Down an Unfamiliar Road

IMPORTANT UPDATE: To all my precious family, friends, and readers on Facebook, early tomorrow morning I will be entering the hospital for a critical repair of an abdominal aortic aneurysm. My blessed sweet wife will be with me to help encourage and sustain me. I humbly ask you to pray for her, the surgeons, and me as I undergo this necessary procedure.

The Lord has brought me through two of these already, and I believe He will do it again. He knows my greatest desire is to serve Him as long as I live and to love, protect, and provide for the love of my life, my wife. Thank you so much for taking a few minutes to pray this will be a successful repair so I can continue serving Him. Thank you and God bless you.  

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FIVE (Summary) 06/03/23

The Apostle John taught us a lot in the first four chapters. Now he closes out his letter with vital information, encouragement, and admonition.

James begins by declaring that everyone who believes that Jesus is, in fact, the Anointed One, is God-born. After all, if we love the parents of a precious child, certainly we will love their child as well. So, in our case the real test on whether or not we love God’s children is this: Do we love God? Do we obey His commands? The proof that we love God comes when we truly love His commandments because they are not at all that much trouble (vv. 1-3).

John goes on to say that every person born of God can resist worldliness because the conquering power that forces worldliness to bow to our commands is faith. Therefore, the person who wins the battle against worldliness is the one who puts their whole faith and trust in believing that Jesus is God’s only begotten Son (vv. 4-5).

Next, John emphasizes that Jesus is God’s Anointed One – the Messiah. He who is eternal life experienced temporary human life and died to become the resurrection and the life. And during His life here on earth, the Spirit confirmed His being the truth, the way, and the life, through the reality of God’s presence at His baptism, crucifixion, and resurrection by making their power alive in us. So, we have a triple testimony: the Spirit, the Baptism, and the Crucifixion. And the three are in perfect agreement that He is who He says He is (vv. 6-8).

Furthermore, John insists that if we accept human testimony at face value, how much more should we be reassured when God gives His testimony concerning his Son. Consequently, when you fully believe that Jesus is God’s Son you are inwardly confirming God’s testimony. However, anyone who refuses to believe in effect calls God a liar, refusing to accept God’s word regarding the validity of His Son as the Anointed One (vv. 9-10).

Then, John states that God’s witness, in essence, is this: By God giving us His Son, He gave us eternal life. So, it makes sense that whoever is in union with the Son, has spiritual life; whoever rejects the Son, rejects being spiritually alive (vv. 11-12).

Now John explains his purpose in writing this letter: that those who believe in God’s Son as their Savior will know beyond the shadow of a doubt that they have eternal life. It is real, not an illusion. This faith allows those who believe to come boldly in His presence, freely asking according to His will,  being sure that He is listening. And if we’re confident that He is listening, we know that what we’ve asked for is as good as ours (vv.13-15).

At this point, John makes a sudden turn. He advises that if we see a fellow believer sinning (clearly, he is not talking about those who make it a practice to sin in a way that is “fatal,” leading to eternal spiritual death), we are to ask for God’s help in reinstating our fallen brother or sister and He will gladly do so – that is – to the backslider whose sin is not fatal. We must accept that there is such a thing as a fatal sin, and John is not urging us to pray for that individual. Everything we do wrong is sin, but not all sin is fatal (vv. 16-17).

Finally, John explains that none of God’s born children make it a practice to sin—fatal sin. Those God-born are also God-protected. The Evil One can’t lay a hand on them because he knows that we are held firm by God; it’s only the people of the world who continue in the grip of the Evil One. And we also know that God’s Son came so we could recognize and understand who God really is—what a gift!—and we are living in the Truth Himself, in God’s Son, Jesus the Anointed One. This Jesus is truly God and assured eternal life. Dear children cautioned John, be on guard against any clever imposters (vv. 18-21).

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R. Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FIVE (Lesson CXLVII) 06/02/23

^5:21 So, dear children, keep yourselves away from false gods.

Prophetically speaking, Ken Johnson (1965) gives us a comparison between those who trust in God and those whose faith is in idols.

Believers, born of God	Unbelievers
Believe Jesus is the only Anointed One prophesied in Daniel 9. (1 John 5:1)	Deny there is only one Anointed One, but consciously believe in the Anointed.
Are born of God. (1 John 5:1)	Are not born of God.
Obey the commandments of the Anointed One. (1 John 5:2)	Do not obey the commandments of the Anointed One.
Strive to follow all of Jesus’ commandments. (1 John 5:3)	Do not even attempt to follow Jesus’ commandments.
Overcome a godless society. (1 John 5:4)	Are overcome by a godless society.
Believe Jesus is God’s Son. (1 John 5:5)	Deny Jesus is the only begotten Son of God.
Believe in Bible prophecy literally. (1 John 5:6-8)	Do not believe Bible prophecy literally.
Hold to the doctrine of the Trinity. (1 John 5:7)	Deny the doctrine of the Trinity.
Have the promise of eternal life. (1 John 5:12-13)	Will never have eternal life. (1 John 5:12)
God answers their prayers. (1 John 5:13-15)	God doesn’t answer their prayers. (1 John 5:13-15)
Do not pray for the dead. (1 John 5:16-17)	Pray for the dead. (Cf. 1 Cor. 15:29)
Do not continue to practice sin willfully. (1 John 5:18)	Continue to practice sin willfully.
They are kept safe by God, and Satan can’t hurt them. (1 John 5:18)	God does not protect them, and Satan can hurt them.
Believe Jesus will physically return to earth. (1 John 5:20)	Do not believe Jesus will physically return to earth.
Stay away from Idols. (1 John 5:21)	Worship idols instead of, or along with, Jesus.[1]

As a lover of God’s Word, Peter Pett (1966) states that it is regularly said that this rather strange comment comes at the end of the letter, almost unattached from the remainder. But that is to miss the point. After contrasting believers and unbelievers, the Apostle John wants to warn believers against what in those days was a significant danger (and can be so in some countries today) for all ex-Gentile Christians, the lapse into contact with idolatrous practices. You are hidden with the Anointed One in God; beware of being caught up again in your former ways. Let them not doubt that what heathens sacrifice to idols, they sacrifice to devils, even to the Evil One.^[2]

Thus, they must guard themselves lest the subtlety of Satan drags them back into what once entangled them, thus preventing their remaining in God and Jesus the Anointed One. John knew that idolatry (including symbols and amulets, fortune telling, and seeking spirits and witches) had many subtle fascinations, whether for the lover seeking the love of his beloved, the wealthy businessman seeking wealth, or the farmer seeking the fruitfulness of his fields, or the young man seeking strength and vigor.

Beware, they could seem so innocent but are dangerous, for they were the beginning of the slippery slope that led back to being in the arms of the Evil One. So, they took their eyes and their hearts away from God. And the false prophets, too, would seek to entangle them again in such things. For that was where all false religion led at the end.^[3] So let them guard themselves against visible and invisible idols and keep themselves only to God.^[4]

In his unorthodox Unitarian way, Duncan Heaster (1967) explains that idols were an abomination to Judaism. But the temptation to return to living under the Law was an idol. The statement, at first glance, is unusual. John’s letter uses a minimal vocabulary and recycles the same word families and ideas. But now, as the last statement of the letter, we have a new word and concept introduced “idols.” It seems this new idea is introduced right at the very end and left hanging with little explanation.  And there is no sign-off to the letter.

So, we are left with “idols” as the last word. Consequently, we ask ourselves, was this intentional? Did it serve as a footnote inserted by the person to whom John dictated this letter? We already have eternal life, the Spirit and presence of the Lord Jesus, the love of God, and our blessed assurance of salvation. This sure salvation is a wonderful truth that John kept repeating from different angles from the beginning. But with such an ultimate truth in view, John pleads with his readers not to be distracted by anything or substitute. Nothing else can take its place.^[5]

Bright seminarian Karen H. Jobes (1968) finds that what is clear is that this command stands in the context of what has just been stated that “we know” in verses eighteen, nineteen, and especially twenty that God’s Son brought knowledge of the one true God, against whom “the idols” stand in opposing contrast. Are these idols to be understood as literal objects of wood and stone that represented the pagan deities in the various temples throughout the city of Ephesus?

Some interpreters point out that the critique of idol worship in Isaiah is linked with the concept of witness,^[6] so John is encouraging his readers to forsake the rituals of idol worship as a witness to the Anointed One, even if it means persecution or martyrdom.^[7] But neither the topic of idol worship nor persecution has been mentioned. Given that John characteristically returns to previous issues, this interpretation seems unlikely, even though Ephesus and its environs were filled with graven images of the gods. Rather than an awkward and abrupt ending, verse twenty-one summarizes the point of the entire letter and challenges readers, both ancient and modern, to decide which god they will worship ‒ the God who revealed Himself in Jesus the Anointed One or a false god conjured from human imagination.^[8]

A skilled sermonizer, David Legge (1969), asks, upon reading this epistle by the Apostle John, have you ever wondered why verse twenty-one exists? This is a warning. Do you know what John is saying? He’s not necessarily talking about pieces of wood and stone and precious jewels, and while John was probably writing to Ephesus, we know that it was a city wholly given over to idolatry.

For example, there was the temple of Diana of the Ephesians, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Luke tells us that many people had their living making little gods of Diana, the temple, and so on.^[9] These people were swamped by idolatry, but he’s been discussing what we think about the Anointed One. By inference, he tells us that if we have a substandard view and understanding of Jesus the Anointed One, God’s Son, it is idolatry!

We don’t take it as seriously as God’s Word does. If you do not believe that He is the only begotten of the Father if you do not think that He is coexistent with the Father and with the Son, that He is one substance God, that the Godhead is revealed in three distinct Persons but one essence being God, it is idolatry! Christians are expected to turn from idols to serve the living and the true God. Anything that is in the place of the historical, biblical the Anointed One is an idol – anything! It doesn’t have to be a literal idol; it doesn’t have to be the theological idol concerning a substandard view of the Anointed One; it could be an idol in your heart tonight. A house, a car, a job, or a loved one could be anything.^[10]

As a dedicated messenger of God’s Word, Douglas Sean O’Donnell (1972) offers that the Apostle John concludes his epistle with an unconventional and somewhat abrupt ending in verse twenty-one: “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.” What does this mysterious requirement to avoid idolatry have to do with anything John has said thus far? To start out with, the ending fits the immediate context. If Jesus is the true God,^[11] Christians must keep themselves from false gods or “idols.” It also serves the whole context of the epistle. The letter ends as it began, with a warning to worship the one true God alone.

Everything else that John says is contained in this one golden rule. It is a simple, comprehensive summary of what John is combating. The apostate antichrists promoted an idolatrous image of Jesus – denying His coming in the flesh, dying for our sins, and teachings on love and obedience. It is an appeal not to accept the false teaching of the secessionists.

CLOSING REMARKS

We all have our ups and downs in our Christian walk with God. Whatever the struggle outside of us or inside, we often feel blown about by the winds of emotion or circumstances. Yet God calls us to grow and mature in consistency, with the evidence of our inner transformation becoming more and more evident as the years pass by. John knew that we would never realize the perfect love and unending faithfulness God requires. Instead, we have to place complete trust in the work of Jesus the Anointed One, believing that we can certainly conform to His Son’s image. Not by ourselves but by yielding to the leadership and guidance of the Holy Spirit residing in us. That sense of being grounded in God only comes when we set aside our selfish desires in pursuit of God’s purpose and plan for our lives. Let these words of John become etched in our minds, “If we love each other, God lives in us, and His love is brought to full expression in us.”[12]

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[1] Johnson, Ken. Ancient Epistles of John and Jude, op. cit., pp. 87-88

[2] 1 Corinthians 10:20; Deuteronomy 32:17

[3] Romans 1:18-23

[4] Pett, Peter: Commentary on the Bible, 1 John, op. cit., loc. cit.

[5] Heaster, Duncan. New European Christadelphian Commentary, op. cit., The Letters of John, p. 83

[6] Isaiah 44:6-20; 46:5; 46:6-10

[7] Cf. 1 John 3:16; 5:6

[8] Jobes, Karen H., 1, 2, and 3 John (Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on The New Testament Series Book 18), op. cit., pp. 242, 244

[9] Acts of the Apostles 19

[10] Legge, David: Preach the Word, 1 John, op. cit., Sermon 17

[11] 1 John 5:20

[12] Ibid. 4:12 NLT

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R. Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FIVE (Lesson CXLVI) 06/01/23

^5:21 So, dear children, keep yourselves away from false gods.

Not surprisingly, many interpretations have been offered. Many of these suggestions have merit, and it is hard to be decisive one way or another in the light of such scholarly variety. What does seem clear is that in the immediate context keeping oneself from idols is the necessary commitment to know the true God through Jesus the Anointed One. But in the context of the whole letter, it is not the pagans who do not know the true God but the secessionist.^[1] For this reason, suggestions are that John’s appeal relates to the secessionists is probably the best; that is, it is an encouragement not to accept the false teaching of the secessionists.^[2]

Ben Witherington III (1951), a man who believes that Christians can fall away from the faith, examines the Apostle John’s warning against idolatry which in this case is an alert about the deity whom the false teachers are trying to get the audience to worship, someone other than or less than Jesus. Idolatry is to be understood as a reference to John’s opponents, whose false Christology and understanding of Jesus are considered idolatrous. Therefore, faithful believers should stay away from false ideas while being reassured that the True One is protecting them from evil. Thus, John’s teaching ends like a salvation message, with a final appeal that warns about hearing but not believing and practicing God’s Word.^[3]

With her crafted spiritual insight, Judith Lieu (1951) feels that dramatically verse twenty would have been a powerful closing assertion. But the Apostle John, however, sees himself not as an orator but as a pastor. The confident sequence of “we know” has created an implied community of shared convictions and intentions, just as the creation of such a community of commitment has been the letter’s strategy from the start. Yet even the most unshakable affirmations have been swiftly followed by words of warning and encouragement.

