CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES
1 John 5:4. Overcometh the world.—The world is regarded as the sphere of the self-seeking principle. He who is born of God is born into another sphere—the sphere of the God-seeking principle. And the higher overmasters the lower, τὸν κόσμον; the present order of things as opposed to the kingdom of Christ. Victory that overcometh.—R.V. “hath overcome” (Romans 8:2). Our faith.—Which unites us to Christ, and makes us participators in His victory.
1 John 5:6-7.—In R.V. 1 John 5:7 is properly omitted. It is an interpolation, and probably inserted to meet the exigencies of the Trinitarian controversy. By water and blood.—I.e. with these distinguishing marks or evidences. Water is the symbol of our Lord’s baptism; blood, of our Lord’s cross, passion, and sacrifice. Observe that these stand at the beginning and at the close of His ministry, and so present to us the whole life. He was declared to be the Son of God by the Divine voice at His baptism. He was declared to be the Son of God by His resurrection, when His life-work was completed in the shedding of His blood. So these two things become the ground of our faith in Him. The Spirit.—The witness within us, which fits to the witness of the water and the blood outside us. Notice the use of ἐν and διά in this verse. Jesus showed Himself to be Messiah by means of (διά) the water and the blood; ἐν marks the sphere, substratum, element, in which the proof was afforded. Not by water only.—This is directed against the Cerinthians, who held that Jesus did suffer on the cross, but the Christ did not. St. John asserts that the same Jesus to whom the Divine testimony came at baptism, received the Divine testimony when His life-mission was completed on the cross. He has the testimony of both the water and the blood; and the inward witness of the Spirit seals the double testimony. Spirit is truth.—Better, the truth: truth in perfection. His inward witness may be absolutely trusted.
1 John 5:8.—This is but a repetition of 1 John 5:6, for the sake of emphasising it.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH— 1 John 5:4-8
The Power that overcomes the World.—It is usual to limit thought to faith as the power that ensures our victory over our surroundings, our “overcoming the world”; but if this paragraph be taken as connected thinking, it will be seen that St. John explains what faith it is that thus overcomes the world. It is the faith in the Sonship of Jesus, which links us to Him, makes us sons like Him, and brings to us the victory of obedience and submission which He won. (It will be understood that 1 John 5:7, in this paragraph, is treated as an interpolation, inserted by some later hand to support a particular theory.)
I. The faith that overcomes.—It is significant that St. John should say, “even our faith.” It may be true—it is in fact true—that faith, as one of the powers of human nature, the power that enables a man to act upon unseen considerations, does enable men to rise above the entanglement and depression of present circumstances. The world could not get on without faith. All her high triumphs have been triumphs of faith. But St. John’s world is not the world of material difficulties, but the world of moral evils. And he knows well enough that commonplace human faith can never gain victory over that. It is our faith—that specific thing which must be called the “Christian faith,” which alone can overcome the moral world, the world of evil.
II. The object of the faith that overcomes.—“Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?” “Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world.” It should not be possible for us to miss the point of St. John’s teaching in these sentences. It is the man who, believing in Jesus as the Son of God, is himself a son of God who overcomes the world. The object of faith is the Sonship, or, more precisely, Christ the Son. His Sonship was the secret of His triumph over the world, which, though He lived in, He was not of. And our sonship in Him will have to be the secret of our triumph, if ever it be said of us, they have overcome the world.
III. The grounds faith has for resting on this object.—Jesus the Son is fully attested; the witnesses are altogether sufficient and trustworthy. There are three witnesses to the acceptable Sonship. The Spirit, who testifies of Christ in our hearts. (But it is quite possible that St. John had in his mind the spirit of the life of Jesus, which was the most perfect expression of sonship, and the satisfactory attestation that He was the Son.) The water, which stands for the direct testimony given by the Father at our Lord’s baptism: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” And the blood, which stands for the Divine acceptance of our Lord’s sacrifice—the self-sacrifice of the Son—which was declared in His resurrection from the dead. “These three agree in one” thing; they declare that “Jesus is the Son of God,” and present Him to us, in this relation, as the object of our faith.
