What Does 1 John 5:1 Mean?
Everyone who leans their weight on Jesus as the Anointed One has been born of God, and everyone who loves the one who brought forth loves also the one who has been born of him.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him.THE KEY
The same Greek verb names God as the begetter and the believer as begotten, so love for the source reaches the one who comes from that source.
THE MEANING
Trusting that Jesus is the Anointed One marks a life as born from God. Love for the one who gives that life extends to the one born from that same source; the verse binds trust, origin, and kinship together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the claim that love for God can remain whole while contempt is held toward someone born of God.
THE ROOT
γεγέννηται
gegennētai
GROWS FROM
γενν-
genn-
Beget, bring forth, give birth.
“has been born of God” in this verse is gegennētai. The verse repeats this root in “has been born,” “the one who begot,” and “the one begotten.” The Greek holds source and offspring in one word family, making the verse’s movement from love for God to love for God’s child a matter of shared origin.
ALSO GROWS
gennēsanta: the one who begot
γεννήσαντα
This form names the source whose love is joined to love for the one born from that source.
gegenēmenon: the one who has been begotten
γεγεννημένον
This form names the child of that source, carrying the same birth-root as “has been born.”
gennaō: to beget, bring forth, give birth
γεννάω
The lexical form gathers the verse’s active and passive forms into one family of giving and receiving life.
πιστεύων
pisteuōn
GROWS FROM
πιστ-
pist-
Trust, reliance.
“leans their weight on” in this verse is pisteuōn. The word carries the sense of trust: leaning one’s weight on what is recognized. Here that trust rests on Jesus as the Anointed One and is joined to birth from God, so it is more than detached agreement.
ALSO GROWS
pistis: trust, reliance
πίστις
This noun shares the πιστ- consonants and names the trust at the heart of the verse.
pistos: trustworthy, reliable
πιστός
This related form shows the family’s connection between trusting and what can be relied upon.
pisteuō: to trust, rely upon
πιστεύω
This is the verb behind the verse’s “believeth,” naming the act of placing trust.
χριστός
christos
GROWS FROM
χρι-
chri-
Anoint, mark with oil for a role.
Χριστός names “the Anointed One,” a title of role rather than a surname. The verse’s trust is directed toward Jesus as the one anointed, and that recognition is linked to life from God.
ALSO GROWS
chriō: to anoint
χρίω
This verb shares χρι- and gives the action behind the title.
chrisma: anointing
χρῖσμα
This related noun shares the χρι- consonants and names the act or result associated with anointing.
christos: anointed one
χριστός
This is the title used in the verse, formed from the family of words for anointing.
THE PATTERN
Birth from a source establishes a relationship in which the source and those brought forth belong together.
And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and brought forth a son in his own likeness, after his image, and called his name Seth.Who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of a man, but of God.Beloved, let us love one another, for love comes out of God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.THE THREAD
For whatever has been born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that overcomes the world, our trust.“Born of God” repeats γεννάω (gennaō, “to beget, bring forth”), the same Greek word family that links the begetter and the begotten here. In this verse, that shared birth opens into overcoming the world.
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