water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood”—that is to say, the Saviour fulfilled His Divine mission in His death upon the Cross as well as in His baptism. Again and again, in other passages, the apostle insists on the reality of the union between Jesus and the Christ, as an essential element of the Christian faith (2:22; 4:2–3, 15; 5:1, 5; cf. 1:1–4). While it gives no quarter to evil and falsehood, the Epistle overflows with exhortations to