Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadWilliam Burkitt Notes and Observations - 1 John 5:20 - 5:20
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
As if the apostle had said, "We Christians are better taught by our religion, to acknowledge and worship the only true God by his Son Jesus Christ our only Mediator, and therefore exhort you to keep from idols;" intimating hereby, that the worshipping of any other besides this only true God, and by any other mediator, besides Jesus Christ, is idolatry, or the words may be sensed thus: "We are sure that the Son of God is come, and that Christ is he, who by his dcotrine and spirit hath enlightened us to know the true and living God, whilst the greatest part of the world worship false Gods, yea, adore the devil himself."
And farther, We are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ; that is, we are by faith implanted into Jesus Christ, who is the author, purchaser, and disposer of eternal life, and therefore is true God. This text, which proves undeniably the divinity of Christ, the Socinians pervert by applying these words, This is the true God, not to Christ but to God the Father. But this makes the apostle guilty of a grand tautology, by saying, "The true God is the true God."
Besides, it is here said of the same person that he is the true God, and eternal life. Now, eternal life is thrice in this very chapter attributed to Jesus Christ, as the author and dispenser of it, 1Jn_5:11-13. If then Christ be meant by eternal life, he must be also meant by the true God, for they are spoken of together when the apostle says, This is the true God and eternal life.
Lastly, our apostle concludes his epistle with this cautionary direction. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. As if he had said, "My advice to you is as that of a father to his own children, having received by the gospel the knowledge of the true God, keep yourselves from idols, or false gods of the Heathen, among whom ye live; abandon all idolatry, superstition, sacrificing to idols, frequenting idol-feasts, and all idolatrous communion, these things being inconsistent with the worship of the true God, and real Christianity. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.