And we know that the Son of God is come. And he hath given us understanding that we may know the true God and may be in his true Son. This is the true God and life eternal.
οιδαμεν δε οτι ο υιος του θεου ηκει και δεδωκεν ημιν διανοιαν ινα γινωσκωμεν τον αληθινον και εσμεν εν τω αληθινω εν τω υιω αυτου ιησου χριστω ουτος εστιν ο αληθινος θεος και ζωη αιωνιος η ζωη η αιωνιος
12 Church Fathers comment on this verse
Since the Son of God has come and given us understanding to know Him, the true God, and to abide in Him, His true Son, Jesus Christ, through this great gift we have learned that He is the true God and eternal life. Having known this, we remain untempted by the evil one and his stumbling blocks.
What will the heretics who love to cavil say again against these unlying and exact words of the saint?
If the Son is true God, then He is such essentially, and not by grace, as are created beings.
But if, in their opinion, God by nature was created, then there is nothing at all exceptional in the Father, even if He is called God by nature.
For once something is made or created, then even if it has not yet appeared as made, it cannot in any way escape the cause of being made, since to be made belongs to it by nature.
So it would already be time for them to "honor" the Father Himself with the name "created."
But the divine and unmixed nature does not admit the application to it of the concept "createdness." And the Son is this, that is, the divine nature.
Therefore He is not made, but rather uncreated (ouk ara poietos, agenetos de mallon), since by nature He is true God and eternal life.
That the Son is true God is what John himself says in the Epistle: that we may know the true God and be in His true Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.
The Apostle did not stop until he had utterly destroyed the doctrine of the wicked. He secures for us such safety by giving the understanding through which the true Son of God who has come is known. Or it means precisely that we have the mind of Christ (1 Cor 2:16). The one who has such understanding and such a mind knows Him who is true by essence and is united to Him.
What is clearer than these words? What is sweeter, or more powerful in overthrowing every heresy? Christ is the true Son of God, and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the true God. The eternal Son of God came into the world in time, dwelt in the world, and through Him the world came to be (cf. Jn 1:10). There is no other reason for which He came except our salvation, namely, to give us understanding to know the true God. For no one comes to life without the knowledge of God. John repeats again and again that He is the true God.
The Apostle continues to unfold the truth that we are of God, and repeats the chief content of his epistle. This is the testimony that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the promised Savior of the world.
"We know also that the Son of God has come." The Apostle says that we know without doubt that the Son of God has come. That is, He assumed our humanity, lived on earth, and by His sufferings and death on the Cross accomplished the redemption of men.
John bore witness to this at the beginning of his epistle, saying: "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon, and which our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life, we proclaim to you" (1 Jn 1:1-3).
The Theologian testifies to the coming to earth of the hypostatic Word, Jesus Christ. He testifies to His dwelling on earth and to His redeeming work as an eyewitness. He had close and visible communion with Jesus Christ, the Son of God, from the beginning of His public ministry for the salvation of men until His death on the Cross and His ascension into heaven.
"And He has given us light and understanding, that we may know the true God." Light and understanding are true knowledge of God, of His works, and of our relation to Him. Jesus Christ taught the true knowledge of the one true God. His chosen disciples, the Apostles, instructed by Him, carried this knowledge to all the ends of the universe. The Apostle to the nations, Saint Paul, testified to this: "Their voice has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the universe" (Rom 10:18).
The Lord Himself testified concerning Himself: "I am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life" (Jn 8:12). "I have come as light into the world, that whoever believes in Me may not remain in darkness" (Jn 12:46).
"That we may know the true God." The knowledge of the true God, glorified in three Persons, was brought by Jesus Christ and preached by the Apostles throughout the whole world. It dispersed the darkness of pagan ignorance and idolatry, which before the appearing of Jesus Christ on earth had ruled throughout the whole world, except among the Jewish people.
By the word know, the Apostle here expresses not only intellectual knowledge. He means knowledge joined with love and activity, or both knowledge and true worship of God. In this sense the Lord also said: "This is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent" (Jn 17:3).
"And that we may be in His true Son, Jesus Christ." Jesus Christ is the true only-begotten Son of God by essence, as true God, inseparable from the Father and the Holy Spirit. He is not a son of God in the way holy angels and grace-filled men are called sons of God by adoption, through the action of the Holy Spirit.
The Son of God, Jesus Christ, revealed the true knowledge of the one true God, worshiped in three Persons. At the same time He revealed that "God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life" (Jn 3:16). He revealed that "he who believes in the Son has eternal life; he who does not believe in the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him" (Jn 3:36).
