The Three-Strand Cord of Faith

I John 5:1-5

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God,

and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well.
(I John 5:1)

In this section, John is beginning to wrap up all that he’s been saying. The three themes that pop up time and
time again are being braided together in this passage. Love, Obedience, and Truth - the marks of true faith. It
reminds me of Ecc. 4:12- Although an assailant may overpower one person, two can withstand him. Moreover,
a three-strand cord is not quickly broken. The preacher was speaking about friendship and the strength of
numbers, but the thought is appropriate here too. It helps us answer 2 similar questions:

1. How do I know if my faith is genuine?

Many people claim to be people of faith and there are many competing viewpoints and definitions of what
exactly genuine faith looks like. It’s a confusing state of affairs. And this is one area where we dare not be
confused or contribute to the confusion of others.

2. How do I know if my faith is effective?

Faith is the focus of the Christian life. Faith can seem like something that‘s more theory than practical, but it
determines, more than anything, how we live our lives. We want to know that we’re living life the way it should
be lived; that our lives are effective and even victorious.

Can you assess your faith to determine if it’s genuine, saving faith and if it’s effective? That may seem like a
strange suggestion to some people. They would say that faith is too personal and private to be measured that
way.

Put yourselves to the test to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize regarding
yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you — unless, indeed, you fail the test! (2Co 13:5)

Obviously, it must be possible to objectively analyze our faith to determine if it’s the kind of faith that God
considers genuine and effective. But, just how do we do that? Well, you can consider 1 John as the test. John
presents those braided cords of love, obedience, and truth as our faith check.

I. Faith - The Cause and Effect (vs. 1)

What is faith? Some define it like Mark Twain: "Faith is believing what you know ain't so." You just shut off
your brain and just go with whatever feels good. So, it doesn’t really matter what you believe as long as you’re
sincere.

White Queen and Alice in Alice Through the Looking Glass. When the White Queen told Alice
that she was 101 years, 5 months and one day old, Alice said:
'Oh, goodness me, I can't believe that'!
'Can't you?' questioned the Queen in a pitying tone, 'Try again. Draw a long breath and shut your
 eyes.'
Alice laughed, 'There's no use. One can't believe in impossible things.'
The White Queen replied, 'I dare say my child, you haven't had much practice, have you? Many
years ago when I was your age, I always thought of impossible things a half hour every day.
Why sometimes I thought of as many as six impossible things before breakfast.'

“What is faith?“ is an important question. You have to get your definition right. By starting with the wrong
definition of faith, you ask the wrong questions, are dealing with the wrong problem, and so have ended up
with wrong answers. Faith is not wishful thinking. It is not about believing in things that do not exist. It doesn’t
make all things believable, nor meaning impossible.

Have you ever heard about the guy who walked a tight rope across Niagara Falls? Many people
watched him do it. To them he asked, "Do you believe I can walk a tight rope across the Falls?"
They all replied, "Yes." They had already seen him do it.
Then he pushed a wheel barrow on a tight rope across Niagara Falls. When he completed the
feat, he asked the onlookers, "Do you believe I can walk a tight rope across the Falls pushing a
wheel barrow?" To that they replied unanimously, "Yes." Because they saw him do that too.
Finally, a buddy of the tight rope walker climbs into the wheel barrow and the tight rope walker
pushes him across the Falls. Wow, what a daring feat! When they finished, the tight rope walker
asked the crowd, "Do you believe I can walk a tight rope across the Falls pushing a wheel
barrow with a person in it?" To that they exclaimed, "Yes!" For they were now believers in this
guy's awesome abilities.
Then he looked at the crowd and asked, "Who's next?" There you have it... Belief vs. Faith...!

The Bible uses belief and faith interchangeably. But, you can make a subtle difference, as that story shows.
Belief is: being persuaded that something is true. Faith is: trusting in the truth and letting it influence your
actions, your choices, your life.

So, your faith is only good as the object of your faith. I can have all the faith in the world in a chair holding my
weight, but if it’s weak, I’m going to hit the floor. Having more faith won’t keep me from falling. Don’t put your
faith into something that can’t come through for you… and don’t have faith in faith.

John talks about faith in this passage. He tells us a little of what faith is and what faith does. And how we know
if we have it.

A. Faith: The Doctrine of Jesus

‘Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ...‘ That’s the heart of the matter: Who is Jesus? He is the
object of your faith. The Gospel is about the life, death, burial, resurrection, ascension, intercession, and
return of Christ. John has emphasized again and again, that is the heart and soul of Christian teaching.
This is where we place our trust and this is why we place our trust in him. We can trust him because we’re
convinced that he died for our sins and yet didn’t stay in the grave. He is the only one to have defeated
death and he promises to have defeated it for us. Our faith is genuine and effective because HE is the
object of our faith.
 B. The New Birth

What is the result of genuine faith? John says it brings us to the new birth, being born again, born of God.
When we place our trust in Jesus, he gives us a new eternal life. I don’t want to get bogged down in
grammar, but the verb “IS born” tells us that it’s something that happened in the past - a one time event,
with lasting effects. I can point to a particular time (July 17, 1977 about 7:15pm) but not everyone can. It
may seem more like a process than an event, but there should be a time-frame where you can look back to
and see that your life was changed.

