DAILy DEVOTION: 1 JOHN 5:9: GOD SPEAKS AND IT IS TRUE

By Stan Brown

I John 5:9 If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for the witness of God is this, that He has borne witness concerning His Son.

Things are really topsy turvy in the world in which we live.  The properly authenticated testimony given by men is accepted as true while doubt is cast on the testimony of God concerning His One and Only Son.  John speaks in the context of testimony that is authenticated by two or three witnesses.  He essentially says that if we have two or three independent witnesses testifying to a particular event in court, we accept the story as true.  He then makes a statement that is obviously true as he writes, the witness of God is greater.  I respond with the colloquial, “No Duh!”.  Hmm, man speaks; God speaks.  Which one do we believe?  It is enough that God speaks.  In addition, God authenticates His own statement with three witnesses, the Spirit, water and blood.  He authenticates his word concerning His Son with the testimony of the Spirit who is true, the water where Jesus was declared to be God’s Son at His baptism and the blood as the Son died in our place.  Why would God even need to authenticate the truth of what He says?  He speaks, it is true.
 
This paragraph is a rabbit trail.  It occurs to me that we have come to the place where we no longer even accept the word of people in the mouth of two or three witnesses.  The criteria for truth in the world today seems to be if it agrees with what I think or perhaps who can figuratively scream louder and longer on social media.  We have lost the concept that when God speaks it is true.  We don’t like what He says so we believe something else.  When I think about it, God has authenticated truth in the mouth of two or three witnesses.  He has spoken in creation.  He has spoken in His Son.  He has spoken in His written word.  He is to be believed.  This ends the rabbit trail.
 
At the end of the verse John tells us what this testimony concerns. God speaks about His Son, for this is the witness of God that He has testified of His Son.  It is about the One who makes all the difference in the universe.  It is about the One who died for us.  It is about the One who gives us life.  It is about the One who provides us fellowship with the Father and the Son.  If we don’t accept this testimony, we have nothing (or to use the colloquial again Nada).  God, testifies concerning and verifies the most important truth we can know, the truth about His Son and what He has done.  John will have more to say about this in the following verses.