Now we know that the Son of God is come and has given us understanding, so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
1 John 5:20
This passage is sometimes used by Trinitarians to assert that Jesus is called “the true God.”
This claim relies entirely on whether the referent of the pronoun “he” in the final clause is the Father or the Son. Trinitarians have claimed that because “Jesus Christ” is the nearest antecedent, this pronoun must necessarily refer to him. This claim is untrue, not a grammatical Greek rule, and even John himself does not follow this rule earlier in this same letter in 1 John 2:3.
1 John 2:1-6 says:
“My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you might not sin. And if anyone should sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous One. And He is the propitiation for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for those of the whole world. And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we should keep His commandments. The one saying, “I have known Him,” and not keeping His commandments, he is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever may keep His word, truly in him the love of God has been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: The one claiming to abide in Him ought also walk just as in the same way that He walked.”
Notice that though the nearest antecedent is “Jesus Christ the Righteous One,” the pronouns in verse 3 refer back to the Father. “By this we have come to know him (the Father).” This is an echo to John 1:18 in which we are revealed the Father through Jesus Christ. “The only-begotten has made him (the Father) known.”
Is 1 John 5:20 talking about the Son or the Father? “Now we know that the Son of God (the Father) is come and has given us understanding (of the Father), so that we may know Him who is true (the Father); and we are in Him (the Father) who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. He (the Father) is the true God and eternal life.” The nearest referent being “Jesus Christ” is to clarify who “his son” is. We are talking about ‘the Father, whose son is Jesus, is the true God and eternal life.’ John has already said the same thing in John 17:3. “Now this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God.” This is Jesus himself speaking to the Father in prayer. John portrays Jesus as calling the Father “the only true God.” 1 John is something of a commentary on John’s gospel. Many thoughts are paralleled between the two. John is clarifying certain things in his gospel due to the “antichrist” (gnostic Cerinthian) doctrines coming up in his time. If John is echoing his statement in John 17:3 in 1 John 5:20, it should be obvious that the referent is the Father.
Take care to see that John makes an interesting statement in this verse. “And we are in Him who is true, in His Son.” Notice how John uses this language in this Epistle.
“God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all… But if we should walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son.” (1 John 1:5, 7)
“But whoever may keep His word, truly in him the love of God has been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him.” (1 John 2:5)
“I am writing a new commandment to you, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light already shines.” (1 John 2:8)
“And the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.” (1 John 2:14)
“You, let what you have heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you have heard from the beginning should abide in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that He promised us: eternal life. I have written these things to you concerning those leading you astray. And you, the anointing that you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But just as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things and is true and is no lie, and just as it has taught you, you shall abide in Him. And now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears we might have boldness and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming. If you know that He is righteous, you know also that everyone practicing righteousness has been begotten of Him. Behold what love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God—and we are! Because of this, the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He is. And everyone having this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. Everyone committing sin also commits lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. And you know that He appeared, so that He might take away sins; and in Him there is no sin. Anyone abiding in Him does not sin; anyone sinning has not seen Him, nor has he known Him.” (1 John 2:24-3:6)
“Anyone having been born of God does not practice sin, because His seed abides in him, and he is not able to continue sinning, because he has been born of God.” (1 John 3:9)
“You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because the One in you is greater than the one in the world.” (1 John 4:4)
“Whoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God… and the one abiding in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” (1 John 4:15-16)
Notice the consistent theme in John’s Epistle of God abiding in us, and we in God. It is God who is in you. “We are in him who is true.” Are we in God? Certainly. John makes a statement in chapter 3 that is almost identical to the passage in question. Consider:
1 John 3:23-24: “And this is His commandment, that we should believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and we should love one another, just as He gave the commandment to us. And the one keeping His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us: by the Spirit whom He has given to us.“
Who has given us the Spirit in this context?
1 John 4:12-13: “No one has seen God at any time; if we should love one another, God abides in us, and His love is having been perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us: because He has given to us from out of His Spirit.”
1 John 5:20-21: “Now we know that the Son of God is come and has given us understanding, so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols.”
John ends this letter with the statement “Keep yourselves from idols.” Why? After stating this about being in the true God, he adds to stay away from idols. This is the most important topic John wished to leave the congregation he is writing to with. John’s letter is written against the “antichrists” who have gone out into the world. He defines these as: “The one denying the Father and the son” (1 John 2:22), “those who claim Jesus is not of God” (1 John 4:3), and “those not confessing Jesus Christ coming in the flesh” (2 John 7). “Antichrist” literally means “another anointed,” or “another Christ.” Those teaching a different Jesus, who is not from God, denying the Father and Son, and that Christ came in flesh. These statements are against particular gnostic views. These views denied our Father as being love and having Jesus as his son. Through complex and convoluted processes, they claimed that Jesus was an ascended being from these divine emanations of God, “the logos,” who descended upon a human but was not born as a human. They denied that Christ was “in the flesh” because their worldview saw the material world as the fallen prison created by a confused and ignorant demiurge. The Christ, they argued, was pure spirit only and not flesh. He looked like flesh, but he could not be because flesh is of the fallen world. They denied Christ is from God because they claimed that the God of the OT is not the God who sent the Christ because he came down from a realm above that demiurge.
John says to stay away from idols after mentioning being in “the true God.” This is in contrast to the false idolatry of the gnostics who claimed a pantheon of gods, emanations, who denied the God of our forefathers, and who denied Jesus was the Christ in the flesh. The true God and eternal life is our Father, the Father of a man of flesh. The Father of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
The Father is the true God and eternal life. “In him was life, and the life was the light of men…. God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all” (John 1:4, 1 John 1:5).