Commentary on 1 John 5:1-6

Janette H. Ok

Sometimes I wonder if the author of 1 John ever had any children when he makes the generalization, “Everyone who loves the parent loves the child” (1 John 5:1). As a mother of three, I find it entirely possible that a child could love a parent without loving his or her siblings. Even when siblings are close and feel deep bonds of affection, they may still fight and experience conflict and rivalry. What is the basis for and extent of our commitment to fellow Christians who are not our blood relatives but whom we are to regard as brothers and sisters?

In 1 John 5:1a, the author returns to the topics of being begotten (gennaō) of God (2:29; 3:9; 4:7) and believing in Jesus’ identity as the Christ (3:23; 4:9–10, 14–16; see also 2:22) but makes a much closer connection between them. Belief that Jesus is the Christ confirms that one has been born of God. In 5:1b, he reverses the logic of the preceding chapter that our love for fellow believers confirms our love for God (4:7–21) when he explains that our love for God confirms our love for fellow believers. The author’s emphasis on faith is evident by the fact that he uses the verb “to believe” (pisteuō) six times in chapter 5 (verses 1, 5, 10 [3 times], and 13).

We know when people are children of God by the way they entrust themselves to Jesus as the Christ and love God’s other children. Our belief that Jesus is the Christ joins us inextricably with those who share the same christological convictions and entrust themselves to Jesus. Thus, what binds and unifies believers is our shared confession, not our shared affection.

Our shared love for God forges us into a cruciform fellowship (1:3, 6–7) that affirms the spiritual impact and also the human, physical, and fleshly reality of Christ’s death and resurrection (1:7–9; 2:22; 4:2, 9–10; 15; 5:13). This means that our love for fellow believers does not depend on our natural affinities, racial-ethnic background, cultural heritage, shared histories, interests, political views, or bonds of affection, but is based on our status as children of God.

The author does not assume that children of God instinctively know how to love God and fellow believers. He is aware that we are capable of inflicting harm and pain on each other (3:12). So, in 1 John 5:2–3, he assures us that we can know that we love God and his children through our obedience to God’s commandments (3:23; 4:21).

Although he does not specify which commandments (entolai) we are to obey, he may have John 14:15 in mind (“If you love me, you will keep my commandments”) and the Shema of Deuteronomy 6:5 (“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might”). In 1 John 3:23, he associates God’s “commandment” in the singular with belief in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love for one another (see also 4:21).

Obedience in the form of commandment-keeping or, more specifically, loving fellow children of God communicates and confirms our love for God. Although our status as God’s children remains secure because of God’s prior and perfect love for us (4:10, 19), the practice of loving others demands a dogged commitment. We are to care for our brothers and sisters in need (3:17–18) and remain firm in our genuine faith in Jesus Christ without being led astray (2:19; 3:7; 4:1–3). First John, however, reassures us that “[God’s] commandments are not burdensome” (5:3), evoking Jesus’ words in Matthew 11:30: “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Freedom from the onerous weight of sin makes obedience light by comparison. Christ sets us free from the burden of our sins. This means we are set free to love others rightly as defined by God in Christ.¹ We are set free to give God pleasure, and when we make it our aim to please God, we do what God loves (3:22).

The 1981 film “Chariots of Fire” has a famous line that I think helps convey a critical motivation the author of 1 John seeks to offer his readers. Eric Liddell, the Scottish 1924 Olympic runner, explains that while God created and called him to be a missionary to China, God also made him to be a runner. His most famous line in the movie is this: “When I run, I feel his pleasure. To give it up would be to hold him in contempt … to win is to honor him.” I offer my paraphrase that relates to our passage: “When I love, I feel God’s pleasure. To give up on loving others would be to hold God in contempt … to love is to honor God.”

Jesus, the Son of God, has already destroyed the “works of the devil” that keep us in an oppressive cycle of sin (1 John 3:8). In 1 John 5:4, the author connects being born of God with overcoming (nikaō). Although the language of overcoming “the evil one” occurs in 2:13–14 as a characteristic of “young men” and in 4:4 in reference to overcoming false teachers, here the author refers to the victory of all believers over “the world.”

When 1 John uses the language of “the world,” which he repeats three times in 5:4–5, he is not speaking generally of the physical universe or the people around us, but rather of what can be described as “an entire network of Powers” that “have become integrated around idolatrous values” and “have betrayed their divine vocations.”²

Belief in Jesus as the Christ (5:1) and the Son of God (5:5) must not be reduced to intellectual consent to christological ideas and verbal confessions of the creeds. Faith has power. Faith confirms our identity as God’s children and forges our familial bonds. Faith enables us to love one another and prevail over the forces that defy God and distort God’s love. It is through our commitment to our shared faith and love for one another that we love the parent and give God pleasure.