TRV
Study This Verse
Public-domain commentary
Matthew Henry
From his Commentary on the Whole Bible. Henry comments on passages, not single verses — this entry covers 1 John 5:10–13. His three-level outline is real structure in the source text, so it is rendered as structure.
In those words we may observe,
I.The privilege and stability of the real Christian:
He that believeth on the Son of God, hath been prevailed with unfeignedly to cleave to him for salvation, hath the witness in himself, Jo1 5:10. He hath not only the outward evidence that others have, but he hath in his own heart a testimony for Jesus Christ. He can allege what Christ and the truth of Christ have done for his soul and what he has seen and found in him. As,
1.He has deeply seen his sin, and guilt, and misery, and his abundant need of such a Saviour.
2.He has seen the excellency, beauty, and office of the Son of God, and the incomparable suitableness of such a Saviour to all his spiritual wants and sorrowful circumstances.
3.He sees and admires the wisdom and love of God in preparing and sending such a Saviour to deliver him from sin and hell, and to raise him to pardon, peace, and communion with God.
4.He has found and felt the power of the word and doctrine of Christ, wounding, humbling, healing, quickening, and comforting his soul.
5.He finds that the revelation of Christ, as it is the greatest discovery and demonstration of the love of God, so it is the most apt and powerful means of kindling, fomenting, and inflaming love to the holy blessed God.
6.He is born of God by the truth of Christ, as Jo1 5:1. He has a new heart and nature, a new love, disposition, and delight, and is not the man that formerly he was.
7.He finds yet such a conflict with himself, with sin, with the flesh, the world, and invisible wicked powers, as is described and provided for in the doctrine of Christ.
8.He finds such prospects and such strength afforded him by the faith of Christ, that he can despise and overcome the world, and travel on towards a better.
9.He finds what interest the Mediator has in heaven, by the audiency and prevalency of those prayers that are sent thither in his name, according to his will, and through his intercession.
10.He is begotten again to a lively hope, to a holy confidence in God, in his good-will and love, to a pleasant victory over terrors of conscience, dread of death and hell, to a comfortable prospect of life and immortality, being enriched with the earnest of the Spirit and sealed to the day of redemption. Such assurance has the gospel believer; he has a witness in himself. Christ is formed in him, and he is growing up to the fulness and perfection, or perfect image of Christ, in heaven.
II.The aggravation of the unbeliever's sin, the sin of unbelief:
He that believeth not God hath made him a liar. He does, in effect, give God the lie, because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son, Jo1 5:10. He must believe that God did not send his Son into the world, when he has given us such manifold evidence that he did, or that Jesus Christ was not the Son of God, when all that evidence relates to and terminates upon him, or that he sent his Son to deceive the world and to lead it into error and misery, or that he permits men to devise a religion which, in all the parts of it, is a pure, holy, heavenly, undefiled institution, and so worthy to be embraced by the reason of mankind, and yet is but a delusion and a lie, and then lends them his Spirit and power to recommend and obtrude it upon the world, which is to make God the Father, the author and abettor, of the lie.
III.The matter, the substance, or contents of all this divine testimony concerning Jesus Christ:
And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son, Jo1 5:11. This is the sum of the gospel. This is the sum and epitome of the whole record given us by all the aforesaid six witnesses.
1.That God hath given to us eternal life. He has designed it for us in his eternal purpose. He has prepared all the means that are necessary to bring us to it. He has made it over to us by his covenant and promise. And he actually confers a right and title thereto on all who believe on and actually embrace the Son of God. Then,
2.This life is in the Son. The Son is life; eternal life in his own essence and person, Joh 1:4; Jo1 1:2. He is eternal life to us, the spring of our spiritual and glorious life, Col 3:4. From him life is communicated to us, both here in heaven. And thereupon it must follow,
(1.)He that hath the Son hath life, Jo1 5:12. He that is united to the Son is united to life. He who hath a title to the Son hath a title to life, to eternal life. Such honour hath the Father put upon the Son: such honour must we put upon him too. We must come and kiss the Son, and we shall have life.
(2.)He that hath not the Son of God hath not life, Jo1 5:12. He continues under the condemnation of the law (Joh 3:36); he refuses the Son, who is life itself, who is the procurer of life, and the way to it; he provokes God to deliver him over to endless death for making him a liar, since he believes not this record that God hath given concerning his Son.