The verb is also passive. The action comes from the outside. God caused you to be born, not you. When
you were born, is wasn’t because you made it happen. You can blame your parents, I suppose, but don’t
give yourself the credit. You have nothing more to do with your second birth than you did your first. It’s
completely a work of God.

One other thing about the grammar - It makes it clear that it’s the new birth that is the cause of the believing,
not the other way around. That can be tough to sort out… what came first the chicken or the egg? but we
can’t exactly say that our faith caused us to be born again. We have faith because we were born again.

II. Love - The Family Trait (1-2)

John tells us that faith and love for one another go hand in hand. Everyone who loves the Father also loves His
children. We’re a family. It follows that we love, not only the head of the family, but the other members as well.
We’re intimately related to the Father and that means we’re each intimately related to each other. It’s
unthinkable to John that a person wouldn’t love his own family.

It’s a big world out there and Christians come in all types, with all kinds of differences and quirks. It’s hard to
figure out Baptists from Methodists from Pentecostals. Add to that Africans, Russians, Chinese, and
Hispanics. We have a lot of really big differences to contend with but we all have one thing in common - We’re
all born of God. We’re all part of the same big family.

Love for the children of God is one test for the authenticity of our claim to know and love God. That love will be
there if we truly are a part of the family. It’s not an option. It’s not even an ‘ought to.’ Everyone who loves the
Father loves the child as well. Check yourself out - take the test. See how you come out.

III. Obedience - The Family Lifestyle (2-3)

So, loving others is evidence that we love God. But verse 2 turns this thought around by stating that we can be
assured that we love the children of God if we love God. This is the harder idea, since, as the Elder has
already acknowledged, no one has ever seen God. How, then, can love for God provide the evidence that we
love others?

One helpful clue: we know that we love God by carrying out his commands. In fact in verse 3 we have virtually
a definition of love for God: it is to obey his commands. Certainly the commands in question would include the
command to love. So loving God means that we love each other and that we obey his commands.

As John has told us time and time again, genuine faith leads to obedience. It’s a mark of the family. Every
believer’s life should display a willingness and a desire to please their Father. It’s the ‘walking in the light’
scenario that John spoke of earlier. This is why love and obedience is so directly linked. All believers are
children of God and we all are trying to live the family lifestyle of obedience. How can you be indifferent or
even hate those who have the same goals as you?

“His commands are not burdensome” Some people see God as a cosmic killjoy, who’s main job is to keep
people from having a good time. If we’re honest, we’ve all probably had thoughts like that too. We sometimes
think that we have to avoid anything that seems like fun.

John has also been telling us that love for God isn’t just an emotional, feel-good thing, but it plays out in our
choices and our actions. In other words, it’s obedience. We can’t separate what we do from who we are. We
struggle with our sin nature, we sometimes slip up - but if we are His, the tone of our life will be that we
demonstrate our love for God by being obedient to Him.

That’s not God. He’s not trying to make us miserable, He’s trying to make us happy! We go through life like
little toddlers. Remember raising little ones? A big part of your day was saying “Stop”, “Don’t”, "No" The kids
thought “He/She is so mean to me. Why can’t I stick the fork in the socket? I never get to have any fun!” Were
you trying to be mean? No. You were trying to keep them safe and happy.

When God says “Don’t”, He’s saying “Don’t hurt yourself.” He has reasons for every prohibition, every ‘don’t’
that he ever gave. Our lives are so much better when we take his commands to heart. They’re not
unreasonable and they’re not burdensome.

IV. Victory in Jesus (4-5)

A. Victory: Overcoming the World
“Everyone who is born of God overcomes the world.” We are Over-comers, we are Victorious. Notice that
John doesn’t say that we CAN be victorious or we have the potential to overcome. No, we ARE Over-comers!
We hear much said about living the victorious life. Are you? Or are you feeling defeated? Do you feel like the
world is winning the battle? The truth is that you have already won. The victory has happened. The world is
defeated, it was nailed to the cross. Jesus has won the victory.

B. Victory: It‘s Our Faith!

“This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.” How is it that our insignificant, little “mustard
seed” faith brings victory? Because it unites us with Christ. It brings us new life. Jesus has won the victory and
through faith it’s ours because we are united with him. It’s not about the amount of your faith. It’s about the
type of faith. Genuine, saving faith bring us victory - victory over the world, over sin, over circumstances.

If you’re a Christian living a defeated life, you’re like the man who was begging for food even though he
unknowingly had thousands of dollars in the bank. You have all the resources, all you need to do is appropriate
them.

So here is John’s “faith-check”:

1. Is your faith based on the person and work of Jesus?
2. Does your life display the family trait of love?
3. Is your life characterized by the family lifestyle of obedience?
4. Are you living a victorious life that overcomes the world?