So, it comes as John again puts on the teacher’s shaw addressing his “children.”^[4] Here, he reverts to the second person plural, which readies his readers to anticipate a final injunction that will bring together all that has been said. Yet just where his parting shot might be expected to be the most direct and pointed, it leaves modem readers perplexed and wondering what the early church fathers would have made of it. Why does John suddenly warn them against the attraction or the power of idols?^[5]

Contextual interpretation specialist Gary M. Burge (1952) notes that rather than closing the letter with a conventional greeting or blessing, the Apostle John adds a final appeal, using his now familiar title “little children.”^[6] It is an abrupt ending, and many have wondered if it launched a new section now lost to us. Nowhere else, for instance, does John refer to idolatry as one of the threats to the community.

Nevertheless, pagan idols constantly surrounded the early Christian church living in the Roman empire, and the rest of the Final Covenant gave constant warnings about them.^[7] As a result, the verb used in verse twenty-one (NIV “keep”) differs from that used in verse eighteen. This Greek verb phylasso means “to guard,” a defensive activity.^[8] John, therefore, urges us in verse eighteen that while Jesus keeps or sustains us, we must be diligent and alert – never passive – when it comes to taking care of ourselves.

But what are we to look out for? Idols are often viewed symbolically in the Bible as anything that competes with God. Paul gives idolatry an elastic meaning.^[9] In other words, John urges his readers to watch out for anything that may become a substitute for God: religious shams, false religion, and even the error-filled terms of the secessionists.^[10]

As an international speaker on Puritan theology, Joel Beeke (1952) looks at the Apostle John’s recommendation for growing in the blessed assurance of one’s salvation. The increase occurs when fellowshipping with the Father, the Son, the apostles, and the saints. In effect, John closes his epistle by reminding readers that he also told them how to grow in the assurance of faith. ^[11] John is expressing himself as a caring pastor to their believers, calling them their “little children.” John does so in light of people asking, “How can anyone be sure of eternal life, or is it only an assumption?” Those with doubt should yearn for an increase in their faith in their Savior and Lord. Such maturing assurance is critical to a person’s spiritual health.

That leads to other questions: How do I obtain assurance, keep it, and persevere in it? The first directive is through prayer.^[12] The second is through intercessory prayer.^[13] To this, John then adds how a believer can build assurance on the certainties of the Christian life.^[14] Take note that verses eighteen to twenty all begin with the Greek verb eidō, which the KJV translates as “know” two hundred eighty-one times. John ensures that every believer can know that with such assurance, those born of God are also God-protected. The Evil One can’t take hold of them. We can know that we are held firm by God; it’s only the people of a godless society who continue in the grip of the Evil One. And we can know that God’s Son came so we could recognize and understand God’s truth.  We can know we are living in Truth itself ‒ God’s Son, Jesus the Anointed One. This Jesus is both the Divine Truth and Eternal Life.^[15]

Emphasizing the Apostle John’s call to Christian fellowship, Bruce B. Barton (1954) observes that the Apostle John closes his letter with a final affectionate caution. Given the context of this letter, “idols” probably refer to false teachings that present false images of Jesus the Anointed One, who is “one with the only true God, and eternal life.”^[16] An idol can be anything that substitutes for true faith, anything that robs the Anointed One of His full deity and humanity, any human idea that claims to be more authoritative than the Bible, or any loyalty that replaces God at the center of our lives. John was bluntly saying that to follow the false teachings would amount to turning away from God or turning to idols. The results would be the same.

In this letter, John presented a clear picture of the Anointed One. What Christians think about Jesus the Anointed One is central to their teaching, preaching, and living. Jesus is the God-man, fully God and fully human at the same time. He came to earth to die for their sins on behalf of all sinners. Through faith in Him, believers receive eternal life and the power to do His will. Every person must decide the answer to the most crucial question – who is Jesus the Anointed One?^[17]

A scholar who truly inspires Christian missionaries, Daniel L. Akin (1957), notes that by saying there is a “true” God, there must be “false” gods. Therefore, the Apostle John provides a simple but perfect complement to verse twenty and a definitive conclusion to the letter in verse twenty-one. Be on guard, says John, from God-substitutes. The Apostle Paul gives a similar warning to the Ephesian believers^[18] and the church in Colossae.^[19] Any effort to earn our salvation creates idols of necessity.

For if we make our career, our lifestyle, or our social life, our fundamental “security” in life – our “wisdom” and “power” – then those things become idols which we look to instead of the Anointed One for our “acceptance” and “well-being.” Those who rely on keeping the religious laws or social norms to save their souls safe for eternity are breaking the first commandment by their artificial gods of morality. Their good works are then done in honor and service to an idol to avoid accepting the Anointed One as their Lord and Savior.

To put it another way, idolatry is anything you love, enjoy, and pursue more than God, more than Jesus, who “is the true God and eternal life.” Idols say they are true when God says only, He and His Son are true. Idols say they will give life beyond the grave when God says only the Anointed One can provide eternal life. Idols make promises they cannot keep, whereas God says His Son provides and delivers everlasting life.

So, guard yourselves against idols looking only to control, manipulate, and demand obedience that brings them applause to please you. Your heart will never be satisfied and at rest with any of these little false gods. Only the Anointed One truly and eternally satisfies. Jesus said it ideally: “Whoever drinks from the water that I will give them will never get thirsty again.”^{[20] [21]}

With a classical thinking approach to understanding the scriptures, Bruce G. Schuchard (1958) says that initially, verse twenty-one “seems to be a rather unexpected and inappropriate conclusion of this Letter, which nowhere makes mention of idol worship.” Yet, John’s prior reference to the true God “suggests the contrast that any false god or false view of God is idolatry.” Like a dog returning to its vomit,^[22] the secessionists returned to the reckless ways of an especially idolatrous world. The final verse does not introduce a new concern but concludes the thought and draws out the implication of what has been said in verse twenty.

John also issues a warning for children to guard against idols. A final instance of direct address, “children,” helps with the one with which the body of the Epistle begins to frame the Epistle.^[23] Then, for the seventh and last time, John calls his hearers “children.” In the Final Covenant, the term “idol” is rarely used only with reference to the physical objects of pagan worship. The imperative “guard” helps mark an ending. John’s warning offers no “new concern” about idol worship or food sacrificed to idols or competing religions in the marketplace which crosses John’s mind at the last minute. Instead, John sharply contrasts his concluding concern with the truth that has been the focus of his entire Letter.

Resist the illusory, warned John, and keep to authentic/genuine. The secessionists came from a life of idolatry and returned to a life of idolatry. Thus, the community is warned to guard itself against the idols that were so common in first-century religion. Anything less than or contrary to the saving knowledge of God in the Anointed One, Jesus, is idolatry. In closing, John encourages his children again with all due diligence, emotional steadfastness, and full cognizance of abiding or departing from being in Him and He in them, of living or dying with the deceived and deceiving in the dark and dying world, the verse ends with a profound conclusion.”^[24]

Great expositional teacher David Guzik (1961) says that the Apostle John makes it clear that we cannot attain salvation alone. If God did not reveal Himself to us, we would never find Him. We know Him and can know Him because He has revealed Himself to us. More than any other way, God revealed Himself to us by Him who is true, in His Son Jesus the Anointed One.

Therefore, Jesus is the key and the focus of it all. We see the personality and character of God by looking at Jesus. “He who is true” also reminds us of John’s theme through the letter: the importance of true belief, of trusting in the faithful Jesus, not a made-up Jesus. The Jesus of the Bible is Him who is trustworthy, His Son, Jesus the Anointed One. We can only have a real relationship with the God who is really there! Idolatry, whether apparent (praying to a statue) or subtle (living for your career or someone other than God), will always choke out a real relationship with God and damage our relationships with our spiritual brothers and sisters in Jesus. No wonder John ends with “guard yourselves idols;” this is how we protect our relationship with God.^[25]

Marianne Meye Thompson (1964) combines verses twenty and twenty-one and concludes that the coming of God’s Son is appropriate as a concluding statement about His role in bringing salvation and eternal life. God’s Son brings an understanding of God and facilitates fellowship with Him. Jesus has given us insight, which includes the ability to discern the spirits^[26] and understand what the Spirit teaches us.^[27] We are supplied with apprehending the truth, which is not so much the power to comprehend things as it is the power to know “Him who is true.” We see here again the claim that only through God’s Son can one come to know the God who is true, as opposed to any false conception of God that people construct in their minds.

Jesus has come so that we might come to the knowledge of the true God. The Greek verb eidō is used here to acknowledge through perception, discern or discover. Thus, such a God can be mediated only by one characterized by truth.^[28] Jesus the Anointed One is one with the true God. But Jesus the Anointed One, who makes knowledge of God possible, is so intimately related to God that He can be called Divine. In that case, any doctrine or worship that dilutes those affirmations is equal to idolatry. The warning for little children to keep yourselves from idols points to the danger of worshiping any God other than the one revealed through Jesus the Anointed One. The idols John mentions are not pagan deities or images of stone or wood. Instead, an idol is a false picture of God that causes one to stumble and fall away from a relationship with the true God. John’s readers are to keep themselves away from every kind of false belief, for loyalty to a false god leads to death, but allegiance to the true God brings eternal life. ^[29]

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[1] Cf. 1 John 1:6; 2:4

[2] Kruse, Colin G., The Letters of John (The Pillar New Testament Commentary). op. cit., loc. cit., Kindle Edition

[3] Witherington, Ben III., Letters and Homilies for Hellenized Christians: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary on Titus, 1-2 Timothy and 1-3 John, op. cit., loc. cit., Kindle Edition

[4] Cf. 1 John 2:28; 3:7

[5] Lieu, Judith: A New Testament Library, I, II, & III John, op. cit., p. 234

[6] 1 John 2:1, 12, 13, 18, 28; 3:7, 18; 4:4; 5:21

[7] Romans 1:23; 1 Corinthians 8:4-10; 1 Thessalonians 1:9

[8] See John 12:25; 17:12

[9] Cf. Ephesians 5:5; Colossians 3:5

[10] Burge, Gary M., The Letters of John (The NIV Application Commentary), op. cit., pp. 218-219

[11] 1 John 5:13

[12] Ibid. 5:14-15

[13] Ibid. 5:16-17

[14] Ibid. 5:18-21

[15] Beeke Joel, The Epistles of John, Ch. 22, op. cit., pp. 203-213

[16] 1 John 5:20

[17] Barton, Bruce B; 1,2,3 John (Life Application Bible Commentary) op. cit., p. 120

[18] Ephesians 5:5

[19] Colossians 3:5

[20] John 4:14

[21] Akin, Daniel L., Exalting Jesus in 1,2,3 John (the Anointed One-Centered Exposition Commentary, op. cit., loc. cit., Kindle Edition

[22] Proverbs 26:11

[23] 1 John 2:1

[24] Schuchard, Bruce G., Concordia Commentary, 1-3 John, op. cit., pp. 587-589

[25] Guzik, David: Enduring Word, 1, 2, & 3 John & Jude, op. cit., pp. 101-102

[26] 1 John 4:1-6

[27] Ibid. 2:20-21,26-27

[28] Cf. John 14:6

[29] Thompson, Marianne M., The IVP New Testament Commentary Series, 1-3 John, op. cit., pp. 147-148

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R. Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FIVE (Lesson CXLV) 05/31/23

^5:21 So, dear children, keep yourselves away from false gods.

So, how are we to guard ourselves? John’s answer: concentrating all our faith and service on Him, whose power working in us can do much more than anything we can ask or think of.^[1] If God’s divine presence occupies our hearts, minds, and souls,^[2] there is no room for idols.^[3]

With academic precision, Stephen S. Smalley (1931-2018) feels strongly that the Apostle John’s final charge to his readers is based on the three “I know” assurances of verses eighteen, nineteen, and twenty-one, in which he sets out the character of the orthodox believer – does not continue to sin; born of God; and abides in the real God through the person and saving activity of Jesus the Anointed One.^[4]

The warning, “guard yourselves against false gods,” has in mind the foundation and character of the Christian faith described in this epistle. It helps maintain trust in the face of heretical opinion, which John warns members of his congregation. After the climactic statements in verses thirteen and twenty, the final appeal may appear somewhat anticlimactic. While, in fact, it establishes a powerful contrast to the positive truth outlined in the last section of the letter, and indeed in the whole epistle. Avoid the sham, John warns, and keep to the genuine (of which I have spoken).’ ^[5]

An insistent believer in Grace, Zane C. Hodges (1932-2008), thinks that the final caution of the letter should be, “Dear children, born-again-ones;^[6] keep yourselves from idols,” which may seem surprising. But there is no need to take “idols” in a figurative sense. In the Greco-Roman world of John’s day, any moral compromise with worldly perspectives likely led to some involvement with idolatry since idolatry permeated pagan life at every level. To adhere to “the true God and eternal life”^[7] and seek to express one’s sanctified nature as a child of God would mean avoiding idolatry and the moral laxness that comes with it. The Apostle John’s closing admonition was relevant to his initial readers.^[8]

Inspired by Jesus’ words, “go into all a godless society,” Edward J. Malatesta (1932-1998) agrees with other commentators that the Apostle John addresses the community for the last time as “his children” and urges them with a concluding imperative to keep themselves from idols. Jesus protects them,^[9] but they must do their part by accepting in faith the protection He offers. This means to resist all that is contrary to Jesus and the revelation provided to us in, through, and by Him.^[10]

As a capable scripture analyst, Ian Howard Marshall (1934-2015) points out that if what the Apostle John said is true, it is of the utmost urgency that his readers avoid anything that could lead them astray from God, who revealed Himself in Jesus His Son. So, for the last time, John addresses himself to his readers and warns them: “Keep yourselves from idols.” Unfortunately, this last word, introduced abruptly and forming the letter’s abrupt ending, has caused some readers difficulty in understanding the Apostle John’s main point.

