1 John 2:5

2:5 But whoever obeys his word, truly in this person the love of God has been perfected. By this we know that we are in him.

1 John 2:17

2:17 And the world is passing away with all its desires, but the person who does the will of God remains forever.

1 John 2:23

2:23 Everyone who denies the Son does not have the Father either. The person who confesses the Son has the Father also.

1 John 5:5

5:5 Now who is the person who has conquered the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

tn The referent of this pronoun is probably to be understood as God, since God is the nearest previous antecedent.

tn Grk “in him.”

tn See note on the translation of the Greek verb μένω (menw) in 2:6. The translation “remain” is used for μένω (menw) here because the context contrasts the transience of the world and its desires with the permanence of the person who does God’s will.

tc The Byzantine text, almost alone, lacks the last eight words of this verse, “The person who confesses the Son has the Father also” (ὁ ὁμολογῶν τὸν υἱὸν καὶ τὸν πατέρα ἔχει, Jo Jomologwn ton Juion kai ton patera ecei). Although shorter readings are often preferred (since scribes would tend to add material rather than delete it), if an unintentional error is likely, shorter readings are generally considered secondary. This is a classic example of such an unintentional omission: The τὸν πατέρα ἔχει of the preceding clause occasioned the haplography, with the scribe’s eye skipping from one τὸν πατέρα ἔχει to the other. (Readings such as this also suggest that the Byzantine text may have originated [at least for 1 John and probably the general epistles] in a single archetype.)

tn After a verb of perception (the participle ὁ πιστεύων [Jo pisteuwn]) the ὅτι (Joti) in 5:5 introduces indirect discourse, a declarative or recitative clause giving the content of what the person named by the participle (ὁ πιστεύων) believes: “that Jesus is the Son of God.” As in 4:15, such a confession constitutes a problem for the author’s opponents but not for his readers who are genuine believers.