Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, etc. Our text is vitally related to the last two verses of the preceding chapter. To our mind it presents two important aspects of love amongst Christian brethren.

I. THE REASON OF THE OBLIGATION OF BROTHERLY LOVE. The duty to love our Christian brethren is here based upon our common relation to God. The order of the apostle's thought seems to be this:

1. The Christian brother is a true believer in Jesus the Christ. "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ" is included by St. John among the Christian fraternity. The genuine Christian accepts Jesus as the Christ of God, the Anointed of the Father for the great work of human redemption. He looks to him as the Being in whom ancient prophecies are fulfilled, and in whom the noblest expectation and the purest desire of the human race are realized. And the belief of which the apostle writes is not the mere intellectual acceptation of the proposition that Jesus is the Christ, but the hearty acceptation of Jesus himself as the Saviour appointed by God. Every one who thus receives him is a true member of the Christian brotherhood.

2. Every true believer in Jesus the Christ is a child of God. "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is begotten of God." Where there is genuine faith in our Lord and Saviour there is a new moral disposition. The Christian believer is born anew of the Spirit of God. "As many as received him [i.e., Jesus the Christ], to them gave he the right to become children of God, even to them that believe on his Name," etc. (John 1:12, 13). "If any man is in Christ he is a new creature," etc. (2 Corinthians 5:17) - he has new sympathies, new purposes, new principles, new relationships, a new spirit. He has the filial spirit, "the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father."

3. Every child of God should be loved by the children of God. "Whosoever loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him."

(1) It is taken for granted that the child of God loves his Divine Parent. In whomsoever the new life beats there is love to God. In the spiritual realm love is life. "Every one that loveth is begotten of God, and knoweth God." The highest life is that of supreme love to God; and, where this is, love to the brotherhood will not be absent. "If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar," etc. (1 John 4:20, 21).

(2) From the fact that the child of God loves his Divine Parent, St. John makes this deduction, that he will love the children of God. It is natural and right that he who loves the Father should also love his children, or that the children of the one Father should love each other. Here, then, is the reason of the obligation to love our Christian brethren. We believe in one Lord and Saviour; we are children of the one Divine Father; we are members of one spiritual family; we are characterized by some measure of moral resemblance to each other, for each is to some extent like unto the Father of all; we are animated by the same exalted and invigorating hope; and we are looking forward to the same bright and blessed home. That we should love each other is in the highest degree natural and reasonable.

II. THE EVIDENCE OF THE: GENUINENESS OF BROTHERLY LOVE. "Hereby we know that we love the children of God, when we love God," etc. (verses 2, 3). Two remarks, we think, will help us to apprehend the meaning of St. John.

1. Our love to the brethren is genuine when we love God. "Hereby we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and do his commandments." We may love our Christian brethren for other and inferior reasons than that of their relation to the heavenly Father; we may love them because they are rich in worldly goods, or because they are gifted and clever, or because they arc amiable and attractive, or because they bold the same political principles, or believe the same theological opinions, or belong to the same ecclesiastical party, as we do. But love for any of these reasons is not necessarily and essentially Christian love. The genuine Christian affection towards the brethren is to love them because they believe that Jesus is the Christ, and they are the children of God. In the consciousness of our love to God we have evidence that we love our Christian brethren as his children.

2. Our love to God is genuine when we cheerfully keep his commandments. "For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments; and his commandments are not grievous."

(1) The divinely appointed test of love to God is obedience to his commandments. "If ye love me, ye will keep my commandments He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me," etc. (John 14:15, 21, 23); "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love," etc. (John 15:10); "This is love, that we should walk after his commandments" (2 John 1:6). Genuine love is not a merely sentimental, but a practical thing.

(2) The obedience which springs from love is cheerful. "His commandments are not grievous" to them that love him. Love is not only life, but inspiration, courage, and strength; therefore, as love to God increases, obedience to his commands becomes easier and more delightful. "I confess," says Watson, "to him that hath no love to God, religion must needs be a burden; and I wonder not to hear him say, ' What a weariness is it to serve the Lord!' It is like rowing against the tide. But love oils the wheels; it makes duty a pleasure. Why are the angels so swift and winged in God's service, but because they love him? Jacob thought seven years but little for the love he did bear to Rachel. Love is never weary; he who loves money is not weary of toiling for it; and he who loves God is not weary of serving him." Says Miss Austin, "Where love is there is no labour; and if there he labour, that labour is loved." Will our love to God bear this test of cheerful obedience to his commands? Then do we love him truly; and so loving him, we shall love all his children. - W.J.

