Bible Strands
1 John 5:1
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father also loves those born of Him.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — John, writing to a community under doctrinal pressure, offers this as a summary marker of true belonging in the closing chapter of his first letter.
The words — πιστεύων (pisteuōn) is a present participle: "is believing," an ongoing act rather than a one-time decision. The definite article before Χριστός (Christos) makes the claim specific — not merely a messianic figure, but the Christ.
The thread — John 1:12 pairs belief in Jesus' name with the gift of becoming God's children; 1 John 2:29 ties being born of God to practicing righteousness, echoing the love-and-obedience link in the following verse (5:2).
Why it lands — The verse ties two things together that can be separated in practice: a confession about Jesus and a felt obligation toward other believers. If one is present and the other absent, the verse says the first is not genuine.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him.
Cross-references
- John 1:12 But to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God—
- John 8:42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on My own, but He sent Me.
- 1 John 2:29 If you know that He is righteous, you also know that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of Him.
- 1 John 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
- 1 Peter 1:22 Since you have purified your souls by obedience to the truth so that you have a genuine love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from a pure heart.
- 1 John 3:14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. The one who does not love remains in death.
- 1 John 5:4 because everyone born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world: our faith.
- 1 John 3:9 Anyone born of God refuses to practice sin, because God’s seed abides in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.
- Matthew 16:16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
- John 3:3 Jesus replied, “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”