By way of conclusion of this paragraph, John mentions what all this will mean.

This is what he has promised us, eternal life, in the Greek literally “and this is the promise which he has promised us, eternal life.” The more common sentence type would be ‘eternal life is what he has promised to us.’ The construction with the demonstrative pronoun pointing forward to the actual topic of the sentence postpones the mentioning of what has been promised, and thus creates a certain tension.

The clause what he has promised us may have to be translated as ‘the gift he has promised us,’ ‘the promise he has made to (or given) us,’ ‘what he has said he would (surely) give us.’ This may lead to further restructuring of the sentence; for example, ‘didn’t he himself say to us, “I will give you eternal life,” ’ as in one American Indian language. The pronoun he refers to Christ here. If it must be specified, one may use ‘Christ’ or ‘the Son,’ since both terms occur in the preceding verse.

The phrase eternal life is in the Greek in apposition to “the promise.” This is because of “inverse attraction” to the preceding relative pronoun in the accusative. For a discussion of eternal life, see comments on 1.1-2. Where one must shift from noun to verb, one may say something like ‘that we will live eternally.’

Verses 26-29 conclude the second attack on the false teachers (referred to as “those who would deceive you,” verse 26). The last two of the four verses form the transition to the next part. They contain allusions to the appearing of Christ and to one’s being born of him, but these topics do not form the main subject of the discourse as they do from 3.1 onward. At the same time the words “and now little children” (in verse 28) seem to form a certain break. Hence verses 28-29 may be taken as belonging to what precedes (as in Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, and also in this Handbook) or to what follows (as in Greek New Testament, Nestle, New English Bible, Bijbel in Gewone Taal).

Quoted with permission from Haas, C., de Jonge, M. and Swellengrebel, J.L. A Handbook on The First Letter of John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1972. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .