Daily Reading for Personal Growth, 40 Days with God

Footnotes

1. 1 John 5:1 In opposition to the fantasies spread about by the false teachers, John insists that there is no knowledge of God without an acknowledgment of his Son and acceptance of his commandments and his Gospel. There is no victory over the world (the forces of evil and human limitations) without adherence to Christ. There is no finding God except through the testimony in which he makes himself present: in Jesus Christ who offers his life for the world. Baptism and the Spirit are nothing if the blood is forgotten, for Redemption, the Paschal Mystery, and the Eucharist are the heart of faith. God’s self-revelation includes the entire life of Jesus from his Baptism to his Cross: the water and the blood (see Jn 19:34). Hence, there is no knowledge of God that does not transform itself into faith in his Son and in the acknowledgment of other human beings as brothers and sisters because they are God’s children.
2. 1 John 5:6 John is answering the false teachers who claimed that Jesus was born only a man, then at his Baptism the Son of God descended on him, but he left Jesus before the latter’s death on the Cross; therefore, it was only the man Jesus who died. In keeping with his teaching throughout the Letter that Jesus is God as well as man (1 Jn 1:1-4; 4:2; 5:5), John emphasizes that Jesus was Son of God all the time. This is a key point because if Jesus had died only as a man, his atonement would not have been enough to take away the sins of human beings.