A Power The World Cannot Withstand (1 Jno. 5:1-5)

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. ² By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. ³ For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. ⁴ For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. ⁵ Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? – 1 Jno. 5:1-5

This doesn’t say that everyone can overcome the world and be saved. No. It says that everyone “who believes that Jesus is the Christ,” (1) has been born of God, (2) loves the Father, (3) loves God and obeys His commandments, (4) doesn’t consider those commandments to be burdensome, and (5) can, by that active faith, overcome the world. That’s the victory of this passage.

It is for anyone, everyone who is in the class or relationship identified: Believers in Christ.

This passage, therefore, is loaded with hope for people who have no spiritual family and are living day by day under the pressure of what the world wants them to do. The hope and victory is found by coming and being an obedient believer!

Does faith really need to express itself in obedience? Read the passage again. The faith that overcomes the world not only accepts the truth about Jesus Christ, that faith obeys the commandments of God and doesn’t find those commandments to be burdensome but necessary.