The True God

View daily reading plan: 1 John 5.18-20

We know that we believers are “of God”, begotten of Him and taking character from Him but “The whole world lieth in the evil one” (RV). He is “the prince of this world” (Jn 12.31), “the god of this age” (2 Cor 4.4, NKJV). He is the one who manipulates the system, but, as v.18 has indicated, the believer can be outside his sphere of influence and immune to his attentions.

Another thing that “we know” is “that the Son of God is come” (5.20). The verb that is used, “is come”, implies a voluntary act. Its  purpose was to “(give) us an understanding”. His coming has brought enlightenment, a saving knowledge of God, the true God.

That brought them into living union with that God and with His Son, of whom John makes another unequivocal statement: “He is the true God and eternal life” (5.20, JND, ESV, Newberry etc). “His Son Jesus Christ” is the immediate antecedent of the pronoun “He”, so Christ is identified as “the true God”; it is a statement of His deity!

To end on that note would have been a fitting climax, but, having magnified Christ, John ends with an apt corollary, “keep yourselves from idols”. Let nothing displace Christ, the true God, from prime place in your life.

Wednesday, 22 May, 2024