1 John 5
5
Faith in the Son of God
1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father* loves the one who has been born of Him. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome. 4 For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world: our faith. 5 Who is the one who overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
Testimony about Jesus
6 This is the One who came by water and blood,* Jesus Christ; not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood. And the Spirit is the One who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. 7 For there are three that testify:* 8 the Spirit and the water and the blood,* and the three are in harmonious agreement.* 9 If we receive the testimony of men,* the testimony of God is greater, because this is the testimony of God that He has testified concerning His Son. 10 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 testified concerning His Son. 11 And this is the testimony, that God has granted eternal life to us, and this life is in His Son. 12 The one who has the Son has the life; the one who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.
Assurance of Eternal Life and Prayer
13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.* 14 And this is the confidence that we have towards Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked from Him.
The Sin Leading to Death and the Sin Not Leading to Death
16 If anyone sees his brother committing a sin* not leading to death, he shall ask, and He will give life to him—to those who commit sin not leading to death. There is a sin leading to death; I do not say that he should ask concerning that. 17 All unrighteousness is sin, but there is a sin not leading to death.
18 We know that everyone who has been born of God does not persist in sin, but the One who has been born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him.
19 We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies under the influence of the evil one.
True God and Eternal Life
20 And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know the One who is true, and we are in the One who is true—in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. 21 Little children, guard yourselves from idols.*
Notes
1 Greek and everyone who loves the one who gives birth
6 Some ancient manuscripts read water and blood and Spirit to achieve a degree of parallelism with Jn. 3:5. For the same reason, other ancient manuscripts give an inverted order: water and Spirit and blood
7 Some ancient manuscripts expand the verse at this point to include: in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one
8 Some ancient manuscripts begin the verse with an expansive reading: And there are three that testify on earth: the Spirit and the water and the blood
8 Greek and the three are in one
9 Or people, as the term is generically understood
10 Some ancient manuscripts insert the genitive phrase of God at this point
10 Some ancient manuscripts read the Son
13 Some ancient manuscripts insert the construction and that you may keep believing in the name of the Son of God
16 Greek sinning a sin
21 Some ancient manuscripts insert Amen at the end of the verse
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Copyright © 2026 Michael Adeyemi Adegbola. This Scripture text is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).
