Faith comes from God
1 All those who believe that Jesus is the Anointed, are born of God; whoever loves the Father, loves the Son.
2 How may we know that we love the children of God? If we love God and fulfill his commands,
3 for God’s love requires us to keep his commands. In fact, his commandments are not a burden
4 because all those born of God overcome the world. And the victory which overcomes the world is our faith.
5 Who has overcome the world? The one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
6 Jesus Christ was acknowledged through water, but also through blood.
Not only water but water and blood.
And the Spirit, too, witnesses to him for the Spirit is truth.
7 There are then three testimo nies:
8 the Spirit, the water and the blood, and these three witnesses agree.
9 If we accept human testimony, with greater reason must we accept that of God, given in favor of his Son. 10 If you believe in the Son of God, you have God’s testimony in you.
10 But those who do not believe make God a liar, since they do not believe his words when he witnesses to his Son.
11 What has God said? That he has granted us eternal life and this life is in his Son.
12 The one who has the Son has life, the one who do not have the Son of God do not have life.
Keep yourselves from idols
13 I write you, then, all these things that you may know that you have eternal life, all you who believe in the Name of the Son of God.
14 Through him we are fully confident that whatever we ask, according to his will, he will grant us.
15 If we know that he hears us whenever we ask, we know that we already have what we asked of him.
16 If you see your brother committing sin, a sin which does not lead to death, pray for him, and God will give life to your brother. I speak, of course, of the sin which does not lead to death. There is also a sin that leads to death; I do not speak of praying about this.
17 Every kind of wrongdoing is sin, but not all sin leads to death.
18 We know that those born of God do not sin, but the one who was born of God protects them and the evil one does not touch them.
19 We know that we belong to God, while the whole world lies in evil.
20 We know that the Son of God has come and has given us power to know the truth. We are in him who is true, his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
21 My dear children, keep yourselves from idols.
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Comments Letter of Jude, Chapter 5
• 5.1 God-Love is the one who asks us to believe in his Son, and faith is a victory. John wrote the book of Revelation to give hope to persecuted believers, showing them the victory they share with Christ simply because they believe in him. John repeats the same thing here in a different way.
Our greatest victory is to attain our inheritance as children of God and to reach the eternal life of God himself. Those who believe in Christ have already come to the Truth, to God.
How may we know that we love the children of God? John already told us: the person who loves God also loves his brothers and sisters. Here, however, John expresses it the other way around: those who love their brothers and sisters are known by the fact that they love God.
Many things are called love; there may be something of love in all of them, more or less. The love of God for us and the love that he gives us toward other people cannot be confused with other loves. The love springing from an authentic communion with God does not resemble sentimental love, blind and fickle. Rather, it is effective, both in the sense that it liberates others and it transforms us in Christ.
Verses 6-9point out three complementary aspects of the Christian experience, which are first seen in Jesus himself. John characterizes them with three words:
– water: water is the symbol of cleanliness and of new life.
– blood: the blood of the sacrifice, the painful atonement for sin, the blood of martyrs.
– Spirit: the uncontainable power that animates Christ’s witnesses; the amazing creativity of the people and institutions that are rooted in faith.
These three witness to Jesus Christ and they also characterize Christian salvation. We can easily see that they correspond to the three sacraments of baptism, eu charist and confirmation.
• 13. In this conclusion, John repeats what he said throughout the letter: you who believe, appreciate what you have. Do not underestimate the step you took in accepting Christ. Explore and look for the riches which are meant for you and which are found in “Him who loves us” (Rev 1:5).
I do not speak of praying about this (v. 16). This sentence is somehow short, John implies: “with the certainty that God will give life to the sinner.” The will of God remains a mystery, whatever be the confidence we have in him.
• 19. The whole world lies in evil. As has already been mentioned, this world belongs to God who made it good. Nevertheless, this world is not simply a building site wherein we work. It is first the place where the evil one competes with God. The evil one does not side with any group, atheist or materialist or whatever else, but everywhere transforms the best things into destroying idols – even among those looking for a more perfect life: keep yourselves from idols. This warning of John at the end of this letter has special importance; it invites us to remain in the truth of the Word-of-God-made-man without allowing anything contrary to it, to enter. For the Church this is a permanent temptation – as well as for every Christian community – to make itself the center of everything, so that what matters is to recruit and to last. Then when institutions believe that unity is assured by increasing authority, political and financial support are sought and mission is replaced with buildings. There are a thousand ways of eluding what is provisional while the Spirit always feels more at ease with what is provisional. In so doing the Christian community, the whole Church be comes a thick wall between God and humans, all the more becoming an “idol” in wishing to be holy, obeyed and infallible in all its decisions. The Word became flesh, and the Church can only be the sacrament of God if she remains weak and vulnerable.