Little children, keep yourselves from idols.
Parallel translations
- WEB Little children, keep yourselves from idols.
- KJV Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.
- NKJV Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.
- NASB Little children, guard yourselves from idols.
- NLT Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
John's closing plea is for his readers to guard themselves from idols. Wholehearted devotion to the true God leaves no place for false substitutes.
Overview
Having affirmed Jesus as the true God and eternal life, John ends with a tender command to keep away from idols, whether literal pagan worship or any false conception that rivals the true God. The warning flows naturally from the preceding verse: those who know the true God must reject all counterfeits. This affectionate final exhortation calls the 'little children' to undivided loyalty to Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- 1 Cor 10:14Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.
- 1 Cor 10:7Do not be idolaters, as some of them were. As it is written: “The people sat down to eat and to drink, and got up to indulge in revelry.”
- Exod 20:3–4You shall have no other gods before Me.
- 2 Cor 6:16–17What agreement can exist between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be My people.”
- Matt 6:13And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’
- 1 Th 1:9For they themselves report what kind of welcome you gave us, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God
- 1 Jn 2:1My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate before the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.
- Rev 9:20Now the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the works of their hands. They did not stop worshiping demons and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk.
- Rev 13:14–15Because of the signs it was given to perform on behalf of the first beast, it deceived those who dwell on the earth, telling them to make an image to the beast that had been wounded by the sword and yet had lived.
- Rev 14:11And the smoke of their torment rises forever and ever. Day and night there is no rest for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name.”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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Christ at the center
Jesus is the Word of life made manifest, the propitiation for our sins, the Son in whom is eternal life — 'that you may know that you have eternal life.'
How 1 John 5:21 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.