<p>5:6 <i>This is he that came by water and blood, Jesus Christ. Not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood</i>- The Lord Jesus &quot;came&quot; that the in water and blood flowing from His side represented the gift of Spirit; for by this He 'comes' to us (Jn. 14:18). He still testifies by three things- His Spirit making alive the believer, the water baptism cleansing us and the blood atoning for our sins. The choice of 'three' things doesn't refer to a trinity- rather is it the principle of Dt. 19:15, requiring two or three witnesses. The water and blood are mentioned together, and then the Spirit is added; as if &quot;two or three&quot;. And note how inanimate things are spoken of as giving witness (Gen. 31:45-48; Dt. 31:28)- the three that bear witness don&rsquo;t refer necessarily to three persons, as the trinity wrongly states. Those things which the Lord enabled, witnessed through us today, provide the witness to the fact that He 'came' in the past and 'comes' to us today, in the sense that He 'comes' to us through the gift of the Spirit (Jn. 14:18). &quot;Not with the water only&quot; may be a reminder that water baptism alone will not save; we must be born of water and spirit (Jn. 3:3-5).</p><p>The witness of the Lord and of His disciple were one and the same. The witness on earth was a reflection of that in Heaven (1 Jn. 5:6,7).</p>