Nowhere in the letter has John spoken of the danger of worship of the material images and false gods whose cults flourished in a godless society at that time. It is true that elsewhere in the Final Covenant, the danger of idol worship and its accompanying temptations is a matter of urgent warning.[11] Still, it is surprising if John suddenly introduces this theme at the end of his Epistle. Two possibilities of interpretation arise. One is that John is referring to false conceptions of God. Two is, having emphasized that Jesus is the true God, John warns against being misled into the worship of any other alleged manifestation or representation of God.^[12]

Messianic Bible scholar David Stern (1935) proposes that there are three things we know. (1) Everyone who has God as their Father does not go on sinning, and the evil one does not touch them, but he can tempt them. (2) The whole world lies in the power of the Evil One.^[13] (3) The Anointed One is genuinely Divine and eternal life. It is possible to understand this as stating that Yeshua, the Anointed One, is coequal with God. But the verse’s purpose appears to be declaring that God’s Son has come and has given us discernment so that we may know who among the various prophets teaching this or that is genuine.

Not only that, but we are also united with the genuine One; that is, we are in union with God and His Son Yeshua, the Anointed One. He, not the Evil One but the Genuine One, the One whose Son is Yeshua, is the genuine God and eternal life. Therefore, in the light of the summary of verse twenty, the final warning is to guard yourselves against false gods, from anything which might distract you from the Life, Yeshua, and God.^[14]

As a seasoned essayist on the Apostle John’s writings, John Painter (1935) points out that the final warning, “Little children, [Greek teknion] guard yourselves against idols,” is introduced in John’s familiar way.^[15] The alternative Greek expression paidion for “little children” (KJV; “young men” ‒ NIV;” “Young in the faith” ‒ NLT is used only in 1 John 2:13, 18. With John’s usual address in the last verse, he moves toward providing a personal farewell. Even this falls far short of the kind of farewell expected in a letter. Warnings and blessings are standard in endings.

Here we have personal notice, but much is missing from a customary conclusion. The alarm “guard yourselves against idols” is specific. It is aimed at a particular and known problem, indicated by the aorist imperative tense and the use of the definite article “of the idols” (Greek text). It suggests some connection with the problem of the opponents, which has been the issue all along.

It would be strange if the final warning introduced a new problem. Yet the introduction of the reference to “idols” is unexpected. What are idols? Thus, with the last word, John maintains his record of obscure communication. The warning against idolatry appears to come unexpectedly from out of nowhere. That is because we live outside the prevalent reality of idolatry in the Roman Empire. The probability is that John relates the problem of idolatry to the opponents. The fact that no “scriptural” arguments are used against them suggests a dominantly Gentile factor. In that context, “Jesus is the Anointed One” has lost its Jewish messianic sense.

It is now completely understood in its Johannine sense of the divine Son sent by the Father into a godless society, as Jesus the Anointed One has come in the flesh. Just how the opponents separated Jesus from the Anointed One is unclear. Still, their refusal to identify the Anointed One with Jesus is plain enough, as is the refusal to confess Jesus the Anointed One had come in the flesh. John relates this rejection to the idolatrous position of the opponents.^[16]

Ministry & Missions Overseer Muncia Walls (1937) focuses on an expression the Apostle John employed previously in this letter, as he has written with warm affection for his readers. His warning for them to keep themselves from idols is interesting. It may seem out of character as the Christians surely would not be guilty of worshiping some idol. But what constitutes idolatry? Remember, John, has been warning his readers against following the false teachers. To follow false doctrine is to turn one’s back on the truth. And to turn one’s back on truth and follow a false dogma would be idolatry. They would be worshiping not the true God and following the Truth, but they would be worshiping a false god and following a false religion.^[17]

Expositor and systematic theologist Michael Eaton (1942-2017) is ready to suggest that the Apostle John’s last word, “Little children, guard yourselves against idols,” indicates that the second commandment will be “fulfilled” by Christians, not just Jews. John subtly touches on the second of the ten commandments without using it as a citation. There is a delicate indication that the Christian who lives for Jesus is far from making an idol. A low view of Jesus is idolatry. Faithful loyalty to Jesus fulfills the second commandment, even without mentioning or focusing on it. ^[18]

After scrutinizing the Apostle John’s subject theme, William Loader (1944) reminds us of Jesus’ prayer.^[19] We find that eternal life is to know the only true God and Jesus, the Anointed One whom the Father sent. Eternal life is ultimately at stake in the issues addressed in the epistle. The Apostle John reminded us of that in verse thirteen, which corresponds with verse twenty in the structure of this final segment. Then verse twenty-one, “Children, be on your guard against idols,” should not be seen as an additional closing comment only loosely related to what has been said before. It is not a new concern about idol worship, food sacrificed to idols, or competing religions in the marketplace, which crosses John’s mind at the last minute. Instead, it is related immediately to the major concerns of the epistle.

In effect, John is saying that the issue facing the readers is one of believing in God or turning to a false god. The false god, the idol, is created by the renegade Christians who have propounded false teaching about the Anointed One’s coming. The understanding of God, which their position presupposes, can no longer be recognized as Christian. The God they would doubtless acclaim as the God of Jesus the Anointed One is a creation of their imagination, a deity, a theistic concept, supporting a system of thought and behavior which belongs not on the side of the God of Jesus but the side of a godless society.

In this epistle, John has explained how God’s being and action is love which reaches out into all creation, including ordinary human flesh, and concerns itself with life and relationships at all levels. But, unfortunately, theirs is a concept that divides reality, preserving only higher reality as spiritually relevant, thus denigrating both the earthly human Jesus and the responsibilities of practical caring which belong to the Christian community.^[20]

Great Commission practitioner David Jackman (1945) believes the Apostle John has brought us full circle. We have reached the top of the spiral staircase and found God in His everlasting life. And all our climbing has been with the explicit purpose that we might know that these things are objectively true and honest in our personal experience. The Anointed One gives that assurance. At its heart lies the indisputable fact that, by God’s grace, we know and are in Him. But it is not a reason to abuse the freedom of Christian assurance. So, dear children, keep yourselves from idols. Here is the analogy – our responsibility – which matches the keeping power of the Lord Jesus in verse eighteen.

Now, an idol is anything that occupies God’s place in worship. It is an imitation or substitute made of wood, stone, or precious metals rather than the real thing. It may be carved and shaped by artisans’ hands, But it is unlikely that John was thinking of such artifacts. His concern was with God’s false ideas and heretical concepts to which the church was subjected. Anything that squeezes God out of the central position towards the margin of one’s life must be ruthlessly toppled. Any notion of God which contradicts His perfect self-revelation in Jesus the Anointed One must be rejected.

This letter, indeed, the whole Bible, was written to enable us to distinguish truth from error. We have a responsibility to attend to sound teaching, to guard our Christian lives, and to have done with false goals, whether spiritual, intellectual, or material. The enemy is still false teaching inspired by the evil one, but Christians can be sure. They can know with certainty that they have eternal life. They can have confidence in the things that matter most. ^[21]

After analyzing the Apostle John’s teaching in verses fourteen to twenty-one, Earl S. Johnson Jr (1947-2020) sees that this section has two major parts. (I) The Message Brings Eternal Life (verses eleven to thirteen), and (II) The Message Keeps Persons from Sinning (verses fourteen to twenty-one). Now Johnson notices that John expands on what he said in verse thirteen concerning the power in Jesus’ name. So, if there is power in the name [Yeshua, meaning “Savior”] of Jesus, then it follows that prayers given in that name, according to God’s will, certainly will be answered. John may be thinking of what our Lord promised His disciples.^[22]

Nevertheless, John concludes his message on a negative note that is very difficult to understand concerning Moral and Mortal sin. Yet, he leaves his readers with a message of hope.^[23] John suddenly ends this tract by repeating his main assertions about belief in God’s Son and the gift of eternal life. We must reject all false gods and ideas and live in the Anointed One.^[24]

After studying the context surrounding this verse, John W. (Jack) Carter (1947) defines idolatry as giving to someone or something other than God the authority and submission due to God alone. Anything that takes priority before God is an idol. Anything that works to diminish one’s love for God or one’s obedience to Him is an idol. The LORD has a lot of competition for people’s hearts today, just as from the beginning of creation. However, John is writing to those who have placed their faith and trust in God. These have survived the messages of God’s enemy and are secure in His hands. 

Yet, the competition for the heart continues.  The evil one cannot take away the salvation of the faithful, but he can still steal and destroy much of what God intends to be a blessing for those who love Him. When people listen and submit to the false doctrine and lies of the influential, ungodly heretics, they can be robbed of the peace and joy God has for them. Therefore, John’s final statement is fitting for anyone ministering to the faithful: keep God first in your life. After all, you are first in His.^[25]

A man who loves sharing God’s Word, Robert W. Yarbrough (1948) states that apart from the postscript in verse twenty-one, John ends in verse twenty with the words “eternal life.” It is a fitting bookend to an epistle whose opening two sentences feature three mentions of this life. Like several other expressions, “we know,” “Son of God,” “Jesus the Anointed One,” “truth,” and “eternal life” serves to confirm earlier emphases and leave readers finally oriented in the direction to which the epistle’s opening lines first pointed them: toward eternity, toward God, toward the incarnation, toward the Son, toward the witness, toward eternal life.^[26]

Skilled in Dead Sea Scroll interpretation and Final Covenant writings, Colin G. Kruse (1950) points out that verse twenty-one stands in contrast to verses eighteen to twenty. There he describes the privileges of believers born of God; thus, the children of God, and primarily known Him that is true, that is, the true God. The appeal, “Dear children, keep yourselves from idols,” enshrines the obligation of those who know the true God to have nothing to do with pagan idols. What the Apostle John had in mind in issuing this exhortation puzzles interpreters. It is to be taken literally as a warning against idolatry, and if so, how should it then be related to the message of the letter as a whole? Or is it to be taken metaphorically, and if so, with what meaning?

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[1] Ephesians 3:20; cf Matthew 12:43-45

[2] Ephesians 2:22

[3] Ward, Ronald A., The Epistles on John and Jude, op. cit., pp. 59-60

[4] See 1 John 14-17

[5] Smalley, Stephen S., Word Biblical Commentary, Vol. 51, 1,2,3 John, op. cit., p. 309

[6] Cf. 1 John 2:1, 12, 28; 3:7, 18; 4:4

[7] Ibid. 5:20

[8] Hodges, Zane C., Bible Knowledge Commentary and Prophecy, op. cit., p. 164

[9] 1 John 5:18c

[10] Malatesta, Edward J., Interiority and Covenant, op. cit., p. 321

[11] Cf. John 4:23; Romans 1:25; 1 Corinthians 10:14, 20-21; Colossians 3:5

[12] Marshall, Ian Howard: The Epistles of John (The New International Commentary on the New Testament), op. cit., pp. 255-256

[13] Luke 4:5-6

[14] Stern, David H., Jewish New Testament Commentary. op. cit., loc. cit., Kindle Edition

[15] See 1 John 2:1, 2, 28; 3:7, 18; 4:4; 5:21

[16] Painter, John. Sacra Pagina: 1, 2, and 3 John: Volume 18, op. cit., loc. cit., Kindle Edition

[17] Walls, Muncia: Epistles of John and Jude, op. cit., pp. 97-98

[18] Eaton, Michael: Focus on the Bible, 1,2,3 John, op. cit., p. 198

[19] John 17:3

[20] Loader, William: Epworth Commentary, The Johannine Epistles, op. cit., pp. 79-80

[21] Jackman, David: The Message of John’s Letters, op. cit., pp. 171-172

[22] Cf. John 15:16; 16:23-26

[23] 1 John 5:19

[24] Johnson Jr, Earl S, Basic Bible Commentary, James, 1-2 Peter, 1-3 John, and Jude, op. cit., pp. 123-125

[25] Carter, Dr. John W. (Jack). 1,2,3, John & Jude: (The Disciple’s Bible Commentary Book 48), op. cit., pp. 138-139

[26] Yarbrough, Robert W., 1-3 John (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament), op. cit., p. 321

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R. Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FIVE (Lesson CXLIV) 05/30/23

^5:21 So, dear children, keep yourselves away from false gods.

Men cast away the faith of the living God and set up a religion of their own; they refuse to acknowledge the God Who demands sanctification and holiness and set up instead the worship of genius, the worship of all that is noble and great; they protest against a God Who works miracles and answers prayer, and in place of religion, they put the progress of culture and empire, as though it were worship to join oceans and reduce distances! What have they done?

Instead of worshipping the true God, they have set up the worship of the creature; instead of humbly submitting themselves under the mighty hand of God, they parade forth as the champions of a vain and worldly cult that seeks in vain to hide its wretchedness under the æsthetic covering of art and poetry! And seeing that we all live in the enervating atmosphere of this world and feel its awful power of secularizing our Christianity, do we not need more than ever that Apostolic warning: “Keep yourselves from idols.”^[1]

Frederick B. Meyer (1847-1929) claims that all Apostle John’s readers knew they had eternal life. The pilot’s wheel is in their hands, guiding them onward, but its destiny is hidden from view. We also know that God hears us when we comply with the conditions of true prayer. We know, moreover, that we can become the medium through which the life of God passes to others. Thus, the humblest child may have power with God and man. The Only-Begotten keeps begotten. Evil can no more touch them than discoloration could reach the bush in the wilderness bathed in the celestial fire.[2] Who would go back to a godless society? Enumerate and press these four items of positive knowledge to heart but beware lest what is legitimate and natural may become an idol. Love, knowledge, abiding, conquering these are the keynotes of this inspiring letter.^[3]

A prolific writer on the Epistles, George G. Findlay (1849-1919), points out that the object of the knowledge that God’s Son brings is “the True One,” namely, Divine Himself, the Real, the Living, in contrast with dead, false “idols,”^[4] whom Jesus has shown to a godless society. To glorify the Father, not Himself, was the end of the Anointed One’s coming, pursued with unswerving loyalty; the Apostle would have misinterpreted his Master had he stated things otherwise or given the name of “the True” in connection to any other than Him to whom the Son ascribed it – “the only true God.^[5]” He repeats the confession of Jesus for his last sentence of testimony: “He is one with the true God, and (here, in this knowledge, is) eternal life.”

