Verse 20: And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.
John now presents his final we know—a specific truth that we have learned from his epistle. This is John’s final summation of his defense against the Gnostic heresy that seeks to diminish the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Incarnation
What we have come to know is that the Son of God has come. Son of God indicates Jesus Christ by one of the many titles that identify Him in Scripture, intending to accentuate His unique person as both God and man. John states the fact that He has come as a reference to the historical fact of His entrance into the world in human form by a divine act and not through Joseph, a human father. The Greek tense emphasizes this past event as a vividly present reality.1 That it is the indisputable truth of His Incarnation as proclaimed in John’s gospel account, that He “became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:13–14) and verified in this epistle, that He “was manifested” and “appeared” (1 John 1:2; 3:5, 8). Our Lord arrived on earth with a specific objective for His followers: “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10b). This life which He came to offer mankind is eternal life, “the gospel, the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16). Van Ryn makes a pertinent observation of John’s consideration of this life that He came to provide: “In the gospel, life is imparted through faith in the Son of God; in the epistle, life is known and enjoyed in Christ.”2
Understanding Bestowed
He has given us something that is of a permanent advantage in order to live this life of faith: understanding. The word refers to a mind, one that can reason and think. Vine asserts that it refers to “a process of mind leading to a conclusion, and hence the word denotes the faculty of forming a conclusion from certain facts.”3 This divinely given mind enables all believers to learn and comprehend spiritual truth, assisted by the indwelling Holy Spirit as was taught by the apostle Paul:
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. (1 Corinthians 2:12–13)
Paul further maintains that believers are able to comprehend spiritual truth, to literally “seize with the mind”4; leading him to pray to the Father on our behalf,
…that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:16–19 [emphasis added])
Morris aptly states that “The Christian faith is not a hindrance to intellectual activity but a stimulus to right thinking.”5 Thus, with this divine advantage all believers are able to know Him who is true. Here true means the only genuine God, not a sham like the “fictional God of the heretics”6 or the false concept the Gnostics professed of Jesus.
It is worth noting what John specifically implies by this word true since it appears 3 times in this verse. John uses this word (and all of its derivations) more than any other writer of the New Testament. Bultmann observes that the Greek word “has in the first instance the sense of ‘true’ or ‘genuine,’ but genuine here means ‘divine’ in contrast to human and earthly reality.”7 In essence, true implies that which exemplifies an objective divine reality as opposed to that which the world proclaims as true based upon subjective human thinking—a viewpoint devoid of any divine perspective and utterly rejects its authenticity.
John uses this same word throughout his writings to emphasize the divine aspects of the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ: the true light (John 1:9; 8:12; 1 John 2:8); the true worshipers (John 4:23); the true bread—genuine spiritual nourishment, as opposed to manna (John 6:32, 48); the true vine—genuine spiritual productivity (John 15:1); the true God—genuine deity, as opposed to Gnostic heresy (John 7:28; 17:3; cf. 1 Thess. 1:9); He who is true (Rev. 3:7); true witness (Rev. 3:14); true are Your ways (Rev. 15:3); true judgments (Rev. 16:7; 19:2); true words of God (Rev. 19:9; 21:5; 22:6); Christ is called “true” (Rev. 19:11).
Knowing Him
Therefore, believers can have the confidence of knowing God the Father, our Creator and His Son, Jesus Christ as the genuine God of the universe, and not a distortion of what Scripture declares or a fabrication of man’s imagination. Because what believers are to understand and know of Him who is true, is objectively stated in His Word—for His Word is absolute Truth (John 17:17).
But unless we avail ourselves to an intense study of Scripture, we cannot truly know God or Jesus Christ. Acquiring the knowledge of God comes only through His Word, not by special revelation or feelings, but by the divine revelation He has given to us, His inspired Word. From His Word we come to know Him, to obey His commands (2:3), to love Him (4:19f), and to rightly serve Him by the empowerment of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8; 1 Cor. 12:11).
[1] Dana, H.E. & Mantey, Julius R. (1957). A Manual Grammar of the Greek New Testament, Toronto, Ontario: Macmillan Co., p. 159.
[2] Van Ryn, August (1948). The Epistles of John, New York, NY: Loizeaux Brothers, p. 159.
[3] Vine, W. E. (1996). Collected Writings of W.E. Vine. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1 John 5:20.
[5] Morris, L. L. (1994). 1 John. In New Bible Commentary: 21st Century Edition, 4th ed. (D. A. Carson, R. T. France, J. A. Motyer, & G. J. Wenham, Eds.). Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press, p. 1409.
[6] Lenski, R.C.H. (2001). Commentary on the New Testament, Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 11.540.
[7] Bultmann, R. (1964–). ἀληθινός. In Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (G. Kittel, G. W. Bromiley, & G. Friedrich, Eds.), Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1.250.
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