1 John 5

19 We believers are children of God. Therefore, we are not of this world. We have been moved from the kingdom of darkness (the world) into the kingdom of heaven. The world is under the control of the evil one, Satan (see John 17:14-16).

20 Notice how many times in this letter John says the words, we know (see verses 2,15,18,19). Faith in Christ is not blind faith or ignorant faith. It is true faith; it is faith in the truth. Christ is the truth (John 14:6). And we can know Christ, who is the true, living Son of God. Therefore, why should we worship dead idols? (verse 21).

21 We must keep ourselves from idols (Exodus 20:3-6). Idols are not only stones and images that people worship. Idols are anything we love more than God—such as pleasure, work, money, possessions, position, fame, family. If in our daily lives we put any of these things in a higher place than God, we make them into idols and we make ourselves idol worshipers. These things are false gods. These are things of the world. We cannot love the world and love God at the same time (see Matthew 6:24; 1 John 2:15-17). Therefore, John says: Dear children, keep yourselves from idols—that is, from the love of the world.

¹ Christ is not like other incarnations. He is the one and only Son of the one true living God. Christ, although He was fully God, came to earth as a man. He was both fully man and fully God (see General Article: Jesus Christ).

² In place of the word our, some versions of the Bible say “your.” The general meaning is the same.

³ In the Greek text, the word purifies literally means “keeps on purifying.” The New Testament was originally written in Greek.

⁴ Some Christians believe that in this life also we can become sinless; but most believe that this is not possible. For further discussion, see General Article: Holy Spirit.

⁵  We, of course, must love our neighbor too. But first of all, we must love God. Then His love will flow into us, and enable us to love our neighbor. We cannot truly love our neighbor until we have first loved God (see Mark 12:31 and comment).

⁶  The antichrist is a powerful enemy of Christ, who will appear some time before Christ comes again. Many Bible scholars believe that the antichrist is the “man of lawlessness” that Paul refers to in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12. The antichrist is an agent of Satan. In fact, according to John, the antichrist has his own agents, false teachers, who are already in the world. John also calls these antichrists.

⁷  For further discussion of this subject, see General Article: Can We Lose Our Salvation?

⁸  In place of the words the truth, some versions of the Bible say “all things.” In the context of this verse, the meaning is essentially the same.

⁹ In the Greek text, the word does means “keeps on doing.”

¹⁰  In place of the words keeps on sinning, some versions of the Bible say “sins.” However, according to the Greek text, the correct meaning is “keeps on sinning.” This is important for understanding this verse.

¹¹  In the Greek text, the word does means “keeps on doing.”

¹²  In place of the words continue to sin, some versions of the Bible say “sin.” However, “continue to sin” is the correct meaning of the Greek text (see comment to verse 6 and footnote to comment).

¹³  In the Greek language: “keeps on doing.”

¹⁴ In the Greek language: “does not keep on doing.”

¹⁵ John is speaking here in a practical sense. Of course, before we can truly love others, we must first love God and desire to do His will (Mark 12:30). His will is that we should love others.

¹⁶ Here brother means fellow believer.

¹⁷ In this context, world means “evil or unbelieving men.”

¹⁸  Of course, a man can lie in order to deceive us; but such a lie will in time be exposed by the man’s actions.

¹⁹  These two kinds of spirits influence man’s own human spirit. When a spirit that acknowledges Jesus is in a man, that man will then acknowledge Jesus. When a spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is in a man, that man will not acknowledge Jesus.

²⁰  In the Old Testament, God appeared in the form of an angel to a number of individuals, such as Abraham and Moses. But no man was ever allowed to fully see God Himself.

²¹  We are in the world, but not of the world (John 15:19; 17:14-16,18).

²² Men possess a natural human love, such as the love between family members and between close friends. This love is also pleasing to God. But this is not the kind of love that John is talking about in this section. John is talking about a totally unselfish spiritual love; only those who have the Holy Spirit will have this kind of love.

²³ Eternal life is the greatest and most wonderful part of our salvation.