Daily Reading for Personal Growth, 40 Days with God

Footnotes

1. 1 John 5:1 Or, fathered.
2. 1 John 5:1 the One having... Him. That is, the [God] having fathered [us] is loving also [the children] having been born from Him.
3. 1 John 5:1 Or, fathered.
4. 1 John 5:2 That is, with love flowing from an abiding relationship with God. In this section, John inseparably binds together love for God, love for His children, believing in His Son, and obeying His commandments. We cannot claim to have one apart from any of the others.
5. 1 John 5:5 Or, having-faith, to show the relationship to ‘faith’ in v 4.
6. 1 John 5:6 These two historical witnesses may refer to Christ’s baptism (where the Father testified) and death (where the resurrection gave the Father’s testimony); or, His birth (He came in real flesh) and His death (He died a real death); or, the blood and water that came from His side (Jn 19:34, giving testimony to His real humanity and death).
7. 1 John 5:6 Or, in-connection-with, by, with.
8. 1 John 5:6 John denies some false teaching of his day, the details of which are not certain. We know some denied that God died. They taught that the Spirit of God came on the human Jesus at His baptism and left in Gethsemane. Jesus was not God come in the flesh (4:2), and His death had no significance. Perhaps John is refuting some such teaching here.
9. 1 John 5:6 The Spirit is presently adding His testimony to the two historical witnesses because it is His nature to testify to the truth.