What Does 1 John 5:10 Mean?
The one who leans their full weight into the Son of God holds the witness within themselves. The one who does not lean their weight on God has made him a liar, because they have not leaned their weight into the witness God has borne concerning his Son.
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
He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.THE KEY
The “witness” within and the “record” refused are the same Greek testimony, joining what God gives about the Son with what the trusting person carries within.
THE MEANING
When you trust the Son, God’s testimony is within you. Refusing to trust God is refusing the testimony God gives about the Son, and the verse calls that refusal making God a liar. The inward witness and the testimony given about the Son belong to the same act of witness.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that disbelief is neutral: refusing the testimony itself makes God a liar.
THE ROOT
μαρτυρία
martyria
GROWS FROM
μαρτυρ-
martyr-
Bearing witness; testimony.
The verse uses the same Greek noun for the witness within and the record God gives. English gives these two parts different names, while the Greek holds them together as one testimony.
ALSO GROWS
martyreō: To testify or give witness.
μαρτυρέω
It shows the testimony as something actively borne, the same action the verse attributes to God.
martys: A witness, someone who bears testimony.
μάρτυς
It names the person who carries testimony, clarifying the personal force of the witness within.
πιστεύων
pisteuōn
GROWS FROM
πιστ-
pist-
Trust; entrust oneself.
“leans their full weight into” in this verse is pisteuōn. The same verb appears for trusting the Son, God, and God’s testimony. The verse describes trust as a relation of reliance, not merely holding an opinion.
ALSO GROWS
pistis: Trust or reliance.
πίστις
It names the trust expressed by the verb in this verse: leaning your full weight on what is testified.
pistos: Reliable or steady.
πιστός
It shows the related quality of being trustworthy, which sharpens the contrast with the verse’s charge of lying.
ψεύστης
pseustēs
GROWS FROM
ψευδ-
pseud-
Lie; speak falsely.
“has made him a liar” in this verse is pseustēs. The accusation is tied directly to refusing testimony: the verse says the refuser has made God a liar by not trusting what God testified. The root keeps the force of that claim in view as a charge of falsehood.
ALSO GROWS
pseudomai: To lie or speak falsely.
ψεύδομαι
It connects the noun “liar” to the act of asserting falsehood.
pseudos: A lie or falsehood.
ψεῦδος
It names the false claim implied when God’s testimony is refused.
THE PATTERN
God’s testimony is established through outward witness and borne inwardly by those who receive it.
One witness shall not rise up against a man for any crookedness, or for any falling short, in it he misses the mark; upon the mouth of two witnesses, or upon the mouth of three witnesses, the word shall stand.The instruction of the LORD is whole, turning back the living soul; the witness of the LORD is steady, making the open ones wise.The breath itself testifies together with our breath, that we are children of God.THE THREAD
And this is the witness, that God has given us the life of the ages, and this life is in his Son.The Greek noun translated “record” here is μαρτυρία (martyria), the same word rendered “witness” in 5:10. This verse names the content of that testimony: God gives the life of the ages, and that life is in his Son.
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