Tyndale Open Study Notes1 John 5

Those who believe that Jesus is the Christ and the Son of God have been born spiritually as children of God (see John 20:31). The Spirit of God empowers them to love God and others. Their faith helps them obey God and resist the evil temptations in the world. Through faith, they can love and obey God.

This is the One who came by water and blood: A teacher named Cerinthus, who lived at the same time as John, taught a false idea. He said that “the Christ” came down as a spirit on the man Jesus at his baptism, but left him before Jesus died.

John teaches the truth. The baptism and death of Jesus confirmed his identity as the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus of Nazareth was and is truly the Christ, the Son of God, from the beginning and forever.

• there are three that testify: The Holy Spirit came down on Jesus at his baptism (see John 1:32–34). The water refers to the water in which John baptized Jesus (see Matthew 3:13–15; Mark 1:9–11). The blood refers to the blood Jesus shed when he died on the cross (see Mark 15:37–39). These three (the Spirit, the water, and the blood) together proclaim that Jesus is God’s Son (1 John 5:6).

• After the phrase three that testify, a few very late manuscripts add the phrase in heaven—the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one. And we have three witnesses on earth. This longer reading was written in Latin several centuries after John. It was meant to explain the three elements in the passage (water, blood, and Spirit) as symbols of the Trinity.

  Later, this explanation appeared in some Latin copies of 1 John, including later versions of the Latin Vulgate. Erasmus eventually translated it into Greek and included it in the Textus Receptus, which means “received text.” Because of this, the longer reading was included in the King James Version.

  However, the longer reading is not found in any Greek manuscript before the 1700s. None of the early church fathers mention it. For these reasons, most modern English translations do not include the longer reading as part of the original text of 1 John.

Whoever has the Son has life: Those who have the Son of God living in them have God’s eternal life now. They enjoy the presence of God's Spirit (2:20, 25, 27). They have the guarantee of eternity with God (see Ephesians 1:13–14).

Sins that lead to death are sins of apostasy, which means turning away from the true faith and rejecting Christ (see Matthew 12:31–32; Hebrews 6:4–6). In the context of this letter, apostasy means leaving the teaching of the apostles and joining a false, anti-Christian group like the ones John warns about in his letters.

there is sin that does not lead to death: Sins that do not involve complete rejection of faith can lead to repentance and restoration (see James 5:20).

• John states that Jesus Christ is the only true God (see John 1:1, 18; 20:28; Romans 9:5; Titus 2:13; 2 Peter 1:1).

• we are in Him: Having fellowship or being united with Jesus Christ means having eternal life, because he is eternal life (see 1 John 5:12; John 1:4; 3:16; 14:6; 20:31).

In his closing words, John urges his community to stay away from anything that might take God’s place in their hearts. The literal wording is “keep yourselves from idols.” In the context of 1 John, the main “idol” would be any false teaching that leads people away from Jesus Christ, who is fully human and fully God.