1 John
Chapter 5
Overview
This final chapter gathers the letter’s main ideas: trust in Jesus, love for God and his children, obedience, prayer, and confidence about everlasting life. John identifies Jesus as the Messiah and God’s Son, then points to the Spirit, the water, and the blood as a united testimony about him. The chapter also faces a hard question: how should people respond when a fellow believer sins? Its closing lines place two loyalties side by side. The world lies under evil’s power, yet those who belong to God are protected and called to stay away from idols.
1Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Messiah, God’s promised king, has received new life from God and become his child. Everyone who loves the Father also loves those who have become his children.
2This is how we know that we love God’s children: we love God and carry out his commands.
3Loving God means obeying his commands, and his commands are not a heavy burden.
4Everyone who has received new life from God overcomes the world’s opposition to him. What has overcome the world is our trust in God.
5Who overcomes the world? The person who believes that Jesus is God’s Son.
6Jesus the Messiah is the one who came through water and blood—not through water alone, but through water and blood. The Spirit confirms this, because the Spirit is truth.
7For there are three that give confirming evidence:
8the Spirit, the water, and the blood. All three agree.
9If we accept human testimony, God’s testimony carries even greater weight. This is God’s testimony: he has testified about his Son.
10Whoever trusts in God’s Son has this testimony within. Whoever does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because that person has not believed what God has said about his Son.
11This is the testimony: God has given us everlasting life, and this life is found in his Son.
12Whoever has the Son has this life. Whoever does not have God’s Son does not have this life.
13I have written these things to you who place your trust in the Son of God—who he is and what he represents—so that you may know you have everlasting life.
14This is the confidence we have when we approach God: if we ask for anything that agrees with his will, he hears us.
15Since we know that he hears whatever we ask, we also know that we have received what we asked from him.
16If anyone sees a fellow believer committing a sin that does not lead to death, that person should ask God, and God will give the sinner life. This applies to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is also sin that leads to death. I am not saying that one should pray about that.
17Every act of wrongdoing is sin, but not every sin leads to death.
18We know that everyone who has received new life from God does not keep on sinning. Instead, the one who was born from God protects that person, and the evil one cannot seize them.
19We know that we belong to God, while the whole world lies under the power of the evil one.
20We also know that God’s Son has come and has given us understanding so that we may know the One who is true. We are united with the One who is true through his Son, Jesus the Messiah. This is the true God and everlasting life.
21Dear children, guard yourselves from idols—anything worshiped in place of God.