Scholars using authoritarian theology, when eagerly proofing texts, determined that the last clause of verse twenty is an affirmation, unnecessary after all that the Apostle has said and foreign to this passage, of the proper Deity of the Anointed One. So, what John has to do is seal his letter with the assurance to his once pagan readers that they have found and grasped the very God in the Anointed One and are no longer made a mockery with their idols and phantoms of blessedness; they are no more, as in heathen days, “people without hope, and godless in a godless society.”^[6] 

In this faith, well may they guard themselves against the idols. Old habits, the pressure of heathen society around them, and the enchantments and sorceries the ancient cults possessed made the danger of yielding to idolatry constant with John’s readers and some of them almost irresistible. They were subject to an ongoing siege, marked at intervals by violent assaults, who had to stand day and night on guard. No other, no slighter faith will save pagan or Christian, the plain layman or the theologian, from the idols of his imagining. John’s “little children” know that God’s Son is come by “the witness in” them, by “the Spirit He has given,”^[7] by their “anointing from the Holy One,” by their changed life and character, by “the true light” that “shines” on all things for them;¹ and in this knowledge their security is located.^[8]

With his stately speaking style, William M. Sinclair (1850-1917) agrees that the Apostle John’s parting words are suggested by the thought of “the true God.” Every scheme of thought and object of affection, which is not of Him, is a rival of His kingdom, a false god, a delusive appearance without solidity or truth. The One Being in whom we have life eternal is the Anointed One. We possess this Anointed through the Spirit of God, whose marks and tokens are not priestly vestments but faith and love. In this meaning, the Apostle’s cry sounds forth through all the ages, in the ears of all Christians, “LITTLE CHILDREN, KEEP YOURSELVES FROM IDOLS!”^[9]

One of the most influential Anglican reconcilers, Charles Gore (1853-1932), was certain that “Keep yourselves from idols,” was thundered by First Covenant prophets, but it often fell on deaf ears. And they meant by idolatry the worship of idols of wood and stone. But it was apparent that this idolatry is so sternly prohibited because it is a worship of false gods, or, if not that because it misrepresents the true God. During their captivity in Babylon, a significant change came over Israel. They ceased, in the old sense, to be inclined to idolatry. The prophets after Captivity have little need to denounce it. It has become the national characteristic of Israel to abhor idols.

Nevertheless, says Gore, the old prophets would have been disappointed in Israel, as was John the Baptizer and our Lord. Though in name only they worshipped the true God by the authorized rites, they had a perilously false idea of God in their hearts. And the spiritual essence of idolatry is either to enthrone in our hearts some other object than God (“covetousness which is idolatry”) or to entertain wrong ideas of Him.

Therefore, when John says, “Keep yourselves from idols,” he is not warning the Christians against heathen idolatry – of such a danger the Epistle gives us no hint – but warning them against enthroning in their mind’s false ideas of God, something else than the true God: such false beliefs as in this Epistle he has ascribed to the spirit of antichrist. And if we look around us today and take note of the ideas of God in human thinking, often so strangely different from those which our Lord taught us, we must confess that we need to examine ourselves afresh under the heading of the second commandment; that we need to make sure that the God whom we are worshipping is not an idol of our imagination or other people’s imagination, but “the real God.”^[10]

Beyond any doubt, remarks Alonzo R. Cocke (1858-1901), the phrase “Little children” is the same deep word pointing to birth-relationship and recalls their minds to the fact that they are of celestial lineage: “Born of God.” Being his children, the Apostle John tells them to “keep yourselves from all idols.” You are God’s children and would degrade yourselves by visiting idol shrines or drinking wine in their temples. We of today should realize our divine birth and abstain from every form of sin. The most gilded sin degrades the child of God.^[11]

Esteemed ministry veteran James B. Morgan (1859-1942) finds these closing words of this epistle are worthy of its venerable author, the Apostle John, and of the Spirit by which he spoke, distinguished by the tenderness of spirit, diction, simplicity, and meaning comprehensiveness. “Little children” – this is his farewell salutation. He used it often before but never with so much affection and concern as now.

He finished his address to them, and his age and infirmities reminded him he could not expect to speak much more to them in the flesh. Some scholars believe this epistle was among the latest of his compositions. So, he takes leave of his beloved ones, as an aged parent having their last counsel with their “little children.” He speaks plainly as, in such circumstances, it suited him to say. Even they who in years were little children could not fail to understand him.

How much more must his words have been plain to those who, in spirit and habit of mind, exemplified the simplicity in the Anointed One as “little children.” Yet the thoughts are as weighty as the words are few and simple. They comprehend, in a sense, all he has said to them in his letter. In his style and habit of thought, he strongly resembles his divine Master. No one ever spoke so simply nor yet so expressively as he. The beloved disciple comes nearest to Him, and the text is an example – “Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.”^[12]

Thinking as a dispensationalist, Arno C. Gaebelein (1861-1945) asks, “What is an idol?” For the Apostle John, anything and everything draws the affection and devotion of heart and soul from the Lord Jesus, the Anointed One. So may He, through the power of His Spirit, keep us all from idols. And the Anointed One will preserve us if we give in our hearts and lives the preeminence to our Lord and walk in the light since He is the Light.^[13]

With characteristic fundamental thinking, Alan England Brooke (1863-1939) states the Apostle John’s favorite form of address by appeal. If using the active tense with the reflexive[14] can be regarded as “emphasizing the duty of personal effort,” it is significant. The danger is great. It needs all the effort they can make to guard against it. All the false images of God that men have created for themselves instead of accepting the true revelation of Him given in His Son. The expression embraces all false conceptions of God. It is not exhausted by the particular conceptions of the (Gnostic) false teachers against whose views the Epistle is directed. And it is not probable that John intends only actual objects of pagan worship. On the contrary, commentators such as Zahn suggest they find an indication of the character of the readers to whom the Epistle is addressed.^[15]

With an eye for detail, David Smith (1866-1932) feels that the Apostle John’s appeal arises naturally, in that “this” God revealed and made near and sure in the Anointed One “is the True God and Life Eternal. Cleave to Him, and do not take to do with false Gods: guard yourselves against the idols.” John is not thinking of the heathen worship of Ephesus Artemis and her Temple but the heretical substitutes for the Christian conception of God. “Little children” gives a tone of tenderness to the appeal. “Keep yourselves” is used for “guarding” a flock,^[16] deposit, trust, or prisoner.^[17] It also implies “watch from within”^[18]  and “watch from without.”

Thus, the garrison is guarded against besiegers when a city is surrounded. The heart is a citadel and must be protected against devious assailants from without. Not just defending, but “be on guard,” suggesting a crisis. The Cerinthian heresy was a desperate assault demanding a decisive repulse.^[19]

Without using complicated language, Albert Barnes (1872-1951) calls “Little children” a favorite mode of address with the Apostle John,^[20] and it was proper to use it in giving his parting counsel, embracing, in fact, all that he had to say – that they should keep themselves from idols, and eliminate nothing to alienate their affections from the true God. His great object had been to lead them to the knowledge and love of God, and all His counsels would be followed if, amidst the temptations of idolatry, and the allurements of sin, nothing would be allowed to estrange their hearts from Him. Keep yourselves from idols. From worshipping them, from all that would imply communion with them or their devotees.^[21]

The word rendered idols here means, properly, an image, phantom – as of the dead; then any image or figure which would represent anything, particularly anything invisible; and hence anything designed to represent God, and that was set up to be acknowledged as standing in for Him to bring His perfections more vividly before the mind. The word “idol” applies to idol-gods – heathen deities,^[22] but it would also apply to any image designed to represent the true God and through or by which the true God was to be adored.

The essential things in the word “idol” seem to be (a) an image or representation of the Deity and (b) the making of that an object of adoration instead of the true God. Since one of these things would likely lead to the other, both are included in the prohibitions of idolatry.^[23] It would forbid all attempts to represent God by paintings or statues; idols, images, and pictures that would be substituted in the place of God as objects of devotion or that might transfer the reverence for God to the image, giving those affections to other beings or objects which are God’s alone. Unfortunately, he has not stated why the Apostle John closed this epistle with this order, and it may not be easy to determine.

It may have been for such reasons as these: (1) Those to whom he wrote were surrounded by idolaters, and there was a danger that they might fall into the prevailing sin, or in some way so act as to be understood to lend their sanction to idolatry. (2) In a world full of alluring objects, there was danger then, as there is at all times, that the affections should be fixed on other objects than the supreme God and that what is due Him should be withheld.

In the conclusion of the exposition of this epistle, it may be added that the same caution is as needful for us as it was for those to whom John wrote. We are not in danger of bowing down to idols or engaging in the grossest forms of idol worship. But we may be in no less danger than they to whom John wrote were, of substituting other things in our affections in the place of the true God and of devoting to them the time and affection due to Him.^[24]

With clear spiritual eyesight, we can see, says Neal M. Flanagan (1908-1986) that the Apostle John concludes his thoughts with a razor-sharp warning against antichrist teachings spreading in his readers’ area. Thus, these are not against false images but false doctrines, especially those that peek out between the lines in his letter – a faulty appreciation of Jesus’ humanity and its saving power.^[25]

As a spiritual mentor, Ronald A. Ward (1920-1986) notes that the Apostle John does not end his epistle and afterthoughts in a strict tone of authority but with warm affection, “Little children.”^[26] Immediately the question is raised, “What idols is John talking about? Is it a carved block of wood or chiseled stone? Regardless of its shape, size, or material, it is the opposite of what the makers claim. It is a substitute for and a rival to the one true God, made known in His Son Jesus the Anointed One. That includes any thought, interest, ambition, cause, or personality, whether mental or marble images, that take God’s place in a person’s life; it is an idol.  

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[1] Dryander, Ernst von: A Commentary on the First Epistle of St. John, op. cit., p. 252

[2] See Exodus 3:1-6

[3] Meyer, Frederick B., Through the Bible Commentary, op. cit., loc. cit.

[4] Cf. 1 Thessalonians 1:10

[5] John 17:3

[6] Ephesians 2:12

[7] 1 John 5:10; 3:34

[8] Findlay, George G., Fellowship in the Life Eternal: An Exposition of the Epistles of St. John, op. cit., pp. 428-430

[9] Sinclair, William M., New Testament Commentary for English Readers, Charles J. Ellicott (Ed.), op. cit., Vol. 3, p. 494

[10] Gore, Charles: The Epistles of St. John, op. cit., pp. 219-220

[11] Cocke, Alonzo R: Studies in the Epistles of John; or, The Manifested Life, op. cit., p. 139

[12] Morgan, James B., An Exposition of the First Epistle of John, op. cit., Lecture LII, pp. 519-520

[13] Gaebelein, Arno C., The Annotated Bible, op. cit., p. 161

[14] Refers back to John’s favorite form of address by appeal

[15] Brooke, Alan E., A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Johannine Epistles of John, op. cit., p. 154

[16] Luke 2:8

[17] Acts of the Apostles 12:4

[18] 1 John 2:3

[19] Smith, David: The Expositor’s Greek Testament, 1 John, op. cit., p. 199

[20] 1 John 2:1

[21] Cf. 1 Corinthians 10:14

[22] 1 Corinthians 8:4,7; 10:19; Romans 2:22; 2 Corinthians 6:16; 1 Thessalonians 1:9

[23] Exodus 20:4-5

[24] Barnes, Albert: New Testament Notes, op. cit., pp. 4896-4897

[25] Flanagan, Neal M., The Johannine Epistles, Collegeville Bible Commentary, op. cit., p. 1026

[26] See 1 John 2:1

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R. Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FIVE (Lesson CXLIII) 05/29/23

^5:21 So, dear children, keep yourselves away from false gods.

After contemplating John’s train of thought, William Kelly (1822-1888) notes that along with the truth and the grace the Apostle John impressively presents is a short and solemn warning: “Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.” Satan makes every object outside the Anointed One that mankind’s heart sets up and clings to an idol. They may not be for the present gold or silver, or stone or wood, but of a subtler nature. Yet the day hastens when the mass of Judaism and Christendom, even where they have boasted of their Protestantism, will amalgamate in the coming falling away to adore the Man of Sin, the Antichrist, when he sits down in God’s temple, claiming himself as God. Beware, the Lord’s return is at hand.^[1]

Familiar with John’s writing style, William B. Pope (1822-1903) mentions that this brief but all-comprehensive verse closes the Epistle, the entire apostolical testimony, and probably the whole revelation of God. Accordingly, it must have a broad interpretation. It is a solemn warning, most affectionate but most rigorous, against everything that may invade the supremacy of the “one true God,” as revealed in His Son Jesus the Anointed One, whether in the doctrine and worship of the Church or the affections of the regenerate heart. External idols, as still retained in heathenism, though fast passing away, are not excluded from the appeal. Still, there has been no allusion to them throughout the Epistle, nor did the danger of the “little children” trend in that direction.

Though John does not use the Pauline expression that Christians are the temple of the Holy Spirit, the idea of this pervades his whole doctrine. Therefore, those that dwell in love abide in God and God in them. Consequently, every thought of the mind, every feeling of the heart, and every movement of the will must be faithful in all worship to Him. As addressed to the first readers of the Epistle, the warning was against the false theosophy^[2] of the Gnostics; as a prophetic exhortation, it foresaw and guarded against all violations of the doctrine of the mediation of the trinity; and, as spoken to the inmost soul of every regenerate Christian, it proclaims the one immutable principle of the Christian religion that God must be their “All in all.”^[3]

With holiness doctrine expertise, Daniel Steele (1824-1914) says that the phrase “Little children” is a term of endearment addressed to all readers, irrespective of age. “Guard yourself against idols.” Contrast is one of the laws of the suggestion of thought. In this Epistle, we have had light and darkness, truth and falsehood, love and hate, the Anointed One and antichrist, life and death, righteousness and sin, the children of God and the devil’s brood, the spirit of truth and the disposition of error, the believer protected against corruption by the Only Begotten Son, and a godless society in the clutches of the old serpent, the devil. Now, we come to a fitting, practical, climacteric conclusion, “Worship the true God and shun idols.”

