1 John 5 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
~AD 85-95, at the close of the apostolic generation
Location
Ephesus and the house churches of the Roman province of Asia in western Asia Minor
Audience
Believers in those churches, many of them second generation Christians who never met an eyewitness of Jesus
Situation
John closes the letter by tying faith, love, and obedience together, then names three witnesses to Jesus, the water, the blood, and the Spirit. He states his purpose plainly, that his readers may know they have eternal life, and ends with instruction about praying for a sinning brother and a warning to keep away from idols.
Key Background
Jewish law required two or three witnesses to establish a matter in court, so John's list of three witnesses is a deliberately legal way of settling the case about Jesus. The water most likely refers to Jesus's baptism and the blood to his death, the two moments his opponents were reluctant to accept, since they taught that a divine Christ came upon the man Jesus at baptism and left before the crucifixion. The closing warning about idols was not abstract in a city like Ephesus, where the temple of Artemis anchored the local economy and where trade guilds held feasts in honor of their patron gods.
Everyone who that Jesus is The has been from and everyone who loves the Father also loves the from him.
This is how we know we God's children — when we God and carry out what he of us.
Because loving God means doing what he asks — and what he asks isn't
because everyone born from God the And this is the victory that has overcome the — our
Who is the one who overcomes the world? Only the person who trusts that Jesus is the Son of God.
This is the one who came through and — Jesus, The One. He didn't come by alone, but by and by And it's the of who confirms this, because the is the
So there are three that
the Breath, the water, and the blood — and these three are in
We accept human all the time — but God's carries even more weight, because this is God's own that he has given about his Son.
Anyone who trusts in the Son of God has this testimony inside them. Anyone who doesn't trust God has essentially a because they haven't trusted the testimony God gave about his Son.
And this is the testimony: God has given us and this is found in his Son.
Whoever the Son this life. Whoever doesn't have the Son of God doesn't have this life.
I'm writing these things to you who trust in the of the Son of God so that you'll — really — that you have limitless life.
And this is the we have when we come to him: if we ask for anything that lines up with what he he hears us.
And if we know he hears us — whatever we ask — we know we already have what we asked him for.
If you see a brother or sister in a way that doesn't lead to you should ask God on their behalf, and God will give them life. I'm talking about failures that don't lead to There is a kind of failure that leads to — I'm not saying you should ask about that.
All is failure, but not every failure leads to death.
We know that everyone born from God on because the born from God guards them, and the can't a on them.
We know that we belong to God, and that the in the of the evil one.
And we know that the Son of has come and has given us the ability to what is — and we are living in the one who is in his Son Jesus, The One. He is the and
guard yourselves from