1 John 5:1-12 Burdens (Matins)

Lee Sommitz Paraphrase 1 John 5:1-12
Everyone who embraces Jesus as God’s Anointed Messiah is born of God’s eternal seed. It follows that one who loves the Father will love others that are also born of Him. 2 Concrete evidence that we love God’s children is that we love God and make it a habit to follow his directives. 3 Paying close attention to keeping His commandments is essentially loving God. His commandments are neither complicated nor mysterious, rather they are simple and attainable to all of us. 4 That’s because what God has birthed in us has continual victory over the world. That victorious entity is catalyzed by the faith He has given us and there is no threat in this world that our faith cannot conquer. 5 Who are these conquerors you may ask? Only one kind - those who are convinced that God came to earth in the form of a man, His Son Jesus the Anointed One. 6 This Jesus Christ is the One alone who lived in a human body (came by water) and stayed in perfect communion and obedience to the Father so that His blood (the perfect sacrifice) atoned for us all. The Spirit of Truth tells us this. 7 That makes for a triple testimony. 8 All three (the water, the blood, and the Spirit) agree in this testimony. 9 If we take human testimony as valid, how much more seriously should we take God’s testimony? And He has plainly revealed His testimony  to us about His Son! 10 Every person who believes that Jesus Christ was God in human form here on earth now has this testimony within them. Everyone, however, who doesn’t believe, considers God to be lying because he won’t believe what God has told us about His Son. 11 The testimony is simply this: God has imparted His eternal life to everyone who believes that Jesus came as God in the form of His Son. 12 Everyone who has received Him thus has this life, but each who has not received Him has no life beyond the grave.