To reply to this inquiry seems to be the specific object of these verses. Contemplating them in this connection, they suggest four evidences.

I. The first is THAT WE LOVE GOD. "By this we know," etc. It must seem strange, at first sight, to find the love of God cited as a proof of the love of His people. We would expect rather the reverse order. This too is found to be the usual practice (see 1 John 4:7, 8). At the same time there is a sense in which the love of God ought to be sought in our hearts as a proof of the love of His people. It is one that will readily occur to a mind jealous of itself. It is not unnatural to ask, Does his love of the people of God arise out of the love of God? In this view he might properly seek for the love of God as a proof of the love of the brethren. The least reflection may show the necessity for such an inquiry. Brotherly love, or what appears to be such, may arise from other sources besides the love of God. It may be a natural feeling and not a gracious affection. We may love our kindred, friends, neighbours, benefactors, and yet not love God. It is possible there may be even an active benevolence where this heavenly principle does not exist. It will be asked how is such a subject to be investigated? And we reply in one of two ways, or in both. It may be either by examining whether our deeds of brotherly love are prompted and influenced by the love of God; or by inquiring into the general principle, whether the love of God has ever been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost.

II. THE PROFESSION OF BROTHERLY LOVE MAY BE TESTED BY OBEDIENCE TO THE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD. "We know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep His commandments." Viewing the subject in the restricted light of the context, the meaning of this test must be, that in our exercises of brotherly love, we are guided by the commandments of God. Assuming this to be the just interpretation, there are two aspects in which our conduct may be contemplated, the one a refusal to do that which God forbids, although it may be desired as an expression of brotherly love, and the other a readiness to exercise it in every way which God has required.

III. THE NEXT EVIDENCE OF BROTHERLY LOVE IS AKIN to the second, and may be regarded indeed as a summary of the two already considered, and an extension of their meaning and application. "For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments." There is great force in the expression, "This is the love of God." This is that in which it consists, by which its existence is manifested, and without which it cannot be. A child obeys his parent because he loves him, and as he loves him. The same may be said of the master and servant, the king and his subjects. If there be not love, uniform and hearty obedience cannot be rendered. In the case of Christ and His people, the claims are peculiarly strong on the one hand, and the obligations specially felt on the other. There is no love so strong as that by which they are bound to one another. It takes precedence of every other. The consequence is, that the love of Christ urges His people to the obedience of every commandment. No matter how trifling it may seem to be, it is enough that He has declared it to be His will.

IV. There is one other evidence in the verses before us, but it may almost be regarded as a part of that which has just been noticed. It is SUCH AN APPREHENSION OF THE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD THAT THEY ARE NOT CONSIDERED TO BE A BURTHEN. "His commandments are not grievous." This saying is universally and absolutely true of the commandments of God in their own nature. They are all "holy, and just, and good." Such, however, is not the sentiment of the ungodly. They consider many of God's commandments to be grievous. We might instance such commands as these — "Whatsoever ye do, whether ye eat or drink, do all to the glory of God," "Abstain from all appearance of evil," "The very God of peace sanctify you wholly; your whole spirit, and soul, and body." These are felt to be grievous by the ungodly. No so by the godly: They may not obey them as they would, but they approve of them.

1. The great reason is their love of God. They so love Him that they account nothing which He has commanded grievous.

2. Another reason is that his heart is in the service itself. He likes it. Prayer and holiness are agreeable to him. They are not a drudgery, but a delight.

3. He forms, moreover, the habit of obedience, and this greatly confirms his desire for it. The more he practises it, the better he finds it.

4. Besides, the Holy Spirit helps his infirmities, and furthers his labours.

5. And we may add, he is animated by the prospect of a rich reward.

(J. Morgan, D. D.)

I. WHO ARE DESCRIBED BY THIS TITLE — "the children of God." This title, "the children of God," is given upon several accounts.

