1 John 5:1 Commentary

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1 John 5:1

Comments

Yet another reason why we should love one another is that we are all children of the same heavenly Father. The first part of this verse is not about personal assurance – ‘How do I know that I am born of God?’ – but about identification of other believers – ‘How do I know that my neighbour is born of God?’ We must recognise that all those who believe that Jesus is the Christ, the eternal Son of God made flesh, are born of God and are therefore to be treated as God’s children. The affection which a man has for his friend makes him indulgent towards his friend’s children. He will make allowances towards a petulant child for the father’s sake; the same child might be treated quite differently if he was the son of his enemy. Such behaviour may betray prejudice in human relationships, but when we love the children of God for God’s sake, we love those whom the perfect Father has chosen, loved, adopted, justified, and is in the process of training, transforming, and making fit to inhabit heaven.

Application

We could never have come to believe that the man Jesus is the incarnate Son of God in such a way that we trust only in him and submit to him as Lord, unless we were born of God. Only the new birth could bring about the change in our natures which makes us capable of faith, for the flesh is not able to humble itself before God and look only to him for forgiveness and righteousness and eternal life. It is too attached to its own imagined righteousness and to its sin to let go of these in repentance and faith.

How many aspects of human life are designed by God to help us understand the kingdom of heaven!

We love the children of God because it pleases him that we do so, and we know that he is already aware of any deficiencies we find in them, and yet he loves them and is committed to them for ever. It would be to question his judgment in adopting them if we were not to love them, and we too are undergoing the same transformation.

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1 John 5:1 Commentary and Bible Study