We must bear in mind the environment of idolatry in which Christians lived in John’s day when every street and every house swarmed with idols, and magnificent temples and groves and seductive idolatrous rites constituted the chief attraction of Ephesus, the city of great Diana. Some of the Gnostic teachers were given occasion for this warning against idols by their sophistry that idolatry was harmless or that there was no need to suffer martyrdom to avoid it. If it were sinful, it had no power to defile the spirit with the body, but the material envelope only.^[4]

After sufficient examination, Brooke Wescott (1825-1901) states that once again, the anxiety of the Apostle John calls up the title of affection which has not been used since chapter 4:4, for believers to guard themselves against going back into idolatry. The Greek verb and pronoun phylassō heautou (“keep yourselves” – KJV) is not found again in the Final Covenant.^[5]  This “guarding” of the Christian answers to the “keeping” of the Anointed One in verse eight. The active tense with the reflexive pronoun is distinguished from the middle tense in Luke’s Gospel,^[6] emphasizing the duty of personal effort because an “idol” is anything that occupies the place due to God. The definite article calls up all the familiar objects that fall under the title of “idol.” The command to Christians is not generally to keep themselves from such things as idols but the well-known objects of false devotion.^[7] This comprehensive warning is probably the latest voice of Scripture.^[8]

Alexander Maclaren (1826-1910) is considered a monarch in the pulpit, so the Apostle ends his letter. These words are probably not only the close of this epistle but the last words, chronologically, of Scripture. The elder Apostle, John, gathers his ebbing force, to sum up, his life’s work in a sentence that might still be remembered though much else was forgotten ‒ the last words stick. Perhaps, too, some thought of future generations, to whom his witness might come, passed across his mind. At all events, some felt that we are here listening to the last words of the only living Apostle that may well be in ours.

In this final utterance, you will observe that the Apostle drops the triumphant “we know,” which we have found in previous sermons reiterated with such emphasis. He does so, not because he doubts that all his brethren would gladly attest and confirm what he was about to say, but because his last words should be his own; the utterance of personal experience, and weighty with it, and with apostolic authority. So, he melts down all that he had learned from the Anointed One and had been teaching for fifty years into that one iron-clad sentence. The feeble voice rings clear and robust, then softens into tremulous tones of earnest appeal and almost a plea. The dying light leaps up in one bright flash: breaking the glass lamp, but the flame remains. And if we let it shine into our lives, we shall not walk in darkness but have the light of life.^[9]

Like a spiritual farmer planting the seed of God’s Word, Henry A. Sawtelle (1832-1913) suggests that at this point, the Apostle John is prepared to stop writing and gives his readers his parting principle, with a tenderloving address; including a title that reminded them of their relation at once to God and him, inspired them with Christian confidence, and laid the basis for strong warning and appeal. “Keep [stand] guard” (as at a garrison’s gates and on the walls) from the temptation of idolatry. It includes all idols worshiped by a godless society, whether spiritual or material. Defend yourselves from all the spirit and form of idolatry. The allegiance of your worship and love is due to Him, the True God, and Life Eternal, and not to be turned or divided to any object or system of human creation or finiteness. The Anointed One and idolatry are mutually exclusive alternatives in the hearts of men.^[10]

With Spirit-led certainty, William Baxter Godbey (1833-1920) applauds the blazing emphasis with which the Apostle John pours out a descriptive and expository explanation of Christhood. After people are well sanctified and established in holiness, there is very little probability of their deflection into idolatry. Nevertheless, young converts need constant vigilance and caution lest they be led away on some line of worldliness, all of which is idolatry.^[11]

Noting the Apostle John’s doctrinal implications, John James Lias (1834-1923) thinks that rather than confine this to “idols,” it should include figments of the imagination. The false conceptions of Divinity abroad confuse people’s minds and lead them from what is good to what is evil. These conceptions of the mind, presented in visible shape, became what in later times was known as idols. “To guard” implies more careful guardianship than “to keep.”

The latter has the result in view instead, the effect of cautious protection of oneself, namely, safety, while “to guard” gives the idea of danger to be guarded against. And this is precisely John’s point and why he concludes his epistle. It is not with the glorious truth of the last verse, with which he might have brought his teaching to an end, but with words of solemn warning suited to the dangerous position in which the persons he addressed were placed.

Idols were to be found wherever they went, notes Lias. Their temples rose in multitudes in every city and every country throughout a godless society. The household gods of the heathen faced them in every house. The rites of heathendom forced themselves on them at every public or private gathering, on every occasion of business or pleasure. Unfortunately, the principles from which they had been delivered were entwined with those rites; behind them stood the force of habit, the ties of family, and social affection. It was no easy matter in those days for Christians to stand firm. They needed constant reminding of “Him that is true,” and of the close relationship they had with Him, if they were to resist influences at once so all-pervading and so subtle. And what the Apostle said to them he says still to us.^[12]

A tried and tested biblical scholar who believes in the up-building of the Christian life, Robert Cameron (1839-1904) sees that the phrase “to keep” does not mean staying away from where idols are. Instead, we are to place ourselves so that the images cannot come where we are; that is, where our thoughts and affections are. The more authentic rendering in Greek is “Guard yourselves against idols.”

Throughout the Epistle, the Apostle John testifies that Jesus the Anointed One was the manifestation of God. If we receive Him as the manifestation of that Life, as God in the Anointed One, and if we cling to Him and have no other object of worship before our hearts, there will be no possibility of idols coming before our minds. The word translated as “keep” is only used three times by John.^[13] First, we do this by realizing that we are in the true One, even in His Son, Jesus the Anointed One. And secondly, by having our hearts stay on Him so that there is no room for any idol to find a lodging place within us.

For instance, the prophet Hosea closes his remarkable prophecy by giving a picture of Israel finally, fully redeemed from idolatry’s fatal sin. In the end, this “perverse nation” will say, “What have I to do anymore with idols? And I, I will answer and affirm him.”^[14] To have heard and understood Yahweh was to break with idols forever. We have heard, seen, gazed upon, and handled Him who is the real God – Him who is the outshining of the glory and the exact image of the essential nature of God. What have we to do with the emptiness of the idol when we have the fullness of the Father – God? The carved bust is nothing to us, whether molded by people’s hands or conceived by human hearts. What an excellent closing – so simple and yet so profound!

My, how this fits into a still more sublime beginning, exclaims Cameron! How it meets the first great need of a godless society to know the only true God! People always and everywhere have believed in some One somewhere who is over and above all things everywhere. Idols have been invented and worshiped to fill this vague concept and yet deep conviction. But in this epistle, John tells of the real God, who determined all, made all, rules over all, and redeemed all in and by his Son, Jesus the Anointed One.

This is the true God and eternal life; therefore, beloved children, keep yourselves from false, unreal, and degrading idols. Oh, the matchless wisdom and love of God! So sacred and dear to His heart is our highest good that He would not have our love, loyalty, and adoration given to any Being lower than Himself – the Most-High and Triune Holy God! The true God has been revealed. There is no excuse for idols. Having seen Him, there should be no desire for anything in place of Him. Here is a poem based on God’s words to Joseph’s son Ephraim, born in Egypt:[15]

What have I to do with idols,

Dwelling thus in Him that’s true?

How can it be occupied with shadows,

With this Substance full in view?

As the stars fade in the morning,

And the moon is merged in day,

So before His peerless glory

Every idol fades away.^[16]

Manifestly and distinctly, Erich Haupt (1841-1910) establishes that, at first glance, the last four verses are not explicitly designed to recapitulate the entire contents of the Epistle. For example, there is no reference to brotherly love in them, which has nevertheless made up half the substance of it down to the close. But this, indeed, has come into consideration only as the expression of a proper relationship with God and the means of obtaining it. From this last, everything flows, and to it, everything leads.

Hence, we have in these final verses an emphasis laid on the fundamental principles on which the Epistle rests: that we, through the mission of the Lord Jesus the Anointed One, have fellowship with God; that this fellowship protects us from sin and establishes us in a relation of perfect opposition to a godless society. But, indeed, the threefold plural “we know,” the consciousness of a typical relationship to God as His children, suggests the principle and always an energetic impulse to brotherly love. Thus, this shared consciousness, as containing the bond with God and with our brethren, is the pledge of “love perfected.” So, the Apostle John promised at the beginning to bring his readers maturity and adulthood through establishing fellowship with God and the brethren.^[17]

With his Spirit-directed calculating mind, Alfred Plummer (1841-1926) says that the Apostle John’s warning was for all his readers. They were to “guard” themselves. It is not the verb used by John verse in eighteen “keepeth” – KJV; “keeps” – NIV) but that used by Paul as “will guard,”^[18] used in the aorist imperative; “once for all be on your guard and have nothing to do with.” Using the reflexive pronoun[19] instead of the middle voice intensifies the command to personal care and exertion. This construction is frequent in John’s writings.^[20] Or perhaps, from the idols; those with which Ephesus abounded: or again, from your false gods; those which have been, or may become, a snare to you.

It is the last of the contrasts of which the Epistle is full. We have had light and darkness, truth and falsehood, love and hate, God and godless society, the Anointed One and Antichrist, life, and death, doing righteousness and doing sin, the children of God and the children of the devil, the spirit of truth and the nature of the error, the believer untouched by the evil one and a godless society lying in the evil one; and now at the close, we have what in that age was the ever-present and pressing contrast between the true God and the false idols. There is no need to seek far-fetched figurative explanations of “the idols” when the literal meaning lies close at hand, as suggested by the context, and is in harmony with the known circumstances of the time.^[21] With regal etiquette, Ernst von Dryander (1843-1922) suggests that maybe the Apostle John, living as he was in the midst of an idolatrous people, referred, in the first instance, to the idols he saw all around; when he wrote: “Keep yourselves from idols.” Today the forms are different from which new idolatry raises its head, but they are no less ensnaring and dangerous. The danger lies here; it is not as though anybody would think of resuscitating ancient and worn-out forms of worship, but what the Apostle would have designated idolatry is regarded as a mark of progress, expressive of the ideas of the times.

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[1] Kelly, William: An Exposition of the Epistles of John the Apostle, op. cit., p. 393

[2] Theosophy is a mixture of divine theology and human philosophy

[3] Pope, William B., The International Illustrated Commentary on the N.T., Vol. IV, op. cit., p. 42

[4] Steele, Daniel: Half-Hours with St. John’s Epistles, op. cit., pp. 152-156

[5] Cf. Jude 1:21 tēreō heautou (“keep yourselves” – KJV); See James 1:27 (“keep himself” – KJV); 2 Corinthians 11:9 (“kept myself” – KJV) and 1 Timothy 5:22 tēreō seautou (“keep thyself” – KJV)

[6] See Luke 12:15

[7] Cf. 2 Corinthians 6:16; Romans 2:22

[8] Westcott, Brooke F., The Epistles of St. John: Greek Text with Notes, op. cit., p. 197

[9] Maclaren, Alexander: Sermons and Expositions on 1 John, op. cit., “The Last Words of the Last Apostle.”

[10] Sawtelle, Henry A., Commentary on the Epistles of John, op. cit., p. 64

[11] Godbey, William Baxter: Commentary on the New Testament, Vol. II, op. cit., p. 400

[12] Lias, John James: The First Epistle of St. John with Exposition, op. cit., pp. 420-424

[13] John 12:25; 17:12; 1 John 5:21

[14] Hosea 14:9 – Complete Jewish Bible

[15] Hosea 14:8

[16] Cameron, Robert: The First Epistle of John, or, God Revealed in Light, Life, and Love, op. cit., pp. 252-255

[17] Haupt, Erich: The First Epistle of St. John: Clark’s Foreign Theological Library, Vol. LXIV, op. cit., pp. 345-346

[18] 2 Thessalonians 3:3; See John 17:11; cf. 12:25, 47

[19] Denoting a pronoun that refers back to the subject of the clause in which it is used, e.g. myself, themselves.

[20] John 1:8, 3:3; 7:4, 11, 13, 21; Revelation 6:15, 8:6, 19:7, [from idols]

[21] Plummer, Alfred: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, N. T., Vol. IV., op. cit., pp. 172-174

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R. Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FIVE (Lesson CLII) 05/27/23

^5:21 So, dear children, keep yourselves away from false gods.

Consistent with the Apostle John’s advice, Heinrich A. W. Meyer (1800-1882) has the Apostle John saying that if believers come to the true God through the Anointed One, they must take care that they do not lose this eternal and highest gift by giving themselves up to any vain idol. In this train of thought, John closes his Epistle with a short exhortation, however impressive in its brevity: “Begin planning to guard yourselves against idols.”

In the opening, the Greek word tekton,^[1] we may see the depth of the feeling with which John utters these concluding words. Suppose the warning is not regarded as an appendix, foreign to the Epistle’s contents. In that case, we could accept the interpretation that John, the antithesis to the false teachers, had so decidedly referred to Jesus as being part of the true Godhead; he had a mental image of those teachers in view. It is only if so taken that the warning to keep themselves from idols forms another appropriate conclusion for the whole Epistle.

With noticeable spiritual comprehension, Henry Cowles (1802-1881) examines the significant points of truth in verses twenty and twenty-one by which “we know” and that the “Son of God has come into our world,” thereby giving us an understanding of the true God. It brought us into relations to God, best expressed by the words, “We are in Him.” Moreover, we are in Him, the true God, by being in His Son Jesus the Anointed One. To begin with, by knowing and receiving His Son, we have come to recognize, accept, and love the Father. Being in the Father comes with being in the Son. So intimate and so peculiar is the relationship of the Father to the Son that we can scarcely distinguish even in thought being in the Son from being in the Father who sent Him.

