Beyond Understanding

¹ Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born from God. Whoever loves someone who is a parent loves the child born to the parent. ² This is how we know that we love the children of God: when we love God and keep God’s commandments. ³ This is the love of God: we keep God’s commandments. God’s commandments are not difficult, ⁴ because everyone who is born from God defeats the world. And this is the victory that has defeated the world: our faith. ⁵ Who defeats the world? Isn’t it the one who believes that Jesus is God’s Son? ⁶ This is the one who came by water and blood: Jesus Christ. Not by water only but by water and blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. ⁷ The three are testifying ⁸ the Spirit, the water, and the blood—and the three are united in agreement. ⁹ If we receive human testimony, God’s testimony is greater, because this is what God testified: he has testified about his Son. ¹⁰ The one who believes in God’s Son has the testimony within; the one who doesn’t believe God has made God a liar, because that one has not believed the testimony that God gave about his Son. ¹¹ And this is the testimony: God gave eternal life to us, and this life is in his Son. ¹² The one who has the Son has life. The one who doesn’t have God’s Son does not have life. ¹³ I write these things to you who believe in the name of God’s Son so that you can know that you have eternal life. ¹⁴ This is the confidence that we have in our relationship with God: If we ask for anything in agreement with his will, he listens to us.