5:21 “Dear children, keep yourselves from the idols.”
As a parting shot, John closes with an admonition against idolatry. The word “keep/guard” here is different from the “keep/guard” of verse 18. Here, it means “be on watch, have in custody, defend, keep safe, preserve, beware, keep in abstinence, debar” (Pershbacher).
It is, perhaps, the negative side of keeping/guarding, focusing on what we are guarding against rather than the positive side (v.18), which focuses on what we are preserving. Hanna (438) notes that the Aorist Imperative form of this word indicates that it is “used for a precept which is valid until the coming of Christ.”
The next natural question is, “What does it mean by idols?” The plain sense of the Greek word is: “form, shape, image” (Pershbacher), hence an idol which heathen people worship. Westcott writes (197), “from the thought of ‘Him who is true,’ St. John turns almost of necessity to the thought of the vain shadows which usurp His place.” He insists that John is not just speaking of images, but of things in general which usurp the worship of Christ. Clark (168) is emphatic that, “the idols John has in mind are the heretical doctrines [of the antichrists].” However, I tend to side with Calvin here, that this is really talking of images.
Now, before you dismiss this as irrelevant to today, think again! Our modern culture is SATURATED with images! It is one of the greatest perils which Christians face today.
Images of earthly worship, from the human body, to food, to simulations of paradise, and all manner of other things, are plastered over our TV screens, computer monitors, and every available scrap of paper, it seems! The peril lies in the fact that our faith is NOT image-driven, so we have no alternative image to focus our worship upon, only a spiritual God whom “no one has seen.”
That is why it is so crucial to be vigilant in guarding against the barrage of images which fill the world in which we live. We must guard ourselves with the knowledge that Christians don’t sin, that we are of God, and that Jesus is God and has given us eternal life.
John doesn’t leave us comfortable and complacent in our position in God, but rather leaves us with something to keep us on our toes: “guard yourselves from idols.” I’ll close with the words of Calvin, “Let us then remember that we ought carefully to continue in the spiritual worship of God, so as to banish far from us everything that may turn us aside to gross and carnal superstitions.”
By Nate Wilson.
