Oh my goodness! I don’t want my study of First John to end. Oh, I’m sure the Lord will bring me back to this living, breathing, part of the Bible. He has so much more to teach me. But once again, I’ve come to the close of a book of the Bible with an increased love for our God.
That’s what reading the Bible does. God draws us closer. The Word helps us trust more. It directs our steps and encourages our hearts. God uses His Word to convict, and challenge, and clear things up, that perhaps, we’ve misunderstood.
Recently, someone called me a false teacher in a comment on my page because I did not agree with her that Christians can no longer sin. Perhaps her dogmatic confusion came from this verse at the end of First John—
“We know 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.” (1 John 5:18)
But, let’s don’t get confused here—John is not suggesting we can live a perfect sinless life after salvation.
In fact, I believe this truth is one of the reasons God has John write this book is to help HIS CHILDREN, those who are saved, but still have the propensity to sin (all of us), recognize false teachers and flee sin and them.
At the end of this letter, “John is repeating his idea from 1 John 3:6: Whoever abides in Him does not sin. The grammar in the original language makes it plain John is speaking of a settled, continued lifestyle of sin. John is not teaching here the possibility of sinless perfection. As Stott says, “The present tense in the Greek verb implied habit, continuity, unbroken sequence.” (Enduring Word)
Again, John is addressing the idea of walking in sin as a habit or practice (without remorse or a desire to flee, versus “stepping” in sin and thinking it stinks like dog poop.)
The evil one continually tries to convince believers that sin does not stink but will make us happy or is no big deal.
So, while we all still sin this side of Heaven, we are to daily, and diligently, “keep” ourselves from this deception, this “sway of the wicked one” (I John 5:19).
We do this, as John has emphasized, again and again, in this wonderful letter that we now call the book of First John, by diligently keeping our eyes on Jesus.
And as this beloved disciple lays down his pen and rolls up the parchment for those early Christians then, and for us today, he reminds us of the hope we have and warns us to be diligent to keep ourselves from placing that hope anywhere but the Son of God—
“And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.” (1 John 5:20-21)
This is a continual knowing and doing for believers who want to walk in victory! This means we keep on studying the Word and praying. We need God every single day! We can’t rest our hope on anything or anyone else (“keep yourselves from idols”).
John has poured out his heart and wisdom in this letter with the goal of encouraging believers to walk in the life and peace that is available to us all—for our good and God’s glory.
This deserves our utmost attention today and every day!
Oh, what a Savior!! Friends, thank you for studying with me!! ❤️
May we keep encouraging each other to hold tight to Jesus, with our eye on the prize! What a glorious prize to know and love the Savior —Who came in flesh and spilled His blood so we might live forever with a Holy God!
I covet your prayers for the next book to study. If you’d like to know more about my story and why I write the things I write, check out Truth to Hold On To on Amazon at https://a.co/d/1TuGcCx and if you’ve read it, would you be so kind as to leave a review?
Also, my study, that was birthed here on my page, of First and Second Corinthians is available now too on Amazon https://a.co/d/9rCCQqd
Kim Jaggers Ministry 