The following excerpt is taken from What Every Christian Should Know About Satan. Order your copy in print, Kindle, or Audible versions here.

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John writes in 1 John 5:18-19: “We know that everyone who has been born of God does not sin, but the one who is born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him. We know that we are of God, and the whole world is under the sway of the evil one.”

John notes the evil one twice in these verses, once to illustrate believers’ insulation from Satan, and once to explain the unbelieving world’s enslavement to his powers. The apostle also begins each of these verses with the words “we know,” bringing his epistle to a close with summarizing statements. Finally, John uses the descriptor “born of God” twice in verse 18, signifying different persons in each reference.

Verse 18 begins with a curious statement: “We know that everyone who has been born of God does not sin.” This is almost identical to John’s earlier statement in 1 John 3:9: “Everyone who has been born of God does not sin.” The Greek literally reads “does not sin,” but the tense often carries with it a progressive meaning. That’s why some English translations render the phrase “cannot keep on sinning” (ESV) or “cannot go on sinning” (NIV). 

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