1 John 5:1-5
When I was a child, we sometimes played a box game known as Mousetrap. As you rolled the dice, you were able to put together pieces of a contraption in which one piece would trigger another, causing a chain reaction that eventually sent the cage down on the mouse. We’re all fascinated with chain reactions, and now there are all kinds of elaborate chain reaction videos you can watch as well as books you can buy about building your own chain reaction machines. Well, the principle behind chain reactions is simply the principle of cause and effect. We sometimes see the spiritual equivalent of this in the Scripture. For example, let me show you 1 John 5:1-5:
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. 2 This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. 3 In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, 4 for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
1. Believe
Notice there are five steps in this spiritual chain reaction, and the first one is to believe. Verse 1 says: Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God….
This is the simple Gospel, and it was the core of the Gospel of John. When I took a class about the Gospel of John in Bible College, the textbook was entitled John: The Gospel of Belief. It was John’s great theme. Matthew only used the word “believe” nine times in his entire Gospel, but John used the word 84 times.
When John tells us to believe it isn’t that we’re to believe in spite of the evidence, but because of the evidence. John presented Jesus Christ as both God and man, that He was truly God and He also became truly human, and that He died physically and rose again physically, and that the shedding of His blood forgives our sins. And when we believe Him, it means we acknowledge Him for who He is and we accept His Lordship over our lives.
John put all of this down in his incomparable Gospel. He wrote it late in life, after the other three Gospels had already been published. He had some other stories to tell. He wanted to tell us about…
- The wedding in Cana when Jesus performed His first miracle.
- Our Lord’s meeting with Nicodemus.
- The story of the Samaritan Woman.
- The man healed by the Pool of Bethesda.
- The Lord’s message about the Bread of Life.
- The raising of Lazarus.
- The washing of the disciples’ feet.
- The Upper Room message Jesus gave His disciples on the final night of His natural life.
- Our Lord’s great prayer in John 17.
- How Thomas went from doubt to faith when he saw the risen Christ.
The Holy Spirit had not moved Matthew, Mark, or Luke to tell these stories; they were for John’s Gospel. And all the way through the Gospel, we’re told that our responsibility is to come to Jesus in faith—to believe.
When John published his Gospel, he first circulated it among the churches in the area in which he worked. These churches included the seven churches in Asia—Ephesus, the main church, which had been started by the apostle Paul; and the churches in Smyrna, Pergamon, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.
But there were some people in some of these churches who rejected John’s portrayal of Christ. They didn’t believe Jesus was the Christ or that His blood was needed for the forgiveness of sins. We aren’t sure exactly what they believed, but from the book of 1 John we get some clues. The deserters:
- Claimed to know God (1:6; 2:4; 2:6; 2:9)
- Claimed to possess some kind of sinless perfection (1:8-10)
- Denied that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God, who had come in the flesh (2:22-23 and 4:1-3)
- Denied the power of Christ’s blood (5:6)
- Did not show love to those in the churches (2:11; 3:15; 4:8 & 20)
- Continued sinning (3:6)
We know from 2 and 3 John that these deserters weren’t content just to leave the church. They appointed traveling teachers to infiltrate the churches to spread their heresy.
Who were these heretics? Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, wrote letters while on his way to Rome to be martyred, and he wrote very shortly after John’s day. Apparently he was concerned about people who had some of the same tendencies. Let me quote some of the words of Ignatius, who wrote about A.D. 107:
(I am) fully persuaded as touching our God, that He is in truth of the family of David, according to the flesh, God’s Son by the will and power of God, truly born of a virgin, baptized by John…, truly nailed to a tree in the flesh for our sakes under Pontius Pilate and Herod the tetrarch…. For He suffered all these things that we might attain salvation, and he truly suffered, even as He truly raised Himself, not as some unbelievers say, that His Passion was merely in semblance….
There are some who ignorantly deny Him…and do not confess that He was clothed with flesh…. But mark those who have strange opinions concerning the grace of Jesus Christ which has come to us, and see how contrary they are to the mind of God. For love they have no care, none for the widow, none for the orphan, none for the prisoner, or for him released from prison, none for the hungry or thirsty…..
Be deaf therefore when anyone speaks to you apart from Jesus Christ, who was of the family of David, and of Mary, and who was truly born, both ate and drank, was truly persecuted under Pontius Pilate, was truly crucified and died in the sight of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth; who also was truly raised from the dead, His Father raised Him up, as in the same manner His Father shall raise up in Christ Jesus us who believe in Him…. But if some affirm who are without God—that is, unbelievers—that His suffering was only a semblance…then why am I a prisoner…?
We can say in summary, whoever these false teachers were, they rejected the fact that Jesus of Nazareth was the true Christ, that He was true God who also became true Man, that He physically died and rose again, that He shed His blood for the forgiveness of our sins; and that He taught us to love one another.
This controversy confused the true Christians who remained in the churches, and they began wondering whether they were really saved, whether they really knew God. So John wrote 1, 2, and 3 John to address the issue. The purpose of 1 John is to bolster the church with assurance that they are indeed those who are saved, who know God, who have overcome the devil. And also John gave them some criteria by which we can evaluate the claims of false teachers.
The purpose of 1 John, then, is to reassure us and to let us know that it is logical and sensible and intelligent to believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ of God—the anointed one. When we believe, we attest to the truthfulness of something with our minds and we bring our lives into conformity to it with our choices.
There’s a wonderful old Gospel song that says: “Simply trusting every day, trusting through the stormy way; even when my faith is small, trusting Jesus, that is all.”
2. New Birth
When we place our trust and faith in Christ, we are born again, and that’s the second part of this heavenly chain reaction. Look at verse 1 again: Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.
The new birth is another one of John’s themes. He brought it up in John 3, when he quoted Jesus as saying, “You must be born again.”
