1 John 5:1 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Whosoever, &c. The apostle having discoursed in the preceding Chapter s, on the privileges of the children of God, now adds a further illustration of the great essential parts of their character, in order that those to whom he wrote might be enabled to form a more accurate judgment of their own concern in the matters spoken of. And the scope and sum of the whole first paragraph appears from the conclusion of it, 1 John 5:13. These things have I written to you who believe, &c. Whosoever believeth Namely, with a living faith, a faith of the divine operation; that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ The true Messiah, the Son of God, so as to be ready to confess this, even when the confession of it might expose him to imprisonment and martyrdom; is born of God Is a child of God, not only by adoption, but by regeneration; he is renewed, in a measure at least, after the divine image, and made a partaker of the divine nature. See on John 3:6. And every one that loveth him that begat That is, God, who begat him again by the influence of his word and Spirit, 1 Peter 1:23; Titus 3:5; loveth him also that is begotten of him Hath a natural affection to all the children of his heavenly Father, whom he views as his brethren and sisters in Christ, and as joint heirs with him of the heavenly inheritance. By this we know This is a plain proof; that we love the children of God Namely, as his children, in that we love God, and keep his commandments In the first place, and then love his children for his sake. “Grotius, to render the apostle's reasoning clear, thinks the original should be construed and translated in the following manner: By this we know that we love God, when we love the children of God, and keep his commandments. But not to mention that this construction is forced, it represents the apostle as giving a mark by which we know when we love God; whereas his intention is to show how we may know that we love the children of God in a right manner. Now this was necessary to be showed, since men may love the children of God because they are their relations, or because they are engaged in the same pursuits with themselves, or because they are mutually united by some common bond of friendship. But love, proceeding from these considerations, is not the love of the children of God which he requireth. By what mark, then, can we know that our love to the children of God is of the right sort? Why, saith the apostle, by this we may know that we love the children of God in a right manner, when we love God, and, from that excellent principle, keep his commandments, especially his commandment to love his children, because they bear his image. True Christian love, therefore, is that which proceeds from love to God, from a regard to his will, and which leadeth us to obey all his commandments?” Macknight. For this is the love of God The only sure proof of it; that we keep his commandments That we conscientiously and carefully shun whatever we know he hath forbidden, and that we do whatever he has enjoined; and his commandments are not grievous To any that are born of God; for, as they are all most equitable, reasonable, and gracious in themselves, and all calculated to promote our happiness in time and in eternity, so fervent love to him whose commandments they are, and to his children, whom we desire to edify by a holy example, will make them pleasant and delightful to us. For Whereas the great obstruction to the keeping of God's commandments is the influence of worldly motives and considerations on men's minds; whatsoever An expression which implies the most unlimited universality, (the word used by the apostle being παν, the neuter gender, to comprehend all sorts of persons, males and females, old and young, Jews and Gentiles, freemen and slaves,) is born of God, overcometh the world Conquers whatever it can lay in the way, either to allure or fright the children of God from the line of duty to God, their fellow-creatures, or themselves, or from keeping his commandments. And this is the victory that overcometh the world The grand means of overcoming it; even our faith The faith which is the evidence of things not seen, and the subsistence, or anticipation, of things hoped for; a full persuasion especially, 1st, That Christ is the Son of God, (1 John 5:5,) and consequently that all his doctrines, precepts, promises, and threatenings, are indisputably true, and infinitely important; 2d, That there is another life after this awaiting us, wherein we shall be either happy or miserable beyond conception, and for ever; 3d, That Christ has overcome the world for us, (John 16:33,) and hath obtained grace for us to enable us to overcome it; and that we have an interest by faith in all he hath done, suffered, or procured for us. “The power of faith, in enabling men to overcome the temptations laid in their way by the things of the world, and by worldly and carnal men, is finely illustrated by examples. (Hebrews 11.,) which show that before the coming of Christ the children of God, by believing the things which he discovered to them, whether by the light of natural reason or by particular revelations, resisted the greatest temptations, sustained the bitterest sufferings, and performed the most difficult acts of obedience, and thereby obtained a great and lasting fame. But now that Christ hath come, and made the gospel revelation in person and by his apostles, the faith of the children of God, by which they overcome the world, hath for its object all the doctrines and promises contained in that revelation, and particularly the great doctrine which is the foundation of all the rest, namely, that Jesus is the Son of God, and Saviour of the world, as the apostle observes in the following verse.”