{"id":9974,"date":"2026-09-12T07:27:30","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T13:27:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/?p=9974"},"modified":"2026-09-12T07:27:30","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T13:27:30","slug":"1-john-518-21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/?p=9974","title":{"rendered":"1 John 5:18-21"},"content":{"rendered":"

18\u00a0<\/sup>We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him.<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

19\u00a0<\/sup>We know that we are of God, and\u00a0the whole world lies\u00a0under the sway of\u00a0the wicked one.<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

20\u00a0<\/sup>And we know that the\u00a0Son of God has come and\u00a0has given us an understanding,\u00a0that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ.\u00a0This is the true God\u00a0and eternal life.<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

21\u00a0<\/sup>Little children, keep yours<\/span>elves from idols. Amen.<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

Verses 19-21 form a summary of the whole Epistle. The believer possesses a divine nature, the object of his heart is Christ, and all outside of Him is idolatry. \u2014 Williams, page 1017.<\/span><\/h3>\n

know (v.18, 19, 20) \u2014 expresses the confidence we can have by faith<\/h3>\n

is born (v.18) \u2014 More lit., “whosoever has been [born],” expressive of the abiding effect of the Divine operations in the case of the believer. \u2014 Vine, page 107.<\/span><\/h3>\n

__________<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n

does not sin (v.18) \u2014 This is in the present continuous tense. … The Apostle is not now speaking of sin unto death, but, as in chapter 3, of a continuous course of sin, which is entirely incompatible with the new birth. \u2014 Vine, page 107.<\/span><\/h3>\n

__________<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n

Whereas the perfect tense, “he that hath been begotten,” refers to the believer as a child of God, in contrast to those who have not become so, the aorist or point tense “was begotten,” points to a fact in the past and refers to the Son of God, “the Only-Begotten from the Father” (John 1:14<\/span><\/a>), in contrast to the evil one. Christ is the Keeper (cp. John 17:12<\/span><\/a>). The rendering “him” (not “himself:) is supported by weighty manuscript evidence and is in keeping with the context. \u2014 Vine, page 107.<\/span><\/h3>\n

__________<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n

touch (v.18) \u2014 “lay hold of” The evil one assaults, but he cannot sever the vital connection between the believer and Christ. \u2014 Vine, pages 107-108.<\/span><\/h3>\n

__________<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n

While believers are beyond the power of the evil one to separate them from Christ, the rest of mankind, who constitute “the world” (v.19), are in his power (see John 12:31<\/span><\/a>; 14:30<\/span><\/a>; 16:11<\/span><\/a>); they are controlled by him as “the prince of this world,” and their condition therefore that of spiritual death. \u2014 Vine, page 108.<\/span><\/h3>\n

an understanding (v.20) = forming a conclusion from certain facts<\/h3>\n

that we may know Him (v.20) \u2014 tense indicates a continuous process of getting to know God<\/h3>\n

Him who is true (v.20) \u2014 true as opposed to what is spurious and unreal, not true as opposed to what is false. … Again, God is not only the source of truth, He is the one and only genuine God. \u2014 Vine, page 109.<\/span><\/h3>\n

__________<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n

Jesus Christ as the Son of God is identified as eternal life and also as the true God, one of the most striking examples of His full deity and oneness with the Father. \u2014 Grace, page 2226.<\/span><\/h3>\n

keep (v.21) = guard, a command to be constantly kept<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

18\u00a0We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him. 19\u00a0We know that we are of God, and\u00a0the whole world lies\u00a0under … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1-john"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9974"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9974\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9976,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9974\/revisions\/9976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}