Victory over the World
5 If we believe Jesus is truly Christ, we are God's children. Everyone who loves the Father will also love his children. 2 If we love and obey God, we know we will love his children. 3 (A) We show our love for God by obeying his commandments, and they are not hard to follow.
4 Every child of God can defeat the world, and our faith is what gives us this victory. 5 No one can defeat the world without having faith in Jesus as the Son of God.
Who Jesus Is
6 Water and blood came out from the side of Jesus Christ. It wasn't just water, but water and blood.[a] The Spirit tells about this, because the Spirit is truthful. 7 In fact, there are three who tell about it. 8 They are the Spirit, the water, and the blood, and they all agree.
9 We believe what people tell us. But we can trust what God says even more, and God is the one who has spoken about his Son. 10 If we have faith in God's Son, we have believed what God has said. But if we don't believe what God has said about his Son, it is the same as calling God a liar. 11 (B) God has also said he gave us eternal life and this life comes to us from his Son. 12 And so, if we have God's Son, we have this life. But if we don't have the Son, we don't have this life.
Knowing about Eternal Life
13 All of you have faith in the Son of God, and I have written to let you know you have eternal life. 14 We are certain God will hear our prayers when we ask for what pleases him. 15 And if we know God listens when we pray, we are sure our prayers have already been answered.
16 Suppose you see one of our people commit a sin that isn't a deadly sin. You can pray, and this person will be given eternal life. But the sin must not be one that is deadly. 17 Everything that is wrong is sin, but not all sins are deadly.
18 We are sure God's children do not keep on sinning. God's own Son protects them, and the devil cannot harm them.
19 We are certain we come from God and the rest of the world is under the power of the devil.
20 We know that Jesus Christ the Son of God has come and has shown us the true God. And because of Jesus, we now belong to the true God who gives eternal life.
21 Children, you must stay away from idols.
Footnotes
- 5.6 Water and blood came out from the side of Jesus Christ. It wasn't just water, but water and blood: See John 19.34. It is also possible to translate, “Jesus Christ came by the water of baptism and by the blood of his death! He was not only baptized, but he bled and died.” The purpose of the verse is to tell that Jesus was truly human and that he really died.