1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ, the incarnate begotten son of God, loves the Father and esteems the son with equal affection.

2 In this knowing [of mankind’s co-genesis revealed in the Christ-incarnation,] we love the children of God with the same love that we have discovered in God; we 1treasure the 2conclusion of his prophetic purpose with affection. (The word 1tereo, means to attend to carefully; take care of; to guard; to treasure something with great affection. Westcott and Hort uses the word poiema instead of tereo. The word 2entole is often translated commandment or precept; this word has two components: en, in and telos, from tello, to set out for a definite point or goal; properly the point aimed at as a limit, that is, by implication, the conclusion of an act or state, the result; the ultimate or prophetic purpose. Strong’s 5056.

3 For the love of God is realized in the way we evaluate his 1precepts; if love’s triumph is 1the conclusion of every prophetic pointer, how can this be interpreted as an unbearable burden? (Again the word 1entole is used.)

4 Whatever is born of God is destined to triumph over the world system. Our faith celebrates a victory that is already accomplished!

5 This is the ultimate victory: the certainty that the human Jesus is the divine son of God; (that he is indeed the incarnate Christ – and the central theme of both the Word that was before time was as well as the key to undertanding all of Scripture. He is the Savior of the world. See Luke 24: 27 and John 1: 1-3, also John 5: 39,40)

6 This is he who was to come; he arrived in the flesh via his mother’s womb – 1by water and blood – Jesus Christ. And in his ministry as the Christ, he was not only borne witness to by John the Baptist 2in the prophetic baptism of water, but he went all the way into his baptism of death, 2in his shed blood, where he died humanity’s death. And it is the Spirit that bears witness according to her own being, which is truth! (Note the change of the prepositions 1διά by, used in the sense of accompaniment, also of instrumentality, i.e., by, through, by means of, for 2ἐν in, clearly pointing to his baptism in water and then in his shed blood! No wonder John writes, “He was not only revealed in water; but also in blood!”If humanity’s salvation could be secured only in the incarnation of the Christ and his 3 years of ministry, then his death and resurrection would be irrelevant. See John’s reference to Jesus’moment of realizing that the hour has come for the son of man to be glorified in the single grain of wheat, falling into the ground, not to abide alone, but to bear much fruit. Then he says, John 12: 27 “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, for this purpose I have come to this hour!”Also John 1: 32-34 And John the Baptist bore witness, “I saw the Spirit descend as a dove from heaven, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him; but he who sent me to baptize in water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.’And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.”)

7 There are three witnessess,
8 the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three 1agree as one! (καὶ οἱ τρεῖς 1εἰς τὸ ἕν εἰσιν; the word eis, into, indicating the point reached; the one does not distract from the other. The only Greek manuscripts in any form which support the words, “in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one; and there are three that bear witness in earth,”are the Montfortianus of Dublin, copied evidently from the modern Latin Vulgate; the Ravianus, copied from the Complutensian Polyglot; a manuscript at Naples, with the words added in the Margin by a recent hand; Ottobonianus, 298, of the fifteenth century, the Greek of which is a mere translation of the accompanying Latin. All the old versions omit the words.)

9 Now if it is reasonable for us to be readily persuaded by the evidence that people may lay out before us, how much more certainty is there in the evidence that God has so compellingly borne witness to concerning his son! (To go back to the very beginning is to find the Word already present there; face to face with God; this Word, translated into the prophetic promise in Scripture and pointing to the Messiah Redeemer for centuries, the Logos, finally became flesh and forever divided human history into a BC and AD. The heavens declare his glory, night to night exhibits the giant solar testimony that is mathematically precise, revealing that God knew before time was the exact moment he would enter our history as a man, and the exact moment the Messiah would expire on the cross and be raised again from the dead! No one has ever known God as Father; Jesus, the humble brother of the human race, [as my dear friend Baxter Kruger would say,] he has revealed him in the most articulate language as our Father. “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father!”John 14: 9. “In that day, you will know that as I am in my Father, so you are in me, and I am in you!”John 14: 20. The Holy Spirit now endorses in us what happened to us when Jesus died and was raised, and now echoes from within our spirits, “Abba Father!”)

10 Whoever shares in the same persuasion concerning the son of God, has God’s testimony confirmed within themselves; he who rejects what God believes concerning Jesus sets himself up against the testimony of God and makes God out to be a liar.

