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Commentaries:
People's Commentary (NT)
1 John 5:21
Keep yourselves from idols. Flee from idolatry, the besetting sin
of that age. So too we need to flee from the idols of our age. Whatever
takes our worship from God is an idol.
NOTE.--SIN IN THE FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. A comparison of passages
will show that an extreme and false doctrine might be reached by
pressing one class to the exclusion of another class. I give a list:
I. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves (1 John 1:8).
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us [our]
sins (1 John 1:9). If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a
liar (1 John 1:10). These things I write to you, that ye sin not
(1 John 2:1). If any man sinneth ("man" is not in the Greek), we have
an Advocate with the Father (1 John 2:1). If any man shall see his
brother sin a sin [which is] not to death (1 John 5:16). There is a
sin not to death (1 John 5:17).
These passages all refer to Christians; they teach their liability
to sin; show how they may obtain pardon, and show how also they should
labor to save an erring brother. One the other hand, there is another
class which teaches that the Christian is freed from sin.
II. The blood of Jesus his Son cleanseth from all sin (1 John 1:7).
Whoever abideth in him sinneth not (1 John 3:6). He cannot sin because
he is born of God (1 John 3:9). Whoever is born of God sinneth not
(1 John 5:18).
If this second class of passages was alone considered, they would
teach apparently the absolute holiness of the saint. The two classes
are to be interpreted in the light of each other. They teach that the
germ of sin, dormant, perhaps, remains in us as long as we are in the
flesh. "The flesh lusteth against the Spirit" (Galatians 5:17). We "may
be overtaken in a fault", the dormant germ waken, and we be betrayed
into sin for the moment (Galatians 6:1). The sin is due to the temporary
revival of the old nature. The new nature, the spiritual being born of
the new birth, is not disposed to sin, and will be destroyed if the sin
is willful and continued. One born of God cannot engage in willful sin.
Nor can he who abides in Christ. He who becomes a willful sinner does
not abide in Christ, nor remains a child of God.
Other commentary entries containing this verse:
1 John 5:21
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