Untitled Sermon (13)

Verse 18 18 We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps 7himself, and the wicked one does not touch him.[1]

The first phrase in verse 18 has caused confusion in the English speaking church since the first translation from the Greek. If we just read it, it sounds like believers, the born again, never sin. When we receive Christ we just stop sinning. John told us way back in chapter one that that was not the case: 8If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. But if you want to deceive yourself (and that is not that hard to do) and if you want to call God a liar, then go right ahead. Paul wrote a pretty good explanation of that back in feel free to go back and look at that. So when John says here in chapter 5 and in chapter 3 that those who are born of God do not sin he cannot be contradicting himself from chapter one. We looked at this when we were in chapter 3 but let’s look briefly at it again. When John uses the present tense form of the word “to sin” he is portraying it as an ongoing activity, an ongoing process. So when he says that “whoever is born of God does not sin” what he is proclaim is that the believer does not live a life that is riddled with sin. He no longer loves sin but instead he hates it. He does not continue in a lifestyle of sin. It expresses the truth, not that he can never slip into acts of sin, but rather that he does not persist in it habitually or ‘live in sin’. The new birth results in new behaviour. Sin and the child of God are incompatible. They may occasionally meet but they cannot live together in harmony.[2]

The second half of this verse can be understood two different ways. The Greek is ambiguous and since there are only two ways to construe it I’ll give you both of them and you can decide for yourself. In the KJV and the NKJV it is translated: “but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him.” This indicates that the person who is born of God, the believer, is supposed to keep himself or guard himself and if he does the wicked one does not injure him. In Paul tells his protégé that he is to ‘keep himself pure’. tells us that we are to keep ourselves ‘unspotted from the world’ and says ‘And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure’. And all the way through the New Testament we are told that we can only keep His commandments, or stay pure and unspotted if we are in Christ and Christ is in us. 24Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, 5who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 24Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us. This goes, like last week, to the Lord’s Prayer where we are to ask the Father to deliver us from the evil one. If we are born of God and keep ourselves pure, unspotted, then the wicked one cannot harm us.

That is one way to look at this part of the passage and it is a legitimate explanation especially if we remember that we can only remain spotless because the Holy Spirit lives in us instructing us and leading us. But another way to look at this is just as viable and I think more acceptable. In most of the more modern translations that use the better original manuscripts we see the second half of verse 18 more like what we find in the ESV: “but He who is born of God protects him and the wicked one does not touch him. now let me read that again and add a little bit of commentary to make this more clear: “but He (captital “H” He indicating Jesus) who is born of God protects him (the believer) and the wicked one does not touch him. Going back to like we did last week we find this in verses 11-12 11Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep£ through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are. 12While I was with them £in the world, I kept them in £Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. And then verse 15: 15I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.

Both of these explanations are good but if you ask me which one I lean towards I would have to tell you the second and I have to admit that my reason is more practical then theological (though somewhat theological). I would rather trust in God, the Lord Jesus Christ to guard me from the wicked one than to try to depend on keeping myself from sin to be protected from the wicked one because I fail every single day. But I think we could say that both are true in that yes it is Christ who keeps us but that does not relieve us of the responsibility to keep ourselves from sin.

Let me stop here for just a moment and talk about the wicked one not touching us. The wicked one, Satan, Lucifer, the Devil, whatever you want to call him is strong, he is a capable adversary against us. He is more intelligent, wily and powerful than you me and all of mankind combined. His aim, his goal of existence is to destroy everything that is dear to God his Creator. He hates God and he hates everything to do with God. His aim is to destroy God and everything that is God’s. Does that scare you? Does it cause you discomfort to know that there is a being powerful enough to destroy you? It should, if you are not born of God. If you are not born of God, if you are not born again then just like last week when I told you that the lost has no defense against sin, you have not defense against the wicked one and we will talk a little bit about that again in a minute. But if you are a believer there can be no eternal damage inflicted by the wicked one because it is Christ Jesus who guards you. It is God who keeps you. He has changed you so that you no longer live in sin and there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. You do not continue in sin and He guards you from the wicked one. Now if you want you can celebrate that.

