1 John 5:18-21

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.

The Exorcism of Emily Rose & Standing Against the Devil

I never saw the movie “The Exorcist.” It came out when I was 15—about the time I became a Christian. Although I was certainly too young to see it, several of my high school peers saw it. I didn’t want to immerse myself in Hollywood’s depiction of the demonic. That is one of the reasons I both empathized with and was surprised at Sam Storm’s blog post, on Enjoying God Ministries’ site. Just after the film came out he wrote,

I loathe horror movies. The last thing I want when I watch a film is to be frightened. Monsters, deformed creatures, distortions of reality and the like are a guarantee that I will get up and walk out of the theater. Much to the dismay of many, I walked out of the first film in the Lord of the Rings trilogy and never came close to attending the other two. I simply cannot bear looking at the darkness and ugliness of evil, even when the powers of good and right win out. But that’s me.

So what was I doing watching “The Exorcism of Emily Rose”?…“The Exorcism of Emily Rose” is significantly different [from “The Exorcist”], not least in the fact that it is designed less to frighten the audience than to portray the dynamics of demonization and the delicate legal issues surrounding the “cause” of such bizarre behavior in those who claim to be spiritually oppressed.

This film [“The Exorcism of Emily Rose”] was directed by a professing evangelical, Scott Derrickson, whose interest in the subject was stirred by his reading of C. S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters.

Yesterday, I saw half of the movie. I know some who have seen it who couldn’t sleep after seeing it. I know one college student who saw it, then slept the rest of the week in the same bed as her mother. I am not really recommending that you see the movie. My point and observation is this: we give little or no thought to the biblical reality of the schemes of the Devil in opposition to God and in opposition to us.

Our text contains the first of three closing statements at the end of 1 John, each beginning with the phrase “we know.” Today we will look at the first two, in verses 18-19, and leave the last one for next week when, Lord willing, we will finish 1 John.

My aim is that God encourage you and give you grace to persevere in faith, resist temptation to sin, repent of sin, and stand against the Devil and the sin of this world as a child of the living God. I aim to do that by showing you two assurances we have from this text.

Assurance #1—We Are Protected

The first assurance we have is from verse 18—we know that we, as children of God, are protected from being snatched by the evil one into a life of persistent sin. Verse 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.”

Who has this protection?

The verse says that this protection is afforded to “everyone who has been born of God.” The verb is in the perfect tense, denoting that those who have been born in the past continue living in the reality of the new birth.

So this is a grace of protection for all believers. You may be a 5^th grader or an 88 year old, a nursery worker or an elder, a fast food worker or the CEO, a high school drop out or a person with 3 graduate degrees in theology from Bethlehem College and Seminary, or a new or long-time believer.

It is not contingent upon church attendance or Bible reading or volunteering to help the poor. Those may be means of his protecting grace—and we hope and trust that they are—but this protection is not grounded in our obedience.

John 1:12-13 says, “To all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” If you have been born of God, you need to know that this protection is yours. It is an aspect of our inheritance. It is a birthright for all of God’s children. No exceptions. The protection belongs to anyone born of God. Count on it.

Who gives this protection?

At first glance, it’s not that clear who gives this protection. We are protected from Satan’s clutches because “he who was born of God protects him.” The word translated “protects” means “to keep” or “to guard.” Is John saying that we who are “born of God” protect ourselves? We just saw in the first part of the verse that we are the ones born of God. So is this clause saying that we protect ourselves?

In various places, the Bible does call believers to “keep” ourselves. We are to keep ourselves from idols (1 John 5:21); keep ourselves unstained by the world (James 1:27); keep ourselves pure (1 Tim 5:22); keep the faith (2 Timothy 4:7); and keep ourselves in the love of God (Jude 21).