The Worldly Idea of overcoming the World.—We read in history of one in departed days who fancied that he had accomplished the hard task of “overcoming the world.” We read how he carried his victorious arms over every region of the then known earth—how he subjugated king after king, and brought nation after nation beneath his sway, and then fancied that he had “overcome the world.” We read how he felt it sad to think that his heroic task was done, and how he wept that there were no more worlds to conquer. Oh, far astray, far mistaken! There was one world to conquer yet, to which that conqueror was a slave—a world to overcome for which the arms of Alexander were of no avail. “This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.”—A. K. H. B.
Our Victorious Weapon.—Value of this text as the speech of an aged, experienced disciple. Compare our feeling if it had been the utterance of a young man. We should say that he did not know life, or that he was visionary and impulsive. But St. John looked back over many years of conflict, and many scenes of struggle and victory; and he may commend to us a weapon which he has found in every way efficient.
I. What is the design which the world has upon us?—We are represented as trying to overcome it. Then what is it trying to do? Born into the world, we might have said that surely the world ought to be our law. And yet we know that we are superior to the world. It should be under us, as the creatures are. It should be our servant, to help us in doing the will of God. Illustrate by things good as servants that are bad as masters—water, fire, wealth, pleasure, the world regarded morally. The difficulty is that some of these servants are always trying to get to be masters. That makes our conflict with the world. It wants to be master. The general conflict is represented in the individual; the world fights to gain authority in some one direction, and a man becomes a miser, a drunkard, or vicious. Conceive a man ruled by the world. Is that a true man? Social science, philosophy, and religion all say, No, a man must rise above the world. And Christ alone effectually shows man how to do it.
II. Is it left with us to decide whether or no we will resist, and try to overcome the world?—In one sense it is. That is the great term of our probation here—will you be ruled by the world or by God? To you, shall the world be master or servant? This is especially pressed on attention in early manhood. But, in another sense, it is not left to us. We are urged by such impressive considerations to strive to overcome, that we are scarcely manly if we do not so strive. Illustrate by such things as: proofs about us of the ruin following world-triumphs; the high, and sole, claims of God to our love and service; the light of that better world where God only is loved and served; the testimony of those who have lived God-ruled lives. As Christians, no sort of option is left to us; we are actually, we are deeply, pledged to the carrying on of this warfare.
III. With what weapon may we have the assurance of victory?—Picture Bunyan’s “Christian,” going through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, and betaking himself to the weapon of “All-prayer.” Here the great sword is called “Our Faith.” The world can only overcome by dimming and unvitalising God, and so loosening from us the sense of His claims and relations. The chance of the world lies in the absence of God from our thought, and from our love. Men can only sin when at heart they say, “The Lord shall not see.” Then our hope of conquering lies in our keeping God in our love, and thought, and trust. Abraham conquered, because he thought of God as Him “before whom I walk.” Moses conquered, because he persisted that the “Presence” should go with him. David conquered, because he could say, “I have set the Lord always before me.” That is precisely the work of faith. The faith of God in Christ, the human Christ, is the faith that keeps God closely and directly related to our daily life. Only let faith keep God near, as we do our business, as we gather up our profits, as we go to and fro in our households, then the world shall never overcome us; we shall surely overcome the world. Observe a distinction. Is this commending a general faith in God, as being just, and strong, and wise, and good? Yes, it is; but it is much more. It is a commending of what must be the foundation, and the constant daily support, of such faith,—the faith of God in Christ; in God revealed, manifested in the human life of the Son; the faith of God, who was “in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself.”
