New Testament

1 John 5

Faith, Witness, and Eternal Life

5 passages

Overview

John weaves together divine birth, love, and faith as the inseparable marks of Christian identity; grounds them in the threefold earthly witness of Spirit, water, and blood and the greater testimony of the Father; declares that eternal life is possessed here and now in the person of the Son; calls believers to bold and confident intercession for one another while acknowledging that not all sin carries equal weight; and seals his letter with three ringing certainties about sin, divine protection, and knowledge of the true God, closing with an urgent command to keep away from idols.

Passages

1–5Faith, Love, and the Victory Over the World 6–12The Three Witnesses and the Divine Testimony to the Son 13–15Assurance of Eternal Life and Confidence in Prayer 16–17The Brother's Keeper: Intercession, Gravity of Sin, and the Limits of Prayer 18–21Three Certainties, the True God, and the Final Warning

Study Resources

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1 John 5

¹Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. Whoever loves the Father also loves the child who is born of him. ²By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep his commandments. ³For this is loving God, that we keep his commandments. His commandments are not grievous. ⁴For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world: your faith. ⁵Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

⁶This is he who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ; not with the water only, but with the water and the blood. It is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. ⁷For there are three who testify: ⁸the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and the three agree as one. ⁹If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for this is God’s testimony which he has testified concerning his Son. ¹⁰He who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. He who doesn’t believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given concerning his Son. ¹¹The testimony is this: that God gave to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. ¹²He who has the Son has the life. He who doesn’t have God’s Son doesn’t have the life.

¹³These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.

¹⁴This is the boldness which we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he listens to us. ¹⁵And if we know that he listens to us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions which we have asked of him.

¹⁶If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life for those who sin not leading to death. There is sin leading to death. I don’t say that he should make a request concerning this. ¹⁷All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to death.

¹⁸We know that whoever is born of God doesn’t sin, but he who was born of God keeps himself, and the evil one doesn’t touch him. ¹⁹We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. ²⁰We know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.

²¹Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

1 John 4