And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.
Summary of our Christian privileges.
Is come, х heekei (G2240)] - is present, having come. 'HE IS HERE-all is full of Him-His incarnation, work, abiding presence, is to us a living fact' (Alford).
Given us an understanding. Christ's office is to give the spiritual understanding to discern the things of God.
That we way know. 'Aleph (') A read х ginooskomen (G1097) for ginooskoomen (G1097)], '(So) that we know.'
Him that is true - God, as opposed to every idol (1 John 5:21). Jesus, by his oneness with God, is also 'He that is true' (Revelation 3:7).
Even - `we are in the true' God, by virtue of being "in His Son Jesus Christ."
This is the true God. 'This Jesus Christ (the last-named Person) is the true God' (identifying Him with the Father in being the only true God," John 17:3).
And eternal life - predicated of the Son of God; Alford, wrongly, 'He was the life; but not eternal life.' The Father is eternal life as its source; the Son also is that eternal life manifested, as the very passage (1 John 1:2) which Alford quotes proves against him (cf. 1 John 5:11; 1 John 5:13). It is as Mediator of ETERNAL LIFE to us that Christ is here contemplated. 'The true God and eternal life is this' Jesus Christ; i:e., in believing in Him, we believe in the true God, and have eternal life. This prepares the way for warning against false gods (1 John 5:21). Jesus Christ is the only 'express image of God's person' sanctioned, the only true manifestation of God. All other representations of God are forbidden as idols. Thus the letter closes as it began (1 John 1:1-2).