1. By creation the angels are called "the sons of God," and men His "offspring." The reason of the title is —(1) The manner of their production by His immediate power.(2) In their spiritual, immortal nature, and the intellectual operations flowing from it, there is an image and resemblance of God.

2. By external calling and covenant some are denominated His "children"; for by this evangelical constitution God is pleased to receive believers into a filial relation.

3. There is a sonship that arises from supernatural regeneration.

II. WHAT IS INCLUDED IN OUR LOVE TO THE CHILDREN OF GOD.

1. The principle of this love is Divine (1 Peter 1:22).

2. The qualifications of this love are as follows:(1) It is sincere and cordial. A counterfeit, formal affection, set off with artificial colours, is so far from being pleasing to God, that it is infinitely provoking to Him.(2) It is pure. The attractive cause of it is the image of God appearing in them.(3) It is universal, extended to all the saints.(4) It must be fervent. Not only in truth, but in a degree of eminency. "This is My commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you" (John 15:12).(5) This love includes all kinds of love.

(a)The love of esteem, correspondent to the real worth and special goodness of the saints.

(b)The love of desire, of their present and future happiness.

(c)The love of delight, in spiritual communion with them.

(d)The love of service and beneficence, that declares itself in all outward offices and acts for the good of the saints. If Christians thus loved one another, the Church on earth would be a lively image of the blessed society above.

III. THE LOVE OF GOD AND OBEDIENCE TO HIS COMMANDS, THE PRODUCT OF IT.

1. The love of God has its rise from the consideration of His amiable excellences, that render Him infinitely worthy of the highest affection; and from the blessed benefits of creation, preservation, redemption, and glorification, that we expect from His pure goodness and mercy.

2. The obedience that springs from love is —(1) Uniform and universal.(2) This is a natural consequence of the former. The Divine law is a rule, not only for our outward conversation, but of our thoughts and affections, of all the interior workings of the soul that are open before God.(3) Chosen and pleasant (1 John 5:3). The sharpest sufferings for religion are sweetened to a saint from the love of God, that is then most sincerely, strongly, and purely acted (2 Corinthians 12:10).(4) The love of God produces persevering obedience. Servile compliance is inconstant.

IV. FROM THE LOVE OF GOD, AND WILLING OBEDIENCE TO HIS COMMANDS, WE MAY CONVINCINGLY KNOW THE SINCERITY OF OUR LOVE TO HIS CHILDREN.

1. The Divine command requires this love.

2. Spiritual love to the saints arises from the sight of the Divine image appearing in their conversation. As affectionate expressions to the children of God, without the real supply of their wants, are but the shadows of love, so words of esteem and respect to the law of God, without unfeigned and universal obedience, are but an empty pretence.

3. The Divine relation of the saints to God as their Father is the motive of spiritual love to them.

(W. Bates, D. D.)

I. THE NATURE OF TRUE LOVE TO GOD.

1. The peculiar acts of true love to God.

(1)It has a high approbation and esteem of God.

(2)It has a most benevolent disposition towards God.

(3)Its earnest desire is after God.

(4)Its complacency and delight is in God.

(5)It is pleased or displeased with itself, according as it is conscious to its own aboundings or defects.

2. The properties of true love to God.

(1)It is a judicious love.

(2)It is an extensive love.

(3)It is a supreme love.

(4)It is an abiding love.

3. The effects of this love. A holy imitation of God and devotedness to Him, self-denial, patience, and resignation to His will, the government of all our passions, appetites and behaviour, a departure from everything that offends Him, and laborious endeavours by His grace, to approve ourselves to Him, and glorify His name in all that we do.

II. THE INFLUENCE THAT TRUE LOVE TO GOD HAS UNTO OUR OBEDIENCE, OR UNTO OUR KEEPING HIS COMMANDMENTS.

1. Love to God enters into the very nature of all true and acceptable obedience.

2. Love to God inclines and even constrains us to keep all His commands.

3. Love to God gives us a delight in keeping His commands. They are suited to the holy nature of a newborn soul, whose prime affection is love to God; this takes off distastes, and makes all His precepts agreeable to us; it makes them our choice and our pleasure; it sweetens our obedience, and makes us think nothing a trouble or a burden that God calls us to, and nothing too great to do or suffer for Him, whereby we may please and honour Him, and show our gratitude, love and duty to Him.