The Lord also says: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me" (Jn 14:6). In agreement with this teaching of the Lord and Savior Himself, the Apostle's words, "that we may be in His true Son, Jesus Christ," mean the same as saying: that we may believe in His true Son, Jesus Christ. So the Theologian himself wrote above: "This is His commandment, that we should believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He commanded us. And he who keeps His commandments abides in Him" (1 Jn 3:23-24).
The one who believes in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and keeps His commandments, abides in Him. By faith and love he is united with Him, as was said above (see 1 Jn 3:19 and following). Abiding in Him, he has true life.
"This is the true God and eternal life." Once again the holy Theologian repeats the great truth that forms the chief subject of his whole epistle. Jesus Christ is the Son of God, true God and Savior of the world, the author of our true life.
"True God" means that Jesus Christ is true God, consubstantial with the Father, equal to Him in power, authority, and glory, eternal, all-perfect, and all-blessed.
"And eternal life." As true God, Jesus Christ is eternal life in Himself. He has neither beginning nor end, and is all-sufficient and all-blessed. But as Savior of the world, He is the author of eternal life for all who believe in Him.
Jesus Christ Himself, in His prayer to the Father, depicts this truth in this way: "When Jesus had spoken these words, He lifted up His eyes to heaven and said: Father, the hour has come; glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee. Thou hast given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to all whom Thou hast given Him. And this is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent" (Jn 17:1-3).
The guilt of these people before God is all the worse, because it is so evident that the Son of God came into the world, became man, and lived among men. He taught them every righteousness and truth, and above all that we may know the one true God and abide in His true Son, Jesus Christ. He is the true God and the life-giving source of our immortality and of the eternal blessings of heaven.
The purpose of the coming of the Son of God is that we may know the true God, and through this be in His true Son, Jesus Christ. This is contrary to the false teaching of the heretics, who boasted of knowing God while denying the coming of the Son of God. "This is the true God and eternal life" is the chief subject of the Epistle and the most important truth of the Christian faith: the Godhead of Jesus Christ, which the heretics denied.
"We know" also (v. 20), from all that has been set forth above, that the Son of God came into the world (1 Jn 5:6-13). He gave us, who were darkened and sitting in darkness and the shadow of death, light and understanding.
He gave true knowledge of God, of His works, and of our relation to Him, so that we may know the true God, God the Father (Jn 17:3 and note), and may be, or abide (1 Jn 3:6 and parallels), in His true Son (1 Jn 5:6; Jn 14:6 and note and parallels), Jesus Christ.
This One, that is, Jesus Christ, born of the Virgin, is true God according to His essence. He has self-existent and eternal life in Himself (1 Jn 1:1-2; Jn 1:4; 10:11; 14:6 and note).
The sinfulness of the world and the relation of sin to regeneration (1 Jn 5:18-21). "We know that whoever is born of God does not sin," that is, mortally. We know "that the whole world lies in evil," filled with vices and vile passions. We also know that "the Son of God has come and has given us light and understanding" (1 Jn 5:20). That is, He has given us true knowledge, so that we may keep ourselves from everything inconsistent with the holiness of our sonship before God in His Son, Jesus Christ.
Christians have not only been raised from moral mire and every kind of wickedness. They have also been cleansed and enlightened, and destined for the fullest possible knowledge of God and the closest communion with the Son of God.
All this has been given to them through the Son of God who came to earth. Is it not evident from this that He is true God, and that only in Him and through Him is eternal life attainable?
In verse 20 the Apostle John, in few but supremely lofty and powerful words, sets forth the whole essential teaching about God the Word. Its equal can be indicated only at the beginning of his Gospel.
He sets forth this teaching not merely as his personal teaching, but as one commonly known to Christians. By this he forcefully rejects every possible false doctrine about Christ.
This includes the false doctrines of the heretics contemporary with him, the Ebionites and Docetists, and all later heretics. It reaches down to modern deniers of the divine dignity of Jesus Christ, who reduce Him to the rank of merely great men.
In conclusion (5:18-21), the Apostle briefly sets forth the chief thoughts of the Epistle. He says that one born of God does not sin, because he keeps himself, and the evil one does not touch him. Christians are of God, while the world, that is, unbelievers, lies in evil. The Son of God, who came to earth, gave us light and understanding for the true knowledge of God and for receiving eternal life, that is, salvation. All this should move Christians to keep themselves from idols, meaning from idolatry and godlessness in general, as a state opposed to the true faith.
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 35 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS