1 John 5:4

because everyone born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world: our faith.

Berean Standard Bible

Study note

Setting — John writes to a community under pressure from a false teacher, moving from the definition of love (v3) to the mechanism by which believers endure (v4) to the test of identity (v5).

The words — νικάω (nikaō), "to conquer," is a military term in the present tense: not a single battle won but a continuous act of holding the line.

The thread — 1 John 4:4 uses the same verb in the same context; 1 Corinthians 15:57 locates the victory in Christ; John 16:33 sets the stakes before the cross.

Why it lands — The verse does not promise ease; it claims that faith is the operative force by which the world is held at bay, and it puts the reader on one side or the other of that claim.

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

For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.

Cross-references

1 Corinthians 15:57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!
1 John 4:4 You, little children, are from God and have overcome them, because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.
John 16:33 I have told you these things so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take courage; I have overcome the world!”
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.
1 John 5:5 Who then overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
Romans 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
Revelation 3:21 To the one who overcomes, I will grant the right to sit with Me on My throne, just as I overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.
Revelation 12:11 They have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. And they did not love their lives so as to shy away from death.
Revelation 3:5 Like them, he who overcomes will be dressed in white. And I will never blot out his name from the Book of Life, but I will confess his name before My Father and His angels.
Revelation 2:11 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who overcomes will not be harmed by the second death.