However, I don’t think he is saying we ultimately protect ourselves because this phrase refers to one person—“he who was born of God”— not to the many but one. Therefore, I take the one who protects or keeps us here to be Jesus Christ. He is called the “one who was born of God” because Jesus was born in human flesh by Mary his human mother, yet conceived of the Holy Spirit (Luke 2). Additionally, Jesus uses the word “born” of himself in John 18:37 when he says to Pilate, “For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth.” Last, Jesus elsewhere uses this verb translated “protect” of his keeping his disciples (cf. John 17:12,15). One of the ways Jesus protects us, his disciples, is in his intercessory work in praying for us.

So we can say that Jesus Christ, the one to whom all authority in heaven and on earth has been given, is the one who protects the children of God. He sees to it that Satan cannot “fasten himself” to us. Satan is a thief who has come to kill, steal and destroy. He will harass, attack and accuse. He cannot snatch us from the protecting grip of our heavenly Father or of Christ.

Why do we need protection?

We need protection so that “the evil one [will] not touch [us].” This phrase, “the evil one,” is John’s most frequent manner of referring to the Devil in 1 John. Five times he uses the phrase “the evil one” (1 John 2:13-14; 3:12; 5:18-19). Four times he uses the word “devil” (1 John 3:8, 10). But never does John use the word “Satan” to refer to the Devil.

What is meant by the phrase “the evil one does not touch him”? The verb translated “touch” means “to touch” or “to lay hold” of to the point or purpose of doing harm (cf. Psalm 105:15, John 17:12, 15). The touching in view here is more than a soft touch—it is a grasp or a grab. It’s a word picture. The idea here is that the Devil’s intent is to grasp us, lay hold of us, or snatch us away in order to harm us and as children of God, we are protected from being grabbed.

Peter warns, “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). If the Devil, in the sense of our text, were to snatch you it would be for the purpose of “devouring you,” that you should spiritually perish apart from God and Christ.

As a kid, I was a paperboy for the Minneapolis Star, the afternoon paper. I’d pick up 70 papers or so and deliver them door-to-door over the course of a 6-block walk. One afternoon, for some reason I can’t recall, my dad was with me. He had driven me to pick up the papers and was following along as I walked from house-to-house.

As I was walking, someone called me. It was a man alone in a car. He said, “Come here.” And I stepped a little closer. He said something more and I stepped a little closer. The stranger in the car was totally caught off guard when my dad spoke, “What do you want?!” The stranger, surprised, sped away in his car.

Now, I don’t know for certain the intentions of the stranger in the car; his speeding away implies that he was up to no good. But I do know that because my father was present to protect me that he did not touch me!

How precious is the promise of Jesus in John 10:28-29, “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” Satan will tempt us with doubts and sin, but he cannot snatch us away from God nor Christ Jesus. This is the protection of which we are assured.

How does the protection evidence itself?

The protection is made evident as it prevents us from continuing in sin. “We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning.” In other words, God’s children do not continue in sin.

Now, you might be thinking, “Tell me it doesn’t mean what it says! I am a sinner. I believe in Jesus Christ. God has worked in my life, drawn me to himself. God has given me a love for himself, joy in Jesus, and hope in his promises. But I still sin! If I am honest with myself, I sin every single day, every hour of every day. And I will admit I sin more than I know.”

Some have interpreted this verse as teaching sinless perfection is not only our goal but also that it is attainable in this earthly life by the super-spiritually mature. But, let me give you three reasons I know that sinless perfection is not in view.

1. Any illusions of our sinlessness were already demolished in 1 John 1:8 and 10. Rather, John said those who claim “sinless perfection” are not mature but are self-deceived and slanderous toward God because he says we are sinners. Those verses read, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us…. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” This is the consistent teaching of the Bible (cf. 1 Kings 8:46; Proverbs 20:9; Romans 6:12-14, 7:1-25). Ecclesiastes 7:20, puts it succinctly, “Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.”

The normal, mature Christian life is a life of confession of sin, receiving the grace of God to forgive us our sins, cleanse us from all unrighteousness, and thereby continue to walk in the light of fellowship with God through Christ. That’s why Jesus, in Matthew 6, teaches us to pray this in the Lord’s prayer, “Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Matthew 6:11-12).