11 The evidence is clear, God has given us back the life that we have lost, the life of the ages, which is the life of our design; this is the same life on exhibit and mirrored in his son. (The word 1didomi can also mean to return something that already belongs to the person.)

12 To 1mirror-echo the son is to mirror-echo life; those who ignore this 1inner resonance concerning the son, miss out on the very life of their design! (The word, 1echo, means to hold, like sound is held in an echo; to resonate

13 My intention in this writing is to endorse your belief in the name of the son of God; [you are convinced that the name Jesus means that he is indeed the Savior of the world.] To know this is to know the life of the ages!

14 Thus we engage in an 1unreserved conversation, 2face to face with the father; we know that it is his delight to be our audience in whatever we may ask him. (The word 1parresia, from para, a preposition indicating close proximity, and rheo, to pour forth; to flow freely, suggesting unreservedness in speech; bold utterance. The preposition 2pros means towards, face to face. It is not a question of whether we are asking anything according to his will or not; but rather a statement that it is his will to hear us in whatever we may ask of him!)

15 And convinced of his delight with us within this place of intimate conversation, it is clear that our every request is held in the same echo – we already have what we’ve asked for!

16 (Note on verse 16: The language and sentence construction here is not found elsewhere in the New Testament; ie to sin a sin not unto death, ἁμαρτάνοντα ἁμαρτίαν μὴ πρὸς θάνατον; then again to sin unto death, ἔστιν ἁμαρτία πρὸς θάνατον It is my humble thought that this would be another case where a scribe added their opinion and commentary, which became absorbed in the text. The issue of a sin unto death has kept the commentators and theologians busy for many a centuary without any conclusive agreement! Some of the many explanations are as follows: Such sin as God punishes with deadly sickness or sudden death. (!!??) All those sins punished with excommunication (according to the older Catholic theologians). An unrepented sin. Envy. A sinful state or condition. The sin by which the Christian falls back from Christian life into death, etc. etc. The only time in scripture where a phrase remotely like this is used is, λαβεῖν ἁμαρτίαν θανητοφόρον, to incur a death-bearing sin, which is in Numbers 18: 22 [Septuagito ¡] And henceforth the people of Israel shall not come near the tent of meeting, lest they bear sin and die. Henceforth the distinction between sins unto death and sins not unto death became common in Rabbinic writings. This type of doctrine gave rise to the heresy of indulgences and people getting baptized on behalf of the dead! See my note on 1 Corinthians 15: 29.)

17 1Disharmony in relationship is 2unlike the true rythm of your being. The deception of a distorted image will 3not face death again! (The word unrighteousness, 1adikia, from a, negative and dikia, indicating two parties finding likeness in each other. The word often translated, sin, is 2hamartia, from a, negative and martia, from meros, form; thus a distorted form. Sin will not face death – this is the whole point of the gospel! Jesus as Savior of the world; the Lamb of God took away the sins of the world; he died humanity’s death. See Hebrews 9: 27,28 The same goes for everyone: man dies only once, and then faces judgment. Christ died once and faced the judgment of the entire human race! His second appearance has nothing to do with sin, but to reveal salvation for all to 1fully embrace him. See 2 Corinthians 2: 15 We are a sweet savor of Christ unto God evident in everyone we meet. The fragrance of Christ is recognized in all unto salvation. The same gospel that announces the fragrant victory of Christ declares the odor of death; the defeat of destruction in everyone! [This parade of victory is a public announcement of the defeat of the religious systems and structures based on the law of works. Just like it is in any public game where the victory celebration of the winning team is an embarrassment for the losing team. The death of evil is announced in resurrection life! The word, apollumi, is derived from apo, away from, and ollumi, to destroy, to ruin.] The message we communicate is a fragrance with an immediate association; to darkness, it is the smell of doom [the death of death]; to life it is the familiar fragrance of life itself. We are not competing with those who have added their price tag to the gospel. Our conversation has its source in Christ; we communicate from the transparent innocence of a face to face encounter with God. [The law of personal performance or kapeleuo, meaning retail; which is a gospel with a price tag.)

