In the Spring we began these lessons, and now the Fall is awfully close, or at least we in Augusta are hoping for its cooler weather. Just as the Summer is wrapping up so is John. He chooses to close by wedging some refreshing doctrinal nuggets underneath his reader’s confidences. “Let me bolster you by reminding you of what you already know.” That tack has been the mood and tenor of his many phrases.
18 We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him. 19 We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. 20 And we know 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, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. 21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols. (1 John 5:18-21–ESV)
We [you] know…
About four times John couples these words. He and his fellow apostles were not the only ones intimated by the launching pronoun we. By this stage in his epistle, we means the readership. It was a closing reminder of where they were; an encouragement or a spurring on to look at life in a certain way.
Live your knowledge
It was time for John’s readers to live confidently in what they were now a part of. Throughout this letter, John has broken and fractured the notions of the false teachers, but some doubts remain in the minds of his readers. The realities behind the doubts lay on the floor in shards, but there are still some glowing embers among them. The risk to those church members is that they will pick them back up. When John says “we know” he means that they understand the bigger picture of God and what he has done.
The false teachers have not gone. Those people left the church, but they had turned around to recruit followers from the church, to continue to spray doubts on those who remain within it. John, his company, and the Holy Spirit have uncovered the deceptions and untruths dangled out toward the true believers. The advertisements were well done, though, and while the error has been pointed out the attractiveness has not entirely dissolved. Even so, it is high time for these Christians to leave the false things on the floor. They need to act according to what they know.
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