1 John 5

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¹Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has become a child of God. And everyone who loves the Father loves his children, too. ✦ ²We know we love God’s children if we love God and obey his commandments. ✦ ³Loving God means keeping his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome. ✦ ⁴For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith. ✦ ⁵And who can win this battle against the world? Only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God. ✦ ⁶And Jesus Christ was revealed as God’s Son by his baptism in water and by shedding his blood on the cross—not by water only, but by water and blood. And the Spirit, who is truth, confirms it with his testimony. ✦ ⁷So we have these three witnesses— ✦ ⁸the Spirit, the water, and the blood—and all three agree. ✦ ⁹Since we believe human testimony, surely we can believe the greater testimony that comes from God. And God has testified about his Son. ✦ ¹⁰All 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. ✦ ¹¹And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. ✦ ¹²Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life. ✦ ¹³I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life. ✦ ¹⁴And we are confident that he hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him. ✦ ¹⁵And since we know he hears us when we make our requests, we also know that he will give us what we ask for. ✦ ¹⁶If you see a fellow believer sinning in a way that does not lead to death, you should pray, and God will give that person life. But there is a sin that leads to death, and I am not saying you should pray for those who commit it. ✦ ¹⁷All wicked actions are sin, but not every sin leads to death. ✦ ¹⁸We know that God’s children do not make a practice of sinning, for God’s Son holds them securely, and the evil one cannot touch them. ✦ ¹⁹We know that we are children of God and that the world around us is under the control of the evil one. ✦ ²⁰And we know that the Son of God has come, and he has given us understanding so that we can know the true God. And now we live in fellowship with the true God because we live in fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the only true God, and he is eternal life. ✦ ²¹Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts. ✦

Tap any verse for its study page. Underlined terms mark a concept, person, or place; ✦ marks verses with cross-references.

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.

Where this chapter connects

1 Jn 5 ·26 1 Jn 2 ·19 1 Jn 4 ·14 1 Jn 3 ·13 John 14 ·12 John 15 ·12 John 1 ·12 John 3 ·11

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 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.

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Lay

★ Start hereAudioThrough the WordThrough the Word · ~10 min/chapter · Free · evangelical
A clear ~10-minute audio teaching for every one of the Bible's 1,189 chapters — the most systematic free way to study chapter by chapter.

Pastoral

SermonChuck Smith — C2000 SeriesChuck Smith · Free · evangelical
Free verse-by-verse audio through the entire Bible from the founder of Calvary Chapel.

Commentaries & study tools

VideoBibleProject — 1 John videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
VideoWatch teaching on 1 John 5YouTube · Lay · Free
Sermons and chapter teaching from across YouTube.
CommentaryEnduring Word — 1 John 5David Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical
Readable, verse-by-verse exposition of the whole chapter.
CommentaryMatthew Henry on 1 JohnMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
ReferenceBlue Letter Bible — 1 John 5Blue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free
Interlinear, lexicon, and study tools across the chapter.

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