Every one that believes that Jesus is the Christ is begotten of God; and every one that loves him that has begotten loves also him that is begotten of him.
Two things stand together in this verse: a confession about who Jesus is, and a birth that only God can perform. John also links two loves: love for the Father and love for His children.
The title "Christ" is more than a name. It says what the Old Testament promised the Messiah would be.
As Christ, He is God's anointed Prophet, Priest and King. The Old Testament had foretold that the Messiah — the Christ — must Himself be the Eternal Creator, God made known in human flesh (Isaiah 9:6-7). So this belief is a real, honest faith in the Person of Christ, not lip service only. Everyone who has such faith "has been born of God."
Some have ranked this confession below the confession of Him as the Son of God later in the chapter. One writer rejects that ranking:
Some have said that faith which confesses that Jesus is the Christ is a lower faith than faith that owns Him as the Son of God. But the Spirit of God draws no such contrast here… In fact, the two go together.
Many people search their own hearts for proof that they belong to God. This verse points them somewhere else.
The fact of the new birth does not rest on whether we can spot this or that fruit of the Spirit in us. It rests on one thing alone — whether we believe that Jesus is the Christ. How wonderfully simple!… So instead of looking inside ourselves for proofs of the new birth, we should turn to this one simple question: do I believe that Jesus is the Christ?
Faith does not earn the new birth. It shows that God has already been at work.
God has done a work in the soul of the believer. No doubt it is hard for people to admit that all good comes from God, and that He alone begins the good work in us. Yet that is how it is. Where there is a simple faith in the person of Jesus — believing that Jesus is the Christ — God has already worked deep in the soul. The one born of God loves Him who gave that birth, and loves all those born of God too.
Other passages describe the new birth from the human side. Two schools of thought each take hold of one side. One writer takes both.
Peter shows us things from the human side — especially 1 Peter 1:22-23 — and the Arminian takes hold of that. John's letter (1 John 5:1) views things from the Divine side, and the Calvinist takes hold of that. For ourselves, we take both. It does not trouble us that we can no more fit the two sides together perfectly in our minds than we can explain how the Divine and the Human meet in Christ Jesus our Lord.
This birth also creates a family. It decides who belongs to it.
Here we get the link between God and the family. When anyone is born of God, he is my brother. Someone may ask, "Who is my brother? How am I to know my brother?" Everyone who is born of God is my brother. I may have to grieve over him sometimes, but he is still my brother, because the same divine nature relates me to him. It is very important to remember this today, because wherever the Holy Spirit really works, there will be a constant tendency to take different paths.
Loving some of God's children and not others shows where that love really comes from.
If I love a family of children for the parent's sake, I shall love all the children. But suppose I love some of them, and hate or despise or ignore the rest. Then clearly my love for the ones I do love comes from some shared taste or other personal reason, not from love for the parents. How is it with you and God's children?
That love has a boundary, and obedience marks it.
Our love for one another is not true love unless love for God defines and limits it. We prove that love for God by submitting to His will — by obeying His instructions… We show our love for Him not by claiming it, but by sincerely governing ourselves by His instructions. They are no burden at all if we really love God.
- Confession — Faith that Jesus is the Christ is faith in His Person — the anointed Prophet, Priest and King promised in the Old Testament. It is not a form of words.
- Birth — That faith does not cause the new birth. It proves it. God worked in the soul first, and John states this from the divine side.
- Assurance — The test looks outward, not inward. The question is not "can I find fruit in myself?" but "do I believe that Jesus is the Christ?"
- Family — The same birth makes every believer a brother. You share one divine nature, even with the brother you grieve over.
- Proof — Love for the Father shows itself in love for all His children. That love is real only when it keeps His commandments.
Hereby know we that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep his commandments.
John has just said that everyone who loves the Father also loves His child. Now he turns the test around and asks how we know that our love for God's children is real.
The argument may look circular. Love for God's children proves love for God, and love for God proves love for His children. One writer answers that objection.
Notice this. Chapter 4:20 brought forward love for other believers as a proof of our love to God. Now that love is the point to be proved. Scholars would call this reasoning in a vicious circle; but life and love are beyond their sphere. True love always comes with obedience. The love which leads us to love the children of God, for God's sake, could not love them and at the same time push them into things which displease their Father. Disobedience is never love. Christ, who is perfect love, also showed perfect obedience.
We can mistake a fondness for a certain circle of people for love of God's children.
