1 John 5

5 ¹Everyone who believes Jesus is the Christ has been born of our Father, and everyone who loves the Father who gives birth loves the child born of him. ²By this we know we love the children of our Father: when we love our Father and keep his commands. ³This is love of our Father: that we keep his commands, and his commands aren't burdensome. ⁴Everyone born of our Father overcomes the world. This is the victory that overcame the world: our faith. ⁵Who overcomes the world except the one believing Jesus is the Son of our Father? ⁶Jesus Christ came by water and blood—not water only, but water and blood. The Holy Spirit testifies to this, because the Holy Spirit is the truth. ⁷For there are three that testify: ^a a v7 Some late copies expand this verse to name the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit in heaven. Those words appear in no early Greek manuscript and are not part of what John wrote. ⁸the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three are in agreement.

⁹If we accept human testimony, our Father's testimony is greater—for this is our Father's testimony: that he testified about his Son. ¹⁰Whoever believes in the Son of our Father carries this testimony within himself. Whoever does not believe has made him a liar, since he hasn't believed the testimony our Father gave about his Son. ¹¹And this is the testimony: our Father gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. ¹²Whoever has the Son has life; whoever lacks the Son of our Father lacks life.

Confidence Before the Father

¹³I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of our Father, so you may know you have eternal life. ¹⁴This is our confidence before him: whatever we ask according to his will, he hears us. ¹⁵And if we know he hears us—whatever we ask—we know we have what we asked him for.

¹⁶If anyone sees his brother sin a sin not leading to death, he should ask, and our Father will give him life—to those sinning not to death. There's a sin leading to death; I'm not saying he should pray about that. ¹⁷All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death.

¹⁸We know: whoever is born of our Father does not keep sinning, but the One who was born of our Father protects him, and the evil one cannot touch him. ^b b v18 Every believer is born of our Father, and Jesus, uniquely born of our Father, protects them from the evil one. ¹⁹We know we are from our Father, and the whole world lies under the evil one's power. ²⁰We know the Son of our Father has come and given us understanding, to know the One who is true. We are in the One who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. ^c c v20 John's closing words name Jesus Christ "the true God and eternal life"—one of Scripture's clearest declarations that the Son shares the Father's own divine nature.

²¹Little children, keep yourselves from idols.