1 John · chapter 5 of 5
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1 John 5 teaches that everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, that loving God means keeping his commandments and that faith overcomes the world. John presents God's testimony about his Son: whoever has the Son has eternal life. He writes so that believers may know they have it, encourages them to pray with confidence and closes the letter by reminding us that we are of God and must keep ourselves from idols.
This is the last chapter of the first letter of John, and in it he gathers the three themes that run through the letter: faith in Jesus, love and obedience. John states the purpose of his writing, that believers may be sure of their salvation, and ends with firm convictions: what we know as believers and the danger of idols.
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. By this we know that we love the children of God: when we love God and keep his commandments. They are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world, and this is the victory: our faith. The one who overcomes believes that Jesus is the Son of God (vv. 1-5).
Jesus Christ came by water and blood, not by the water only but by the water and the blood, and the Spirit testifies to it because the Spirit is the truth. Three testify, the Spirit, the water and the blood, and they agree. If we accept the testimony of men, God's testimony concerning his Son is greater. Whoever believes in the Son has the testimony in himself. This is the testimony: God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son does not have life (vv. 6-12).
John writes these things to those who believe in the name of the Son of God so that they may know they have eternal life. This is the confidence we have toward him: if we ask anything according to his will he hears us, and we know that we have what we asked of him. If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he will ask and God will give him life; there is a sin that leads to death, but not all wrongdoing is of that kind (vv. 13-17).
We know that everyone born of God does not keep on sinning, for the Son of God protects him and the evil one does not touch him. We are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. The Son of God has come and given us understanding to know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols (vv. 18-21).
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
Everyone born of God overcomes the world, and the victory that overcomes it is our faith. The Christian victory does not depend on our strength but on faith in Christ.
The testimony is that God gave us eternal life and that this life is in his Son. Eternal life is not a prize for merit but a gift received in Christ.
John writes these things to those who believe in the name of the Son of God so that they may know they have eternal life. God wants his children to have assurance and not live in constant doubt.
This is the confidence we have before God: if we ask according to his will, he hears us. Christian prayer seeks that God's will be done, not that God fulfill our whims.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ. — 1 John 5:1
Answer: Our faith. — 1 John 5:4
Answer: By water and blood. — 1 John 5:6
Answer: That God gave us eternal life and that this life is in his Son. — 1 John 5:11
Answer: So that those who believe in the name of the Son of God may know that they have eternal life. — 1 John 5:13
Answer: To keep ourselves from idols. — 1 John 5:21
1 John 5 offers certainty. Many believers doubt their salvation in moments of failure or fear, and John writes precisely so that we may know we have eternal life, not because of what we do but because we have the Son. In a group we can encourage those who doubt to return to Christ and his Word.
The chapter also invites us to pray with confidence, according to God's will, and to guard against idols, that is, everything that takes the place that belongs to God alone. It helps to ask what things compete today for our hearts.
With 1 John 5 the letter ends with the certainty of eternal life in Christ and a final warning against idols. The next two letters, 2 and 3 John, are short notes from the same author about truth and love.
Christians understand it in several ways. Many see a reference to his baptism and his death, so that John affirms that the divine Christ was present from the beginning of his ministry to the cross, against teachers who denied it. Others think of the water and blood that flowed from his side (John 19:34). In any case, it stresses that Jesus was truly human and that his death was real.
The text does not define it precisely, and several explanations have been proposed. Some see it as the persistent denial of Christ, like that of the false teachers; others as a grave, deliberate sin leading to physical or spiritual death. What is clear is that John encourages us to pray for brothers who fall and reminds us that all wrongdoing is sin.