to ignore these truths and choose to believe in another interpretation and doctrine.

I cannot forget an incident to this day. Many years ago I had a discussion with an elderly man who used to be a minister of our church. He refuted the doctrine of water baptism as preached in our church. When discussing this same passage, he remarked that we have all been mis-interpreting this.

While he was already known to be an apostate – the sad and scary thing was that there were other believers around who actually did not disagree with his views and even remarked that we should not be too extreme in our beliefs.

These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, [e]and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.

~ 1 John 5:13

Elder John wrote these words to tell us to continue believing in the name of the Son of God so that we may know that we have eternal life.

These words are worth believing in and can be believed – because of the certainty of God’s witness.

The question for us today is: do we still believe whole-heartedly or we are no longer as sure?

And will we stand up for this belief?

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