Overcoming the World

1 John 5:1–5 ESV

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. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

Introduction

Today we embark on a journey through 1 John 5:1-5, a passage that strikes at the heart of what it means to live as followers of Christ in a manner that honors God's Law. At the core of our exploration is the relationship between faith, love, and obedience—themes that not only define our identity as children of God but also guide our interactions with the world around us. John, with the precision of a spiritual architect, constructs a framework for understanding how true belief in Jesus as the Christ transforms us, compelling us into a life of loving obedience. This is not a sermon about the burdens of legalism, but a celebration of the freedom found in adherence to God's commandments, a testament to the victory we have in Christ over the world. As we move through these verses, let us open our hearts to the liberating truth that our faith, manifested through love and obedience, is the hallmark of our victory in Jesus.

I. Born and Believing (v1)

1 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.

This passage continues on with the themes and thoughts that John explained in the preceding section of those who love God and others only do so because God first loved them by saving them and giving them a new heart.

Everyone who believes (πᾶς ὁ πιστεύων)

This verse begins with “everyone who believes.” This is the Greek phrase Πᾶς ὁ πιστεύων and literally means “all the ones faithing/believing.” The word for believe is the Greek word πιστευω. Anytime you see the New Testament mention believing, trusting, or having faith, it’s this same Greek word.

The same phrase (“everyone who believes”) is used in John 3:16 and is typically translated as “whosoever believes”, though that is a weak translation because it seems to suggest a future action. The phrase is a present active participle, meaning that it’s an ongoing state of being. When we look into the world we can see if someone is presently, actively believing or if they are not.

And the fact that John used the present tense for this verb demonstrates that this belief, this faith, is continual, unending, ongoing. In other words, it’s not a one-time moment of belief that happened when you prayed a prayer or walked down an aisle in front of the church. It’s an ongoing, never-ceasing state of existence. No believer will ever become a non-believer; no believer will ever revert back to unbelief. Someone may say that he is a believer and then later abandon the faith, but that demonstrates, as John has pointed out in this letter, that he was never a believer in the first place.

1 John 2:19 ESV

They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.

True belief, truth faith, is in the present tense and unending.

That Jesus is the Christ (ὅτι Ἰησοῦς ἐστιν ὁ χριστὸς)

And what is it that is an ever-present, ongoing belief? That Jesus is the Christ—not a Christ, but the Christ. This means that Christians believe that Jesus is the God-man, the anointed Savior come to earth to save His people. He is the one who was long-ago promised to come and save His people from their sins.

Isaiah 9:6 (ESV)

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder,

and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

And when this child’s earthly father was told of his coming, an angel said this:

Matthew 1:21 - She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.

Jesus’ name in Aramaic is Yeshua which means “Yahweh saves.” Jesus is the Savior of His people, a title used exclusively of God. Jesus is the Christ; Jesus is the Savior; Jesus is God.

John 8:24 - I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I AM He, you will die in your sins.

Unless you believe—you have faith in the fact—that Jesus is the great I AM of the Bible, you will die in your sins. But how do we arrive at this belief, this faith?

Has been born of God (ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ γεγέννηται)

There are two key elements to this verb phrase:

Passive voice

Perfect tense

Because this is in the passive voice, it means that the action (being born) took place while we were passive and God was active. God acted upon us; God took the initiative. We were not seeking God; God sought us. We did not cause ourselves to be born again anymore than we caused ourselves to be born physically. Remember what we saw John say last week:

1 John 4:19 - We love because he first loved us.

John specifically uses the perfect tense for this verb, so that means he has intentionally shifted from the present tense in the earlier verb believe into the perfect tense for born. The perfect tense is action that took place in the past but continues into the present. This is grammatical proof that our being born again—God regenerating us—precedes our believing, our faith in Jesus as the Christ.

Here’s the point:

Regeneration precedes faith and regeneration produces faith.

Regeneration is the root and faith is the fruit.

Regeneration is the cause and faith is the effect.

You believe because you have been born again. You’re not born again because you have believed. God is first; he acted first in your life, not you, and your faith in Jesus as the Christ is completely and totally caused by the work that God did in you by making you be born again. The fact that you trust Jesus as the Christ is not something that originates within yourself or by your own merits. Rather, it is God who first acts and changes your entire perspective on Him and the world. It is God who took out your heart of stone and gave you a heart of flesh who loves Christ. It is God who rescued you from being a slave to your sinful desires and has made you a slave of Himself.