18 What was made absolutely 1clear [in the incarnate Christ] is that whoever is begotten of God cannot be a 2distorted image of God! Likeness begets likeness. Jesus did not come to reveal the “otherness”of God, but his likeness in human form. There is nothing wrong with mankind’s design, neither with their salvation! To 1see one’s true revealed and now redeemed genesis in God, is to treasure the person you really are by his divine engineering and to remain 4unstained in your thoughts by 3the “I am not Tree system.”The 3idea that I am not the expression of his image and likeness can no longer 4attach itself to my thoughts, neither do I allow it to ignite its destructive cycle of self-righteousness or depression! The system of this world is based on a mentality of separation, which is marked by 3hardships annoyances and labors! It becomes an all consuming and most exhausting lifestyle of having to prove oneself in every relationship and a futile striving for recognition; with its inevitable results of disappointment, condemnation, rejection and pretense. (John begins the 3 sentences in verse 18,19 & 20 with he verb 1οιδαμεν which is the Perfect Active tense of 1eido, to see, to observe, to pay attention, to perceive, to know as an eye-witness. The Perfect Indicative Active tense denotes an action which is perfected or completed in the past, but the effects of which are regarded as continuing into the present. A distorted image is what the word 2hamartia suggests; from ha, negative and meros, form; thus withoiut form. The word 3poneros, often translated evil, refers to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil [poneros] which is the fruit of a lost fellowship, identity, value and innocence. Through hardships, labors and annoyances mankind has strived for generations in vain, to redeem themselves from their own judgment and their illusions of separation. The word 4haptomai means to fasten itself to, or to cling to something; from hapto to kindle a fire; to ignite. If there is indeed nothing wrong with mankind’s design or redemption, there can only be one problem, we are thinking wrong! See Isaiah 55: 8,9; “Your thoughts are not my thoughts, therefore your ways are not my ways!”also Jeremiah 29: 11 “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”Isaiah 55: 9,10 Just like the rain and the snow cancels the distance between heaven and earth and cancells the drought, so shall my word be, it shall cancel distance and drought and saturate the earth (flesh); every nook and cranny of human life shall be filled in the Incarnation! The word became flesh and indwells us! In the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God has brought final closure to the rule of the “I am not Tree-system.”The idea of God’s absence as well as every definition of distance and separation was canceled. Jesus is God’s mind made up about mankind! He is not more Emmanuel to the Jew than what he is to the Gentile. See John 1: 14 Suddenly the invisible eternal Word takes on visible form! The Incarnation! In him, and now confirmed in us! The most accurate tangible display of God’s eternal thought finds expression in human life! The Word became a human being; we are his address; he resides in us! He captivates our gaze! The glory we see there is not a religious replica; he is the authentic begotten son. The glory (that we lost in Adam) returns in fullness! Only grace can communicate truth in such complete context!)

19 We know that we have our origin in God; yet the whole world 1lies trapped in the blindfold-mode of a lost identity; intoxicated by the poneros system of a futile mentality of hardships labors and annoyances! (The word keimai means to lie prostrate, outstreched; buried.)

20 This is what has become distinctly clear to us: the 1coming of the son of God is God’s mission accomplished! He is the incarnate Christ. The moment all of Scripture pointed to has arrived! The son is 1present! In him God has given us the greatest gift, 2a mind whereby we may know him who is true; and in the same knowing, to find ourselves there in him who is true! Mankind is fully included and located in him, in his son Jesus Christ; this means that whatever Jesus is as son, we are. This is the true God; this is the life of the ages! (The word 1heko means to have come, to have arrived, to be present. John uses the word 2dianoian; deep thought; with dia relating to the means by which we may know; a mind to know; compare metanoia, to know together with; an entwining of thought; the mind of Christ. Jesus said, you will know the truth as it is unveiled in me, and that will set you free! The culmination of the gospel according to John is summed up in these verses: John 14: 20 “In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me and I am in you!”Also 1 John 2: 7 & 8, “what is true of him, is equally true of us. 1 John 4: 17 “As he is, so are we in this world! Our lives are mirrored in him”as well as here in 1 John 5: 20) 5: 21 This defeats every image of our imagination that could possibly compete with the authentic likeness of our design! Darling children, distance yourselves from every substitute image, which is what idolatry is all about! (The word 1eidolon, often translated idol, refers to image or likeness. Isa 40: 18-21 To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him? The idol! a workman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold, and casts for it silver chains. He who is impoverished chooses for an offering wood that will not rot; he seeks out a skilful craftsman to set up an image that will not move. Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? Act 17: 28-31 For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your poets have said,