(upbeat music) - We dip into the Ask Pastor John podcast inbox today. Pastor John, my name is Jake from Mexico. What does 1 John 5.18 mean? That's the end of the question from Jake and I'll go ahead and read the text from the ESV. It says, "We know that everyone who has been born of God "does not keep on sinning, "but he who was born of God protects him "and the evil one does not touch him." Pastor John, what does this text, 1 John 5.18 mean?

- I'm not sure what part of this verse Jake is stumbling over. There are three he could stumble over. One would be those born of God do not keep on sinning. Another one would be he who is born of God protects them. What does that mean? Or a third would be the evil one does not touch him.

Whoa, really? What does that mean? I'm not sure which of those three he's stumbling over, so maybe I better say a word about each one. What I'm thinking is maybe Jake is reading the King James Authorized Version or the New American Standard Version of that first clause because it is even more perplexing.

It says, "We know that whosoever is born of God "sinneth not." That's the King James or the New American Standard says, "We know that no one who is born of God sins." So I would join Jake if I read those and say, "Huh, really Christians don't sin?" Now that sounds truly problematical.

Christians never sin. I met a woman one time who believed that. And she threw this verse in chapter three, verse nine at me. And I said, "Well, what do you call the bad things you do?" And she had invented a lot of names for her sins. Like she called them mistakes and flaws and shortcomings and imperfections, but she was adamant.

I don't sin. Now, the ESV is right to translate "We know that everyone who has been born of God," and then it translates, "does not keep on sinning," which helps a little bit maybe. Chapter three, verse nine, same issue. "No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, "for God's seed abides in him, "and he cannot keep on sinning "because he's been born of God." Now, I could pull rank with Greek here, which I will, and then I'll back up and say, "Don't, that's not the key issue." The idea of the Greek present tense is that those who are born again and have the Spirit of God in them cannot ever make peace with sin, settle in with sin, make sin a friend, be okay with sinning, just go on with sinning as though no war needs to be made against it and nothing will come of it if we do.

The present tense says, "No, you can't do that. "You can't make a practice of sinning like that." But if you don't know Greek, you don't have to trust me at this point because there are a couple of other reasons why non-Greek readers know that this text does not mean Christians don't ever do anything wrong.

Verse 16, what's that, two verses earlier in chapter five? "If anyone sees his brother," okay, what's a brother, a Christian? "If anyone sees his brother committing a sin, "not leading to death, he shall ask God "and God will give him life." So he can't mean, he cannot mean that Christians don't sin 'cause he just gave instructions for how to help Christians who do sin.

Same thing in chapter one, verses eight and nine. "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves "and the truth is not in us. "If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just "to forgive our sins and to cleanse us "from all unrighteousness." If we say we have not sinned, we make God a liar and his word is not in us.

So the meaning of 1 John 5:18, "No one who is born of God sins," is that, and you get two possible things and both are probably the case. If you just go with the context where he said, "There is sin that is unto death "and there's sin that is not unto death.

"Pray for the sin that is not unto death "and God will deliver and the sin that is unto death "is gonna lead to destruction." So I think here in the context, the first and obvious meaning would be, does not sin unto death. The one who is born of God does not sin unto death.

That is, we don't make peace with sin. Settle into a pattern of sinning that will destroy us in the end. Prove that we are not truly born of God and are not truly Christians. Christians walk in the light. And according to chapter one, verse seven and eight, walking in the light is not sinlessness.

It is walking in a way that you have eyes to see in the light, the ugliness of what you just did and you are sorry for it. You confess it, you keep short accounts with God and you move on. So I think does not sin means doesn't commit the sin unto death and doesn't settle into a pattern of sinning that proves you have no spiritual life in you.

Second issue, he who is born of God protects him. I think that means that Christ, who is called the one born of God, the only begotten of God, the eternally virgin born spirit, born by the spirit son of God, Christ guards us from the devil. He intercedes for us.

And he is with us to the end of the age, helping us. And his blood covers us and keeps us safe from Satan's accusations 'cause none of them can hold because Christ has died for us. And then lastly, the evil one does not touch him. Means the devil's accusations and temptations and harassments may indeed give us great trouble but they can never destroy us.

There's no deadly touch. There's no poisonous touch. His fangs were removed at the cross and his lethal poison is taken away from believers. He cannot destroy us. So I take cannot touch us to mean can't touch us with any deadly touch. He can hurt us terribly. I don't wanna minimize Satan's reality in this world.

He can hurt us terribly. He can throw us in prison and he can move others to kill us according to Revelation 2.10, but he can't hurt us ultimately. He can't touch us with the touch of destruction and damnation. That's been taken out of his hand by the blood of Jesus.

Jesus did that when he died on the cross according to Colossians 2.15. He disarmed the principalities and powers when he died and shed his blood. So the only begotten of God is indeed our perfect and everlasting protector. - That is glorious truth, Pastor John, thank you. And if you have a concise and specific question for John Piper like Jake did, go to desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn and look for the button that says submit a question.

You can also easily send us questions through our mobile apps as well. If you get familiar with the features there, you can one-click send us a question. We're back tomorrow to talk about why the practice of consistent spiritual discipline is not legalism. And we'll take a life lesson from the life of Daniel in the Old Testament.

I'm your host Tony Reinke, I'll see you then. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)