4. Love to God will make us persevere in keeping His commands.Use: 1. Let this put us upon serious inquiry whether the love of God dwells in us.

2. Let the sinner against God behold how odious and unworthy the principle is that refuses to obey Him.

3. Let us prize the gospel of the grace of God, and seek help from thence to engage our love and obedience.

4. Let us look and long for the heavenly state, where all our love and obedience shall be perfected.

(John Guyse.)

The love of man is involved in the love of God. There is no real love of God that does not include the love of His children. Love is a state of the human spirit; an atmosphere in which one abides; he who is in that atmosphere loves the human that appeals to him no less than the Divine. Loving God is not merely a feeling toward Him — a gushing out of emotion: it is a practical exercise of His Spirit. It is a real doing of His commandments. "What is loving God? Is it anything more than loving men, and trying in His name to do them good?" "I do not think I love God, for I do not feel towards Him as I do towards those I love best." "It is hard to think of God as the Great Energy that fills all things, and yet to love Him as a Father." These are all expressions of sincere minds trying to get into the real atmosphere of the truth and to live the spiritual life. I should like, if possible, to help clear up the difficulties indicated. Let us recognise the fact that nothing but emptiness and disappointment can come from the effort to love an abstract conception. Love goes out only toward personality. And the personality must lie warm and living in our hearts, or it fails to quicken affection into life. Israel, for instance, was labouring for a thousand years to bring forth its idea of Godhead. In the old notion of Jahveh as God of Israel only, there was a sort of personal warmth akin to patriotism; a common affection which went out in a crude way to their personal champion. When the prophets began to see in Him much more than this — the God of all the earth, "who formeth the mountains and createth the wind, and declareth to man His thought" — while there was an immense gain in breadth and truth of conception, there was a loss of the nearness that begets personal attachment, until, a little later, God's relation to the whole nation gave place to the new idea of His direct relation to every man in all the affairs of his life. That gave birth to all that is best in the Psalms of Israel, with their outgoing of personal confidence and affection. Then after the coming of Jesus and the intense feeling that sprang up on His departure that He was God manifest in the flesh, there was a leap of thought and life which showed how the real heart of man hungered for something more close and personal than Judaic religion could ever give it. So complete was this change, and so central to the Apostolic age, that for eighteen hundred years the same phenomenon has been witnessed of placing Jesus in the central place, with God removed to a vague back ground, the Being "whom no man hath seen or can see," dreaded, reverenced, and worshipped, but never standing in the intimate relation of close fatherhood in which He was the warmth and light of the life of Jesus Himself. There was abundant reason for this. The human heart, seeking for a real religion, must have some thing concrete and close and warm; it cannot love an abstract idea. Jesus was seen as God reduced to the human compass, enshrined in a human and personal love. The whole responsive life of man went out to Him. And so it came to pass that He did what He did not in the least aim to do, but rather the contrary — He did not bring the real Godhead of the universe nearer to the average mind, but took the place of it, letting it even sweep backward, farther out of sight — farther into the impenetrable mystery. We are pillowed in our infancy on a bosom of affection. It is long before we know it; but when we do awake, it is to our mothers that the earliest love goes forth. And if we ever do love God, we come to it by rising from the home love, or some later and even stronger love that awakes in us, to the higher affection. This makes the common affections of life sacred and Divine, in that without them there is no ground in us for the love to God. All love has one source. Do our mothers love us? It is God in them that breaks out into love in its highest manifestations, with its Divine unselfishness and its clinging power. Wherever love is, we get a glimpse of the Divine and infinite. It is only as such love responds to the Spirit of God in it that it does and dares, and clings to us and will not let us go, though it cost struggle and patience and sacrifice and pain. And this love, as a channel of the love of God, is the power that most often lifts us up into the clearer realms where we are at one with the Divine, and its love becomes real to our hungry hearts. The love we have to God is realised in our love to men. It cannot abide alone. They who have thought to gain it by retirement and meditation have found it only a will-o'-the-wisp save as it has issued in the love that seeks men and tries to do them good. For the love of God is not a mere feeling, a gush of emotion in which the soul is rapt away to things ineffable. It is a spirit, an atmosphere, in which one lives; and "he who dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him." But to dwell in love, to be really baptized with its spirit, is to have that energy of it within us that seeks continually to find exercise for itself and actually to give itself to others. Unfortunately, the service of God has too often been conceived of as the conferring of something on Him by worship or sacrifice, by which it is thought He will be pleased. But what can we do for Him by our offering of gifts for His use, or by the singing of His praises, save to give expression to what is in us and thereby satisfy our own cravings? The real love of God will manifest itself in what we do for men. It will set itself to help on the kingdom of God on earth as the dearest end it can set before itself. The Samaritan did not worship in the Jerusalem temple; his own on Mount Gerizim had long been levelled to the ground. But when he took care of the wounded man on the road to Jericho, he showed himself a lover of God beyond the priest and Levite of orthodox connections and habits, who passed by on the other side. Men and women are warned not to love each other too dearly, lest God be jealous; not to love their children too much, lest He take them away. This is not religion. Real love does not exhaust itself by giving; it grows by giving. The more you love your child, if it be unselfish love, the more you will love God, for the loving of a little child brings you into that atmosphere and spirit of love where the heart is living and warm and goes forth to God as naturally as the sunlight streams into the ether. You will need to be cautioned lest your love of human kind become selfish and exclusive, and is indulged as a mere luxury. That vitiates it. But the more you love your brother whom you have seen, unselfishly, the more you will love God and see Him, too, with the spiritual vision. To sum up, then, this relation of Divine and human love: all love is of One, and the line cannot be drawn where the human stops and the Divine begins. But we may feel sure of this, that to see the love of God in all the love that comes to us, to recognise it in all the unselfishness we see, is the only way to know it truly, and the most direct road to the clearer sense of it as an indwelling life.

