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1 John

1 Johnchapter 5

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Speaks with:1 John 5×4John 14×3John 15×31 John 4×31 John 2×2John 16×2

Summary

Chapter summary

'Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is begotten of God': faith, love, and obedience braided into one. His commandments are not grievous, 'for whatsoever is begotten of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that hath overcome the world, even our faith' (5:4). The witness is threefold (the Spirit, the water, and the blood) and 'he that hath the Son hath the life; he that hath not the Son of God hath not the life' (5:12). Then the purpose statement, matching John 20:31: 'These things have I written unto you, that ye may know that ye have eternal life' (5:13). The letter ends in certainties, and one last command: 'Guard yourselves from idols.'

Context

Epistle · John — 1 John overview

  • A. 1–5 Born of God: The Victory That Overcomes the World
  • B. 6–12 Water, Blood, and Spirit: The Witness God Gave
  • C. 13–17 That You May Know, and Ask With Confidence
  • D. 18–21 Three Things We Know — Guard Yourselves From Idols

The outline

  1. A.Born of God: The Victory That Overcomes the Worldvv. 1 to 5

    Read vv. 1 to 5 →

  2. B.Water, Blood, and Spirit: The Witness God Gavevv. 6 to 12

    Read vv. 6 to 12 →

  3. C.That You May Know, and Ask With Confidencevv. 13 to 17

    Read vv. 13 to 17 →

  4. D.Three Things We Know — Guard Yourselves From Idolsvv. 18 to 21

    Read vv. 18 to 21 →

Threads

Each of these runs on past this chapter. The passage you have just read is marked.

Hereby we know

Pattern

1 John is built to give assurance, and it says so: these things have I written, that ye may know that ye have eternal life. The refrain hereby we know lands throughout, tying assurance to obedience, to love of the brethren, and to the given Spirit.

Assurance in this letter is not a feeling to work up but evidence to read: commandments kept, brethren loved, the Spirit given. The letter was written so that believers may know, and that stated purpose sets the tone for every hard verse inside it.

  1. 1 John 2:3

    If we keep his commandments

    Hereby we do know that we know him.

  2. 1 John 3:14

    Because we love the brethren

    We know that we have passed from death unto life.

  3. 1 John 3:24

    By the Spirit which he hath given us

    Hereby we know that he abideth in us.

  4. 1 John 4:13

    Because he hath given us of his Spirit

    Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us.

  5. 1 John 5:13 you are here

    That ye may know

    These things have I written unto you, that ye may know that ye have eternal life.

The world behind this chapter

1 John 5
When
The last decades of the first century · c. AD 85–95
Where
The closing summary — witnesses, assurance, prayer, and a last warning about idols
Who first heard it
Believers who needed to know, in writing, that they had eternal life

The history

Witnesses were the ancient world's method of establishing a fact. Two or three agreeing witnesses settled a case in Jewish law, and John assembles three — the Spirit, the water, and the blood — to close his argument.

The water and the blood point at the two ends of Jesus' ministry: his baptism, where the voice named him, and his death, where the blood was shed. The teaching John opposed said the Christ came at the baptism and left before the cross, which is why he insists Jesus came 'not by water only, but by water and blood.'

Readers of older English Bibles will find extra words at verse 7 about three witnesses in heaven. Those words are not in any early Greek manuscript and entered the tradition late through Latin copies, so most modern Bibles omit or footnote them. Saying so plainly costs the chapter nothing; its case rests on the three earthly witnesses.

The final warning to keep from idols was not a leftover. Ephesus and the towns around it were full of shrines, household gods, and civic festivals, so an idol was not a distant temptation but the thing on the shelf in the next room.

What it meant to them

John states his purpose outright: he wrote so that they may know they have eternal life. Assurance is the deliverable, and after a schism that shook them, it was what they needed most.

The confidence he describes runs through prayer as well — asking anything according to his will and being heard — which handed a small, discouraged network a working line to God that no departed teacher controlled.

Sources cited

  • Bruce M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament
  • Colin J. Hemer, The Letters to the Seven Churches of Asia in Their Local Setting

Every work MannaFest builds on →

The text of this chapter

This site records the readings below for this chapter. Spelling and word-order differences that change no meaning are passed over.

  • 1 John 5:7-8

    The Three Heavenly Witnesses

    The clearest case on this site: the words about the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost entered the Greek New Testament in 1522, out of Latin, and the doctrine of the Trinity never needed them.

    What the manuscripts read here →

This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.

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