All who believe in the Son of God know in their hearts that this testimony is true. Those who don’t believe this are actually calling God a liar because they don’t believe what God has testified about his Son.
Parallel translations
- WEB He 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.
- KJV He 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.
- BSB Whoever believes in the Son of God has this testimony within him; whoever does not believe God has made Him out to be a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given about His Son.
- NKJV He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; he who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son.
- NASB The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself; the one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given concerning His Son.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Whoever believes in the Son has God's testimony within; whoever rejects it calls God a liar. To refuse the gospel is to deny God's own word about his Son.
Overview
The believer experiences the inward assurance of God's testimony through the Spirit, while the unbeliever, by rejecting it, in effect accuses God of falsehood. John presents the gravity of unbelief starkly: it is not a neutral stance but an affront to God's truthfulness. Faith honors God's word; rejection insults it.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 19
- Rom 8:16The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God;
- Gal 4:6And because you are children, God sent out the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, “Abba, Father!”
- John 3:33He who has received his witness has set his seal to this, that God is true.
- John 5:38You don’t have his word living in you; because you don’t believe him whom he sent.
- Heb 3:12Beware, brothers, lest perhaps there be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God;
- Col 3:3For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
- 1 Jn 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.
- Num 23:19God is not a man, that he should lie, nor the son of man, that he should repent. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not make it good?
- Ps 25:14The friendship of Yahweh is with those who fear him. He will show them his covenant.
- Rev 2:17He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies. To him who overcomes, to him I will give of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written, which no one knows but he who receives it.
- Prov 3:32For the perverse is an abomination to Yahweh, but his friendship is with the upright.
- Rev 12:17The dragon grew angry with the woman, and went away to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep God’s commandments and hold Jesus’ testimony.
- 1 Jn 1:10If we say that we haven’t sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
- 2 Pet 1:19We have the more sure word of prophecy; and you do well that you heed it, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns, and the morning star arises in your hearts:
- John 3:16For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
- Job 24:25If it isn’t so now, who will prove me a liar, and make my speech worth nothing?”
- Isa 53:1Who has believed our message? To whom has the arm of Yahweh been revealed?
- Rev 2:28and I will give him the morning star.
- Jer 15:18Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuses to be healed? Will you indeed be to me as a deceitful brook, like waters that fail?
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Christ at the center
Jesus is the Word of life made manifest, the propitiation for our sins, the Son in whom is eternal life — 'that you may know that you have eternal life.'
How 1 John 5:10 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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