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1Jn_5:10. God’s testimony of His Son has for its object faith in the Son of God. Hence: “He that believeth on the Son hath the witness in himself.”
τὴν μαρτυρίαν , i.e. the witness of God which was previously spoken of; ἔχει ἐν ἑαυτῷ , i.e. the witness is no longer merely external to him, but by virtue of his faith he has it in (not as Luther translates: “with”) himself; the external has become internal to him. This thought forms the transition to that contained in 1Jn_5:11. The believer, namely, has the objective witness in himself, inasmuch as he experiences in his soul the power of the truth attested by God; yet τὴν μαρτυρίαν must not here be understood—as in 1Jn_5:11—of this operation itself (contrary to Düsterdieck). In the interpretation: “he accepts the witness,”—for which, corresponding to the ἔχει , it should at least be put: “he has accepted it,”—the preposition ἐν does not receive due justice.
In the following negative sentence, by which the thought expressed is strengthened and extended, we must supply with τῷ Θεῷ (instead of which τῷ υἱῷ is not to be read), “ τῷ μεμαρτυρηκότι .
ψευστὴν πεποίηκεν αὐτόν ] see chap. 1Jn_1:10. In his unbelief, the witness of God is regarded by him as a lie, and God, who has given it, therefore as a liar.
This thought is confirmed by the following words: “for he believeth not (has not become a believer) in the record which God has given (as a permanent record) of His Son.”
With the participle πιστεύων , which describes a general class (not a single particular individual), μή is used; but with the finite verb πεπίστευκεν it is οὐ , because thereby the πιστεύειν of those that belong to that class is exactly and directly denied (comp. chap. 1Jn_2:4, 1Jn_3:10; 1Jn_3:14, 1Jn_4:8).[317]
[317] It is different in Joh_3:18, where ὅτι μὴ πεπίστευκεν follows ὁ μὴ πιστεύων , but as the reason for ἤδη κέκριται , and where, therefore, it is considered as the reason of the condemnation operating in the mind of the judge; differently Winer, p. 420 ff.; VII. p. 441 ff. The distinction lies in this, that by ψευστὴν πεποίηκεν αὐτόν it is an act of the subject, but by κέκριται the action of the judge (i.e. of God) that is indicated.