1 John 5:21

New Living Translation

Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God's place in your hearts.

Parallel Translations

New American Standard Bible (1995)
Little children, guard yourselves from idols.

Simplified Cowboy Version
Cowboys, keep a far distance from anything that looks like a false god.

Bible in Basic English
My little children, keep yourselves from false gods.

Darby Translation
Children, keep yourselves from idols.

World English Bible
Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
Beloved children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.

Weymouth's New Testament
Dear children, guard yourselves from idols.

King James Version (1611)
Little children, keepe your selues from Idoles. Amen.

Literal Translation
Little children, guard yourselves from idols. Amen.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Babes kepe youre selues from ymages. Amen.

Mace New Testament (1729)
dear children, keep yourselves from idols. AMEN.

Amplified Bible
Little children (believers, dear ones), guard yourselves from idols—[false teachings, moral compromises, and anything that would take God's place in your heart].

American Standard Version
My little children, guard yourselves from idols.

Revised Standard Version
Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
Babes kepe youre selves from ymages. Amen.

Update Bible Version
[My] little children, guard yourselves from idols.

Webster's Bible Translation
Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.

Young's Literal Translation
Little children, guard yourselves from the idols! Amen.

New Century Version
So, dear children, keep yourselves away from false gods.

New English Translation
Little children, guard yourselves from idols.

Berean Standard Bible
Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

Contemporary English Version
Children, you must stay away from idols.

Complete Jewish Bible
Children, guard yourselves against false gods!

English Standard Version
Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

Geneva Bible (1587)
Litle children, keepe your selues from idoles, Amen.

George Lamsa Translation
My children, keep yourselves from idols.

Christian Standard Bible®
Little children, guard yourselves from idols.

Hebrew Names Version
Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

International Standard Version
Little children, guard yourselves from idols.idols. Amen">[fn]1 Corinthians 10:14;">[xr]

Etheridge Translation
My sons, keep yourselves from the service of idols.

Murdock Translation
My children, keep yourselves from idolatry.

New King James Version
Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.

New Life Bible
My children, keep yourselves from false gods.

English Revised Version
[My] little children, guard yourselves from idols.

New Revised Standard
Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Dear children! Guard yourselves from idols.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.

King James Version
Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.

Lexham English Bible
Little children, guard yourselves from idols.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Babes kepe your selues from idols. Amen.

Easy-to-Read Version
So, dear children, keep yourselves away from false gods.

New American Standard Bible
Little children, guard yourselves from idols.

Good News Translation
My children, keep yourselves safe from false gods!

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
This is veri God, and euerlastynge lijf. My litle sones, kepe ye you fro maumetis.

Contextual Overview

¹⁸ We know that God's children do not make a practice of sinning, for God's Son holds them securely, and the evil one cannot touch them. ¹⁹ We know that we are children of God and that the world around us is under the control of the evil one. ²⁰ And we know that the Son of God has come, and he has given us understanding so that we can know the true God. And now we live in fellowship with the true God because we live in fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the only true God, and he is eternal life. ²¹ Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God's place in your hearts.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Little: 1 John 2:1

keep: Exodus 20:3, Exodus 20:4, 1 Corinthians 10:7, 1 Corinthians 10:14, 2 Corinthians 6:16, 2 Corinthians 6:17, Revelation 9:20, Revelation 13:14, Revelation 13:15, Revelation 14:11

Amen: Matthew 6:13

Reciprocal: Exodus 20:23 - General Leviticus 19:4 - General Deuteronomy 4:35 - none else Deuteronomy 5:7 - General Deuteronomy 6:14 - not go Deuteronomy 11:16 - your heart Deuteronomy 13:8 - consent Joshua 6:18 - in any wise Psalms 85:11 - Truth Psalms 119:144 - give me Isaiah 40:9 - Behold Isaiah 43:11 - General Mark 10:24 - Children John 13:33 - Little Acts 1:13 - Peter Acts 15:29 - if ye Galatians 4:19 - little 2 Peter 1:2 - the knowledge 1 John 5:18 - keepeth Revelation 19:10 - I fell

Cross-References

Luke 3:37
Lamech was the son of Methuselah. Methuselah was the son of Enoch. Enoch was the son of Jared. Jared was the son of Mahalalel. Mahalalel was the son of Kenan.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Little children, keep yourselves from idols, Amen. From Heathen idols and idolatry, into which the saints in those times might be liable to be drawn, by reason of their dwelling among Heathen idolaters, and being related to them, and by the too great freedom used in eating things sacrificed to idols in their temples; and from all other idols that might be introduced by some who went by the name of Christians, as the Gnostics, who worshipped the images of Simon and Helena; and the passage may be an antidote against the worshipping of images, afterwards introduced by the Papists. Moreover, errors and false doctrines, which are the figments of men's minds, and what they are fond of, may be called idols, and should be guarded against, and abstained from; as also the lusts of men's hearts, and all the evil things that are in the world, which are adored by the men of it; and even every creature that is loved too much is an idol; hence covetousness is called idolatry; nor should any creature or thing be loved more than God or Christ: the one only living and true God, Father, Son, and Spirit, he is only to be worshipped, feared, and loved.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Little children - This is a favorite mode of address with John, (see the notes at 1 John 2:1), and it was proper to use it in giving his parting counsel; embracing, in fact, all that he had to say - that they should keep themselves from idols, and suffer nothing to alienate their affections from the true God. His great object had been to lead them to the knowledge and love of God, and all his counsels would be practically followed, if, amidst the temptations of idolatry, and the allurements of sin, nothing were allowed to estrange their hearts from him.