SUGGESTIVE NOTES AND SERMON SKETCHES
1 John 5:4. Faith overcoming the World.
I. What is the true notion of conquering the world?—Our notion of being victorious in life is when each man, according to his own ideal of what is best, manages to wring that ideal out of a reluctant world. A man desires conspicuous notoriety and fame. But what is the teaching of this epistle? Following in the footsteps of Jesus Christ Himself, the poor man, the beaten man, the unsuccessful man, may yet say, “I have overcome the world.” What does that mean? Well, it is built upon this: the world, meaning thereby the sum-total of outward things, considered as apart from God—the world and God we make to be antagonists to one another. And the world woos me to trust to it, to love it; crowds in upon my eye and shuts out the greater things beyond; absorbs my attention, so that if I let it have its own way I have no leisure to think about anything but itself. And the world conquers me when it succeeds in hindering me from seeing, loving, holding communion with and serving my Father-God. On the other hand, I conquer it when I lay my hand upon it, and force it to help me get nearer Him, to get more like Him, to think more often of Him, to do His will more gladly and more constantly. The one victory over the world is to bend it to serve me in the highest things—the attainment of a clearer vision of the Divine nature, the attainment of a deeper love to God Himself, and of a more glad consecration and service to Him. That is the victory, when you can make the world a ladder to lift you to God. Rule the world by making it help you to be wiser, gentler, nobler, more gracious, more Christ-like, more Christ-conscious, more full of God, and more like to Him, and then you will get the deepest delight out of it.
II. The method by which this victory over the world, of making it help us to keep the commandments of God, is to be accomplished.—The true victory over the world is won by a new life, born of and kindred with God; that life is kindled in men’s souls through their faith; and the faith which kindles that supernatural life, the victorious antagonist of the world, is the definite, specific faith in Jesus as the Son of God. You can conquer the world if you will trust in Jesus Christ, because such trust will bring you into constant, living, loving contact with the great Conqueror. I can appropriate Christ’s conquest to myself if I trust Him. The might of it, and some portion of the reality of it, passes into my nature in the measure in which I rely upon Him. So if we join ourselves to Him by faith, and bring into our daily life, in all its ignoble effort, in all its little duties, in all its wearisome monotonies, in all its triviality, the thought, the illuminating thought, of the victorious Christ, our Companion and our Friend—in hoc signo vinces—in this sign thou shalt conquer. They that keep hold of His hand see over the world and all its falsenesses and fleetingnesses. They that trust in Jesus are more than conquerors by the might of His victory. You can conquer the world if you will trust Jesus Christ, because your faith will bring into the midst of your lives the grandest and most solemn and blessed realities. Faith is the true anæsthesia of the soul—the thing that deadens it to the pains and the pleasures that come from this fleeting life. Get near to Jesus Christ by thought, and love, and trust. Trust to Him and to the great love that gave itself for you. And then bring Him into your life, by daily reference to Him of it all; and by cultivating the habit of thinking about Him as being present with you in the midst of it all; and so, holding His hand, you will share in His victory.—A. Maclaren, D.D.
The Victory of Faith.—Men acknowledge that the world is a place of conflict, but they often mistake the nature of the conflict, and the nature of the weapon that should be employed in it.
I. They mistake the nature of the conflict.—They look upon it as a battle with poverty, with ignorance, or with weakness. But a victory over all these does not mean a victory over care, or sorrow, or death. But the apostle tells us that the true enemy is not in. the world, nor in the things that are in the world, but rather in the world within the heart. The enemy is not poverty, but desire; not obscurity, but lust. He who overcomes the world is not he who paves his way from poverty to wealth, but he who gets rich by the penuriousness and parsimony of his spirit; not he who has made his way to the highest places of earth, but he who has risen into the true knowledge and purity of God. The true victory lies in the vanquishing of the heart’s desires.
II. The weapon is mistaken also.—Industry will overcome poverty, and knowledge obscurity; but if these are not the foes, then must we try another weapon. Even in the common aspect of life faith is needed. A man cannot do well who secretly disbelieves in the work he is doing. So to conquer within we must believe in goodness. And not only in goodness in the abstract; it is faith in a person which the apostle tells us will overcome the world. Faith in great principles has done much. But for the greatest and most permanent success we must have faith in goodness guaranteed, illustrated, and emphasised in the life and death of a person. Here then comes the glory of Christ’s life, that it is precisely the emphasis of all faith in goodness.—W. B. Carpenter, D.D.