IV.The end and reason of the apostle's preaching this to believers.
1.For their satisfaction and comfort: These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, Jo1 5:13. Upon all this evidence, and these witnesses, it is but just and meet that there should be those who believe on the name of the Son of God. God increase their number! How much testimony from heaven has the world to answer for! And to three witnesses in heaven must the world be accountable. These believers have eternal life. They have it in the covenant of the gospel, in the beginning and first-fruits of it within them, and in their Lord and head in heaven. These believers may come to know that they have eternal life, and should be quickened, encouraged, and comforted, in the prospect of it: and they should value the scriptures, which are so much written for their consolation and salvation.
2.For their confirmation and progress in their holy faith: And that you may believe on the name of the Son of God (Jo1 5:13), may go on believing. Believers must persevere, or they do nothing. To withdraw from believing on the name of the Son of God is to renounce eternal life, and draw back unto perdition. Therefore the evidences of religion and the advantage of faith are to be presented to believers, in order to hearten and encourage them to persevere to the end.
Historical interpretation
Five Centuries of Reception
5 surviving comments on this verse. Each one is dated, so this reads as a timeline rather than a list.
Select a marker to jump to its quote. Markers stagger vertically where authors wrote within a few decades of each other.
God can never turn himself into a liar, because he is the essence of truth. But an unbelieving man is a liar, because he does not believe in the truth of God.
After giving us one testimony about his Son, God gave us another, which is eternal life.
Whoever does not believe in the Son makes him a liar, etc. In vain the Jews and heretics think they believe in and venerate the Father, as long as they despise Christ and refuse to believe in him. For he who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Those who do not believe in the Son, who says "I and the Father are one" (John 10), and when Caiaphas asked, "Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?" (Mark 14), he replied: "I am" (ibid.); but they argue that he is either not the Christ, or not the Son of God, or not similar to the Father, they certainly make the Father a liar, because they do not believe the testimony he has testified about his Son: namely, in what I mentioned before: "You are my beloved Son, in you I am well pleased" (Luke 3); and even in what he testified when the hour of passion was imminent, while he was praying and saying: "Father, save me from this hour, but for this cause I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name" (John 12), he responded, even the crowd hearing from heaven, "I have both glorified it and will glorify it again" (ibid.), truly signifying himself as God the Father in the heavens of him who, as a true man, was about to suffer death on earth.
He who believes in the Son of God has the testimony of God in himself. He who thus believes in the Son of God, so as to practice in work what he believes, has the testimony of God in himself. Surely this is because he also may rightly be counted among the number of the sons of God, as the only Son of God promises to his faithful: "If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him" (John 12). If you have deserved to have the testimony of God, if you possess God as a witness of your unblemished faith, what does the infamy of men, what does even persecution harm you? For if God is for us, who can be against us?
If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater: for this is the testimony of God, which he has testified of his Son. He who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. He who does not believe God has made him a liar, because he does not believe the testimony that God has given of his Son. And this is the testimony, that God has given us eternal life: and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
Having said these things, he adds a persuasion of the things that are said, by a lesser argument, saying: If we receive the testimony of men about any common matter, ought we not to receive the testimony from God who is greater? Indeed, is not this testimony about His Son or Christ from God? Therefore, whoever believes in the Son of God, that He is God as the Son of God, has testimony in himself, that is, in himself, believing that he too has been adopted by God through Jesus, the adopted one. Whoever does not believe the truth is subject to two evils, namely disbelief, making God a liar: and furthermore depriving himself of adoption, and thus also of eternal life, which Christ has promised to those who would be adopted by Him: which he also has in himself as it is written in the Gospel: "In Him was life." (Jn. 1:4)
Therefore, whoever has the Son through holy baptism has life. For as many as we have been baptized into Christ, we have also, according to His command, put on Christ. But whoever does not have the Son of God through baptism does not have life, but is dead. For indeed, receiving the dead through sins, He awakens them through holy baptism. (Rom. 6:4) How? As it has often been said, that having been buried with Christ through the immersion that takes place in baptism, he is dead to the world (Gal. 6:14; Col. 2:20), or to worldly desires, and now lives not for himself, but for Christ (Gal. 2:20), walking according to His commandments in newness of life (Rom. 6:4), and no longer giving sin an opportunity to enter covertly.
