Thursday

Related Verses
John 1:14
14 And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us (and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only Begotten from the Father), full of grace and reality.

1 John 4:15
15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and he in God.

1 John 3:16-24 (16-18, 23)
16 In this we know love, that He laid down His life on our behalf, and we ought to lay down our lives on behalf of the brothers.
17 But whoever has the livelihood of the world and sees that his brother has need and shuts up his affections from him, how does the love of God abide in him?
18 Little children, let us not love in word nor in tongue but in deed and truthfulness.
19 And in this we will know that we are of the truth, and we will persuade our heart before Him,
20 Because if our heart blames us, it is because God is greater than our heart and knows all things.
21 Beloved, if our heart does not blame us, we have boldness toward God;
22 And whatever we ask we receive from Him because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.
23 And this is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, even as He gave a commandment to us.
24 And he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And in this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He gave to us.

Related Reading
The Son of God, who has come to us in incarnation and through death and resurrection, has given us the understanding, the ability, to know the true God. This understanding, this knowing ability, includes our enlightened mind, our enlivened spirit, and the Spirit of reality…To know God is to experience Him, enjoy Him, and possess Him. 

In 1 John 5:20 John twice speaks of “Him who is true.” A better translation would be “the true One.”…The term the true One is subjective; it refers to God becoming subjective to us. In this verse the God who is objective becomes the true One in our life and experience. (Life-study of 1 John, p. 347) 

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What is the meaning of the expression the true One? In particular, what does the word true mean? The Greek word translated “true” [v. 20] is alethinos, “genuine, real” (an adjective akin to aletheia, “truth, verity, reality”—John 1:14; 14:6, 17), as opposed to false and counterfeit. Actually, the true One is the reality. The Son of God has given us an understanding so that we may know—that is, experience, enjoy, and possess—this divine reality. Therefore, to know the true One means to know the reality by experiencing, enjoying, and possessing this reality. 

First John 5:20 indicates that God has become our reality in our experience. The Son of God has come through incarnation and through death and resurrection and has given us an understanding so that we may experience, enjoy, and possess the reality, which is God Himself. Now the God who once was objective to us has become our subjective reality. 

We not only know the true God; we are also in Him [v. 20]. We not only have the knowledge of Him; we are in an organic union with Him. We are one with Him organically. 

When John says that we are in the true One, he is making a crucial point. Not only do we know the true One, and not only do we experience, enjoy, and possess Him as the reality, but we are in this reality. We are in the true One. 

In 5:20 John says, “We are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ.” To be in the true God is to be in His Son Jesus Christ. Since Jesus Christ as the Son of God is the very embodiment of God (Col. 2:9), to be in Him is to be in the true God. This indicates that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the true God. 

Let us consider in more detail John’s word “we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ.” Notice that there is a comma after the word true. In the original Greek text there is no punctuation at all. Hence, translators differ concerning whether or not a comma should be placed after true. 

Moreover, there is a question whether the phrase in His Son Jesus Christ is in apposition to in Him who is true, or is an adverbial phrase…If this phrase is in apposition to in Him who is true, the meaning would be that to be in the true One is equal to being in His Son Jesus Christ. If in His Son Jesus Christ is an adverb, then this phrase indicates that we are in the true One by being in His Son Jesus Christ. 

The reason we need to consider this matter is that it is vital to our spiritual experience. 

After much study I have come to the conclusion that either way we understand the function of the phrase in His Son Jesus Christ, the outcome is the same…If the latter phrase is in apposition to the former, the meaning is that to be in the true One is equal to being in His Son Jesus Christ. This would also indicate that the true One and Jesus Christ are one in the way of coinherence…If in His Son Jesus Christ is a modifier, the meaning is that we are in the true One by being in His Son Jesus Christ. (Life-study of 1 John, pp. 347-349) 

Further Reading: Life-study of 1 John, msg. 40