1 John 5:21 "Dear children, keep yourselves from idols."
John ends his letter with these words. After John outlines what Christ's love is and his brothers' and sisters' responses to that love. After warning them against loving the world. After articulating that Christ loved us first, and that it is only in knowing this that we can begin to love God and one another rightly. John ends, "Dear children, keep yourselves from idols." Brothers and sisters we can believe right doctrine and still go astray. John's closing line implicitly points to the reality that right belief does not guarantee righteous living in the life of a Christian. Righteous practices are as much a part of a life of faith as right belief. Together these two pillars reorient our lives with God at the center.
Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.
