1 John 5:19

We know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in the evil one.

We know ... This is the second of three great certainties stressed by the apostle in 1 John 5:18-20: (1) We know that we are guarded from the evil one by Jesus Christ our Lord. (2) We know that we belong to God in a hostile, Satan dominated world. (3) We know the great basic of divine revelation, especially the Incarnation of God in Christ.

That we are of God ... To what other source, indeed, could the joyful life in Jesus Christ be attributed? Those who have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come are in no doubt whatever regarding the fountain source of their blessings.

The whole world ... Here the word "world" does not apply to the natural creation at all, but to the evil inhabitants of the world who continue under the dominion of the evil one. Macknight defined these as, "the idolaters, infidels and wicked men, who having made themselves the subjects of the devil ... they lie under the wicked one, and are under his dominion."[27]

Lieth in the evil one ... Calvin's comment on this was: "By saying that it lieth in the evil one, he represented it as being under the dominion of Satan."[28] Of particular interest is the word "lieth" as used here.

Because Homer used the word (lieth) to denote the bodies of men lying on the ground slain, Doddridge thinks the apostle, by using the word here, represents the wicked men of the world as lying slain by the devil, to give us an affecting idea of the miserable and helpless state of mankind fallen by the stroke of that malicious merciless enemy.[29]

Paul's references to being dead in trespasses and sins, etc., are also fully in harmony with this conception.

The following New Testament references regarding Satan are examples of the extensive Biblical teaching regarding the devil:

The prince of the power of the air, the spirit which now inwardly worketh in the children of disobedience (Ephesians 2:2).

The god of this world (who) blinds the eyes of unbelievers (2 Corinthians 4:4).

Our adversary going about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8).

(Wicked men) are held in the snare of the devil (2 Timothy 2:26).

We are not ignorant of (the devil's) wicked devices (Ephesians 6:11).

Through his subtlety (Satan) seduced the mother of all living (Eve) (2 Corinthians 11:3).

Christians are delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the kingdom of the Son of God's love (Colossians 1:13).

[27] James Macknight, op. cit., p. 124.

[28] John Calvin (quoted by A. Plummer), op. cit., p. 143.

[29] James Macknight, op. cit., p. 125.