RPG Adults
KEEP YOURSELVES FROM IDOLS (III)
THURSDAY, AUGUST 24
1 John 5:18-21
1 John 5:18
“he that is begotten of God
keepeth himself…”
KEEP YOURSELVES FROM IDOLS (III)
1 John 5:18-21 gives us some precious instructions on how to keep away from idols.
(a) Be Born Again: A born-again person (v18) will not sin habitually (1 Thess 1:9). When he fails to do God’s will, he will repent right away.
(b) Keep Oneself: “He that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not” (v 18). The Greek Text underlying KJV is correct with the reflexive pronoun “heauton” (“himself”) instead of the corrupt text “auton” (“him”). Surely the Lord will keep His children from Satan (John 10:28-29), but truly born-again believers are to keep themselves from Satan, too, and resist Satan (James 4:7; 1 Pet 5:8-9). Eve and Adam failed to resist Satan, so they fell into sin. Our Lord Jesus resisted Satan by God’s Word until he fled away. We must not go to a place full of temptations or read a book or watch a program full of temptations and then expect God to keep us clean! “Keep yourselves from idols!”
(c) Be of the Lord: We belong to God (v 19) and our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. We are to glorify God in our body and our spirit (1 Cor 6:19-20).
(d) Grow in the Knowledge of God: We thank God that the Lord Jesus gives us understanding (v 20) so that we might experientially know the living and true God. The more we know God the more we love Him, trust Him, fear Him, obey Him and want to glorify Him.
(e) Be in God and in His Son Jesus Christ: “And we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life” (v 20). Outside of Christ, we have nothing!
THOUGHT: It is safest to hide ourselves in Christ.
PRAYER: Father, I thank Thee that I belong to Thee and I am in Thee.