1 John 5:6-12

Reference to the faith held by the Church concerning Christ leads John to specify in symbolic terms what that faith was and the witness by which it was sustained. The truth belongs to the sphere of revelation and so has its source in God, but it is confirmed by the spiritual experience which it creates in the believer.

1 John 5:6. by water and blood: i.e. by the water of His baptism and the blood of His death. The reference is to two events in Christ's ministry, one at its opening and the other at its consummation. The claim of John (in opposition to the false teachers) is that Jesus Christ, i.e. the full Divine-human personality of our Lord, was as present and active in the suffering of the Cross as in the baptism at the Jordan.

1 John 5:7. the Spirit that beareth witness: the reference must be to the influence foreshadowed in John 15:26, which the Holy Spirit had exerted in the Church in producing an adequate view of Jesus.

1 John 5:8. three who bear witness: the idea is suggested by a requirement of the Jewish Law (Deuteronomy 17:6). the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: these terms must obviously recall the meaning in which they have just been used, so that the interpretation which makes water and blood refer to two Christian sacraments is far-fetched. John means that Christ's baptism as representing His anointing to the office of Messiah, and the Cross as the completion of the work of redemption, point to that high doctrine of Christ's person which is confirmed by the teaching of the Spirit in the Church. The words in heaven. in earth found in the AV are no part of the original text, but are an unauthorised though early interpolation.

1 John 5:9 b. Divine revelation in its broad content is concerned with Christ, and justifies the view that He is the Son of God.

1 John 5:10. in him: i.e. in the experience which the evangelical faith creates. The Son is the fountain of eternal life (1 John 5:12 *), so that to have Him is to possess also the spiritual experience of which He is the source.