2. Additionally, we know that this evidence of protection is not sinless perfection because the present tense of the verb communicates that the issue is “continuing in sin.” The ESV communicates the sense well when it says that the one “born of God does not keep on sinning.” 1 John teaches that children of God do not persist or continue in sin but persist or continue in righteousness

3. Last, this understanding of not a sinless perfection fits the teaching of 1 John regarding the new birth. We can say from 1 John 3:9 that the new birth actually prevents our continuing in sin, “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.” And we can say from 1 John 2:29 that the new birth actually promotes our continuing to do what is good, “You may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.”

Therefore, I take it that the evidence of this protection in our lives as children of God is that we do not persist in sin. When we sin, we repent. We confess our sin to God. We admit it to ourselves and to others. We change. We are very uncomfortable persisting in sin—all that we are as children of God hates the sin our flesh loves—and the flesh simply cannot win the war. Sin will win some battles but not the war.

Assurance #2—We Are Children of God

The second assurance we have is from verse 19—we know that we are children of God even though the whole world lies in the domain of the evil one. Verse 19, “We are from God and yet the whole world lives in the power of the evil one.

What does this tell us about ourselves as believers? I take the phrase “we are from God” as a word of assurance that we are children of God. We have been born from God, by the seed of His Word and the power of His Spirit. This simple, self-identifying truth brings me a settled sense of who I am. God is my Father; I am a child of the living God (John 1:12-13).

This has been very encouraging to me in my life and brought so much healing. I grew up here in South Minneapolis and I have all kinds of mixed race stuff in my family. I was too dark to be white and too light to be black. And now I have vitiligo; my color is literally falling off. God will not let me get a settled sense of identity in skin color—it is a broken cistern! Just like your job and a thousand other idols. There has been so much healing here for me in finding my identity in being a child of God. I am a citizen of Heaven (Philippians 3:20) since spiritually my place of origin is from God. Though I live in the world, I am not of the world but of God (John 17:14). I am, as it were, a stranger, an alien in this world (1 Peter 2:11; Hebrews 11:13).

What does this tell us about the world? In contrast, “the whole world lives in the power of the evil one.” This is another word picture. Literally it reads, “The whole world lies in the evil one.” The picture is this: The world lies in the evil one like a baby lies in the arms of his or her father or mother. In other words, the world is in the grasp, under the influence, control and power of the Devil. The Devil is called “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2). And Jesus declares he will bring an end to the reign of the Devil as “ruler of this world” (John 12:31, 14:30, 16:11).

The world in this sense is described in 1 John 2:15-16, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world.” In this sense James says, “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4).

Applying the Assurances

In summary, my aim has been that God would encourage you and give you grace to persevere in faith, resist temptation to sin, repent of sin, and stand against the Devil and the sin of this world as a child of living God. I pray that he would do that through two assurances we gain from this text. First, know that we, as children of God, are protected from being snatched by the evil one into a life of persistent sin. Verse 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.” Second, know that we are children of God even though the whole world lies like a baby in the arms of the evil one. Verse 19, “We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” 

What difference does it make? First, rest in the love of God, your heavenly Father. You rest like a baby in the arms of your heavenly Father. Rest there.

Second, settle your identity in Christ. You will be stable and protected by the criticism, comments and gossip of others and idolatry by settling your identity in Christ as a child of God.

Third, awaken to the reality of the devil and confidently resist him and he will flee from you. Take advantage of the armor of God from Ephesians 6. Read from Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology about the Devil and demons and rest in the settled sense of God’s protection over you. You don’t need to obsess over knowing about demonic things, but be aware of it.

Fourth, if you are presently in sin, if you are stuck there, take hold of the promise that everyone born of God does not continue in sin. John wants us to know this so we don’t continue in sin but repent. Come home to your Father; receive his forgiveness and cleansing from all unrighteousness. Rest in his arms.