Having said all this, is it even supposable that John should close by saying there is but one true God, and to make Jesus Divine is to make two? John has not told us definitely how He avoids meeting this objection but has left us the fact with no attempt at metaphysical explanation. From his silence on this point, it is probably safe to infer that we shall need the light of a brighter world and perhaps the power of more acute, discriminating, comprehensive thought until we “know the Almighty to perfection.” His closing words are – “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.”

Is this warning connected in thought with the subject in hand? Perhaps so, perhaps not. In that age – idolatry was practiced everywhere – it could never be wrong to give this warning. Yet a certain connection is supposable ‒ say with verse nineteen, “The whole world lies in wickedness;” we who are of God must withstand idolatry on every side. Or possibly with verse twenty; “We worship the Father as God; the Son as truly Divine.” Beyond these, none other. Beware of being drawn to the worship of idols.”^[2]

Called a great and rare spiritual thinker, Frederick Denison Maurice (1805-1872) points out that the Apostle John concludes his Epistle with a warning. He was born a Jew.  His goal was to witness against idols; his work was to testify of the living and true God. He existed only to do this; he was chosen to save his generation, to save the generations to come from worshipping a lie, from seeking happiness that would prove to be a lie. He saw Jesus the Anointed One as Him “in whom we are created,” of whom we are members. This Lord of our spirits, this Light of our understandings, is He in whom alone we can find the true God. Men have sought this in heaven, earth, and underground waters.^{[3] [4]} It is He in whom alone they can find that eternal life, for which they are thirsting, and which they are trying to see in the visible earth, or some fantastic heaven, or in some depths which none have been able to sound.

Little children, as John calls his converts, believe that you need not ascend into heaven, go into the furthest corners of the earth, or go down into the abyss of hell, that you may find God. He is near you; He is with you. Therefore, trust Him; abide in Him; and perpetually renew your life at His fountain. That way, you will not bow down to the creatures of His hand; you will not confound the bright images cast forth by the minds He made in His image – which He has endued with a portion of His creative power – with your Creator and Father. Instead, you will adore Him, His Son, and He will enable you, by His Spirit, to offer yourselves, all your powers, and the earth which He has placed under you, as sacrifices to Him.’^[5]

With his lifework well-illustrating the biblical and reformation ideal of a pastor-theologian, Robert S. Candlish (1807-1873) lets what the Apostle John says here in verse twenty-one be the test or criterion of what an idol is. Whatever worship or fellowship or companionship, whatever system or society, whatever work or way, whatever habit or pursuit or occupation, is of such a sort or has such influence over you that you cannot be in it and at the same time be in God. As little children to a loving Father, not remaining loyal and faithful to Him is nothing less than idolatry, whatever the object of your adoration may be.

Therefore, from all such idols, guard yourselves. And that you may keep away from them, remain evermore in union with God’s Son, your Lord and Savior Jesus the Anointed One. To always be “found in Him” is your only security.^[6] To be in Him is to be in the Father, even as He is in the Father, and idolatry has no place in that.^[7]

With precise spiritual discernment, William Alexander (1824-1911) points out that the Apostle John’s epistle closes with a short, sternly affectionate exhortation. “Children, guard yourselves” (the aorist imperative of immediate final decision) “from idols.” These words are natural in the atmosphere of John’s church in Ephesus.^[8] The author of The Apocalypse has a similar hatred of idols.^[9] The Gnostics allowed people to eat things sacrificed to idols freely. Modern, like ancient unbelief, has sometimes attributed to John a determination to exalt the Master whom he knew to be a man to an equality with God. But this is morally inconsistent with the Apostle’s unaffected shrinking from idolatry in every form.^[10]

Alexander also notes the KJV and NIV translate the Greek verb phylassō as “keep.” But the word is used for “guarding.” In his Greek Lexicon, Thayer tells us that John’s use here in verse twenty-one means “to guard oneself against something.” That sure gives the idea of “keeping” a strong sense of urgency. Alexander says there is something in this passage we should pay attention to the horror of idols. Satan intends them to take away the glory of our Lord.

Bible archeologists tell us that there is no evidence or even mention of a heathen temple being converted into a Christian church in all of Asia Minor. It would be like taking an old outdoor toilet and turning it into a prayer chamber. All the prayers would not take away the stink of rotting excrement. No, the things a godless society worships and spends its money on are no substitute for loving God. They are like a narcotic; once you allow it to function in your system, each time, you’ll need more and more until God has no place in your life.^[11]

With an inquiring mind, Daniel D. Whedon (1808-1885) says that John’s mention of idols caused them to immediately think of Gentiles brought by the Anointed One to understand the true God. They were surrounded on every hand by false godsin Ephesus and all of Asia Minor. In Ephesus, the temple of Artemis (Diana) still stood in pride and power. Hence it became the little body of Christians, one and all, to beware of idols.

It is the last tender warning of the venerable apostle to his little childrenat this same Ephesus to keepthemselves from Artemis and her images and adhere to the trueGod in His Son, Jesus the Anointed One. John closes with as emphatic an abruptness as he commences this epistle. But there was a particular danger arising from the seductions of the errorists condemned in this epistle, who, in fact, advocated participating in the sacrificial banquets of the pagan temples. An idol is an image, a pretense, a phantom, an unreality, in opposition to the true God, who is the infinite reality.^[12]

In line with Apostle John’s conclusion, Henry Alford (1810-1871) sees the Apostle John parting from his little children with his warmest and most affectionate plea to keep themselves from idols – (John uses eidolon, “idol” a figure of an imaginary deity, while homoióma “likeness”^[13] is that of some person or thing made into an object of worship. All around the Christian Church was heathenism: those born of God and those under the spell of evil were the only two classes: those who escaped Satan’s grasp and surrendered to the Savior’s arms and became God’s children. John now warns of the consequence of letting go of the only true God, in whom they can only abide by staying in His Son Jesus the Anointed One. In these solemn terms, to leave on their minds a wholesome terror of any the slightest deviation from the truth of God, seeing into what relapse it would plunge them.^[14]

As a faithful and zealous scholar, William Graham (1810-1883) sees the Apostle John wanting to protect his little children, especially the converted Gentiles, from all false gods of the imagination to the worship of which their fallen, terrified, shivering nature is so prone. The mythologies of Greece and Rome were a great system of idol worship and were condemned in verse twenty-one. So, also, angel^[15] and saint^[16] worship is forbidden in John’s words “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.” Yahweh alone is our God. Every other worship is idolatry.^[17]

With the zeal of a scriptural text examiner, William E. Jelf (1811-1875) is sure that with Christians knowing the true God, the supreme undivided Being, the Creator and Governor of a godless society, the true God as revealing Himself on earth in the separate person of His Son Jesus the Anointed One, must guard against falling into the errors as former generations did, who, chosen not to retain God in their knowledge, but substituted devotion to lifeless idols in place of worshipping the living God in His glory. But this does not seem to follow naturally from the context in the Epistle’s conclusion.

On the contrary, it would imply a danger arising directly from Jesus being presented as God and man. It may well be that the Spirit brought before John’s mind the risk that Jesus being God in human form would lead them to make gods out of other creatures and invest them with Divine attributes and power (as did the Romans and Greeks) and approach them with prayer and praise. This would be idolatry involving noneternal creatures. And so, John adds these words at the end of his Epistle, lest the doctrine he insisted on concerning the God/man Jesus be misused and perverted.^[18]

After checking the text closely, Richard H. Tuck (1817-1868) takes the Apostle John’s parting words as something suggested by the thought of Jesus being part of the “true Godhead.” Every scheme of thought, every object of affection, which is not of Him, is a rival to His kingdom, a false god, an imaginary presence without evidence or truth. Every street through which John’s readers walked, and every heathen house they visited, swarmed with idols in the literal sense; magnificent temples, groves, and seductive idolatrous rites constituted some of the chief attractions of Ephesus. The first four centuries AD history is recorded of the strictness necessary to preserve Christians from the interests of idolatry. John hints that Jesus is no idol. The Son of God, manifested in the flesh as the Son of man, was a Being not only altogether worthy to be worshipped and served but a Being whose worship and service are supremely ennobling.^[19]

After observing the Apostle John’s attention to detail, John Stock (1817-1884) declares that since the Lord Jesus is part of the mighty Godhead,^[20] one with the Father and the Holy Spirit, the first and the last,^[21] and beside them, there is no God, who is the God of the whole earth:^[22] to acknowledge any other is to be guilty of idolatry. All gods outside of the Anointed One are ideologies and lead to confusion; they are imaginary and things of arrogance, hearsay, and misunderstanding;^[23] and they who make them are like them, and so are all that trust in them. We approach the Father, in and through the Son, by the power of God the Holy Spirit, and know these three are one. Christianity abhors lying. Knows no other god but one, and flees from idolatry²,^[24] holding fast to the commandment, “Reverence the Lord your God and serve only Him. You must use only His name to make promises.”^[25]

When a godless society is preferred above the Father, it becomes an idol to the spiritual adulterers and adulteresses,^[26] who are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God.^[27] Satan tempts to every sin, to covetousness, which is idolatry: to self-worship, which is to worship him, who even dared to tempt the Lord, and by Him was cast down and overcome. The knowledge of God, renewed by the Holy Spirit, cleanses the heart from foul idolatry, leading to captivity. Then God is supremely loved; the blessings of this life acknowledged to have Him as their source, and which are thankfully used and enjoyed to His glory.^[28]

With an inquiring spiritual mind, Johannes H. A. Ebrard (1819-1893) claims that verse twenty-one is not (as many think) an “abrupt” final appeal but is influenced by the Apostle John’s concept of the “true God.” If the Father, who revealed Himself in the Anointed One, is the true God – if the Son, in whom we have the Father, is the true God – it follows that we must guard ourselves against all idols, that is, against all false gods. This idea is comprehensive: it embraces all things and everything opposed to the God revealed in the Anointed One and His worship in “spirit” and “truth.”

Preeminently, it addresses the delusive and vain idols of Cerinthian Gnosticism and infidelity, whether ancient or modern. Still, it also includes the idols and false mediators of superstition, to whom the confidence is transferred which is due only to God in the Anointed One – be their name Madonna,[29] or saints, or church hierarchy, or the priesthood, or pictures, or good works, or office, or church, or sacraments. And this Anointed One we possess through the Spirit of God, whose marks and tokens are not priestly vestments, but faith and love. In this meaning, the Apostle’s cry sounds forth through all the ages in the ears of all Christians: Little children, keep yourselves from

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[1] In Sanskrit the word taken denotes a wagon-builder, and that is also the literal meaning of our English word “carpenter.” In other words: an old-world carpenter was not so much someone who worked with wood (as would a modern carpenter) but rather someone who assembled things. In Greek, the word tekton means the same thing, and in the New Testament, this word is used to describe Jesus’ vocation. In Latin, the verb texere means to weave, and thus in English words like texture and text are derived from the act of weaving, and words like technology and tectonic from the idea of producing or assembling. As such, one Greek/English interlinear Bible renders tekton as “startup projects.”

[2] Cowles, Henry: The Gospel and Epistles of John, op. cit., pp. 361-362

[3] The underworld gods were named “Theoi Khthonioi” or “Chthonian gods” by the Greeks. They were ruled by the grim god Hades and his queen Persephone. The term “Chthonic gods” was also used for the closely related gods of agriculture

[4] See https://www.theoi.com

[5] Maurice, Frederick D., The Epistles of St. John, A Series of Lectures on Christian Ethics, op. cit., Lecture XIX, pp. 304-317

[6] Philippians 3:9

[7] Candlish, Robert S., The First Epistle of John Expounded in a Series of Lectures, op. cit., Lecture XLVI, pp. 564-576

[8] Acts of the Apostles 19:26-27

[9] Revelations 2:14, 15; 9:20; 22:15

[10] Alexander, William: Expositor’s Bible: The Epistles of St. John, op. cit., p. 275

[11] Alexander, William: The Holy Bible with an Explanatory and Critical Commentary, op cit., Vol. IV, p. 347

[12] Whedon, Daniel D., Commentary on the New Testament, op. cit., p. 282

[13] See Romans 1:23; 5:14; 6:5; 8:3; Philippians 2:7; Revelation 9:7

[14] Alford, Henry: The Greek Testament, op. cit., Vol. IV, p. 515

[15] Revelation 22:8-8; See Colossians 2:18

[16] 1 Timothy 2:5; John 14:13-14; See 2 Chronicles 33:15; Leviticus 26:1; cf. Philippians 4:6; Lamentations 3:40-41; John 14:6

[17] Graham, William: The Spirit of Love, op. cit., pp. 362-363

[18] Jelf, William E., Commentary on the First Epistle of St. John, op. cit., p. 82

[19] Tuck, Richard H., The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary, op. cit., pp. 329, 341-342

[20] Isaiah 9:6

[21] Ibid. 44:6

[22] Ibid. 54:5

[23] Ibid. 41:29

[24] 1 Corinthians 4:4

[25] Deuteronomy 6:13; cf. Luke 4:8

[26] James 4:4

[27] 2 Timothy 3:4

[28] Stock, John: An Exposition of the First Epistle General of St. John, op. cit., pp. 465-467

[29] The word Madonna is derived from the Italian “ma donna,” or “my lady” and is used to describe Mary, the mother of Jesus. Central to religious art and iconography, depictions of the Virgin Mary date back to the 2^nd century.

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R. Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FIVE (Lesson CXLI) 05/26/23

^5:21 So, dear children, keep yourselves away from false gods.

More concerned with the Church than its Sacraments, William Jones of Nyland (1726-1800) informs us that idolatry gives another the love, reverence, and devotion that are rightly due to God alone. Many make an idol of riches. Money is their god, and they devote all their powers and opportunities to the eager pursuit of it. “Greed… is idolatry.” Others worship for pleasure, amusement, and endeavor to subordinate everything to their gratification. And others make honor, or fame, or power, their god. We may make an idol of some beloved relative or friend – wife, husband, or child. Or, in some respects, worst of all, a person may make a god of themselves – may think first and chiefly of himself, study their interests and happiness, and love themselves supremely.

