1 John 5

Anyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. And everyone who loves the Father, who gives that birth, also loves the child who is born from him.

1Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him.

Note"Christ" is a title, not a surname. It is the Greek word for "anointed one" and translates the Hebrew word Messiah, the king God had promised to send. In the King James, "him that begat" means the father and "that is begotten of him" means the child; a single Greek verb covers fathering and giving birth, and John uses it for God producing new life in a person.

2Here is how we know that we love God's children: we love God and we do what he commands.

2By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.

3This is what loving God means: keeping his commands. And his commands are not a heavy load to carry.

3For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.

Note"Grievous" in 1611 did not mean causing grief. It meant heavy or burdensome, a weight hard to carry, which is the sense of the Greek word here.

4That is because everyone who has been born of God wins out over the world. And this is the victory that has won out over the world: our faith.

4For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.

Note"Overcometh" translates a Greek verb meaning to conquer or to win a contest; the related noun is nike, victory, the word used later in this same verse. "The world" in this letter does not mean the planet or the human race as such, but human society as it runs itself without reference to God.

5Who is it that wins out over the world? Only the person who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

5Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?

6This is the one who came by water and blood: Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and by blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies to this, because the Spirit is the truth.

6This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth.

NoteWhat "came by water and blood" meant was evidently clear to the first readers and is not clear to us. It has been read chiefly two ways: as Jesus' baptism in water and his death by bloodshed, so that he was God's Son at the end of his public life and not only at its beginning; or as the water and blood of an ordinary human birth and death, insisting that he was physically real. The phrase "not by water only" suggests John is correcting people who accepted one of the two and denied the other.

7For there are three that give testimony in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit. And these three are one.

7For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.

NoteThe sentence in this verse about the Father, the Word and the Holy Ghost appears in no Greek manuscript written before roughly the fourteenth century. It began as a comment in the margin of Latin copies, worked its way into the Latin text, entered a printed Greek edition in 1522, and so reached the King James translators. Modern editions of the Greek run straight from "the Spirit is truth" to "there are three that bear witness: the Spirit, and the water, and the blood." "Holy Ghost" is not a different being from the Holy Spirit: in 1611 "ghost" simply meant spirit.

8And there are three that give testimony on earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood. And these three agree together.

8And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.

9We accept what people say when they testify, and God's testimony is greater than theirs. And this is God's testimony: what he has said about his Son.

9If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son.

Note"Witness" and "record" in the King James render the same Greek word group, and the setting behind it is a law court: testimony given by someone in a position to vouch for what happened. "Bear record" in verse 7 and "the record that God gave" in verse 10 are the same idea as "the witness of God" here.

10Whoever believes in the Son of God has this testimony inside himself. Whoever does not believe God has called him a liar, because he has not believed what God said about his Son.

10He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.

11And this is what God said: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.

11And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.

12Whoever has the Son has life. Whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

12He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.

13I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life, and so that you may keep on believing in the name of the Son of God.

13These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.

NoteThe King James ends the verse with a second clause, "and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God." It is absent from the oldest Greek copies, which stop at "that ye may know that ye have eternal life."

14And this is the confidence we have when we come to him: if we ask for anything that agrees with what he wants, he hears us.

14And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:

Note"Confidence" translates a Greek word that first described a citizen's right to speak freely in the public assembly. It is not inward self assurance so much as the freedom to say what you want out loud to someone, without fear of being cut off.

15And if we know that he hears us whenever we ask, then we know that we already have the things we asked him for.

15And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.

Note"The petitions that we desired of him" means the requests we have made. In 1611 a petition was simply a thing asked for.

16If anyone sees a fellow believer commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should ask God, and God will give life to that person, to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that does lead to death. I am not saying he should pray about that.

16If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it.

Note"His brother" here means a fellow member of the Christian community, not a blood relative; the letter uses the word for people inside the group, male and female alike. What "a sin unto death" is, John never states, and readers have never agreed. The main proposals are a sin punished by physical death, as in certain Old Testament and early Christian cases; the deliberate abandonment of the community and its confession about Jesus, which is what the people described in chapter 2 had done; or a settled refusal of the one thing that gives life. Note that John does not forbid praying in such a case; he says only that he is not telling them to.

17Every wrong action is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death.

17All unrighteousness is sin: and there is a sin not unto death.

18We know that no one who has been born of God keeps on sinning. The one who was born of God keeps himself, and the evil one cannot touch him.

18We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.

NoteThe Greek is ambiguous here and the manuscripts differ by a letter or two. One reading is the one the King James follows, "he that is begotten of God keepeth himself," the believer guarding his own life. The other, found in the oldest copies, is "the one born of God keeps him," where "the one born of God" is Jesus and the believer is the one protected. "That wicked one" is the evil one, that is, the devil.

19We know that we belong to God, and that the whole world lies under the power of the evil one.

19And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.

Note"Lieth in wickedness" renders a Greek phrase that can be taken two ways: as lying in evil generally, which is how the King James read it, or as lying in the power of the evil one, a person, which matches "that wicked one" in the verse before. The Greek itself does not settle it, and every translator has to choose.

20And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know the one who is true. And we are in the one who is true, that is, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

20And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.

Note"True" in this verse carries the sense of genuine or real, the actual thing as opposed to a counterfeit, rather than the sense of truthful. That sets up the warning about idols in the next verse. The closing sentence, "This is the true God, and eternal life," is grammatically ambiguous in Greek: "this" may point back to Jesus Christ, the nearest name, or to "him that is true," the Father. Readers have taken it both ways since antiquity.

21Dear children, keep yourselves away from idols. Amen.

21Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.

NoteIdols were not an abstraction to the first readers. In a Greek city, images of the gods stood in temples, shops, trade guild halls and private houses, and meat sold in the market, public festivals, business associations and civic office were all bound up with honoring them. Keeping away from idols was a practical instruction with a social and financial cost. "Amen" is a Hebrew word of agreement, roughly "so be it"; the oldest Greek copies of this letter end without it.