Teks -- 1 John 5:21 (NET)

5:21 Little children, guard yourselves from idols.

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per frasa)

Robertson: 1Jo 5:21 - Yourselves

Yourselves ( heauta ).

Neuter plural reflexive because of teknia . The active voice phulassete with the reflexive accents the need of effort on their part. Idolatry was everywhere and the peril was great. See Act 7:41 : 1Th 1:9 for this word.

Vincent: 1Jo 5:21 - Keep yourselves

Keep yourselves ( φυλάξατε ἑαυτὰ )

The exact phrase is not found elsewhere in the New Testament. See 2Pe 3:17. Rev., rightly, guard . See on 1Pe 1:4.

Vincent: 1Jo 5:21 - Idols

Idols ( εἰδώλων )

Strictly, images . The command, however, has apparently the wider Pauline sense, to guard against everything which occupies the place due to God.

Wesley: 1Jo 5:21 - Keep yourselves from idols

From all worship of false gods, from all worship of images or of any creature, and from every inward idol; from loving, desiring, fearing anything more than God. Seek all help and defence from evil, all happiness in the true God alone.

JFB: 1Jo 5:21

Affectionate parting caution.

JFB: 1Jo 5:21 - from idols

Christians were then everywhere surrounded by idolaters, with whom it was impossible to avoid intercourse. Hence the need of being on their guard against any even indirect compromise or act of communion with idolatry. Some at Pergamos, in the region whence John wrote, fell into the snare of eating things sacrificed to idols. The moment we cease to abide "in Him that is true (by abiding) in Jesus Christ," we become part of "the world that lieth in the wicked one," given up to spiritual, if not in all places literal, idolatry (Eph 5:5; Col 3:5).

Clarke: 1Jo 5:21 - Little children

Little children - Τεκνια· Beloved children; he concludes with the same affectionate feeling with which he commenced

Clarke: 1Jo 5:21 - Keep yourselves from idols

Keep yourselves from idols - Avoid the idolatry of the heathens; not only have no false gods, but have the true God. Have no idols in your houses, none in your churches, none in your hearts. Have no object of idolatrous worship; no pictures, relics, consecrated tapers, wafers, crosses, etc., by attending to which your minds may be divided, and prevented from worshipping the infinite Spirit in spirit and in truth

The apostle, says Dr. Macknight cautioned his disciples against going with the heathens into the temple of their idol gods, to eat of their feasts upon the sacrifices they had offered to these gods; and against being present at any act of worship which they paid them; because, by being present, they participated of that worship, as is plain from what St. Paul has written on the subject, 1Co 8:10 (note)

That is a man’ s idol or god from which he seeks his happiness; no matter whether it be Jupiter, Juno, Apollo, Minerva, Venus, or Diana; or pleasure, wealth, fame, a fine house, superb furniture, splendid equipage, medals, curiosities, books, titles, human friendships, or any earthly or heavenly thing, God, the supreme good, only excepted. That is a man’ s idol which prevents him from seeking and finding his All in God

Wiclif ends his epistle thus: My little sones, kepe ye you fro mawmitis, i.e. puppets, dolls, and such like; for thus Wiclif esteemed all images employed in religious worship. They are the dolls of a spurious Christianity, and the drivellings of religion in nonage and dotage. Protestants, keep yourselves from such mawmets

Clarke: 1Jo 5:21 - Amen

Amen - So be it! So let it be! And so it shall be, God being our helper, for ever and ever

Subscriptions in the Versions: -

The end of the Epistle of the Apostle John. - Syriac

The First Epistle of John the apostle is ended. - Syr. Philoxenian

Nothing in either the Coptic or Vulgate

Continual and eternal praise be to God! - Arabic

The end. - Aethiopic

In this version the epistle is thus introduced: -

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, the Epistle of John, the son of Zebedee, the evangelist and apostle of our Lord Jesus Christ; may his intercession be with us for ever and ever! Amen

In the Manuscripts: -

The First of John. - AB

The First Epistle of John the evangelist

The First catholic Epistle of St. John the divine, written from Ephesus

The Epistle to the Parthians. - See several Latin MSS

The word amen is wanting in all the best MSS. and in most of the versions

For other matters relative to the epistle itself see the preface: and for its heavenly doctrine and unction read the text, in the original if you can; if not, in our own excellent translation

