1 John 5 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

Everyone who trusts that Jesus is The One has been born from God, and everyone who loves the Father also loves the one born from him.

This is how we know we love God's children — when we love God and carry out what he asks of us.

Because loving God means doing what he asks — and what he asks isn't burdensome,

because everyone born from God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world — our trust.

Who is the one who overcomes the world? Only the person who trusts that Jesus is the Son of God.

This is the one who came through water and blood — Jesus, The One. He didn't come by water alone, but by water and by blood. And it's the Breath of God who confirms this, because the Breath is the truth.

So there are three that testify:

the Breath, the water, and the blood — and these three are in agreement.

We accept human testimony all the time — but God's testimony carries even more weight, because this is God's own testimony that he has given about his Son.

Anyone who trusts in the Son of God has this testimony inside them. Anyone who doesn't trust God has essentially called him a liar, because they haven't trusted the testimony God gave about his Son.

And this is the testimony: God has given us limitless life, and this life is found in his Son.

Whoever has the Son has this life. Whoever doesn't have the Son of God doesn't have this life.

I'm writing these things to you who trust in the name of the Son of God so that you'll know — really know — that you have limitless life.

And this is the confidence we have when we come to him: if we ask for anything that lines up with what he wants, he hears us.

And if we know he hears us — whatever we ask — we know we already have what we asked him for.

If you see a brother or sister failing in a way that doesn't lead to death, you should ask God on their behalf, and God will give them life. I'm talking about failures that don't lead to death. There is a kind of failure that leads to death — I'm not saying you should ask about that.

All wrongdoing is failure, but not every failure leads to death.

We know that everyone born from God doesn't keep on failing, because the One born from God guards them, and the evil one can't get a grip on them.

We know that we belong to God, and that the whole world lies in the grip of the evil one.

And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us the ability to understand what is real — and we are living in the one who is real, in his Son Jesus, The One. He is the real God and limitless life.

Little children, guard yourselves from counterfeits.