John 1:12-13 - But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

You believe not because of who you are (blood), what you want (flesh), or your own choices (will), but solely because of God’s love for you. He loved you first and now you love Him and others.

and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him.

So now John repeats himself yet again in saying that those who love God absolutely, without fail, love everyone else who has been born of God (Christians). It is impossible to love God and hate your brothers and sisters in the faith, no matter how nasty, rude, or insufferable they may be. It is a package deal; those who love the Father love (present tense) all those having been born of Him.

II. Pronomian Living (v2-3)

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.

John transitions seamlessly from the prior verse. He just told us that those who love God necessarily also love God’s children (whoever has been born of him), and now he tells us that we can know that we love God’s children when we love God and obey His commandments. And remember, only those who have been born again by God are capable of loving God and others, so we could read this as “By this we know that we are born of God.”

Make note first that it does not say when we love God or obey his commandments, but when we love God and obey his commandments. This means that loving others means that you not only love God but also obey God’s Law, which is summed up in the two greatest commandments: 1) Love God, 2) love others.

Make note next that it does not say when we love God and obey his suggestions, but when we love God and obey his commandments. What God has given us are not suggestions; they are commandments. Commandments are injunctions that charge us; orders given by our commanding superior. Commandments are more than rules; they carry authority from the one having given them, and in this case, they are given from the LORD of the entire universe in which we live.

And these commandments are not burdensome; they are blessings! No matter how many times you may have heard that God’s Law is a burden or a yoke of slavery, the Bible is clear that God’s Law is the very opposite.

Psalm 119:97 - Oh, how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day.

Psalm 119:72 KJV - The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver.

Psalm 119:105 - Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

Psalm 119:165 - Great peace have those who love your law; nothing can make them stumble.

Romans 7:12 - So the law is holy and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

The very love of God, John says, is that we keep His commandments—that we do them, that we obey them. It’s not that we neglect or ignore them, but that they are always on our minds as God’s children. Love for God is not an emotional experience so much as a moral commitment. Do not confuse fuzzy feelings (affection) for moral commitment (love) whether in your relationship with God or with other people.

I’ve heard at least 10,000 times in my life as a Pronomian that those who try to live according to God’s Law are trying to earn our salvation, but my Bible tells me here that God’s redeemed people are the only ones who obey God not to be saved, but because we’re saved. We love—we obey God’s Law—because God first loved us. Paul says in Romans 3 that our faith upholds God’s Law, not overthrows it.

Romans 3:31 - Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.

If you ever tell yourself or others that it’s all about grace and that we don’t have to worry about obeying God, you call God a liar because God has said the opposite. You will never find a single place in the Bible that says now that we are saved, we do not need to worry about obeying God. What you will find is the opposite: that now that we are saved, we will obey God.

And this doesn’t mean we only obey part of God’s Law; we obey it all. You do not have the right to pick and choose which parts of God’s Law you are going to obey. You are held to the standard of it all, not in part. This means God’s commandments concerning:

Idols

The Sabbath

Food

What you wear

Sexual activities

Finances

Marriage

Lying

And everything else that proceeds from the mouth of God.

Matthew 4:4 (quoting Deuteronomy 8:3) - Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

III. A Faith that Overcomes (v4-5)

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?

Because of our new birth from God, we are now overcomers, so much so that John uses the phrase “overcomes the world” three times in these two sentences. First, he declares that ‘everyone born of God overcomes the world’ (4a). He goes on to ascribe the Christian’s conquest not to his birth but to his faith (4b). He then proceeds to enlarge this fact in the form of a question which he immediately answers: Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

What is this victory? It is a victory over the world—this radically corrupt system that hates God and everything about Him. “The world” hates everything good and godly in this world and actively seeks to destroy it. “The world” is sinister and seductive; it is not neutral. At your new birth, you swapped teams; before you were born again, you were an active member of “the world” and were a hater of God and everything good and godly.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 - 9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Romans 1:18-23 - 18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

This evil world system hates everything about God. Here are a few things “the world” hates and has under attack in our modern day:

The family

Marriage

Children

Honesty

Manhood

Womanhood

Heterosexuality

Ethnicity

And what is it that has ensured this victory in our lives against this world system? Our faith in Jesus Christ of Nazareth as the Son of God, the Messiah, God-incarnate.