1 John 5:4-5. Faith a Moral Power.—Faith may be described as a preferring of some future and unseen good to a present and visible one, on the authority of some one whom we had reason to think good and wise. And religious faith consists in preferring future to present good things, on the authority of God Himself—that is, of One who is perfectly wise and good. Christian faith has this advantage over simple religious faith, in the more general sense of the word, that having obtained clearer and fuller notions of God’s perfections, it is rendered stronger and more triumphant over temptations. Christian faith, or the faith that Jesus is the Son of God, gives us so much clearer and fuller notion of God, that it makes us know both Him and ourselves, and love Him, far better than we could do without it. This, then, is the faith that overcometh the world; for it is a faith that looks to an eternal reward, and it is founded on such a display of God’s love and holiness, that the Christian may well say, “I know in whom I have believed.” Conceive any one of us, old or young, having this faith, and do we not feel sure that it must overcome the world? Do we not feel sure that all temptations must be powerless against him who is heartily persuaded of what God has done, and will do for him, who looks forward to the kingdom of heaven, and knows and feels by whose blood it has been thrown open to him? Do we not see clearly, and do not our own hearts tells us, that if temptations are too strong for us, it is because our faith is weak.—Dr. T. Arnold.
1 John 5:6. The Threefold Witness.—“By water and blood.” “It is the Spirit that beareth witness.” It is important that the mind should not be confused by the suggestions of 1 John 5:7, which brings in the doctrinal term “Holy Ghost.” It is probable that 1 John 5:8 precisely represents the thought to which St. John wishes to give expression, and that no reference to the third person of the Divine Trinity is intended. St. John’s mind was not so occupied with the work of the Holy Ghost as was the mind of St. Paul. St. John’s whole interest was absorbed in the person of Christ, and his point here is, that faith in Jesus Christ, as the Son of God, is the faith that is overcoming, and will overcome, the world. It is strictly relative to his subject to point out how well founded that faith in Christ is. There are three witnesses; two are usually regarded as sufficient. And these three altogether agree in their testimony. But what precisely is it that these witnesses testify to? Not generally to Jesus Christ, but specifically to Jesus Christ as the Son of God. They are three witnesses to the human sonship of the Divine Son. When once this is grasped, the reason for mentioning them here is understood. That they are witnesses “in earth” (1 John 5:8) sufficiently proves that the Holy Ghost is not meant. What St. John says is really this: The witness of the “water”—that is, of Christ’s baptism—was the miraculous attestation of His Sonship by a voice from heaven. The witness of the “Spirit”—that is, Christ’s own spirit, the tone and temper of His daily life—was a most persuasive exhibition of His Sonship. The witness of the “blood”—that is, of His “resisting unto blood” all temptation to unsonlike doings, His self-sacrifice for the sake of obedient sonship—was an all-convincing proof of His Sonship. Surely, then, we have all-sufficient grounds for believing that Jesus is the Son of God. Then He is what we ought to be. And trying to be what He is will prove for us the “overcoming of the world”—first the world within, and then the world without.
1 John 5:8. Water and Blood.—The Rev. W. M. Sinclair, D.D., in Ellicott’s Commentary, gives suggestively the more usual explanation of these symbolic terms. “Water” and “blood” are referred to as two of the three great witnesses, or sets of evidence, for Christ. They are symbols, and look back to two of the most characteristic and significant acts of His personal history. The one is His baptism, the other His cross. Why His baptism? The baptism of John was the seal of the law. It was the outward sign by which those who repented at his preaching showed their determination to keep the law no longer in the letter only, but also in the spirit. Jesus, too, showed this determination. Baptism in water was His outward sign and seal to the Old Testament: that He had not come to destroy, but to fulfil the law; not to supersede the prophecies, but to claim them. It was to show that in Him the righteousness and purification which the law intended was to be a reality, and through Him to be the law of His kingdom. Thus it pointed to all the evidence which this Old Testament could possibly afford Him; and, through the Old Testament, it pointed to the dispensation of the Father. Thus, when this most symbolic act was complete, the almighty Giver of the old law or covenant was heard saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” “Blood” in the same way refers to the special work of Christ Himself—the work of reconciliation and atonement by His death and passion, the realisation of all that the sacrifices and types of the former state of religion had meant. That He was the true sacrifice was proved by the perfection of His life, by the signs and wonders with which He had attracted and convinced His followers, by the fulfilment of prophecy, by the marvels of His teaching, by the amazing events which had happened at the different crises of His life, by His resurrection and ascension, and by the confession of all who knew Him well that He was the Word made flesh, full of grace and truth, and with the glory as of the Only Begotten of the Father.