1 John 5:18-21 reads, "18 We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the One who was born of God keeps them safe, and the evil one cannot harm them. 19 We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. 20 We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true by being in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. 21 Dear children, keep yourselves from idols."
We come today to the last four verses of 1 John. I am sure that you noticed that in v.18-20 each verse begins with "We know". The assurance in those two words is quite helpful in a world which says that there are no absolute truths. In v.18 we read, "We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin." This verse is not teaching us that we will come to a place where we do not sin. No, it is teaching us that we will come to the place where we will not be ruled by sin. In other words, righteousness is possible for the Believer in Christ. The ability to transcend, to choose wisely is possible.
And v.18 concludes with, "the One who was born of God keeps them safe, and the evil one cannot harm them." In other words, the enemy will never be able to come to the Believer in Christ and repossess him or her. Even though this world, as John declares in v.19, is under the control of the Evil One, the Believer is assured that he, the Evil One, can not snatch us out of God's hands.
Finally, 1 John ends very peculiarly. John writes, "Dear children, keep yourselves from idols." Recently, someone said to me that the trials in his life were from Satan. And, I am sure that Satan or more probably, his Cohorts, are involved in the trials that have crept up in his life. But to stop with Satan or his Cohorts is to miss the point behind the trials. You see, trials are one part of the two part process to growing the Believer's faith (see James 1, 1 Peter 1). And you will remember that faith is the heart's ability to see God. By the way, the other part of the process is hearing the spoken word of God (Romans 10:17). John instructs us to resist idols, which means that the Believer in Jesus Christ must not depend upon any other DEFINER of things, including the point of our trials. There is the worship of Narcissus, the god who fell in love with
himself. Is this not perhaps the supreme god of mankind, the worship of
self, the worship of man, the exaltation of man? The Satanic idea that we can be our own god and define best everything in our lives. How preposterous!
