Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

John says that Jesus came by water and blood (1 John 5:6).

An odd statement. When I ring your doorbell, I don’t come by water and blood. What does that even mean? 

John says further,
    There are three that testify: 
       The Spirit, the water, and the blood;
           and these three are in agreement (1 John 5:7-8). 

Interesting. But in the King James Bible another threesome accompanies the spirit, water, and blood. That Bible says,
      There are three that testify in heaven:
          The Father, the Word, and the Spirit,
                and these three are one (1 John 5:7-8, KJV, paraphrased). 

This is the simplest and clearest statement of the Trinity that has ever appeared in the Bible. But–and yes, there is a significant but. That Trinity verse isn’t found in the earliest and most reliable manuscripts, so most modern scholars reject it. How did it find its way into the Bible? 

Imagine some early scholar thinking about the spirit, water, and blood, which agree in their testimony about Jesus. It’s tantalizingly close to the doctrine of the Trinity, but doesn’t quite get there. So our ancient scholar decides to help out his favorite doctrine by making minor insertion into the text.

Meanwhile, what about the Trinity-hinting phrase–the spirit, water, and blood? It seems to me John uses this to bring his letter full circle. At the beginning he said, We have seen, heard, and touched the Word of Life (1:1-2).  

Now John concludes: the reality of Jesus is supported by two physical elements–water and blood–and one spiritual element, the witness of the spirit. 

Why does he use water and blood as his physical witnesses? I don’t know. But I do know that traces of water and blood followed Jesus all his life. His birth to Mary involved water and blood. He was baptized in a river. His crucifixion was a bloody affair and a Roman spear brought water from his side.

He lived his water-and-blood life by the Spirit. And after the crucifixion, the Spirit raised his dead body to life. 

In this simple picture of water and blood and spirit, John completes the circle of his letter. He started with Jesus as a pure spirit, “that which was from the beginning”, who became a human that John could see and touch and feel.

 Now John concludes with another picture of spirit joined to flesh:
    The Spirit and the water and the blood testify about Jesus, 
        and these three are in agreement. 

Let’s pray. 

O Jesus, in our short lives, 
    We are born in water and blood.
    We are sustained by water and blood. 
    And soon our water and blood will flow into the earth.

But you, Jesus, were with God in the beginning.
    You chose to share our time-bound experience of water and blood,
        to visit us and live with us and save us.  

O Jesus, dwell in our bodies of clay.
  Teach us to live as you lived in this physical world. 

And after our water and blood flow back to the earth
    and our bodies turn to dust,
    raise us in new bodies in a new world to live a new life with you.

 Amen. 

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.  

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube