Sermon: 1 John 5:4b-13

(Click HERE for MP3 sermon audio.)

This past Sabbath’s sermon explored the passage 1 John 5:4-13, where John brings together the motifs of faith, truth, and life under the umbrella of the testimony (or witness) of the water, blood, and Spirit. The concept I came away with in this passage is how Jesus’ Spirit-led life and ministry testified to the true character of God. It is only through this correct understanding and experience of the true character of God that a person can come to trust (believe, or have faith in) him, and thereby conquer the false concepts and ideas that the world (including religions, even Christian ones) puts out to “save” a person and ensure some kind of “eternal life.” John’s message in his epistle is that genuine Christians can have full assurance of eternal life (vs. all others who, because they are not sure, strive in various ways to hopefully attain it in the end) because they have come to fully trust God because they know the true character of God.