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1Jn_5:1 shows that the believer, as born of God, necessarily loves his brother. The two elements of the Christian life, faith and love, are represented in their real unity.
πᾶς ὁ πιστεύων ὅτι Ἰησοῦς ἐστιν ὁ Χριστός ] refers back to chap. 1Jn_4:15; comp. 1Jn_2:22, 1Jn_4:2; instead of ὁ Χριστός , the apostle in 1Jn_5:5 puts: ὁ νἱὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ ; comp. 1Jn_3:23, from which, however, it does not follow that ὁ Χριστός and ὁ υἱὸς τοῦς Θεοῦ are to the apostle exactly identical ideas, but certainly that he only is Christ to him, who is also Son of God. That John says here ὁ Χριστός , is occasioned by the antithesis to the false teachers; comp. on this Weiss, p. 155 ff. Grotius erroneously explains: qui credere se ostendit: it is not the manifestation of faith, but faith itself, that is the subject.
ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ γεγέννηται ] for faith is not a human, but a divine work in us.[292] This first sentence forms the premiss from which the apostle draws his conclusion. He does not specially emphasize the self-evident intermediate thought: Πᾶς Ὁ ΓΕΓΕΝΝΗΜΈΝΟς ἘΚ ΤΟῦ ΘΕΟῦ ἈΓΑΠᾷ ΤῸΝ ΘΕΌΝ , but presupposing it,[293] he says: ΚΑῚ Πᾶς Ὁ ἈΓΑΠῶΝ ΤῸΝ ΓΕΝΝΉΣΑΝΤΑ , ἈΓΑΠᾷ ΚΑῚ ΤῸΝ ΓΕΓΕΝΝΗΜΈΝΟΝ ἘΞ ΑὐΤΟῦ ] Ὁ ΓΕΓΕΝΝ . ἘΞ ΑὐΤΟῦ is not “Christ” (Augustine, Hilarius, a Lapide, etc.), but “the believer;” Calvin correctly: Sub numero singulari omnes fideles Ap. designat. Est autem argumentum ex communi naturae ordine sumptum. By the last thought Calvin rightly indicates why the apostle here says “ ΤῸΝ ΓΕΝΝΉΣΑΝΤΑ ” instead of ΤῸΝ ΘΕΌΝ , and “ ΤῸΝ ΓΕΓΕΝΝΗΜΈΝΟΝ ἘΞ ΑὐΤΟῦ ” instead of ΤῸΝ ἈΔΕΛΦΌΝ .
ἈΓΑΠᾷ is not subjunctive “let him love,” but indicative: “he loves;” John is here expressing not an exhortation, but a fact.
[292] The relationship between being born of God and faith is not to be expressed thus, that first the latter and then the former follows; but neither is it first the former and then the latter, but being born of God happens in this way, that God works faith in man; “the new birth is,” as it runs in the Mecklenburg Catechism, “the working and gift of faith.” The πιστεύειν , which begins with the gift of πίστις , is therefore the result, and hence also the token, of being born of God, as the ποιεῖν τὴν δικαιοσύνην (chap. 1Jn_2:29) and the ἀγαπᾷν (chap. 1Jn_3:7).
[293] That this thought is presupposed by John, which Ebrard and Braune erroneously deny, is proved by the fact that John does not say here: ὁ ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ γεγεννημένος , but instead of it: ὁ ἀγαπῶν τὸν γεννήσαντα .