1 John 5
The full text of 1 John 5 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Greek. Free to read.
1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves the child born of him.
2 This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands.
3 In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome,
4 because everyone born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world: our faith.
5 Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
6 This is the one who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.
7 For there are three that testify:
8 the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three are in agreement.
9 We accept human testimony, but God's testimony is greater, because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son.
10 Whoever believes in the Son of God has this testimony within them. Whoever does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because they have not believed the testimony God has given about his Son.
11 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.
13 I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.
14 This is the confidence we have in approaching him: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
15 And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.
16 If anyone sees a fellow believer commit a sin that does not lead to death, they should pray, and God will give them life—to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death; I am not saying they should pray about that.
17 All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death.
18 We know that anyone born of God does not keep on sinning; the One who was born of God keeps them safe, and the evil one cannot touch them.
19 We know that we are from God, and that the whole world lies under the power of the evil one.
20 And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true, in his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
21 Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.
Translation notes (9)
- 1 John 5:1a The Greek word Christos means "Anointed One," which is Messiah in Hebrew.
- 1 John 5:1b The Greek phrases 'loves the one who begot' and 'the one begotten of him' use the language of fathering and being fathered, applied to God and his children.
- 1 John 5:6a The phrase 'water and blood' is widely understood to point to Jesus' baptism and his death, which are the beginning and end moments of his earthly mission; some also hear an echo of the water and blood from his pierced side.
- 1 John 5:7a A small number of late manuscripts and the traditional King James text add here: 'in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one. And there are three that testify on earth.' This passage, known as the Johannine Comma, is absent from every Greek manuscript before the fourteenth century and from all the early translations; it entered the Greek tradition late, from the Latin. It is therefore not part of the original text, and the earliest, best-attested reading is followed here.
- 1 John 5:8a In the traditional King James text, the added 'heavenly witnesses' (the Johannine Comma) appear before this verse; see the note at 5:7. The earliest Greek manuscripts read only: the Spirit, the water, and the blood.
- 1 John 5:8b The Greek phrase eis to hen, meaning 'the three are unto the one,' indicates that the three witnesses agree, converging on a single testimony.
- 1 John 5:16a The phrase 'a sin that leads to death' (hamartia pros thanaton) has been understood in various ways, most often as a deliberate, final rejection of God and the truth, rather than ordinary sin. The letter deliberately does not define it precisely.
- 1 John 5:18a This can also be translated as 'the one born of God keeps himself.' The Greek can be read either as Christ ('the One born of God') guarding the believer, or as the believer guarding himself; manuscripts also differ between 'keeps him' and 'keeps himself.' The reading followed here is that Christ, the one uniquely born of God, protects the believer.
- 1 John 5:20a The phrase 'He is the true God' may refer to Jesus Christ, who is the nearest subject, or to God the Father; the Greek leaves it open, and both readings have long been held.
About this translation
The Trinity Bible Version (TBV) is a new translation of the Bible prepared by Trinity Bible AI — rendered from the original Greek and faithful to the earliest and most reliable manuscripts. Finished in 2026, it is the most modern English Bible translation you can read today, and it is available only through Trinity Bible. All 66 books, including 1 John, are free to read on this site.
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