21. Keep yourselves (¢uAdEate éavta). The exact phrase is not found elsewhere in the New Testament. See 2 Pet. iii. 17. Rev., rightly, guard. See on 1 Pet. i. 4.
Idols (eiSérwv). Strictly, cmages. The command, however, has apparently the wider Pauline sense, to guard against every- thing which occupies the place due to God.
The second great division of John’s First Epistle treats of the conflict of truth and falsehood. This section extends from ch. ii. 18. to ch. iv. 6, and is subdivided under the following topics :
1. The revelation of falsehood and truth (ii. 18-29).
2. The children of God and the children of the devil (iii. 1-12).
3. Brotherhood in Christ and the hatred of the world (ii. 13-24).
4. The Rival Spirits of Truth and Error (iv. 1-6).
This passage lies within the third of these subdivisions; but the line of thought runs up into the second subdivision, which begins with this chapter,—the children of God and the children of the Devil.
Let us first briefly review the contents of this chapter down to the point of our text.
God shows His wonderful love in calling us chz/dren of God (réxva); as expressing community of nature, rather than viol (sons), which expresses the position of ‘privilege.
The world, therefore, does not know us, even as it did not know Him.
We are children of God; and in this fact lies enfolded our future, the essence of which will be likeness to God, coming through unveiled and transfiguring vision.
The result of sucha relation and hope is persistent effort after moral purity. “ Every one that hath this hope in Him, purifieth himself, even as He is pure.”