Calvin: 1Jo 5:21 - Keep yourselves from idols

21.Keep yourselves from idols Though this be a separate sentence, yet it is as it were an appendix to the preceding doctrine. For the vivifying light of the Gospel ought to scatter and dissipate, not only darkness, but also all mists, from the minds of the godly. The Apostle not only condemns idolatry, but commands us to beware of all images and idols; by which he intimates, that the worship of God cannot continue uncorrupted and pure whenever men begin to be in love with idols or images. For so innate in us is superstition, that the least occasion will infect us with its contagion. Dry wood will not so easily burn when coals are put under it, as idolatry will lay hold on and engross the minds of men, when an occasion is given to them. And who does not see that images are the sparks? What sparks do I say? nay, rather torches, which are sufficient to set the whole world on fire.

The Apostle at the same time does not only speak of statues, but also of altars, and includes all the instruments of superstitions. Moreover, the Papists are ridiculous, who pervert this passage and apply it to the statues of Jupiter and Mercury and the like, as though the Apostle did not teach generally, that there is a corruption of religion whenever a corporeal form is ascribed to God, or whenever statues and pictures form a part of his worship. 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.

end of the first epistle of John

Defender: 1Jo 5:21 - idols

Idols are either physical images or mental constructs with which men try to explain and control the forces and systems of nature without acknowledging the one true God as Creator and Sustainer of all things. Paganism, with its pantheism and polytheism, worshipping the various forces and systems of nature personified as Mother Earth with all her other personifications as various gods and goddesses, was rife in John's day and, through various forms of evolutionism, has always been arrayed in opposition to the true God of creation and redemption. This is more true today than ever before, and it is absolutely vital that true Christians should refrain from all forms of idolatry, whether rationalistic humanism, economic materialism, or New Age pantheism - all of which are founded on an evolutionary world view."

TSK: 1Jo 5:21 - Little // keep // Amen

Little : 1Jo 2:1

keep : Exo 20:3, Exo 20:4; 1Co 10:7, 1Co 10:14; 2Co 6:16, 2Co 6:17; Rev 9:20, Rev 13:14, Rev 13:15, Rev 14:11

Amen : Mat 6:13

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per Ayat)

Poole: 1Jo 5:21

i.e. From those idolatrous communions with the Gentiles in their worship and festivals in their temples, which these pseudo-christians had latitude enough for, as appears by the apostle St. Paul’ s discourses, 1Co 8:1-13 10:14 (especially if any danger did urge); wherein, instead of that communion with the Father and the Son, which 1Jo 1:3he was inviting them to, they should have

fellowship with devils as that other apostle tells his Corinthians, 1Co 10:20,21 . And he might also have reference to the peculiar idolatries, which this sort of men are noted to have been guilty of towards their great sect master.

Haydock: 1Jo 5:21 - Keep yourselves from idols

Keep yourselves from idols. An admonition to the new converted Christians, lest, conversing with heathens and idolaters, they might fall back into the sin of idolatry, which may be the sin unto death here mentioned by St. John. (Witham)

Gill: 1Jo 5:21 - Little children, keep yourselves from idols, Amen.

Little children, keep yourselves from idols, Amen. From Heathen idols and idolatry, into which the saints in those times might be liable to be drawn, by reason of their dwelling among Heathen idolaters, and being related to them, and by the too great freedom used in eating things sacrificed to idols in their temples; and from all other idols that might be introduced by some who went by the name of Christians, as the Gnostics, who worshipped the images of Simon and Helena; and the passage may be an antidote against the worshipping of images, afterwards introduced by the Papists. Moreover, errors and false doctrines, which are the figments of men's minds, and what they are fond of, may be called idols, and should be guarded against, and abstained from; as also the lusts of men's hearts, and all the evil things that are in the world, which are adored by the men of it; and even every creature that is loved too much is an idol; hence covetousness is called idolatry; nor should any creature or thing be loved more than God or Christ: the one only living and true God, Father, Son, and Spirit, he is only to be worshipped, feared, and loved.