It is not loving a certain set of people we may know, but loving the children of God as such, because I keep His commandments. I know I love God's children because I love God. Each side checks the other in this way, and that is very important. When my heart and mind are set on God, whatever belongs to Him is dear to me just because it is of God.
If loving people means helping them disobey God, it is not love at all. Family life shows why.
To love them as the children of God, I must certainly put God's rights first. If my love for them would lead me to be indulgent towards them in their disobeying God, this is not really love. If in pleasing them I displease the Lord, this is not love for them at all, however they may feel it to be so. Children may seem very happy together, giving each other whatever they want. But if they are disobeying their parents, this is not family love at all. It is mere selfish indulgence.
The two halves of the verse are not two separate duties.
So we can be certain of this. When we do love God and keep His commandments, we do love His children. What is more, love and obedience go together, as we have seen earlier in this letter. It is impossible to love Him without obeying Him.
The previous verse defines who our brother is — everyone born of God. That definition sets the reach of this love, and it has been argued over.
Note this again: not a single child of God can be left out. It makes no difference where he is found, what his associations are, or what his spiritual condition is. All who are born of God must be the objects of our divine affections. There can be no limitation of the circle. God includes the whole of His family, and so must we... This verse, taken with the one before it, makes two things clear. First, not one of the children of God may be left out of our love. Second, that love — divine love, love in the spirit — must show itself only in the way of obedience.
This stops us using affection for other believers as an excuse for a wrong path.
It is quite wrong to plead love to the children of God when taking a course contrary to the word of God. Someone may take such a course in ignorance, or in self-will. But disobeying God's commandments is never a proof of love to the children of God, in any circumstances or on any pretence. If we are disobedient to God how can we say that we love Him?... Natural affection, and perhaps affection for other believers, might draw us into a course contrary to God's will. But in either case the spring of our action is not the divine nature within us. It is not love to God shown in obedience to Him.
Ruled this way, our affections do not grow cold.
The will of God must govern our affections, so that they are divine in nature and not merely human. Because of that they are all the deeper, purer, and warmer as they flow out to all His children.
- Source — love begins with God, not with our feelings. Whatever belongs to Him is dear to us because it is His.
- Test — verse 1 proves love for God by love for His children. Verse 2 proves love for His children by love for God and obedience.
- Reach — the circle takes in every person born of God, whatever their condition or company.
- Limit — that love shows itself only in the way of obedience. Helping someone disobey their Father is indulgence, not love.
- Result — love and obedience cannot be split. So the honest question is never "what would they like?" but "what has He commanded?"
For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments; and his commandments are not grievous.
John ends his letter with a simple test: love for God shows itself in keeping His commandments. Two questions follow. How can obedience measure love? And how can any command be light for people who still fail?
Does the phrase mean our love for God, or His love for us? One writer takes it wider. God's own love enters the heart, and obedience is what it produces.
Claiming to love God while ignoring His expressed will can be nothing but hypocrisy. The love of God is not only love for God. It is God's love entering the heart and producing a fitting response. So the proof of it is my keeping His commandments... If someone served God only for wages, he might well find it tiresome service, as all bondage under law is. But if he serves out of real love, no resentment will be there.
Verse 2 tests love for God's children by love for God. Verse 3 turns the test around: obedience proves love for God. Neither test lets a bare claim stand.
So the Holy Spirit gives not only a test in verse 2 but a counter-test in verse 3. It is not the love of God, or of His children, if we are disobedient. True love of God obeys, while it also shows itself in loving His children, and not just our own circle but all who are His. We cannot separate obedience from love. If it is not obedience, neither is it love.
Talk of commandments can sound like the law of Moses returning. But law and grace differ in what they rest on and what they supply.
The law issued its commands without supplying either the motive or the power that would make obedience certain. Only love can supply the driving force that is needed. Still the commands of love are there... Under law God gave men commandments, and their life and position before God depended on keeping them. Under grace the believer's life and position are secure in Christ. The commandments he receives shape and direct that new life in a way that pleases God.
So calling Christian obedience "legal" gets it wrong.
Love and legality have nothing in common; they are as far apart as the poles... If anyone taught that our obedience earns the high position and relationship of children of God, the serious charge of legality would be fair. But to pin that label on Christian obedience is, we repeat, a serious moral mistake. Obedience could never come before sonship; but sonship should always lead to obedience.
A command becomes a burden when it cuts against what you are.
