1 John 1:10

1:10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us.

1 John 2:4

2:4 The one who says “I have come to know God” and yet does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in such a person.

1 John 5:14

5:14 And this is the confidence that we have before him: that whenever we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.


tn Grk “know him.” See the note on the phrase “know God” in 1 John 2:3 for explanation.

tn For the third time in 5:9-14 the author uses the construction αὕτη ἐστίν ({auth estin; 5:9, 11, 14). As in the previous instance (5:11) the ὅτι (Joti) clause which follows is epexegetical (explanatory) to the pronoun αὕτη and explains what the “confidence” (παρρησία, parrhsia) consists of (technically the subject is ἡ παρρησία, the predicate nominative is the pronoun αὕτη, and the ὅτι clause explains the predicate nominative): “And the confidence which we have before him is this, namely, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.”

tn A third-class condition is introduced by ἐάν (ean) + present subjunctive. Because the apodosis also contains a present tense verb (ἀκούει, akouei) this belongs in a subcategory of third-class conditional sentences known as present general. In the Koine period ἐάν can mean “when” or “whenever” and is virtually the equivalent of ὅταν (Jotan; see BDAG 268 s.v. ἐάν 2). Thus the meaning here is, “whenever (i.e., if) we ask anything according to his will, then he hears us.”