(Tap footnote to read it. Old Testament quotations are underlined. "Love" with a caret ("^love") is agapé.1"agapé" The Greek words ἀγάπη (agapé, noun), and ἀγαπάω (agapaó; verb) are typically translated "love". However, unlike our English word "love" – which primarily speaks of affection and feelings – agapé centers on choice and behavior. It’s the "love" based on will, choice, behavior, and action; not feelings. (Feelings-based love is the Greek word φιλέω (phileó), which properly means "brotherly love/affection".) Thus, you could hate someone passionately and still treat him with "agapé". Agapé "love" is best understood as the pursuit of what is most beneficial to someone or something, regardless of the cost to yourself or the type of response received from the person or thing. It can also indicate a preference for someone or something over other things. )
Belief, Obedience, and Testimony
- Every man believing that Jesus is the Anointed has been born from God. And every man ^loving the One who fathered Him also ^loves the man who has been born from Him.
- By this we know that we ^love the children of God, when we ^love God and keep His commandments.
- For this is the ^love of God, that we keep His commandments, and His commandments aren’t burdensome,
- because everything *born from God overcomes the world. And this is the victory which overcame the world: our faith.
- And who is the man overcoming the world except the man believing that Jesus is the Son of God?
- This is the One who came through water and blood, Jesus the Anointed; not by water only, but by the water and by the blood. And the Spirit is the One testifying because the Spirit is the truth.
- For there are three testifying [in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one.
- And there are three testifying on earth:]1This textual variant commonly called the “Johannine Comma”, which is one of the most significant textual variants in scripture. It’s absent from nearly all Greek manuscripts, but present in nearly all Latin ones. It was cited as scripture in the early 200s by Cyprian, and possibly earlier by Tertullian, though the latter’s allusion is more vague. Jerome (347-420 AD) specifically mentions this as a passage which was removed by “unfaithful translators” (likely a reference to the Arians, who control much of the Greek-speaking church for a time). There is a strong grammatical argument for its inclusion as well, as omitting it causes a major grammatical error that even children likely wouldn’t make, much less a brilliant author like John. Gregory of Nazanzius (329-390 AD) made this same grammatical argument. However, the modern scholarly consensus is that this wasn’t original to John based on the paucity of Greek manuscripts which contain it. The debate is ongoing. the Spirit, and the water, and the blood; and these three are in one accord.
- If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, because this is the testimony of God that He has testified concerning His Son.
- The man believing in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. The man not believing God has made Him a liar because he hasn’t believed in the testimony that God has testified concerning His Son.
- And the testimony is this: that God gave the life of ages to us, and this life is in His Son.
- The man having the Son has the life. The man not having the Son of God doesn’t have the life.
- I wrote these things to you – the men believing in the name of the Son of God – so you might *know that you have the life of ages [and so you might believe in the name of the Son of God].
- And this is the confidence that we have towards Him, that if we ask something according to His will, He hears us.
- And if we *know that He hears us if2“if” many translations leave out the Greek conjunction “ἐὰν” (ean, which is roughly equivalent to the English word “if”) here due to the difficultly of translating the Greek grammar here into English Literally in Greek it is: “And if we have known that He hears us whatever if we might ask…”. we ask whatever we ask, then we *know that we have the requests that we have asked from Him.
Final Instruction
- If someone sees his brother sinning a sin that doesn’t lead to death, he shall ask and He will give life to him, to the men sinning a sin not leading to death. There is sin that leads to death; I don’t say that he should ask concerning that sin.
- All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin that doesn’t lead to death.
- We *know that every man who has been born from God doesn’t continually sin, but the One who was born from God keeps him, and the evil one doesn’t touch him.
- We *know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the evil one’s power.
- And we *know that the Son of God is present and has given us understanding so we might know Him who is true, and we are in the true One, in His Son Jesus the Anointed. He is the true God and the life of ages.
- Little children, guard yourselves from idols. [Amen]
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