1 John 5 Free Bible Version
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
1 Whoever trusts that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the father also loves his child.
1 Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. Whoever loves the Father also loves the child who is born of him.
2 How do we know that we love God's children? When we love God and follow his commands.
2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep his commandments.
3 Loving God means that we follow his commands, and his commands are not hard to bear.
3 For this is loving God, that we keep his commandments. His commandments are not grievous.
4 Everyone who is born of God defeats the world. The way we gain victory and defeat the world is by trusting God.
4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world: your faith.
5 Who can defeat the world? Only those who trust in Jesus, believing he is the Son of God.
5 Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
6 He is the one who came through water and blood, Jesus Christ. He did not only come by water, but by water and blood. The Spirit gives evidence to confirm this, for the Spirit is the truth.
6 This is he who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ; not with the water only, but with the water and the blood. It is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.
8 the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and the three agree as one.
9 If we accept the evidence that human witnesses provide, then the evidence that God provides is much more important. The evidence that God provides is his testimony about his Son.
9 If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for this is God’s testimony which he has testified concerning his Son.
10 Those trusting in the Son of God have accepted and hold on to this evidence. Those who don't trust God make God out to be a liar, because they don't believe the evidence God has given about his Son.
10 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.
11 The evidence is this: God has given eternal life to us, and we have this life through his Son.
11 The testimony is this: that God gave to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever doesn't have the Son of God doesn't have life.
12 He who has the Son has the life. He who doesn’t have God’s Son doesn’t have the life.
13 I'm writing to tell those of you who trust in the name of the Son of God so you can be certain you have eternal life.
13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.
14 We can be confident that he will listen to us as long as we ask in accordance with his will.
14 This is the boldness which we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he listens to us.
15 If we know that he hears our requests, we can be sure that we will receive what we've asked him for.
15 And if we know that he listens to us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions which we have asked of him.
16 If you see your Christian brother or sister committing a sin that is not a deadly sin, you ought to pray and God will grant life to the one who's sinned. (But not for a deadly sin. There's a sin that is deadly, and I'm not saying people should pray about that.
16 If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life for those who sin not leading to death. There is sin leading to death. I don’t say that he should make a request concerning this.
17 Yes, all that is not right is sin, but there's sin that is not deadly.)
17 All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to death.
18 We recognize that those who are born of God don't keep on sinning. The Son of God protects them and the devil cannot harm them.
18 We know that whoever is born of God doesn’t sin, but he who was born of God keeps himself, and the evil one doesn’t touch him.
19 We know that we belong to God, and that the world is under the power of the evil one.
19 We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.
20 We also know that the Son of God has come, and has helped us to understand so we can recognize the one who is true. We live in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God, and is eternal life.
20 We know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.
21 Dear friends, stay away from idol worship.
21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols.
Cross references (21)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 John 1:12–13; 1 John 2:29; John 8:42; 1 John 4:7; 1 Peter 1:22–23
- 2 John 13:34–35; 1 John 2:5; 1 John 3:22–24; John 15:17; 1 John 4:21
- 3 John 14:15; John 15:10; Deuteronomy 7:9; John 14:21–24; 2 John 6
- 4 1 Corinthians 15:57; 1 John 4:4; John 16:33; 1 John 3:9; 1 John 5:5
- 5 1 John 4:15; 1 John 5:1
- 6 John 15:26; Hebrews 9:14; John 16:13; Mark 14:24; John 14:17
- 7 Matthew 28:19; 2 Corinthians 13:14; Acts 5:32; Matthew 3:16–17; John 1:1
- 8 1 John 5:6–7; John 15:26; 1 Peter 3:21; Acts 2:2–4; Romans 8:16
- 9 Matthew 3:16–17; Matthew 17:5; Acts 17:31; John 8:17–19; Acts 5:32
- 10 Romans 8:16; Galatians 4:6; John 3:33; John 5:38; Hebrews 3:12
- 11 Romans 6:23; 1 John 2:25; John 3:36; 1 John 5:20; 1 John 4:9
- 12 John 3:36; John 5:24; John 1:12; 1 Corinthians 1:30; John 3:15
- 13 John 20:31; John 1:12; 1 John 3:23; 2 Peter 1:10–11; John 3:18
- 14 John 14:13; Jeremiah 29:12–13; Jeremiah 33:3; 1 John 3:21–22; John 15:7
- 15 Luke 11:9–10; Mark 11:24; Proverbs 15:29; 1 John 5:18–20
- 16 Hebrews 6:4–6; 1 Samuel 2:25; Jeremiah 11:14; Hebrews 10:26–31; Mark 3:28–30
- 17 1 John 3:4; James 1:15; Ezekiel 18:26–32; 1 John 5:16; James 4:7–10
- 18 1 John 3:9; 1 John 5:4; Jude 21; Jude 24; 1 John 5:1
- 19 2 Corinthians 4:4; Ephesians 2:2; 1 John 4:4–6; Galatians 1:4; Revelation 12:9
- 20 John 17:3; Luke 24:45; John 14:9; 1 Timothy 3:16; Isaiah 44:6
- 21 1 Corinthians 10:14; 1 Corinthians 10:7; Exodus 20:3–4; 2 Corinthians 6:16–17; 1 Thessalonians 1:9
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
Why does my Bible say something different?
- 1 John 5:7–8: the “three heavenly witnesses”
Older English and Spanish Bibles read: “there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.” These words, called the Johannine Comma, are absent from virtually every Greek manuscript before the late Middle Ages and from the Greek Fathers. The Patriarchal Text prints them in small type, kept at the wish of the Holy Synod. The Trinity does not depend on them.
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
I Suppose ye remember, those of you who were present yesterday, to what place in the course of this epistle our exposition has reached: namely, "He that loveth not his brother whom he seeth, how can he love God whom he seeth not?
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 7 (1888)
… but is of antichrist." These words agree with what was said in the Gospel, that "the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." Wherefore he again exclaims in his Epistle, "Every one that believeth that Jesus is the Christ, has been born of God;" knowing Jesus Christ to be one and the same, to whom the gates of heaven …
There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it." For he manifestly shows that there are certain brethren for whom we are not commanded to pray, although the Lord bids us pray even for our persecutors.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 6 (1888)
And he that loveth Him that begat, loveth Him also that is begotten of Him; but he that despiseth Him that is begotten casts back the insult upon Him who begat.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 7 (1894)
What about John then, when in his Catholic Epistle he says that there are Three that bear witness, the Spirit and the Water and the Blood?
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 7 (1894)