It has been well said, “We can avoid wooden idols, but take heed of the idols of gold. It is no difficult matter to keep from dead idols, but be careful to worship the living ones, and especially yourself; for as soon as you appropriate to yourself either honor, praise, knowledge, or power, you set yourself in place of God, and He has declared that he ‘will not give His glory to another.’” And idol worship offers the greatest dishonor and insult to God.^[1]

For example, a man with a heartfelt friendship with hymn writer John Newton (1726-1807),[2] Thomas Scott (1747-1821) comments that verse twenty-one especially the Scriptures in the Final Covenant are intended to draw people away from worshipping to “serve the One, living, and true God.” If so, can anyone imagine that an inspired writer would speak of Jesus the Anointed One in this manner unless He was and is equal with the Father, the proper object of all adoration? If the worship of the Son of Man is idolatry, surely John introduced his caution against idols in a very strange manner!

But if the triune YaHWeH, “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,” three Persons in One undivided Godhead, the Object, and the only Object, of divine adoration: nothing could be more proper and emphatic for the Jews, rejecting the Son, and professing to worship God in One Person, (as the Mohammedans, Deists, Socinians, and others in after ages have done,) had changed the Object of worship, the God of the Bible, for an imaginary Being; and could not be excused from the charge of idolatry: for they could not be seen as different from those, who worshipped the Supreme Being, under the name of Jupiter, or Baal.^[3]

So, nominal Christians today have even more need to be warned to “keep themselves from idols” more; and to be careful that they adore the triune God, in whose name the Anointed One commanded that His disciples should baptize^[4] while they “bow their knees to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus,”^[5] not to forget to “honor” the Son even as they admire the Father who sent Him. The personal assurance of acceptance and salvation arising from an inward consciousness of having been enlightened by God’s knowledge and Jesus the Anointed One, which is truly eternal life in Him.^[6] Therefore, there is no need for another god.

At age fifteen, a potential young theologian who preached and held cottage and prayer meetings, Joseph Benson (1749-1821), notes that the Anointed One is last mentioned in verse twenty as the true God and eternal life.He partakes with the Father in proper Deity, and our immortal life is supported by union with Him. Therefore, in verse twenty-one, the Apostle John warns: “Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts.” That is, from all false worship of images or any creature and every inward idol: from loving, desiring, reverencing anything more than God. Instead, seek all help and defense from evil, all happiness, in the true God alone.

We should also note the Apostle John’s reflection on the happy difference that regeneration and the knowledge of God in the Anointed One made between them and the ignorant and wicked world and directed them to guard carefully against all idolatry. We know by all these infallible proofs; that God’s Son has come into a godless society; and given us an understanding by enlightening our minds; that we may know Him, that is true the living and true God, namely, the Father, of whom John appears to speak, and we are in Him that is true in His favor and in a state of union and fellowship with Him.

In addition, the particle “this” is not in the Greek text; rather, “in” or “through;” His Son Jesus, the Anointed One through whose mediation alone we can have access to, or communion with, the Father. The Anointed One is the last person mentioned; He is the true God and eternal life. He partakes with the Father in proper Deity, and our immortal life is supported by union with Him. Therefore, my beloved children, keep yourselves from idols. From all false worship of illustrations or any creature, and from every inward model: from loving, desiring, fearing anything more than God. Seek help and defense from evil. All happiness is found in the true God alone.^[7]

Straightforward preacher Charles Simeon (1759-1876) says that in matters established by human testimony, we necessarily proportion our consent to the number and credibility of the witnesses. And if we act in the same manner towards the Holy Scriptures, we will not entertain doubt, either of their Divine authority in general or of the way of salvation contained in them. So, Moses and all the prophets concur with the Apostles in directing our eyes to the Anointed One as the only Savior of a godless society: but in the text before us, we have the testimony of One whose information we cannot doubt and whose integrity not impeached; of One who is too good to mislead, and too wise to be deceived.

This witness is no other than Yahweh. What false fascination is it to substitute any different plan of salvation in the place of that which God offers us? Suppose for one moment that we dare suggest to God that we knew a better way than He did what was best for Him and us to do. Could we also presume we are “stronger than He?” and can we persuade Him to make changes to His decrees? No! That is useless thinking! We may entertain our prejudices and load the Gospel with disgraceful ideas that promote as true and irreversible. But Scripture says, “Those that have the Son have spiritual life, and those that do not have God’s Son have no eternal life.” Let all of us then cease weaving a spider’s web and accept with gratitude “the true salvation that is in the Anointed One Jesus alone.”^[8]

Considering everything the Apostle John has said so far, Adam Clarke (1774-1849) notes the Apostle John concludes with the same affectionate feeling with which he commenced. Keep yourselves from idols. Avoid the idolatry of the heathens; not only have no false gods but have the true God. Have no icons in your houses, none in your churches, none in your hearts. Have no object of idolatrous worship; no pictures, relics, consecrated tapers, wafers, crosses, etc., to which your minds may be divided and prevented from worshipping the infinite Spirit in spirit and truth.

Dr. Macknight, says Clarke, that John cautioned his disciples against going with the heathens into the temple of their idol gods, to eat of their feasts upon the sacrifices they had offered to these gods; and against being present at any act of worship which they paid them; because, by being present, they participated of that worship, as is plain from what the Apostle Paul has written on the subject.^[9] That is a person’s idol or god from which they seek happiness; no matter whether it be Jupiter, Juno, Apollo, Minerva, Venus, or Diana; or pleasure, wealth, fame, a fine house, superb furniture, splendid linen and drapes, medals, curiosities, books, titles, human friendships, or any earthly or heavenly thing, God, the supreme good, only excepted. That is an individual’s idol that prevents them from seeking and finding their ALL in God. So be it! So let it be! And so it shall be, God, being our helper, forever and ever!^[10]

A servant of God whose preaching was doctrinal, imaginative, quaint, and earnest, Robert Finlayson (1793-1861), a preeminent Scottish preacher, points out that the Apostle John’s parting words, “My little children, guard yourselves against idols.” naturally fixes on the word of special affection for his readers. Earlier in this epistle, John put forward Divine keeping – “He that was begotten of God [the Divine birth] keeps him.”^[11] Here in verse twenty-one, he puts forward self-keeping – “guard [‘keep,’ with added emphasis] yourselves.” The idols against which we are to be on our guard are the vain shadows that usurp the place of the true God.

In connection with heathen idolatry, there are false representations of God as above – to be apprehended by people’s senses. Heathens worshipped these in temples made with hands; they had many idols, taking delight in impurities and human victims’ blood. In connection with idolatry, in a broad sense, there are such false representations of God as these – pleased with our taking selfish gratification, does not extend his interest beyond our home or some narrow circle of friends, is indifferent to our happiness, overlooks our actions and will not bring us into judgment.

Let us oppose these false representations of God given in images of the Incarnation. Let us brood over this remarkable fact till pointless shadows flee away, and God comes to us in all the splendor of His love. We may think of John, now amid the realities of heaven, still beseeching us, and with greater intensity, to beware of the deceitful shadows that are here as often taken for God.^[12]

After analyzing John’s conclusions, Gottfried C. F. Lücke (1791-1855) states that since the Father of Jesus, the Anointed One is the only true God, and since eternal life only exists in fellowship with Him through the Anointed One, and since beyond the sphere of this communion, there is only death, beware, little children, of the idols,^[13] and every connection with them! The danger against which John warns never entirely ceased in the apostolical age, in those communities which converted from heathenism.^[14]

At the time when John wrote, this danger was so much the greater, and the warning the more necessary, since the persecution and seduction of the heathen κόσμος (“kosmos”) was becoming ever more and more threatening, and constantly made a more and more easy prey of slothful half-Christians, who were satisfied with the mere appearance and name of Christianity. Therefore, it is also contrary to John’s words in the context to suppose anything different is implied in “idols,” such as gnostic heresies or anything similar.^[15]

I found this short autonomous homily, which was very enlightening: (1) If something draws the unconverted away from the living God, anything that does this must be named an IDOL. (2) Love of self is born in us and, if not confronted early, will be our master. It feeds upon falsehood, unkindness, greediness, and pride. You must gratify it at whatever cost, and then it demands more and more. Self is a dreadful idol. Beware of it. (3) When choosing what to wear, don’t forget the beauty of the pearl fades if it’s not in its proper setting. (4) When it comes to pleasure, do not feed a child’s appetite for exciting amusements until they can use them, though so many innocent, playful ideas remain. We have known children whose Sundays were boring. The things they wanted to do were their idols.^[16] So whenever you have a chance, ask your child on Sunday morning if they wish to go to church or Disney World.

Without using complicated language, Albert Barnes (1798-1870) says that this is a favorite mode of address by the Apostle John and was proper to use it in giving his parting counsel, embracing, in fact, all that he had to say – that they should keep themselves from idols, and allow nothing to alienate their affections from the true God. His object was to lead them to the knowledge and love of God, and his instructions followed. So, if, amidst the temptations of idolatry, and the allurements of sin, nothing were allowed to estrange their hearts from God.

Therefore, keep yourselves from showing any respect to idols. By not doing so, they would imply communion with them or their devotees.^[17] The word rendered idols means an image, ghostly apparition of a god, shadows of the dead, or any image or figure representing anything, mainly invisible things. Hence, anything designed to represent God was to be acknowledged as representing Him or to bring Him, or His perfections, more vividly before the mind. The word “idol” applies to heathen deities,^[18] but it would also be appropriate for any image designed to represent the true God and through or by which He was to be adored.^[19]

With impressive theological vision, Richard Rothe (1799-1867) is of the persuasion that verse twenty-one contains the grandest doxology in praise and honor of the Anointed One that the Apostle John could utter. Everything that signifies falling away from the Anointed One comes under idolatry. The Anointed One is the sacred image, the means of revealing God given by God, through the religious recognition and adoration of whom sincere reverence, a religion uniting us with the true God alone is possible. Adoration of the Redeemer, therefore, is often regarded as an encroachment upon the adoration due to God alone. Instead, John sets forth as the only worship well-pleasing to God. Jesus the Anointed One alone reveals God for all humanity, And He does so despite His being in the form of a servant. He that sees Him sees the Father; he that fails to see the Father in Him does not know the Father.

This appearance in the center of our human history, notes Rothe, is the guiding star by which we alone can find our way. We are to fix our inner person’s gaze steadily on Him and, at the same time, to apprehend the features of His appearance more and more clearly and precisely; it is the art upon which the practical Wisdom of the Christian depends and the source of that which deserves to be called faithful Christian simplicity. The thought uttered at the close of verse twenty (that the Redeemer is the true God and eternal life) leads John directly to a view that forms an emphatic finish of his Epistle. The idea of God reminds him of God’s antithesis, the idols.^[20] It occurs to him naturally that any turning away from the Anointed One to another, whoever and whatever it may be, is idolatry.^[21]

According to Robert Jamieson (1802-1880), Andrew Fausset (1821-1910), and David Brown’s (1803-1897) way of thinking, the Apostle John’s words for his dear children to keep away from anything that might take God’s place in their hearts as an affectionate parting caution. The problem was that Christians were surrounded everywhere by pagan idolaters, with whom it was impossible to avoid meeting in the streets, bazaars, public baths, etc. Hence the need to be on guard against any indirect compromise or act of communion with their idol worship. Some in the city of Pergamos, in the region where John wrote, fell into the snare of eating things sacrificed to idols. When we cease to stick close to God, we allow possible contamination from a godless society’s cesspool run by the devil.^[22][23]

---

[1] Jones, William: The Pulpit Commentary, op. cit., p. 169

[2] Newton, John: Composer of “Amazing Grace,”

[3] Cf. 1 Kings

[4] Matthew 19:28

[5] Ephesians 3:14

[6] Scott, Thomas: Commentary on the Holy Bible, pp. 413-414

[7] Benson, Joseph: Commentary on the Old and New Testaments, op. cit., p. 349

[8] Simeon, Charles: Horæ Homileticæ, Vol. XX, op. Cit., Discourse 2467, pp. 539-547

[9] 1 Corinthians 8:10

[10] Clarke, Adam: Wesleyan Heritage Commentary, op. cit., Hebrews-Revelation, p. 400

[11] 1 John 3:18

[12] Finlayson, Robert: The Pulpit Commentary, op. cit., Vol. 22, pp. 171-172

[13] Cf. 1 Corinthians 8:4

[14] Ibid. 10:14

[15] Lücke, Gottfried C. F., A Commentary on the Epistles of St. John, op. cit., p. 292

[16] British Weekly Pulpit, The Biblical Illustrator, Vol. 22, op. cit., First Epistle of John, op. cit., p.472

[17] 1 Corinthians 10:14

[18] 1 Corinthians 8:4,7; 10:19; Romans 2:22; 2 Corinthians 6:16; 1 Thessalonians 1:9

[19] Barnes, Albert, New Testament Notes, op. cit., 1 John 5, pp. 4896-4897

[20] 1 Thessalonians 1:9

[21] Rothe, Richard: Exposition of the First Epistle of St. John, op. cit., The Expository Times, September 1895, pp. 563-564

[22] Ephesians 5:5; Colossians 3:5

[23] Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown’s Commentary on the Whole Bible, New Testament Volume, op. cit., p. 731

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R. Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FIVE (Lesson CXXXIX) 05/25/23

^5:20 And we know that God’s Son has come and given us understanding. So now we can see the true One and live in union with that true God. We are in His Son, Jesus the Anointed One. He is the true God, and He is eternal life.

It is the very thing that will crush your Christian life. It is one thing to have faith in God, but it is another to be faithful to Him. We claim God’s Son as our Savior, but we reject His sovereignty over our souls. We give ourselves to entirely different value systems. Anything that deflects us from Jesus the Anointed One as the center of our spiritual life is an idol. What we devote ourselves to is our idol. The more we cultivate our loyalty to God and His values, the freer we are from our false personal gods.