In verse 19 we find the second thing that we know as believers. 19 We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.[3] We know that we are of God and those who are born of God are kept safe from the wicked one but everyone else, the world, lies under the wicked ones inclinations. Wait a minute George, are you saying that there are only two kinds of people; those who are born again, who are kept by the power of God and then there are those who are kept or under the control of the wicked one, Satan? No, I’m not saying that. John is saying that and it is Scripture so God is saying that. Now if you ask me if I agree then, yes I agree that you are either under the power of God or you are under the power of Satan, there is not a middle ground. I’ll even go a step further and say that if you are not under the power of the Son of God, being kept by Him then you are content to be under the power of Satan, you can neither do anything about it as I noted earlier nor do you want to do anything about it. You are content in your sin. I know that doesn’t apply to any of you, you were only asking those questions for a friend but feel free to tell your friend that truth if you are so inclined.

Before we move on from here let me say a little bit more about being under the sway of the wicked one. Most likely when we think about those who are under the sway of Satan we think of murderers, even mass murderers. We think of rapists and thieves and liars (well maybe not liars) or racists, you name it, you most likely have your definition. But I have a much more explicit definition and it comes from Jesus Himself. In one of those good religious folks, a Pharisee lawyer, came and asked Jesus what the greatest commandment of the Law was and Jesus responded in verses 37-40 ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38This is the first and great commandment. 39And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ £ 40On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” Forget the mass murderer, the rapist and everything else for a moment; do you always love God with all of your being? To that question every single one of us would have to answer no because if you answer yes then you are a liar and have proven that you do not love God with all your being because if you did you would keep His commandments and one of them is not to lie. So none of us love God with all of our being so let’s look at another question; are you at all concerned with the fact that you do not love God the way God commands? Do you struggle with the fact that you do not always obey Him and love Him or are you ok with yourself the way you are? Because if you do not struggle with the fact that you do not love God with all of your being then you are under the sway of the wicked one and you are ok with that. You see even relatively good people in this world are under the power of Satan and content to stay that way.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. Look at verses 20-21 20 We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true by being in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. 21 Dear children, keep yourselves from idols. [4]

This is the third “We Know” statement in this passage. We know that whoever is born of God does not continue in sin and is protected from harm done by the wicked one. We know that we are of God and not under the sway of the wicked one like the world is; we are not bound to sin. And this final one concerns the Son of God, through whom alone we can be rescued from the evil one and delivered from the world. Both revelation and redemption are his gracious work. Without him we could neither know God nor overcome sin. These are possible to us today only because the Son of God has come, and, having come, has given us understanding ‘the power or capacity of knowing’ so that we may know him who is true. This word true is not like “honest” or “trustworthy”. This “true” is talking about the “real” or “authentic”. This is a favorite adjective of John’s. Just as Jesus called himself the ‘true’ or ‘real’ bread and the true or real vine in ; , as opposed to the baker’s bread and the farmer’s vine, which are the shadows of which is nothing but a shadow of Him as our sustenance, so God is the ultimate reality as Jesus said in calling His Father the only true God as opposed to the idols John mentions in verse 21. This real God Christ has given us understanding to know; to have intimate knowledge of.[5] John wrote the most of this letter to explain to his readers just exactly who Jesus is. Due to all the false teachings that were going on during the time (and today for that matter) John wanted his reader to know that Jesus was the eternal Son of God who came to man. God of God who had taken on flesh to be our propitiation; our sacrificial atonement. Throughout the Gospels and especially in John’s Gospel we hear Jesus say things like; “I and My Father are one”, “If you know Me you know My Father”, “No one comes to the Father except through Me”, “No one comes to me unless the Father draws them”, and in Colossians it says that Jesus is the express image of the invisible God. And in this true God, this real God alone do we have eternal life. John finishes this letter by saying “keep yourselves from idols”. This may sound like a strange ending but it is as if John is saying; “In light of the fact we know that in Him we do not continue in sin, we are changed and He keeps us safe from the wicked one. And in light of the fact that we know we are of God and are delivered from being under the sway of the wicked one so that we no longer are bound by sin. And in light of the fact that we know that the Son of God has come giving us understanding that in God alone is salvation then why in the world would we ever turn to substitutes?

[1] The New King James Version. (1982). (). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

[2] Stott, J. R. W. (1988). The Letters of John: An Introduction and Commentary (Vol. 19, p. 192). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

[3] The New King James Version. (1982). (). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

[4] The New International Version. (2011). (). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[5] Stott, J. R. W. (1988). The Letters of John: An Introduction and Commentary (Vol. 19, p. 194). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.