The Big Summary

1 John 5:21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

21 Τεκνία, φυλάξατε ἑαυτὰ ἀπὸ τῶν εἰδώλων.

This is the last verse in 1 John and, frankly, it feels a tad tacked-on. You've read all this amazing stuff about Christ and what it means to live in Christ and then you hit this. Why is this here? John gives the imperative φυλάξατε. He is telling them to guard themselves. "Keep" is a smoother translation, but I think that the force of the word "guard" is better for understanding this.


Why does John add this? I would maintain that idolatry is at the root of all sin. We sin because we have idols apart from God. Let's take an easy one like pornography. This is born out of lust. We have decided that sex is more important than Jesus, so we run to pornography. That's an example of idolatry. Money is another easy example. When we make money more important to us than Jesus we are committing idolatry.


John adds this short verse because this is the key to everything. If we keep ourselves from idols then we will be able to live in such a way as John described throughout the rest of the book. That's sanctification in a nutshell, I think. 


Of course, this is very easy to throw out in a blog post, but impossible to live apart from the Holy Spirit. I know this all too well. My prayer is that we all would keep ourselves from idols and run to Christ.

Why Do We Love?

1 John 4:19 We love because he first loved us.

19 ἡμεῖς ἀγαπῶμεν, ὅτι αὐτὸς πρῶτος ἠγάπησεν ἡμᾶς.

This is such a rich chapter that it is almost impossible to know what to write about. This is such a simple, but powerful verse. The chapter is about love and how love is the manifestation of Christ in us. In other words, if we don't love other people then we lie when we say that we know Christ. It is impossible for us not to love if we know Christ. But why is that?


This verse tells us why. We love because He first loved us. There is nothing magic in the Greek. The first person plural is in the present active indicative. This refers to the present act of loving. It is what we do. The other verb is a third person aorist. That means that in some unidentified time in the past God loved us first.


What this verse tells us is the means of how we love - we love because God first loved us. But it also tells us something about the timing. God loved us first. He loved us before we ever loved Him. Other passages shed more light into this truth. We cannot love Him unless He loves us first because we are dead in our sins. Dead people don't make decisions and they certainly cannot love. 


When I consider this verse I am moved by God's immense love for an incredible sinner such as I. I think of all the times when I have sinned and cannot believe that He would extend His grace to me. Yet He does. If you know Christ this must move you too. If you're not, then I urge you to repent and believe.

Not to Lie

1 John 1:10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

10 

ἐὰν εἴπωμεν ὅτι οὐχ ἡμαρτήκαμεν, ψεύστην ποιοῦμεν αὐτὸν καὶ ὁ λόγος αὐτοῦ οὐκ ἔστιν ἐν ἡμῖν.

This ends one of the more confusing chapters for the English Bible reader. It looks like it is contradicting itself because previously John told us that if we go on sinning then we are not Christians. Now here we see that if we say that we have not sinned then His word is not in us. What do we do with this?

The answer comes from the verbs. Here the verb is ἡμαρτήκαμεν which is in the indicative perfect. However, the word in verse 8 is περιπατῶμεν, which is in the subjunctive. In other words, what John is getting at here is that if we are living in a continual state of habitual sin then we should not call ourselves Christians. However, if we say that we never have times of sin then we are lying. Confessing sin is at the heart of the Christian life. We can't call ourselves Christians and say that we do not sin.


This is a passage that really puzzled me until I learned Greek. I'm not saying that you need to know Greek to read 1 John, but if you don't know Greek this is where a good commentary really comes in handy.

A Great Command

1 John 5:21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

21 Τεκνία, φυλάξατε ἑαυτὰ ἀπὸ τῶν εἰδώλων.

This verse seems sort of tacked-on to the end of 1 John.  John has spent five chapters talking about what it means to be a Christian.  Basically, if we know Christ we will obey Him.  If we don't then we won't.  Or perhaps it is better to say if we won't then we don't.  Either way, John spends a lot of time talking about how the Christian life should look.  But then he ends with this verse.

I think that this verse sums up the whole book.  The word φυλάξατε is an imperative.  You could also think of it as a command to guard yourself from idols.  But why make this point about idols?  We aren't making golden calves, are we?

No, we aren't putting our jewelry into a fire and making a calf.  But we are making idols out of everything.  I went to a university where 100,000 people make an idol out of watching 22 men fight over some pigskin filled with air.  We live in a country where millions do that on Sundays instead of Saturdays.  We live in a country where we have elevated the dollar to god status.  Not to mention the way we look for the praise of men.

We have no shortage of idols.  John Calvin said that "The human heart is a factory of idols."  If we are honest with ourselves we will agree with this statement.  That is why John ends this book with what appears to be a disconnected verse.  If we do this then we can obey the rest of the commands in the book.


So how are you doing with this?  Are you guarding your heart from idols?