It would indeed be a burden if God commanded us to do what is completely against our natures — just as it would be for a dog to eat hay, or a horse to eat meat. The law of Moses brought "heavy burdens, hard to bear," but that was because God gave it to men in the flesh. We have received commandments. But we have also received a new nature that delights in what is commanded. That makes all the difference.
This obedience is not forced labour. It is a path already walked ahead of us.
It is not a heavy yoke lying on a stiff, unsubmissive neck. It is a new nature that obeys from an inner principle of joyful submission to the divine will... It is not brick-making service under the Pharaohs of Egypt, but a delightful path for one born of God — the path Jesus Himself walked.
If the commands are light, why does obedience often feel hard? It depends on which part of us has to obey. John's next line gives the cure.
To the natural man they are a great burden... The only thought the flesh has about these commandments is that it must never have anything its own way... pleasing itself comes naturally to the heart, and therefore His commandments are burdensome to the flesh. Obedience becomes a delight and a blessing to us in this way: "His commandments are not burdensome, for everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world."
One writer names both the cause and the cure.
A Christian who is under the influence of the world will find it burdensome to obey the Lord's commandments. But if he renounces the world and judges the flesh that lusted after the things of the world, the divine nature will then have free course to delight in and do the will of God.
- Birth first — the commandments come to people already born of God, with a nature that delights in them. Obedience never earns the relationship; it follows it.
- Love proved — love for God and love for His children test each other, and obedience tests both. What is not obedience is not love.
- Channels, not chains — the commands direct a life already given; they are not conditions for a life still owed.
- Light, not heavy — the law came to men in the flesh. These commands match the new nature, so the path is Christ's own path, not brick-making under Pharaoh.
- When it feels heavy — the flesh and the world make obedience hard. John's cure comes in the next breath: everyone born of God overcomes the world.
For all that has been begotten of God gets the victory over the world; and this is the victory which has gotten the victory over the world, our faith.
John has been marking out the family of God: those born of Him, who love Him and keep His commandments. Here he adds the most surprising mark of all. They beat the world. Two questions follow. How can this be true of every believer? And what is "the world" that faith defeats?
Older translations read "whatsoever is born of God overcomes the world." That "whatsoever" is deliberate. It points at the life God gives, not at the person who receives it.
The change in 1 John 5:4 from "whosoever" to "whatsoever" is unusual and worth noticing. Here John looks at the life God gives in itself, whoever receives it, as in John 3:6. "That which is born of the Spirit is spirit," in contrast with that which is born of the flesh. And each nature seeks its own things: the flesh, the things of the flesh; and the spirit, the things of the Spirit (Rom. 8:5). The two natures are opposed, so their desires never agree.
So the promise leaves no believer out. Victory is not a reward for years of service.
Some of you may have been thinking that victory belongs only to older and more advanced Christians. But this word applies to all of us. Here is a wonderful fact. If you are a Christian, God has begotten you. So you have a nature that matches God who is love. That nature is completely out of keeping with the world. In fact it is far above the world, and so it gets the victory over it. The world has vast attractions for the old nature; it has none whatever for the new.
The world John means is a system. It has a head, and that head is not God.
The great difficulty is the world; but faith conquers it… There is a nature we have received which belongs to a system that is not of the world at all. "You are from below, I am from above." This world, as a system, is of the devil — not of God at all… The Father is the head, source and blessedness of a great system. The world is entirely opposed to that system. So when the Son came into the world, the world rejected Him. This has put the world, now tested, in complete opposition to the Father.
A new nature by itself does not explain the victory. That nature must feed on something outside itself.
Whatever is born of God overcomes the world (v. 4). It does not overcome just because a divine nature is there. It overcomes because this nature has an object (v. 3). A creature cannot be enough for itself; it must have an object. God alone is enough for Himself. If I have this object, Jesus the Son of God, then the flesh, Satan and the world have nothing for me. If a person is not nourished by the Lord Jesus, life stays shut up and weak.
The next verse names that object: the one who overcomes believes that Jesus is the Son of God. But John does not mean holding a correct opinion.
The victory that overcomes the world is "our faith." As the next verse shows, this means the Christian faith that "Jesus is the Son of God"… If He shines before our faith as the Son of God, we know Him as the One who came from that world — the Father's world — into this world. Who gets the victory over this world? Only the one who has discovered by faith the Centre of a far brighter and better world than this. It is not a matter of holding the Sonship of Jesus as an article of our creed, a truth we accept in theory. It must be a living power in our souls.
