Little children, guard yourselves from idols (1 John 5:21)
We’re about ready to welcome our sixteenth grand child into this world. After a couple of years, God-willing, this precious little baby will turn into a curious and precocious creature, if history is any indication. From my untrained observations, little children are rarely attentive to their surroundings or aware of imminent threats. John takes his parting shot by warning us that our enemy is clear and present, always on the attack.
Compared to an overweight security guard with keys jangling, strolling a beat, we need to be foxhole-ready to pounce on anything that remotely smacks of idolatry in our lives, with both barrels locked and loaded to shoot done heresy.
This passage alludes to the fact that our hearts and minds can be easily swayed if we don’t guard them. The Greek grammar suggests that the presence of idolatry in our spheres is a prevailing “crisis” with red light constantly flashing. I think I can safely say that there is no time in history where the information flooding our brains needs to be more scrupulously scrutinized for truth.
We must know the truth and dispel anything and everything that doesn’t square with it.
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. (1 John 4:1)
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