(H. P. De Forest, D. D.)

JohnEphesusCarrying, Commandments, Commands, Fact, God's, Hereby, Laws, Love, Loving, Obey, Observe, Proof1. He who loves God loves his children, and keeps his commandments;
3. which to the faithful are not grievous.
9. Jesus is the Son of God;
14. and able to hear our prayers.

1 John 5:2

     6610   adoption, descriptions
     8210   commitment, to God's people

1 John 5:1-2

     6728   regeneration
     7115   children of God

1 John 5:1-3

     8348   spiritual growth, nature of

1 John 5:2-3

     6611   adoption, privileges and duties
     8164   spirituality
     8296   love, nature of
     8405   commands, in NT

The World Our Enemy.
"We know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness."--1 John v. 19. Few words are of more frequent occurrence in the language of religion than "the world;" Holy Scripture makes continual mention of it, in the way of censure and caution; in the Service for Baptism it is described as one of three great enemies of our souls, and in the ordinary writings and conversation of Christians, I need hardly say, mention is made of it continually. Yet most of us, it would appear, have very …
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VII

A Call to Backsliders
"Will the Lord absent himself for ever? And will he be no more entreated? Is his mercy clean gone for ever? And is his promise come utterly to an end for evermore?" Ps. 77:7, 8. 1. Presumption is one grand snare of the devil, in which many of the children of men are taken. They so presume upon the mercy of God as utterly to forget his justice. Although he has expressly declared, "Without holiness no man shall see the Lord," yet they flatter themselves, that in the end God will be better than his …
John Wesley—Sermons on Several Occasions

Spiritual Worship
"This is the true God, and eternal life." 1 John 5:20. 1. In this Epistle St. John speaks not to any particular Church, but to all the Christians of that age; although more especially to them among whom he then resided. And in them he speaks to the whole Christian Church in all succeeding ages. 2. In this letter, or rather tract, (for he was present with those to whom it was more immediately directed, probably being not able to preach to them any longer, because of his extreme old age,) he does not …
John Wesley—Sermons on Several Occasions

