Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
Summary of our Christian privileges.
is come—is present, having come. "HE IS HERE—all is full of Him—His incarnation, work, and abiding presence, is to us a living fact" [ALFORD].
given us an understanding—Christ's, office is to give the inner spiritual understanding to discern the things of God.
that we may know—Some oldest manuscripts read, "(so) that we know."
him that is true—God, as opposed to every kind of idol or false god (I John 5:21). Jesus, by virtue of His oneness with God, is also "He that is true" (Revelation 3:7).
even—"we are in the true" God, by virtue of being "in His Son Jesus Christ."
This is the true God—"This Jesus Christ (the last-named Person) is the true God" (identifying Him thus with the Father in His attribute, "the only true God," John 17:3, primarily attributed to the Father).
and eternal life—predicated of the Son of God; ALFORD wrongly says, He was the life, but not eternal life. The Father is indeed eternal life as its source, but the Son also is that eternal life manifested, as the very passage (I John 1:2) which ALFORD quotes, proves against him. Compare also I John 5:11, I John 5:13. Plainly it is as the Mediator of ETERNAL LIFE to us that Christ is here contemplated. The Greek is, "The true God and eternal life is this" Jesus Christ, that is, In believing in Him we believe in the true God, and have eternal life. The Son is called "He that is TRUE," Revelation 3:7, as here. This naturally prepares the way for warning against false gods (I John 5:21). Jesus Christ is the only "express image of God's person" which is sanctioned, the only true visible manifestation of God. All other representations of God are forbidden as idols. Thus the Epistle closes as it began (I John 1:1-2).
Other Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown entries containing 1 John 5:20:
Jeremiah 10:10
John 14:4-7
John 14:8-12
Titus 2:13
1 John 5:19
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