John now affirms this principle with his last word “Amen.”  “Amen” means “so be it,” or“believe it.” Faithfulness to the truth is a maxim for maturity in the Christian life. An idol is any substitute for the real thing.  It imitates reality, but it is not truth. Whatever robs our worship of God is an idol. It is anything that comes between God and us. It does not have to be a statue, but anything we worship over God. It might be our job, our family, or our success.  If we think more of these things than we do of the Anointed One, we commit idolatry.  God will not take second place to anything or anyone. This is the greatest threat to our spirituality. As the well-known saying goes, “If the Anointed One is not Lord of all, He is not Lord at all.”

At this point, all believers should be praying in complete confidence: what we ask for is already ours (vv.14-15). One specific thing we should request is the conversion of a sinning spiritual brother or sister unless they’ve made the horrible decision to reject God and His message of salvation which is unforgivable. (vv.16-17). We who are born of God, however, will not backslide into sinning as long as we stay shielded by the Anointed One, part of God’s sphere and not of the devil’s compound, to whom the anti-God world belongs (vv.18-19). We cohabit with the Father and the Son, author of eternal life. John has one final word – guard yourselves against being conformed to a godless society.^[1]

COMMENTARY AND HOMILETICS

This verse has comments, interpretations, and insights of the Early Church Fathers, Medieval Thinkers, Reformation Theologians, Revivalist Teachers, Reformed Scholars, and Modern Commentators.

God’s servant with the heart of a champion for Christianity and an aggressive critic against heresy, Quintus Tertullian (155-225 AD) maintains that the Apostle John did not tell us to keep away from worship, but idols, that is, from their very likeness. It is wrong for you, created in the image of the living God, to become the image of an idol and a dead person.^[2]

With great assurance, early church ecclesiastical teacher Didymus the Blind (313-398 AD) asks, why is it that after everything else he has said to his hearers during his letter, John should keep this warning about idols to the very end? I think it is because the Apostle John addresses the church in general. There must have been many in that assembly who were former idolaters, and he adds this caution for their benefit.^[3]

Hilary of Arles (401-449 AD) notes that the letter ends as it began, with a warning to worship the one true God alone. Everything else that the Apostle John says is contained in this one golden rule.^[4]

With a studious monk’s spiritual insight, Bede the Venerable (372-735 AD) hears the Apostle John saying to his readers, you who know the true God, in whom you have eternal life, so you must keep yourselves away from the teachings of the heretics, which lead only to eternal death. In the manner of those who made idols in place of God, the dissidents have corrupted the glory of the incorruptible God with their wicked doctrines, which bear the stamp of corruptible things.^[5]

Respected Reformation writer, Matthew Poole (1624-1679) believes that from close association with the Gentiles in their worship and festivals in their temples, these pseudo-Christians felt enough leeway, as reported by the Apostle Paul’s discourses^[6] (especially if any danger so required); wherein, instead of that communion with the Father and the Son,^[7] which he was inviting them to, they should have fellowship with devils, as that other apostle tells his Corinthians.^[8] And he might also have reference to the peculiar idolatries, which these sorts of people are noted to have been guilty of towards their great sect master.^[9]

Isaac Barrow (1630-1677) quotes what the Apostle Paul said to the Athenians that their altar to “AN UNKNOWN GOD” is the God who made the whole world and everything in it. He is the Lord of the land and the sky. He does not live in temples built by human hands.[10] Therefore, we being the offspring of God, ought not to think that the Godhead is like gold, or silver, or stone, the engravement of art and man’s device: in which place, as the forming any image to represent divine things is manifestly prohibited, so the reasons which we touched against such practice are discernibly enough insinuated.

Neither should we omit that this law is confirmed in the Final Covenant, and there made a part of God’s new law: for we are commanded to flee idols, not to be idolaters,^[11] to shun idolatry as a most heinous crime, of the highest rank,^[12] proceeding from fleshly depravity, ^[13] consistently with good conscience, and to expose to meaning and the notion of idolatry^[14] in which places, why should we understand it otherwise, then according to the plain sense of the word, which is the worship of images, or resemblances? Why should we take it otherwise than as being opposed to God’s Law, then in force? Why should we otherwise expound it according to the common notion and acceptance of God’s people at that time?^[15]

Influenced by his Arminian view of salvation, Daniel Whitby (1638-1726) says that by saying “stay from the idols,” that is the false gods of the heathens among whom they lived.^[16] They were to turn away from idols to the true and living God. Thus, an idol is not a true god because there is but one true God.^[17] Consequently, to eat things offered to idols is to eat them with the apprehension that there was somewhat of power or virtue in that god to whom it was presented. Nevertheless, because these false gods were still represented by and worshipped and thought necessary to worship their deities, the apostle use the word idols and equally forbids that way of honoring the true God.^[18]

William Sherlock (1641-1707) was a protestant church leader in England. In 1669 he became rector of St George’s, Botolph Lane, London, and in 1681, appointed prebendary^[19] of St. Paul’s Church. His response to the Apostle John’s message in verse twenty goes, “If we reflect upon the holiness of God, and His hatred of sin and iniquity, and begin to fear that He can never be reconciled to sinners; let us take courage; the work is difficult, but God’s Son has undertaken it; and how great the distance between God and us is, yet through the Son we have access to Him.” Sherlock indicates that if we are still unsure about ourselves, all may be lost through our weakness and inability to do good; even for this, help is at hand; the Spirit of God is our support; He is the pledge and evidence of our redemption.

With these being essential for salvation, it was necessary to reveal to a godless society the doctrines concerning the Son and the Holy Spirit: and the belief in these doctrines is crucial to every Christian as far as the correct use of the means depends on true faith and confidence in the principles. Since we can only come to the Father through the Son, denying the Son is to cut off all communication between the Father and us. The same may be said of the blessed Spirit, who we are in the Anointed One. The Apostle Paul said, “Remember that those who do not have the Spirit of the Anointed One living in them do not belong to Him at all.”^[20] Our blessed Lord told us, “This is the way to have eternal life – to know You, the only true God, and Jesus the Anointed One, the one You sent to earth.”^[21]

With a spiritually contemplative mind, Matthew Henry (1662-1714) sees all humanity divided into two parties or colonies, those who freely belong to God and others enslaved by the wicked. True believers are God’s possession: they are of God, and from Him, and to Him, and for Him; while the rest, by far the more significant in number, are in the power of the wicked one; they do his works and support his cause.

This general declaration includes all unbelievers, whatever their profession, station, or situation, or by whatever name they may be called. God’s Son leads believers to the Father and is loved and favored by both and in union with both by the indwelling and working of the Holy Spirit. Happy are those who know that God’s Son has come and have the heart to trust in and rely on Him, the true One! May this be our privilege; we shall thus be shielded from all idols and false doctrines, and the idolatrous love of worldly objects, and be guarded by the power of God, through faith, unto eternal salvation. To this living and true God, be glory and dominion forever and ever! Amen.^[22]

An Anglican priest opposing the monarchy of Church and State in favor of a constitutional parliamentary system, Thomas Pyle (1674-1756) hears the Apostle John closing this chapter with words to conclude: While the rest of the obstinate and unrepenting world continue enslaved to ignorance, idolatry, sin, and Satan, we Christians are fully and happily assured, that we are members of the church of the true God, by sincerely believing in Jesus the Anointed One His Son, who came into a godless society to teach us the way of true religion, and, being made man, suffered and died, to ensure our eternal life and happiness.^[23]

With meticulous Greek text examination and confirmation, Johann Bengel (1687-1752 focuses on the Apostle John’s warning in verse twenty to “keep yourselves” in my absence, that no one deceives you. The elegance of the active verb with the reciprocal pronoun is more expressive than “be on your guard” in verse twenty-one, “from idols,” and not only from their worship but also from all communion and appearance of fellowship with them.^[24] [25]

With all the Apostle John’s themes in mind, John Wesley (1703-1791) states that since there is no firm foundation for the love of our brethren except the love of God, there is no possibility of loving God except we keep ourselves from idols. The first thing to consider is the idols of which the Apostle John speaks. The second thing is to inquire, “How will we keep ourselves from them?”^[26] Thirdly, Wesley asks, “What do they profess is their intention in the reverence they give to images and pictures?” Do they declare that the honor given to the image is for the persons the statue represents, whether God the Father, the Anointed One, angels, or saints? And when they kneel before the sculpture, do they worship God, the Anointed One, an angel, or a saint? And what about worshipping an image representing a divine person on the holy ones’ behalf? Is their worship due to the person depicted, or given to the image in the holy ones’ absence?

To give one honor to the person and another to the image is to worship them, not have that idol to pass on to God. But if they intend to pass their worship to the person represented through the image, then we know the falsehood involved when they kiss, uncover their heads, bow to, and worship an image. That’s why we all have a reason to remember the Apostle’s advice: “Keep yourselves from idols.”

Furthermore, Wesley responds to criticism from a reader named Mr. Hill concerning one of his sermons. Mr. Hill says Wesley “has struck out some words, and put in others, into the sermon.” Wesley responds this complaint is with Mr. Hill, so it is necessary to explain it. I generally abridge what I answer, which means striking out all unessential words. And I typically put into quotations from my writings such comments as I judge will prevent mistakes. Now to the contradictions: — “‘If we say we have no sin’ now remaining,” (I mean after we are justified) “we deceive ourselves.” I believe this: “Sinful tendencies will always remain in our flesh.” Again: “Many infirmities do remain.” I believe this; and accept “He that is born of God” (and “keeps himself,”^[27] whether in act, word or thought. I likewise believe that in those perfected in love, “No wrinkle of infirmity, no spot of sin remains.”^{[28] [29]}

With scholarly meditation, James Macknight (1721-1800) states that for the meaning of the Greek word eidōlon (“idols”), see what the Apostle Paul warned the Corinthians about.^[30] The Apostle John cautioned his disciples against going with the heathens into the temples of their idol gods, to eat of the sacrifices which they offered to these gods provided at their feasts, and against being present at any act of worship given to these idols, because, by being present at the worship of idols, they participated in that worship. John’s appeal to the brethren to keep themselves from idols shows that this epistle was intended for the converted Gentiles and the Jews in Samaria.^[31]

After skillfully scrutinizing the Apostle John’s theme, John Brown of Haddington (1722-1787) exclaims, “What trustworthy testimonies concerning the Anointed One are revealed to us to encourage and establish our faith in Him!” Therefore, nothing can be more highly reasonable than to rest in Him, assured of our eternal life in and through Him as the gift of God. And it is highly criminal and ruinous to our souls by discrediting His gospel declarations and promises to call Yahweh’s solemn witness a lie when it is a sure ground of hope in our pleading for every necessary blessing that the Anointed One has purchased and intercedes for it, and God has promised, for His sake, to grant it. But dreadful, as well as unpardonable, is the crime of desperate and willful rejection of the Anointed One and the Gospel. Christians have a great need to guard against every approach and ensure their regeneration by God’s Spirit, as an effectual preservative against it. Thrice happy are they who conscientiously improve their assured knowledge, faith, and hope, in carefully keeping their heart and life for God alone, in opposition to every idolatrous rival.^[32]

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[1] Cf. Romans 12:2

[2] Tertullian: Ancient Christian Commentary on the Scriptures, Bray, G. (Ed.), op. cit., Vol. XI, p. 2289

[3] Didymus the Blind: Ancient Christian Commentary on the Scriptures, Bray, G. (Ed.), op. cit., Vol. XI, p. 229

[4] Hilary of Arles: Ancient Christian Commentary on the Scriptures, Bray, G. (Ed.), op. cit., Vol. XI, p. 229

[5] Bede the Venerable: Ancient Christian Commentary on the Scriptures, Bray, G. (Ed.), op. cit., Vol. XI, p. 229

[6] 1 Corinthians 8:1-13; 10:14

[7] 1 John 1:3

[8] 1 Corinthians 10:20-21

[9] Poole, Matthew. Commentary on the Holy Bible – Book of 1st, 2nd & 3rd John (Annotated), Kindle Edition  

[10] Acts of the Apostles 17:24

[11] 1 Corinthians 10:7, 14

[12] Ibid. 5:10, 11; 4:9

[13] Galatians 5:20

[14] Revelation 9:20; 21:8; 22:15

[15] Barrow, John: The Theological Works, op. cit., Vol. VII, An Exposition of the Decalogue, Second Commandments, p. 448

[16] 1 Thessalonians 1:9

[17] 2 Corinthians 8:4

[18] Whitby, Daniel: Critical Commentary and Paraphrase, loc. cit., p. 472

[19] A prebendary is a member of the Anglican clergy, a form of canon with a role in the administration of a cathedral or collegiate church. Prebendaries sit in particular seats when attending services, usually at the back of the choir stalls, known as prebendal stalls.

[20] Romans 8:9

[21] Sherlock, William: Lange’s Commentary on the New Testament, op. cit., Vol. IX, p. 168

[22] Henry, Matthew: Concise Commentary on the Bible, op. cit., pp. 2060-2061

[23] Pyle, Thomas: A Paraphrase of the Epistles in the New Testament (1725), op. cit., p. 403

[24] Revelation 2:14, 20

[25] Bengel, Johann: Gnomon of the New Testament, op. cit., Vol. 4, p. 154

[26] Wesley, John, The Works of Vol. 6, Sermon 78, Spiritual Idolatry, p. 462

[27] 1 John 5:18

[28] Cf. Ephesians 5:27

[29] Wesley, John, The Works of: Vol 10, Section 3, Of Divine Worship, pp. 117, 472

[30] 1 Corinthians 8:4

[31] Macknight, James: Apostolic Epistles with Commentary, Vol. VI, p. 127

[32] Brown of Haddington, John: Self-Interpreting Bible, N. T., Vol. IV., p. 507