1 John 5:4

Reason why keeping even the difficult commandment of loving others rather than oneself is not a grievous burden. It is the world and its ways which makes the Divine commands grievous, and the new birth involved in faith gives us a new unworldly nature and a strength which conquers the world.

For whatsoever is born of God Or, Because whatsoever is begotten of God: see on 1 John 5:1. The collective neuter, - whatsoever", gives the principle a wide sweep by stating it in its most abstract form: comp. John 6:37; John 17:2. Moreover, whereas the masculine would make the victorious personprominent, the neuter emphasizes rather the victorious power. It is not the man, but his birth from God, which conquers. In 1 John 5:1 we had the masculine and in 1 John 5:18 return to the masculine again. In all three cases we have the perfect, not the aorist, participle. It is not the mere fact of having received the Divine birth that is insisted on, but the permanent results of the birth. Comp. John 3:6; John 3:8, where we have the same tense and a similar change from neuter to masculine.

this is the victory that overcometh Better, the victory that overcame the world is this(see on 1 John 1:5): aorist, of a victory won once for all. Faith, which is -the proof of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1) which -are eternal" (2 Corinthians 4:18), has conquered the world which is visible and -is passing away" (1 John 2:17). Faith is both the victory and the victor. Under the influence of the Vulgate's vincit, Wiclif, Luther, Tyndale and many others all have the present tense here. In the faith which has won a decisive victory the believer goes on conquering. -Victory" (νίκη) occurs nowhere else in N.T.