Spiritual Idolatry
"Little children, keep yourselves from idols." 1 John 5:21. 1. There are two words that occur several times in this Epistle, -- paidia and teknia, both of which our translators render by the same expression, little children. But their meaning is very different. The former is very properly rendered little children; for it means, babes in Christ, those that have lately tasted of his love, and are, as yet, weak and unestablished therein. The latter might with more propriety be rendered, beloved children; …
John Wesley—Sermons on Several Occasions

On the Trinity
Advertisement [60] "There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: And these three are one." 1 John 5:7. 1. Whatsoever the generality of people may think, it is certain that opinion is not religion: No, not right opinion; assent to one, or to ten thousand truths. There is a wide difference between them: Even right opinion is as distant from religion as the east is from the west. Persons may be quite right in their opinions, and yet have no religion at all; and, …
John Wesley—Sermons on Several Occasions

The Witness of the Spirit
Discourse II "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God." Rom. 8:16 I. 1. None who believe the Scriptures to be the word of God, can doubt the importance of such a truth as this; -- a truth revealed therein, not once only, not obscurely, not incidentally; but frequently, and that in express terms; but solemnly and of set purpose, as denoting one of the peculiar privileges of the children of God. 2. And it is the more necessary to explain and defend this truth, …
John Wesley—Sermons on Several Occasions

The victory of Faith.
Preached May 5, 1850. THE VICTORY OF FAITH. "For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?"--1 John v. 4-5. There are two words in the system of Christianity which have received a meaning so new, and so emphatic, as to be in a way peculiar to it, and to distinguish it from all other systems of morality and religion; these two words are--the …
Frederick W. Robertson—Sermons Preached at Brighton

The victory of Faith
As God shall help me, I shall speak to you of three things to be found in the text. First, the text speaks of a great victory: it says, "This is the victory." Secondly, it mentions a great birth: "Whatsoever is born of God." And, thirdly, it extols a great grace, whereby we overcome the world, "even our faith." I. First, the text speaks of a GREAT VICTORY--the victory of victories--the greatest of all. We know there have been great battles where nations have met in strife, and one has overcome the …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 1: 1855

Alive or Dead --Which?
We have in the text mention made of certain men who are living, and of others who are dead; and, as the two are put together in the text, we shall close by some observations upon the conduct of those who have life towards those who are destitute of it. I. First, then, CONCERNING THE LIVING. Our text testifies that "He that hath the Son hath life." Of course, by "life" here is meant not mere existence, or natural life; for we all have that whether we have the Son of God or no--in the image of the …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 13: 1867

Faith and Regeneration
It may not be easy to keep these two things in there proper position, but we must aim at it if we would be wise builders. John did so in his teaching. If you turn to the third chapter of his gospel it is very significant that while he records at length our Saviour's exposition of the new birth to Nicodemus, yet in that very same chapter he gives us what is perhaps the plainest piece of gospel in all the Scriptures: "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 17: 1871

The Three Witnesses
Now, to justify such high claims, the gospel ought to produce strong evidence, and it does so. It does not lack for external evidences, these are abundant, and since many learned men have spent their lives in elaborating them, there is less need for me to attempt a summary of them. In these days scarce a stone is turned over among yonder eastern reins which does not proclaim the truth of the word of God, and the further men look into either history or nature, the more manifest is the truth of scriptural …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 20: 1874

The Blessing of Full Assurance
We do not wonder that certain men do not receive the epistles, for they were not written to them. Why should they cavil at words which are addressed to men of another sort from themselves? Yet we do not marvel, for we knew it would be so. Here is a will, and you begin to read it; but you do not find it interesting: it is full of words and terms which you do not take the trouble to understand, because they have no relation to yourself; but should you, in reading that will, come upon a clause in which …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 34: 1888

1 John 5:4-5. victory
[8] "For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God I" 1 John 5:4-5. IT ought to be our practice, if we have any religion, to examine the state of our souls from time to time, and to find out whether we are "right in the sight of God" (Acts 8:21). Are we true Christians? Are we likely to go to heaven when we die? Are we born again,--born of …
John Charles Ryle—The Upper Room: Being a Few Truths for the Times

"Wash You, Make You Clean; Put Away the Evil of Your Doings from Before Mine Eyes; Cease to do Evil,"
Isaiah i. 16.--"Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil," &c. There are two evils in sin,--one is the nature of it, another the fruit and sad effect of it. In itself it is filthiness, and contrary to God's holiness; an abasing of the immortal soul; a spot in the face of the Lord of the creatures, that hath far debased him under them all. Though it be so unnatural to us, yet it is now in our fallen estate become, as it were, natural, so that …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

