1 John 5:20

20. Is come Literally, cometh. This does not allude to any perpetual coming of Christ; but the present is used to indicate what takes place in the divine order. Adam falls and Christ comes. It refers to his first advent, as the past tense of hath given shows.

Him that is true Rather, the true One, God. The word true does not signify veracious or truthful, but genuine or real, in opposition to the idols of next verse, which are fictitious or unreal gods. Many of John’s readers had been their worshippers, and Christ had come and given them understanding of the sole true God.

In him that is true In the true One, as if identified with and embodied in him, as the world lieth in the wicked one.

Even The Italics indicate that this word is not in the Greek, but supplied by the translators, incorrectly. The meaning is, that we are in God by being in his Son.

This… true God The question is, Does this refer to God or Christ? If to the latter, it is a strong text in proof of the divinity of Christ. Hence, as Alford affirms, the older commentators divided in their interpretations according to their doctrinal prepossessions. But later exegetes acting, like himself, from purely exegetical reasons, refer it to God him that is true.

For referring it to Christ: 1. Christ is the nearest antecedent, being last named. 2. Christ is called life, and God never. To the first it is replied: 1. God is the main and leading subject in mind, and Christ is merely incidental, and in such cases the more distant noun is often held the true antecedent. 2. The continued epithet true implies the continuity of the same subject, God. 3. God is the more natural antithesis to idols, and is, therefore, the unchanged subject through both verses. To the second there seems no very clear reply; yet Alford answers: 1. By quoting John 17:3, “This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.” This is a striking parallel passage; yet not God, but the knowledge of God, is therein declared to be eternal life. 2.

By saying that Christ is never called eternal life, but life; which is true, and yet eternal life is meant when life is thus predicated. On the whole, the argument is very evenly balanced, with a slight preponderance in favour of God. At any rate, the text cannot be quoted with any very just confidence in proof of the divinity of Christ.