1 John 5King James Version
Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world. He that hath the Son hath life. These 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.
John ties faith and love together: believing Jesus is the Son of God is the root from which obedience and love for fellow believers grow. He marshals witnesses to Christ's identity, the water, the blood, and the Spirit, then offers his letter's central purpose: that believers may know they have eternal life. The chapter closes with teaching on intercessory prayer, the sin unto death, and a final, abrupt warning against idols.
Faith in Jesus as the Son of God is the victory that overcomes the world. Assurance of eternal life is not presumption but a right and intended confidence for those who believe.
"He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." (5:12) John reduces the whole of eternal life to a single relational reality: possession of the Son, making the question of life or death a question about one's relationship to Christ, not one's moral performance.
The letter is nearly done. The congregation has been warned, instructed, and loved. Now John draws the line: you have the Son, you have life. The final verse is spare and surprising: 'Little children, keep yourselves from idols.' No explanation. In a Roman city surrounded by temples, the instruction needed none.
The three witnesses, the Spirit, the water, and the blood, are theological rather than personal, pointing back to Christ's baptism and death. John writes as the author who has been present at these events and anchors his testimony in direct experience.
The letter was written partly so that readers would stop wondering whether they had eternal life and start knowing it. That pastoral assurance cuts against both false security (the antichrists who denied the need for Christ) and false insecurity (believers paralyzed by doubt). The three witnesses also address the proto-Gnostic separation of the divine Christ from the human Jesus, insisting the Son came both in water and in blood, not in spirit only.
The chapter carries a settled, quiet confidence. John is not arguing anymore. He is declaring. The phrase 'we know' appears multiple times in the closing verses, a rhythm of certainty that John wants his readers to internalize as their own.
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.
2By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.
3For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.
4For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.
5Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?
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.
7For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
8And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.
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.
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 the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
12He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.
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.
14And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:
15And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.
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.
17All unrighteousness is sin: and there is a sin not unto death.
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.
19And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.
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.
21Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.