The Unity of the Divine Essence, and the Trinity of Persons.
Deut. vi. 4.--"Hear O Israel the Lord our God is one Lord."--1 John v. 7. "There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one." "Great is the mystery of godliness," 1 Tim. iii. 16. Religion and true godliness is a bundle of excellent mysteries--of things hid from the world, yea, from the wise men of the world, (1 Cor. ii. 6.) and not only so, but secrets in their own nature, the distinct knowledge whereof is not given to saints in this estate …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Of the Unity of the Godhead and the Trinity of Persons
Deut. vi. 4.--"Hear, O Israel The Lord our God is one Lord."--1 John v. 7 "There are three that bear record in heaven the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost and these three are one." "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness," 2 Tim. iii. 16. There is no refuse in it, no simple and plain history, but it tends to some edification, no profound or deep mystery, but it is profitable for salvation. Whatsoever …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

The victory of Faith
(First Sunday after Easter.) 1 John v. 4, 5. Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory which overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? What is the meaning of 'overcoming the world?' What is there about the world which we have to overcome? lest it should overcome us, and make worse men of us than we ought to be. Let us think awhile. 1. In the world all seems full of chance and change. …
Charles Kingsley—Town and Country Sermons

But if Our Sense is not Able Till after Long Expectation to Perceive what The...
But if our sense is not able till after long expectation to perceive what the result of prayer is, or experience any benefit from it, still our faith will assure us of that which cannot be perceived by sense, viz., that we have obtained what was fit for us, the Lord having so often and so surely engaged to take an interest in all our troubles from the moment they have been deposited in his bosom. In this way we shall possess abundance in poverty, and comfort in affliction. For though all things fail, …
John Calvin—Of Prayer--A Perpetual Exercise of Faith

The Apostolic Experience
"All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works."--2 Tim. 3:16, 17. In our study of this theme we find that the word of God is our only standard to prove that sanctification is a Bible doctrine. The experience and testimony of the Bible writers and the other apostles of the early church also prove to us and teach the nature of this …
J. W. Byers—Sanctification

Spiritual Culture.
"And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son." 1 John 5:11. There is eternal life in Jesus, but for man to come into possession of this life he must comply with the requirements made by the Bible. After getting into possession of this life there are certain duties which man must faithfully perform to retain and develop it. After entering the wide fields of grace development is necessary. "But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior …
Charles Ebert Orr—The Gospel Day

The Ordinances of the New Testament.
In the preceding chapter we considered the church of the New Testament. The Lord Jesus built his church and instituted some ordinances, which he commands the church to faithfully keep. The keeping of the commandments of God is proof that we love him: "For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous." 1 John 5:3. "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me." John 14:21. "If a man love me he will keep my words." Ver. 23. …
Charles Ebert Orr—The Gospel Day

The Trinity.
The wonderful grace of God removes sin and its nature from the heart. It restores to man's heart holy and pure affections. It will turn away the love for sin and fill your soul with peace and purity and your mind with a train of holy thoughts. That the New Testament teaches a trinity in the Godhead is made obvious in Eph. 4:4-6. "There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and …
Charles Ebert Orr—The Gospel Day

Assurance of Salvation.
"These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may knew that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God." (1 John v. 13. ) There are two classes who ought not to have Assurance. First: those who are in the Church, but who are not converted, having never been born of the Spirit. Second: those not willing to do God's will; who are not ready to take the place that God has mapped out for them, but want to fill some other place. …
Dwight L. Moody—The Way to God and How to Find It

The Work of the Holy Spirit
The Church of Christ. "It is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is ruth."--1 John v. 6. We now proceed to discuss the work of the Holy Spirit wrought in the Church of Christ. Altho the Son of God has had a Church in the earth from the beginning, yet the Scripture distinguishes between its manifestation before and after Christ. As the acorn, planted in the ground, exists, altho it passes through the two periods of germinating and rooting, and of growing upward and forming trunk and …
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit

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