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Summary
First John 5:10 powerfully articulates the profound implications of one's response to the divine testimony concerning Jesus Christ. It declares that those who believe in Jesus as the Son of God possess an internal, Spirit-empowered witness confirming this truth, while those who reject God's record concerning His Son effectively accuse the truthful God of falsehood, demonstrating the grave spiritual consequences of unbelief.
Context
Literary Context
This verse is situated within the concluding section of John's first epistle, specifically following a profound discussion on the "witness" or "testimony" concerning Jesus Christ. In 1 John 5:6-9, John meticulously details the three witnesses—the Spirit, the water, and the blood—all of which testify to Jesus's true identity as the Son of God. He then emphasizes that if human testimony is accepted, God's testimony, being greater, must surely be received. Verse 10 serves as the direct consequence and summation of this argument, contrasting the believer's reception of this testimony with the unbeliever's rejection, thereby highlighting the critical importance of accepting God's self-revelation in Christ. The flow moves from the objective reality of God's witness to its subjective reception (or rejection) by humanity.
Historical & Cultural Context
John's epistle was written to a community facing internal strife and external pressures, particularly from proto-Gnostic teachings that denied the full humanity or divinity of Jesus. These false teachers often claimed a superior, secret knowledge and denied the reality of Jesus's incarnation and sacrificial death. In this context, John's repeated emphasis on "witness" (μαρτυρία, martyría') and "truth" (ἀλήθεια, alētheia') is crucial. The concept of "witness" was deeply rooted in both Jewish legal tradition (Deuteronomy 19:15, where two or three witnesses establish a fact) and Roman legal practice. John leverages this understanding to underscore the irrefutable nature of God's testimony concerning His Son, presenting it as a divinely established, legally binding truth that demands a response. The cultural backdrop of a community grappling with competing claims about Jesus's identity makes John's clear declaration of God's witness all the more vital.
Key Themes
First John 5:10 contributes significantly to several overarching themes in the epistle. Firstly, it reinforces the theme of Assurance of Salvation, providing a tangible mark of true faith: the internal witness of the Spirit. This assurance is not based on feelings but on the objective truth of God's testimony and its subjective reception. Secondly, it underscores the Centrality of Jesus's Identity as the Son of God, a foundational truth that John consistently defends against heretical teachings (e.g., 1 John 4:2-3). Belief in His divine Sonship is presented as the very essence of saving faith. Thirdly, the verse highlights the Gravity of Unbelief, portraying it not merely as a lack of knowledge but as a direct affront to God's character. To disbelieve God's record is to call God a liar, revealing the profound spiritual danger of rejecting divine truth. This aligns with John's broader emphasis on the stark division between light and darkness, truth and falsehood, belief and unbelief, which permeates the entire epistle and his Gospel (e.g., John 3:18-19).
Exposition and Analysis
Key Word Analysis
From the root pistis (faith), this verb signifies more than mere intellectual assent. It denotes a profound trust, reliance, and commitment to a person or thing. In this context, it is the act of entrusting one's spiritual well-being to the Son of God, accepting His identity and the truth of God's testimony concerning Him. It implies a full surrender and embrace of the reality God has revealed.
This noun carries a rich dual meaning. It refers to objective "evidence" or "testimony" given, often in a judicial sense, establishing a fact (the "record that God gave"). Simultaneously, for the believer, it signifies the subjective "witness" or personal assurance that results from receiving and internalizing that divine testimony. John uses the same word to underscore both the external divine declaration and its internal reception by faith.
Derived from a verb meaning "to falsify," this strong and condemnatory term denotes one who is a deceiver or speaks falsehoods. John uses it here to convey the severe consequence of rejecting God's testimony: it is tantamount to accusing God Himself of being untruthful, thereby impugning His very character and integrity. It highlights the ultimate seriousness of unbelief as a direct assault on divine veracity.
Verse Breakdown
"He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself:"
This clause describes the blessed state of the true believer. To "believe on the Son of God" means to place one's complete trust and faith in Jesus Christ, acknowledging His divine nature and redemptive work. The result is an "internal witness"—a profound, Spirit-given conviction and assurance within the believer's own spirit that confirms the truth of Jesus's identity and their salvation. This is not a subjective feeling without basis, but an internal confirmation of an objective reality.
"he that believeth not God hath made him a liar;"
This presents the stark antithesis. To "believe not God" means to reject the divine testimony concerning His Son. John uses incredibly strong language here: such unbelief is not merely a disagreement or a lack of understanding, but an act that effectively "makes God a liar." It is a direct assault on God's character, impugning His truthfulness and integrity, which are foundational to His very being.
