Idols

Little children, keep yourselves from idols.
1 John 5:21

This is the last verse in 1 John. It has always struck me as an abrupt ending to the book. And this is a book that, at first blush, is not focused on idolatry. So why does John seemingly shift gears in the last sentence of his letter?

Isaiah, now there is a book that hits the topic of idols. Just take a look at Isaiah 41. The idols are made by craftsmen from the materials he has chosen. See Isaiah 40:18-25.  The idols are strengthened by nailing them down, held together by the skill of the craftsman's soldering.but the idol has no power to speak, either in providing insight into the past or declaring what is to come. the idol has no power to act.

Idols are not always so blatant as a craved piece of wood overlaid with gold. Our culture has more idols of the mind. A person's ideas about God, unless they have the foundation of God's revelation of Himself, are idols, false gods, the work of a thought craftsman. The person may craft their own concept of God, or they may buy into the ideas of someone they know, or someone they heard on the radio, or someone who has written a book.

But God, the true God, reveals Himself in His Word. See Isaiah 40:6-17. All flesh is like grass. Man's ideas too - they fade and fail. But the word of our God stands. His revelation of Himself is faithful and sure. It doesn't, like the idols, need nails to hold it firm in place. The nails that pierced the Word made flesh demonstrate how firm God's revelation of His love and His atoning sacrifice are. They do not fade like grass. They endure.

Here is where I now begin to see why John ends his letter as he does. "Little children, keep yourselves from idols." The contrast between the idols of thought constructs of mortal men and God revealed in the word of life that John introduces in 1 John 1 is the contrast between God and idols.

John's exhortation to keep ourselves from idols makes sense alongside the life from the Father that was made manifest in His Son Jesus, in the Light that overpowers the darkness, in the blood of Jesus that cleanses us from sin. It makes sense alongside the false claims that we have not sinned. "If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us."

It is an appropriate exhortation from one who cares with the love of God himself for those to whom he is writing.

Keep yourselves from idols.