The proper contrast to the true or genuine God is that which is a false god or idol. Consequently John concluded with the otherwise unexpected warning, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.” In the context of this book we are probably not to think of the various carved idols of antiquity, though the admonition must include these as well. Rather, we are to think of the false god of the schismatics, who, though he was presented under the name of the Christian God, was not the true God, no more than were his apostles true teachers.
The application of this truth today is in the fact that the mere names of Jesus Christ or God or Christianity do not authenticate the message or religion of the one proclaiming them. On the contrary the profession must be tested by the basic doctrines of apostolic Christianity. What does the one speaking really believe about Jesus? Is He God incarnate or just a teacher? Did He die a real, atoning, vicarious death for sinners? Or is His death merely exemplary? Did He rise from the dead? Or did He not? Is the teaching of Jesus true, complete, and authoritative? Or is His teaching partial, thereby needing the teaching of others to bring us to a higher and indeed needed form of “Christianity”? According to John’s book, and indeed to the entire Word of God, anything that detracts from Christ is idolatrous. For He is the true God, the true revelation of the Father, the true atonement for sin, the true bread, the true vine. He is the beginning and end of all true religion. Consequently, to know Him is to know the true God and eternal life.
Once we know Him, what then? Then we must keep ourselves from idols. In verse 18 John has written that the Son of God will keep the Christian, but this does not relieve the Christian from his own responsibility to persevere in God’s service. Rather than drifting, he must draw near to God and grow in the knowledge of Him. For only then will he be truly kept from idols. An anonymous Keswick hymn puts it like this:
Draw and win and fill completely,
‘Till the cup o’erflow the brim;
What have we to do with idols Who have companied with Him?