By this faith, this allegiance to Him, we are His people, His sheep, and the Good Shepherd cares for us. He is the mighty God of Isaiah 9 who will return as a conquering warrior king to destroy those not of His kingdom.

Revelation 19:11-16 - 11 Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. 12 His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. 13 He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. 14 And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. 15 From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. 16 On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.

And before you begin thanking yourself for this faith that overcomes the world, remember that God is always first. Our faith is not something that is sourced within us, but is given to us by God in the new birth.

Ephesians 2:8-9 - 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Philippians 1:29 - For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake

2 Peter 1:1 - Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.

Romans 12:3 - For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

Romans 12:1-2 - 1 Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder (originator) and perfecter of our faith.

We have not overcome the world by our own merits, but solely by the grace of God in our lives. Left to ourselves, we would not be loving God or others; we would be loving ourselves; we would be loving sin; we would be loving wickedness and hating godliness.

Don’t believe me? Answer me this: why were you once a hater of God in the evil world system if that wasn’t what you wanted?

You hated God because you wanted to hate God. Like me, you were a front-line soldier in the war against Heaven, fighting against the very Creator who let you draw breath. You were fighting a losing battle and were headed straight for destruction. Here’s the reality of your former lives:

1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.

You who believe that Jesus is the Son of God are overcomers, are more than conquerors, but not because of anything you did, but because of everything God did. It would do us well to remember that lest we take credit for the work in our lives that God alone performed.

Conclusion:

As we reflect on the truths of this text, we are called not only to celebrate the gift of faith that has been bestowed upon us but also to consider the practical implications of living out this faith in our daily lives.

1. Embrace a Life of Love and Obedience

Understanding that our faith is a divine gift, we are compelled to respond in love and obedience. This means actively loving God and loving others, a love that is manifested in keeping God's commandments. Remember, His commandments are not burdensome but are designed for our good and the good of those around us. They are the path to true freedom and joy.

2. Engage the World as Overcomers

As those who have been born of God, we are equipped to overcome the world. This doesn't mean withdrawing from the world but engaging it with the truth and love of Christ. It means standing firm against the tide of cultural norms and values that run contrary to God's kingdom. It means being agents of grace, truth, and love in our workplaces, schools, communities, and homes.

3. Extend Grace to Others

Recognizing that our faith is a gift should humble us. It should remind us that we have nothing to boast about except for the grace of God. This humility enables us to extend grace to others, especially to those who are struggling, doubting, or even resisting the faith. We were once enemies of God, but now, by His grace, we are His children. Let us then be gracious ambassadors of Christ, patiently and lovingly pointing others to the Savior.

4. Encourage One Another in Faith

In a world that often feels like an uphill battle, encouragement is a powerful tool. Let us be diligent in encouraging one another to live out our faith boldly and consistently. Share testimonies of God's faithfulness, remind each other of God's promises, and spur one another on toward love and good deeds.

5. Examine Our Lives Regularly

Finally, let us regularly examine our lives to ensure that our faith is bearing the fruit of obedience and love. Let us ask ourselves if we are truly living as overcomers, if our lives are marked by a deep love for God and others, and if we are engaging the world with the gospel of Christ. Where we fall short, let us repent and seek God's grace to grow more into the likeness of Christ.

In closing, let us walk forth in the strength and victory that our gifted faith affords us, fully surrendered to God, fully committed to loving others, and fully engaged in the mission of God in the world. May our lives be a testament to the transformative power of the gospel, demonstrating that indeed, "everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world." Let us live out this truth daily, knowing that our faith, our love, and our obedience are not burdens but privileges given to us by God to bring glory to His name and light to a dark world.

Closing prayer:

Heavenly Father, we thank You for the gift of faith, not from ourselves, but a gift from You (Ephesians 2:8). We praise You for the victory over the world through our faith in Jesus Christ (1 John 5:4). Teach us to love You and our neighbors wholeheartedly (Mark 12:30-31), and to live out Your commandments joyfully (1 John 5:3).

Guide us to reflect Your love in all we do and to extend grace to those around us, just as You have shown grace to us (1 John 4:19). May we encourage one another in faith and good deeds (Hebrews 10:24-25), always keeping our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:2).

Lead those still walking in darkness to the light of Your Son, that they may also share in the victory of faith.

We pray all this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.