Orthopraxy

 1 John 3:18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

18 Τεκνία, μὴ ἀγαπῶμεν λόγῳ μηδὲ τῇ γλώσσῃ ἀλλὰ ἐν ἔργῳ καὶ ἀληθείᾳ.

As I go through the system of ten chapters a day I am fascinated by the contrast in the style of writing throughout Scripture.  John's writing is notoriously simple.  But simplicity does indicate a lack of profundity.  There are several penetrating truths in 1 John if we pay attention.  This is a fairly obvious one.

John spends a lot of time talking about love.  This is particularly true in chapters 3 and 4.  Here he tells us what real love looks like.  We are not simply to love in word or talk but ἐν ἔργῳ καὶ ἀληθείᾳ.  He uses the strong adversative ἀλλὰ here too.  There is a stark contrast between simply talking about love and actually showing love.

This is an area where I think that many conservative folks like me really come up short.  At least I know that I do.  I'm pretty good at getting my theology straight, but does that spill over into action?  How often do I help someone who has less than I do?  More importantly, how often do I share the gospel with someone who needs to hear it?  Not very often.

I see the book of 1 John as a reality check.  We can talk about what we believe, but how we live is a much stronger indicator.  This relatively simple book is beating me up yet again.  But I still have to ask myself what I'm going to do about it.  

Abide in Him

1 John 2:28 And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. 29 If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.

28 Καὶ νῦν, τεκνία, μένετε ἐν αὐτῷ, ἵνα ἐὰν φανερωθῇ σχῶμεν παρρησίαν καὶ μὴ αἰσχυνθῶμεν ἀπ᾽ αὐτοῦ ἐν τῇ παρουσίᾳ αὐτοῦ. 29  ἐὰν εἰδῆτε ὅτι δίκαιός ἐστιν, γινώσκετε ὅτι καὶ πᾶς ὁ ποιῶν τὴν δικαιοσύνην ἐξ αὐτοῦ γεγέννηται.

This concludes an incredible chapter where John lays out what I would consider to be a strong argument for what is sometimes called "Lordship Salvation."  Basically, John is saying that those who know Jesus will obey Him.  Those who don't obey Him don't know Him.  Just like in yesterday's passage John uses a third-class condition to sum up his point.  It hinges on the question of ἐὰν εἰδῆτε.

Of course, we know that Jesus is righteous.  Therefore, we know that  ὁ ποιῶν τὴν δικαιοσύνην or the ones doing righteousness are from Him.  Keep in mind that this is addressed to saints.  Therefore, he is referring to those in the Church (note the big C).  I don't mean that body which has its head in Rome, but those who are part of the body of Christ.  We know that those who make professions of faith are truly saved based on their lives.

It is important to keep this straight.  We do not practice righteousness to merit favor.  Rather, we practice righteousness because we are born again.  In other words, we can look at our lives to get an indicator of our spiritual states.  If we don't bear any fruit then we should question whether or not we really know Him.

We also have to balance this with other statements made by John.  We all still sin.  But what is the direction of our lives?  What are the deepest desires of our hearts?  We all fight the "old man" as Paul called his sin nature, but do we operate out of a mindset of loving and serving the Lord?  What motivates your heart?

Confession

1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

9 ἐὰν ὁμολογῶμεν τὰς ἁμαρτίας ἡμῶν, πιστός ἐστιν καὶ δίκαιος, ἵνα ἀφῇ ἡμῖν τὰς ἁμαρτίας καὶ καθαρίσῃ ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ πάσης ἀδικίας.

This is one of those verses that just about every Christian either has memorized or is very familiar with.  If he isn't, he should be.  I remember that this is one of the first verses I ever memorized.  It's one of those great verses which summarizes the gospel beautifully.

What is John telling us here?  It seems absurdly simple, doesn't it?  We confess our sins and He forgives us.  I don't think that he has the sacrament of penance in mind here either.  I don't think that this is an ongoing process either.  When God saves us He cleans us from all unrighteousness.  We become white as snow as we are washed in the blood of the Lamb.  It all starts with admitting our guilt before God.

Note that all the verbs are in the subjunctive.  The construct with ἐὰν ὁμολογῶμεν is a third-class condition.  This means that the fulfillment is uncertain, but likely.  John is saying that he doesn't know if the reader is necessarily going to confess his sins, but he does know that if we confess our sins we can be sure that God will forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  This is because He is both faithful to His promise and He is just in not putting us under double jeopardy for the crimes for which Jesus was already convicted.

Where are you?  Are you trying to live life as a good person?  Do you hope that someday your good works will outweigh your bad on some divine scales of justice?  If so, admit that you are a sinner before God because all it takes is one bad work to tip the scale.  Once you've sinned you can never make up the lost ground.  But Jesus came to offer Himself as a ransom for the penalty we deserve.  Confess to God that you need His salvation.  He is faithful and just and will forgive you.