Keep yourselves from idols - From worshipping them; from all that would imply communion with them or their devotees. Compare the notes at 1 Corinthians 10:14. The word rendered “idols” here (εἰδώλων eidōlōn) means, properly, an image, specter, shade - as of the dead; then any image or figure which would represent anything, particularly anything invisible; and hence anything designed to represent God, and that was set up with a view to be acknowledged as representing him, or to bring, him, or his perfections, more vividly before the mind. The word is applicable to idol-gods - pagan deities, 1 Corinthians 8:4, 1Co 8:7; 1 Corinthians 10:19; Romans 2:22; 2Co 6:16; 1 Thessalonians 1:9; but it would, also, be applicable to any “image” designed to represent the true God, and through or by which the true God was to be adored. The essential things in the word seem to be:

(a)An image or representation of the Deity, and,

(b)The making of that an object of adoration instead of the true God.

Since one of these things would be likely to lead to the other, both are forbidden in the prohibitions of idolatry, Exodus 20:4-5. This would forbid all attempts to represent God by paintings or statuary; all idol-worship, or worship of pagan gods; all images and pictures that would be substituted in the place of God as objects of devotion, or that might transfer the homage from God to the image; and all giving of those affections to other beings or objects which are due to God. why the apostle closed this Epistle with this injunction he has not stated, and it may not be easy to determine. It may have been for such reasons as these:

1. Those to whom he wrote were surrounded by idolaters, and there was danger that they might fall into the prevailing sin, or in some way so act as to be understood to lend their sanction to idolatry.

(2)In a world full of alluring objects, there was danger then, as there is at all times, that the affections should be fixed on other objects than the supreme God, and that what is due to him should be withheld.

It may be added, in the conclusion of the exposition of this Epistle, that the same caution is as needful for us as it was for those to whom John wrote. We are not in danger, indeed, of bowing down to idols, or of engaging in the grosser forms of idol-worship. But we may be in no less danger than they to whom John wrote were, of substituting other things in our affections in the place of the true God, and of devoting to them the time and the affection which are due to him. Our children it is possible to love with such an attachment as shall effectually exclude the true God from the heart. The world - “its wealth, and pleasures, and honors - we may love with a degree of attachment such as even an idolater would hardly shew to his idol-gods; and all the time which he would take in performing his devotions in an idol-temple, we may devote with equal fervor to the service of the world. There is practical idolatry all over the world; in nominally Christian lands as well as among the pagan; in families that acknowledge no God but wealth and fashion; in the hearts of multitudes of individuals who would scorn the thought of worshipping at a pagan altar; and it is even to be found in the heart of many a one who professes to be acquainted with the true God, and to be an heir of heaven. God should have the supreme place in our affections. The love of everything else should be held in strict subordination to the love of him.

He should reign in our hearts; be acknowledged in our closets, our families, and in the place of public worship; be submitted to at all times as having a right to command and control us; be obeyed in all the expressions of his will, by his word, by his providence, and by his Spirit; be so loved that we shall be willing to part without a complaint with the dearest object of affection when he takes it from us; and so that, with joy and triumph, we shall welcome his messenger, “the angel of death,” when he shall come to summon us into his presence. To all who may read these illustrations of the Epistle of the “beloved disciple,” may God grant this inestimable blessing and honor. Amen.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 1 John 5:21. Little children — τεκνια. Beloved children; he concludes with the same affectionate feeling with which he commenced.

Keep yourselves from idols. — Avoid the idolatry of the heathens; not only have no false gods, but have the true God. Have no idols in your houses, none in your churches, none in your hearts. Have no object of idolatrous worship; no pictures, relics, consecrated tapers, wafers, crosses, c., by attending to which your minds may be divided, and prevented from worshipping the infinite Spirit in spirit and in truth.

The apostle, says Dr. Macknight cautioned his disciples against going with the heathens into the temple of their idol gods, to eat of their feasts upon the sacrifices they had offered to these gods and against being present at any act of worship which they paid them; because, by being present, they participated of that worship, as is plain from what St. Paul has written on the subject, 1 Corinthians 8:10, where see the notes.

That is a man's idol or god from which he seeks his happiness; no matter whether it be Jupiter, Juno, Apollo, Minerva, Venus, or Diana; or pleasure, wealth, fame, a fine house, superb furniture, splendid equipage, medals, curiosities, books, titles, human friendships, or any earthly or heavenly thing, God, the supreme good, only excepted. That is a man's idol which prevents him from seeking and finding his ALL in God.

Wiclif ends his epistle thus: My little sones, kepe ye you fro mawmitis, i.e. puppets, dolls, and such like; for thus Wiclif esteemed all images employed in religious worship. They are the dolls of a spurious Christianity, and the drivellings of religion in nonage and dotage. Protestants, keep yourselves from such mawmets!

Amen. — So be it! So let it be! And so it shall be, God being our helper, for ever and ever!

Subscriptions in the VERSIONS: -

The end of the Epistle of the Apostle John. - SYRIAC.

The First Epistle of John the apostle is ended. - SYR. Philoxenian.

Nothing in either the COPTIC or VULGATE.

Continual and eternal praise be to God! - ARABIC.

The end. - AETHIOPIC;

In this version the epistle is thus introduced: -

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, the Epistle of John, the son of Zebedee, the evangelist and apostle of our Lord Jesus Christ; may his intercession be with us for ever and ever! Amen.

In the MANUSCRIPTS: -

The First of John. - AB.

The First Epistle of John the evangelist.

The First catholic Epistle of St. John the divine, written from Ephesus.

The Epistle to the Parthians. - See several Latin MSS.

The word amen is wanting in all the best MSS. and in most of the versions.

For other matters relative to the epistle itself see the preface: and for its heavenly doctrine and unction read the text, in the original if you can; if not, in our own excellent translation.