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.
We see that John reminds us that all born of God do not keep sinning in other words they do not continue to live in sin, but that a specific one born of God I.e. Jesus will protect those who by his atoning work have also been born of God, he encourages us that we cannot be touched by the evil one, that of course does not mean we will not suffer as a result of satans wiles but I think rather that he cannot take hold of us and bring us under his control. He goes on to point out that we know that we are of God, this is so emphatic that I dare to say if we lack this confidence of being from God we are not saved, yes we may have short periods of doubt, but when it comes to the crunch if we are confident of our belonging we can find assurance of our election. We see also that the world, by which it seems John is referring to those who are not saved, lie in the power of satan, notice that this lying indicates a resignation or a lack of effort to escape, those in the world have no desire to move out of their 'comfort zone', and don't even realize the danger they are in, they simply lie in ignorance as their eyes remain closed. On the other hand those who have been chosen by God have been given understanding by the Son of God , they no longer lie in ignorance but rather realizing the truth of their situation, find themselves knowing the one who is true, and thus being 'in him' taking on His very nature becoming holy, as he is holy. There has been some confusion regarding the use of grammar especially with regard as to which 'he' is being referred to in each phrase at the end of v20 I.e. is it the father or the son whom we know, who is eternal life, and in whom we find ourselves as a first cause, is this a proof statement of Jesus being the son also being God, I think we have enough evidence in other passages of John's writings that it can be taken as an and rather than an or, we know from elsewhere of the trinity, and we know that Christ being the son is also God, and God became man through the person of Christ, and that is Christs work on the cross that brings us into the presence of the father and the son as the bride and we know also that the spirit dwells in us and we in him, although we can't fully grasp the triunity of God and how we are brought into unity we can rest that we can know enough of the true God as foundation to trusting him alone for eternal life. John closes with an exhortation to keep ourselves from idols, many have debated over the years about what John meant by this, some will argue that he meant merely the idols of ephesus, some will argue that he means statues or pictures of God, some will argue that he meant anything that could be used as a description or something that symbolises God. In the end I think elevating anything to more importance than God in our lives, even good things like family or church and also anything that reduces God to something we think we can comprehend amounts to worshipping something that is not the true God and is therefore an idol. We need to be aware that we need to submit to worshiping God in spirit and truth being in awe and wonder and fear of his unmeasurable qualities in all ways and not allowing anything to be a false image of Him.
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