1John
5:18 ¶ We know that whosoever is born of
God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that
wicked one toucheth him not. 19 And
we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness. 20 And we know that the Son of God is come, and
hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are
in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God,
and eternal life. 21 Little children,
keep yourselves from idols. Amen.
Context is
so important here. John has already said that we sin so this is a statement
that the born again Christian does not become the sin he or she might fall into
at times. When I was young I knew many unsaved people who defined themselves by
their sins, such as the “party animal” or the “ladies man” or the, typically
feminine, “free spirit.” The Christian must keep his or herself and resist
Satan and not fall into habitual sin. Preachers have pointed out that God does
not see us as sinners but as the redeemed of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. But
we will still sin as fallen humans in a fallen world.
James
4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God.
Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Christ,
the living Word of God, the angel or appearance of God the Father, the Son of
God is the true God and the key to eternal life. This is in keeping with the
declaration in Titus.
Titus
2:13 Looking for that blessed hope, and
the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;
This was
understood in the manuscripts from which the King James Bible was translated
from to mean Christ was God. If you can’t accept the deity of Christ you have a
problem. Not only did the Jews regard the Word of God, the angel of the LORD,
as God as I pointed out in the Targums but the early Christians regarded Jesus
as also God as Pliny the Younger (AD 112) reported Christians “sing hymns to
Christ as to a god”.[1] The Oxyrhynchus Hymn
addresses Christ in those terms. Archaeologists have uncovered 2nd-century
house-church grafitti in Dura-Europos depicting believers praying to
Jesus—liturgical evidence harmonizing with Titus
2:13.
Christ is
the Word of God, by which all things were created and by which all things are
sustained, and is also God as part of the Godhead or, as early Jewish writers
noted, the powers in the heavens. There is one God composed of three parts.
Genesis
1:1 In the beginning God created the
heaven and the earth.
From the
Targums, certainly lacking the credibility and inspiration of the Bible but
revealing the Jewish mindset of the time;
A source I studied said that one translation of the Targum Neofiti
has two interpretations.
From the beginning by wisdom the son of
the LORD created the heavens and the earth.
From the beginning by (the) wisdom the
LORD created and formed the heavens and the earth.
Notice the
phrasing of several verses in the Old Testament which while others clearly are
talking about God’s words these and ones like them seem to be referring more
specifically to the Godhead;
Genesis 15:1 ¶
After these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision,
saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.
Jeremiah 1:4 ¶ Then the word of the LORD came unto me,
saying, 5 Before I formed thee in the
belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified
thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.
Ezekiel 28:11 ¶ Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me,
saying,
Then, from
John’s gospel;
John
1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and
the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
And then
from Paul;
Colossians
1:15 Who is the image of the invisible
God, the firstborn of every creature: (as
in the creator of all living things) 16
For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in
earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or
principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: 17 And he is before all things, and by him all
things consist.
Look at
these verses;
Genesis 1:26
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let
them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and
over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that
creepeth upon the earth.
Genesis 11:7
Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may
not understand one another’s speech.
And
consider these;
Matthew 28:19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost:
2Corinthians
13:14 The grace of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you
all. Amen.
1John 5:7 For there are
three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and
these three are one.
These are
just some things to consider as we try to understand what God has given us.
John
finally warns them to beware of idols, and idolatry, of course, just as Paul
did on several occasions which we have discussed, a grave danger in their world
as it is in ours even if we don’t call them gods. Consider the warnings above
regarding the world.
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