Many readers test themselves by this verse and fail. Commentators reply that the verse states what belongs to the new life. It does not measure your week.
It may be quite true that many a believer fails in practice to overcome the world. But that is outside John's subject. If they fail, it is because they are not living in the activity of the new nature, or in the exercise of faith through the power of the Holy Spirit… Our victory over it will show in practice just so far as we take the apostle's ground. He says, "far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world."
- Born — victory starts at new birth, not at maturity. The life God gives is out of step with the world, so every believer already carries it.
- Nature — each nature seeks its own things. The two never agree, so the pull of the world meets a real rival inside you.
- Object — a nature needs something to live on. Faith wins because it holds Jesus the Son of God, and beside Him the world has nothing to offer.
- World — what faith beats is a whole system set against the Father, not just a list of bad habits. It showed itself when it rejected the Son.
- Practice — failure does not cancel the verse. It shows the new nature and faith are not at work. The cure is boasting only in the cross, which has already crucified the world to us.
Who is he that gets the victory over the world, but he that believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
John ends this section with a question, and the question works like a test: it marks out the one person who overcomes the world, and it marks him by what he believes. So two things need answering — what sort of believing this is, and why the title "Son of God" is what victory turns on.
John asks the reader to answer for himself. One writer presses the challenge home, then asks a second question that holds the real answer.
So who is it that conquers the world? What a bold challenge! Can you take it up? But let me ask another question, for the joy of answering it in our hearts. Who is the One who has overcome it, and so tells us to take heart? (John 16:33.) Boldness in the day of judgment, and overcoming the world — these are high thoughts. Did any Roman, Greek, or barbarian commander ever think of victory like this?
The victory is not one we must win from scratch. One writer draws out the courage this gives:
Yet they are called to courage, since they know Him Whom they have believed, His glory and His grace, Who has overcome the world. What a lift and cheer, that the enemy we have to overcome is already overcome!
Earlier in the chapter John says that believing Jesus is the Christ marks someone as born of God. Here he uses a fuller title, and the change is deliberate.
If the question is who my brother is, the one I am to love (1 John 4:21), the answer is, "Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God" (1 John 5:1) — the Spirit comes down to the faintest grasp of His glory, as when some believe in Him only as the Messiah. This is enough to mark someone as born of God. But more was needed for victory over the world. Nothing less than the full glory of His person as the Son of God was enough for that.
This is a glory the world cannot give or take away:
He was Son of God before the world began, and however the world or His earthly people reject Him, His glory as the Son of God will outlast heaven and earth.
The word means more than agreeing that something is true.
The word "believes" does not mean simply agreeing that God became man. It means the sincere faith that brings home to the soul, to a person's inmost being, that the Lord Jesus is the eternal Son of God.
Another writer sets a creed held on paper against a faith that has found something better:
Who gets the victory over this world but the one who has discovered by faith the Centre of a far brighter and better world than this? It is not a matter of holding the Sonship of Jesus as an item in our creed, or accepting the truth as theory, but of having it as a living power in our souls.
A new nature needs an object outside itself — and how the world treated that object settles what the world is.
We are not merely given a nature; as creatures we need an object for that nature, and that object is the Lord. I must have the true object, and so: "Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?" He is taken up with something. When I find that the One the world spat on and crucified is the Son of God, I say: so that is what the world is. And so, when my faith truly rests on Jesus as this despised One, the Son of God, I am done with the world; I overcome it as an enemy.
Where this faith is real, the world is not so much fought off as outweighed.
He was the Son at the Father's side, and He made known heavenly things that lie far outside and above this world. Once faith takes hold of that, the world loses its pull, and you can set it aside as a very little thing.
That shows up in ordinary living:
The new man, walking in the power of faith, lives above the world — above its motives, its aims, its principles, its habits, its fashions. He has nothing in common with it. He is in the world, but not of it.
- Question — The verse throws down a challenge: who conquers the world? It answers itself by naming a believer, not a hero.
- Person — The answer rests on Christ, who has already overcome; we face a foe already beaten.
- Title — "Christ" marks someone as born of God. "Son of God" gives the victory, because that glory outlasts heaven and earth.
- Reality — Believing here is not a creed on paper but a living power in the soul.
- Result — See the crucified One as the Son of God, and the world shrinks to a very little thing. The believer then lives above its motives, habits and fashions.