We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.
Here we have, I. A recapitulation of the privileges and advantages of sound Christian believers. 1. They are secured against sin, against the fulness of its dominion or the fulness of its guilt: We know that whosoever is born of God (and the believer in Christ is born of God, Jo1 5:1) sinneth not (Jo1 5:18), sinneth not with that fulness of heart and spirit...
Commenting on 1 John 5:18-21
[And] we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness. (18) Every man must particularly apply to himself the general promises, that we may certainly persuade ourselves, that whereas all the world is by nature lost, we are freely made the sons of God, by the sending of Jesus Christ his son to us, of whom we are enlightened with...
world lieth in wickedness--rather, "lieth in the wicked one," as the Greek is translated in Jo1 5:18; Jo1 2:13-14; compare Jo1 4:4; Joh 17:14-15. The world lieth in the power of, and abiding in, the wicked one, as the resting-place and lord of his slaves; compare "abideth in death," Jo1 3:14; contrast Jo1 5:20, "we are in Him that is true." While the believer has...