1 John 5:4 4Because everyone who has been begotten of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory which has overcome the world: our faith.
The world represents humanity outside of God. It is the place of darkness, ignorance, struggle, temptation, and sin. Everyone lives in this world, but the good news of Jesus provides the possibility of escaping from its control. The world gets in the way of victorious Christian living. The keyword in this verse is overcome or victory (nikē), which occurs three times. The present tense of the first overcomes (nika) shows the certainty and assurance we can have right now. The attributive participle, which has overcome (nikēsasa), is in the aorist tense, implying that our victory is complete and finished. We can experience victory right now because what God has promised, he will provide (1 Thessalonians 5:24).
The tense of has been begotten is perfect, indicating the new life that a Christian has. This is the same word used in verse 1 to describe the new birth that comes through believing in Jesus. The new life that God creates in us grows the seed of love into the tree full of the fruit of love. Faith (pistis) illuminates the path to the life of love that the Apostle John has been describing in this letter. Love depends on faith to reach its goal of transforming us and those we encounter into the image of Christ through loving actions. Faith acknowledges our dependence upon God, not ourselves. It leads us to realize that we are sinners in need of forgiveness and cleansing. It points us to God as the one who determines our values and opens us to God’s light, which illumines our path.
We are born to eternal life by believing in Jesus. Because we have eternal life, we are not bound by this world, its values, or its temptations. Because faith is linked to love, our faith in Jesus will engage us with the world, but we do not need to be controlled by the world’s values and behaviors.