Steven J. Lawson wrote a book about what it means to be born again. He said something that’s worth quoting to you. Dr. Lawson said about the moment when we’re born again:
“This is the greatest miracle God ever performs. Every other display of divine power is a distant second to His causing the new birth. We who are born again are never the same again. We are a new creation by the undeserved grace of God. The new birth begins the divine work of remaking each person into the likeness of Jesus Christ.”
Dr. Lawson opens his book by describing how this happened to him. When he was teenager he attended a retreat in the Colorado mountains. The speaker preached from John 2 about how Jesus turned the water into wine. Jesus had attended a wedding feast with His mother, and the hosts had run out of wine for the guests. Jesus had told the servants to fill six empty water pots with water, and Jesus transformed that bland, stagnant water into pure, sparkling wine. The speaker had said, “This is what Jesus must do in your life. He must take your dirty, dingy, stagnant life, polluted by sin, and transform it into the purest and best a person could ever experience.”
The man said, “This miracle by Jesus is a picture of the new birth that must take place in your life. This is what Jesus must do within you. You must be born again.”
At the conclusion of the message, the speaker had asked people not to talk to one another but to exit into the cool summer night and search their hearts. Steven said he walked among those pine trees and wondered about his life, about his relationship with God, and about the need to be born again. In simple faith there, alone in the Colorado mountains, he put his faith in God and trusted Jesus Christ as His Savior. In that moment a miracle occurred within him. The soiled water became sparkling wine, and his life was changed. He had been born again.
And, said Dr. Lawson in his book, “This is the greatest miracle God ever performs.”
I had never thought of the New Birth as being the greatest miracle of them all, but it makes sense. We simply believe that Jesus is God, the Messiah, the Christ, who became human to die and rise again for us, and by faith we are born again.
3. Love
And that leads to the next step in the chain reaction. As we believe and are born again, the Lord begins to remake us into the likeness of Christ. That means we begin to possess a certain
heavenly quality within us which is called agape-love. Look again at verses 1 and 2:
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. 2 This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God.
John has spent most of the previous chapter talking about this special agape-love, and we covered it very thoroughly when we dealt with 1 John 4. When we place our faith in Jesus Christ and we’re born again, the love of God begins to grow in our hearts—and it is first of all a love for Him and secondly a love for His children, for His church.
I want to point out one thing about verse 1. When John wrote, “Everyone who loves the father loves his child as well” is often misunderstood. I misunderstood this at first glance. We tend to think it means that if we love God the Father we will also love His Son, Jesus. Well, that’s true. But in the context of this overall passage, John is saying, “If you love God the Father, you will love His children—your fellow believers—too.”
We grow into this. The moment we’re saved we aren’t yet mature enough to love others as Jesus does. We may not love our enemies, and we may not love our friends and family as we should. As I look back over my life and ministry, I can say that my greatest failures have always been connected with the fact that I loved God and others rather imperfectly. But this is an area of maturing growth. The Bible says that the fruit of the Spirit is love, and fruit is something that grows and matures until it is all it should be.
4. Obey
And now John goes on to give us another cause-and-effect moment. Belief leads to the New Birth, which leads to love, and that leads to obedience. Let’s read all three verses and you’ll see how one thing leads to another: Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. 3 In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome….
When we read the Ten Commandments, we find the first four are devoted to how we treat God and the last six are devoted to how we treat one another. Jesus and several writers of the New Testament told us that all these commands are fulfilled by genuine love. When we truly love God, we will not put anything or anyone before Him; we’ll not worship idols or take His name in vain; we’ll make time to worship Him. And if we truly love others, we’ll honor our parents, and we’ll not kill each other or commit adultery or steal or lie or covet what our neighbor has.
Jesus said, “All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commands”—to love God and to love others (Matthew 22:40).
Now, when we love God and obey Him out of love, we find that His commands are not burdensome. John makes this statement with all assurance: His commands are not burdensome.
We have two similar statements elsewhere in the Bible.
- Deuteronomy 30 says: “Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, ‘Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?’ Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, ‘Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?’ No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.”
- And Jesus said in Matthew 11: “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
This is where we all sometimes have trouble because our fallen fleshly nature wants to rebel against obedience and we think that God’s rules are too hard. First, they are too difficult for the old person that we were before we met Christ; but they are not too hard for the Christ that lives within us. And second, I think it helps when we remind ourselves that we are happier and healthier when we obey, and that it’s no burden to obey. It is actually the normal life of the believer.
5. Overcome
And that leads to the final domino in this chain reaction—overcoming. Belief triggers the new birth, which triggers love, and out of love comes obedience. And obedience leads to an overcoming life. John goes on to say in verse 4:
4…for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
Because Jesus Christ overcame the hold of death and the stone walls of the tomb, we can overcome—through Him—the hold of sin and the stone walls of our temptations and trials. He told us in John 16:33; “I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart, I have overcome the world.”
Here in 1 John, the apostle John uses this word 6 times. He said:
- I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one.
- I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one.
- You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
- Everyone born of God overcomes the world.
- This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.
- Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
You may be saying to yourself: If I’m an overcomer…
- Why did I lose my temper this morning?
- Why did I let my mind linger on sexual desire today?
- Why did that filthy word fly out of my mouth?
- Why am I so impatient with my wife?
- If I’m an overcomer, why can’t I get a handle on time management and personal discipline?
The very fact that you’re asking those questions and concerned about these things is evidence of the Holy Spirit within you. Don’t give up. Don’t be discouraged. When you fail and fall into temptation, confess your sins, get up, dust yourself off, and never give up the fight.
You’re not the real overcomer—it is Christ in you! And this is a process, a continual chain reaction of grace that continues throughout this life.
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. 2 This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. 3 In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, 4 for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.