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.
[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
Down an Unfamiliar Road 