1Jn 5:18
Οἴδαμεν ὅτι πᾶς ὁ γεγεννημένος ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ οὐχ ἁμαρτάνει· ἀλλ᾽ ὁ γεννηθεὶς ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ τηρεῖ ἐαυτὸν, καὶ ὁ πονηρὸς οὐχ ἅπτεται αὐτοῦ.
We have the close of the Epistle in 1Jn 5:13-17. What the Christian receives for himself, the ζωὴαἰώνιος [“eternal life”] in faith, and what it confers on him for the benefit of the brethren, that is, the power to bring them into the kingdom of God by intercession, has been fully and conclusively exhibited. The three verses that follow, which bespeak their internal connection by the thrice-repeated resumption of the οἴδαμεν [“we have seen”] at the beginning of the clauses, give a kind of recapitulation of the three constitutive elements out of which the happy estate of Christians has been constructed, as in the exposition of the whole Epistle so particularly in the summary of the three previous verses. The first point of importance is to seize the relation of the three clauses to each other. As the γεγεννήσθαιἐκτοῦΘεοῦ [“to have been born of God”] of 1Jn 3:18 and the εἶναι ἐκτοῦΘεοῦ [“to be of God”] of 1Jn 3:19 mean essentially the same thing, the element that distinguishes the two thoughts must lie in the second half of the two clauses severally: as to the former, the emphasis rests on this, that the child of God does not sin; as to the latter, on this, that the world lieth in the wicked one. The substance of the first two verses is therefore to this effect: that one born of God is as such withdrawn from sin and the devil; and that one born of God as such stands in opposition to the world subjected to the devil and sin. For the conjunction of the two propositions οἴδαμεν ὅτι ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐσμὲν [“we know that we are children of God”] and ὁ κόσμος ὅλος ἐν τῷ πονηρῷ κεῖται [“the whole world lies under the evil one”] can yield no other meaning than that, in virtue of our assurance touching our being born of God, we know ourselves to be in contrast and opposition to the ungodly world. It would be more in formal harmony with the phraseology of St. John to regard the second clause as not dependent on οἴδαμενὅτι [“we know that”], taking it as an independent proposition; but as to the thing itself, it is understood that the evil of the world is also known to us. The first part of 1Jn 5:18 is both in substance and in form a resumption of 1Jn 3:9a. The apostle is not concerned about what the Christian may be at any supposed period of his militant course, but about what he is according to his vocation and the end of his development. The sinlessness and the perfect antithesis in which he stands to the world are not found in the whole of his history, but are the result of that history. As we during our stage of development still have sin in us. so also the world is not at first wholly surrendered to the power of darkness, but the power of light still more or less works in it; it wall, however, finally come to this, that on its part there will be total night, and on the part of the children of God absolute day and light. Concerning this relation between us, which more and more clearly works itself out, we have already the knowledge (οἴδαμεν [“we know”]), we know it as the true and the right relation. The second part of 1Jn 5:18 does not form, like the first, a resumption of a previous statement: it is true that τηρεῖν [“to keep”] is common enough in our Epistle, but it has always had ἐντολή [“commandment”] as its object; just as in the Gospel this word or λόγος [“word”] is the ordinary object of the τηρεῖν [“to keep”]. A person is the object, as in our passage, in Joh 17:12-16, as also in Rev 3:1; but in both cases there is a prepositional definition connected with it: in the former ἐν [“in”] defines the sphere in which, in the latter ἐκ [“out of”] defines the sphere against which, we are to be defended. In our present passage there is no such closer definition: the child of God keeps himself in the estate of a child of God simply. As to the reflexive form of the sentence, we may compare 1Jn 3:3:[N]πᾶς ὁ ἔχων τὴν ἐλπίδα ταύτην ἐπ᾽ αὐτῷ, ἁγνίζει ἑαυτὸν [“everyone who has this hope on him purified himself”]. Generally speaking, sanctification and preservation are elsewhere regarded as God’s work in man; but here they are regarded as duty incumbent on man himself: thus the ethical side, that of our freedom, is placed in all the clearer light. This self-preservation is the hindering cause that the devil, ὁ πονηρὸς, οὐχ ἅπτεται αὐτοῦ [“the evil one cannot touch him”]. Probably there lies in the words a remembrancer of Genesis chapter 4, where sin is described as a ravenous thing at the door; and watchful care of self appears to be the means for securing ourselves against it. The seduction of the enemy is only admissible to him who does not rightly guard his house. The ἅπτεται [“touch”] may be taken in the strongest sense: the devil cannot even touch such a child of God, much less carry him off as a prey. Or ἅπτεται [“touch”] may be taken in a broader sense, like the corresponding בְּנָגַע [“stricken by”]: of Gen 26:11; Jos 9:13, that of inflicting any harm on its object.
