<p>5:1 - see on Jn. 3:3; 8:42.</p><p><i>Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is begotten of God; and whoever loves Him that begat, loves him also that is begotten of Him</i>- The language of &quot;begotten of&quot; implies the initiative was with the begetter. The begettal is through the Spirit, which becomes effective by water baptism and acceptance of Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah / Son of God (Jn. 3:3-5). So I would read this as meaning that belief in Jesus as the Christ precedes the begettal of the Spirit. And yet admittedly the grammar he can be read as meaning that the begettal of God (by the Spirit) results in our belief in Jesus as Christ. Whatever, He is the prime mover in our spiritual begettal; and we are the objects of the begettal, rather than the prime movers in it. Being God's begotten children makes us brethren of His only begotten Son. We have a natural love for the Father who begot us; and yet we cannot love God, vertically, as it were, without horizontally loving those others begotten by Him. For His Spirit has worked in many other lives apart from our own, bringing even the most difficult and awkward of our brethren to be likewise God's begotten children. And as explained throughout chapter 4, we cannot claim to have love for God if we don't love His children.</p><p>Chapter 4 began this whole section with guidance as to how to spot false teachers. The appeal is not made to compare their teaching against Scripture; perhaps because the converts were largely illiterate and without access to the scrolls of the Old Testament, and the New Testament was hardly in circulation. The questions to be asked were, and still are: Does this person have the spirit of Christ? Have they clearly been born again? Do they love all God's children? Do they confess openly their faith in Jesus as Christ? Do they hate their brother? For false teaching is far more than genuinely misunderstanding some Bible verses. It is more essentially a way of life.</p>