18 We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the one who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him.
Have you ever wondered what we are responsible for in our spiritual life and what God is responsible for? This verse gives us lays out a small piece of that puzzle. Let’s start with God’s part. God’s job is to keep us safe from Satan’s evil attempts to harm us spiritually. “The one who was born of God” is a way to name Jesus indirectly and it is similar to “the Son of God” in meaning. Jesus keeps us safe from the harm Satan wants to bring into our lives. In the Greek there is a beautiful play on words between the first and second parts of this verse. It centers around the word “born.” Jesus was born at a particular point in history. The word simply refers to that moment of His birth. In the first part of the sentence the same word “born” is used, but with a difference, since it is referring to believers. When the word “born” refers to believers here it could be translated “born at a point in history and continue to stay born up to the time of the writing.” Since Jesus existence did not start at His birth, but simply His earthly body started, His birth is mentioned as only a point in His eternal existence. For us, however, our birth is the beginning of our existence, an existence that starts at a point in time but continues into the future. God’s responsibility is to keep us safe; our responsibility is to stop sinning. This is often a process in our lives. We don’t continue to stay in the same sin forever. There comes a day and a time when we are done that a particular sin. At least that is God’s design for our lives. The process of sanctification (a five dollar word that means being made holy) takes time. We participate with God in cleaning up our lives. We are responsible for stopping when He tells us to stop. What is God telling you to stop? Is today the day you are going to let go of that sin? Join with God and let go of it. You won’t regret it!
The Arnold Journey 