"because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son."
This final clause provides the reason for the severe indictment. The unbeliever's rejection of God is specifically tied to their refusal to accept "the record (or testimony) that God gave of his Son." This "record" encompasses all of God's revelation concerning Jesus—His incarnation, life, miracles, death, resurrection, and ascension—all of which collectively testify to His divine Sonship and saving power. The failure to believe this divinely attested truth is what constitutes the act of calling God a liar.
Literary Devices
First John 5:10 employs several powerful literary devices. Contrast is the most prominent, setting up a stark dichotomy between the believer and the unbeliever, and their respective relationships with God's truth. This contrast is reinforced by the parallel structure of the two halves of the verse. Personification is evident in the phrase "hath made him a liar," where God, who is inherently truthful, is depicted as being treated as if He were a liar by the unbeliever's actions. This is a powerful rhetorical device to emphasize the gravity of unbelief. Furthermore, Repetition of key terms like "believeth" and "witness/record" (μαρτυρία) serves to underscore the central themes and reinforce the epistle's core message about the nature of faith and the certainty of God's truth.
Theological and Thematic Connections
This verse profoundly impacts our understanding of the nature of faith, the character of God, and the assurance of salvation. It establishes that genuine faith is not a blind leap but a response to God's clear, objective testimony concerning His Son, which is then confirmed by an internal, subjective witness of the Holy Spirit. To reject this testimony is to fundamentally misunderstand and impugn the very nature of God, who is truth itself. The theological implication is that belief in Jesus is not optional for salvation; it is the essential response to God's ultimate self-revelation, and unbelief is a direct affront to divine veracity, leading to condemnation.
Reflection and Application
First John 5:10 offers both profound comfort and a sobering challenge. For the believer, it provides immense assurance: our faith is not built on shifting sands of emotion or human opinion, but on the unshakeable "record" that God Himself has given concerning His Son. This divine testimony is not merely an external fact, but it is internally affirmed by the Holy Spirit, providing a deep, personal "witness in himself." This should bolster our confidence in our salvation, our identity in Christ, and the reliability of God's Word. It calls us to rest in this divine certainty and to live from a place of assured sonship. For those who may struggle with doubt or are contemplating faith, this verse underscores the ultimate source of truth: God's own revelation in Jesus. It challenges us to consider the profound implications of rejecting what God has so clearly and powerfully stated about His Son. To disbelieve is to reject God's truth and impugn His character, while to believe is to embrace His divine witness and receive eternal life.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
What does it mean to "have the witness in himself"?
To "have the witness in himself" means that a person who believes in Jesus as the Son of God experiences an internal, spiritual confirmation of this truth. This is not merely an intellectual understanding but a deep, personal conviction and assurance, primarily imparted by the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, as described in Romans 8:16. This internal witness is the subjective experience of the objective truth of God's testimony concerning His Son.
Why is it such a serious offense to "make God a liar"?
It is a serious offense because God is by nature truth itself; He cannot lie (Titus 1:2). To "make God a liar" means to reject His explicit testimony about Jesus Christ, thereby accusing Him of falsehood. This directly challenges His integrity, veracity, and omniscient character. It implies that God is either mistaken or deliberately deceptive, which is blasphemous and fundamentally distorts who God is. John emphasizes this to highlight the profound spiritual gravity of unbelief, which is not merely a neutral position but an active rejection of divine truth.
Christ-Centered Fulfillment
First John 5:10 finds its Christ-centered fulfillment in Jesus Himself being the ultimate embodiment and object of God's testimony. The "record that God gave of his Son" is not just a set of facts, but the very person of Jesus Christ, through whom God has fully revealed Himself. Jesus consistently bore witness to His own divine Sonship and mission, declaring, "I am the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6). His life, miracles, death, and resurrection are the tangible manifestations of God's "record," culminating in the Father's own voice from heaven affirming, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:17). The "witness in himself" that believers possess is the indwelling Holy Spirit, whom Christ sent to testify of Him (John 15:26). Thus, the entire verse points to Jesus as the one in whom God's truth is perfectly displayed, and through whom the Spirit confirms that truth in the hearts of those who believe, assuring them of their eternal life in Him (1 John 5:11-12).