Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts.
Parallel translations
- WEB Little children, keep yourselves from idols.
- KJV Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.
- BSB Little children, keep yourselves from idols.
- NKJV Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.
- NASB Little children, guard yourselves from idols.
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 10:7Don’t be idolaters, as some of them were. As it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.”
- Exod 20:3–4“You shall have no other gods before me.
- 2 Cor 6:16–17What agreement has a temple of God with idols? For you are a temple of the living God. Even as God said, “I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they will be my people.”
- Matt 6:13Bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For yours is the Kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Amen.’
- 1 Th 1:9For they themselves report concerning us what kind of a reception we had from you; and how you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God,
- 1 Jn 2:1My little children, I write these things to you so that you may not sin. If anyone sins, we have a Counselor with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous.
- Rev 9:20The rest of mankind, who were not killed with these plagues, didn’t repent of the works of their hands, that they wouldn’t worship demons, and the idols of gold, and of silver, and of brass, and of stone, and of wood; which can’t see, hear, or walk.
- Rev 13:14–15He deceives my own people who dwell on the earth because of the signs he was granted to do in front of the beast; saying to those who dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast who had the sword wound and lived.
- Rev 14:11The smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever. They have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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.