1John 5:18 - Who and Whose are you?

”We are having come to know that everyone having been begotten out of God is not sinning, but rather the [One] begotten out of God is guarding him and the evil one is not touching him.”

-Three know’s to close out this letter.  We know who we are.  We know Whose we are.  And we know Him Whose we are.

-First, we know who we are (and are not).  We are saints, not sinners.  Everyone begotten by God is not sinning.  In other words, God does not make sinners.  He makes saints.  Holy ones.  Ones who, like Jesus, always do the things which are pleasing to the Father (cf John 8.29).  That is what you and I are, IF we have truly trusted in Christ.  When He undertakes to regenerate any of us, we become an entirely new creation.  Totally brand new.  The old things have passed away (2Corinthians 5.17).  Old sinful habits, the me-first me-better old man - gone.  At least - that’s the idea.  For now, while we live in this tent of dying flesh, we clearly still stuggle against the old man, our should-be-crucified/fleshy/sin prone-nature.  But that’s the idea also, that we are able now to NOT sin and that we do indeed struggle AGAINST it.  We do not continue to live in it and constantly give in to it.  John here uses the present tense, as in an ongoing act in the present.  Ongoing sin in the present does not happen for the true child of God.  We do not go on sinning.  Occasional lapses - they will happen.  As long as we tarry in this mortal flesh, we will struggle with sin.  But the saint SHOULD BE (ongoingly) striving AGAINST sin, fighting against that dying, shrinking impulse to indulge the threefold self.  If you find yourself (or a supposed brother) giving in to disobedience, repeatedly, habitually, then it becomes fair game to question whether there HAS been a new birth.  This is what John has been getting at in this entire letter.  No one who as a general lifestyle closes their heart towards their brother, or who regularly fails to do any of the other things which God wants, has truly been born from above.  They are not a begotten child of God.  And this is not about attending a meeting - it is about my heart.  It is about a heart of love - for God and my neighbor.  Look at the product, and you can know where it was produced.

-The wonderful promise attached to this truth of the divine birth is that of divine protection (1Peter 1.5).  God guards His children.  Those who are truly His in their hearts, those whom He has adopted into His forever family and to whom He has imparted His eternal life - these He holds in His hand and ain’t nothing or nobody gonna touch them.  Least of all the evil one.  That deceiver of old, who comes to steal and kill and destroy - he can’t touch this.  Now there may be some divine purpose for which he is allowed to touch our body a la Job, but he can’t touch our soul.  He can’t take away our eternal life.  And he sure as heck can’t make us sin.  The true child of God has that Spirit-assisted power to overcome whatever the gathered forces of hell and the world may throw against him.  John actualy says it is Christ Who guards and keeps us (cf John 6.39, 17.12).  In Christ we are uber-victorious, and you can take that to the bank (Romans 8.37).  Now that doesn’t mean that our lives then are totally free from temptation and trouble.  In this world of brokenness and as-yet-unbended-kness we will and do, if necessary, experience various trials (1Peter 1.6).  For a little while.  For a season.  But joy always comes in the morning - or should, if these magnificent promises are true.  When - and IF - we lay hold of them.  Who are you?  And WHOSE are you?  Do you know?  Next verse?