1 John 5:18 - The evil one is not touching him?

Does 1 John 5:18 object to the need for deliverance for those who have been believers in the past?

1 John 5:18: "We-know that everyone having-been-born of God is not SINNING. But the (one) having-been-begotten of God is-keeping himself. And the evil (one) is NOT TOUCHING him."

(The earliest Greek manuscript read "himself" instead of "him". About 92% of the Greek manuscripts read "himself" instead "him")

Deliverance for someone who has believed?

It is written "everyone having-been-born of God is not SINNING. [...] And the evil (one) is NOT TOUCHING him" (1 John 5:18).

Could this verse neither argue for the possibility of deliverance for those who have believed, nor for its impossibility?

The evil one is not "TOUCHING" (1 John 5:18) someone who is not "SINNING" (1 John 5:18).

For example, Job was "blameless, true, fearing God, abstaining from every evil thing" (Job 1:8), and the devil could not TOUCH him (the same Greek word for "TOUCHING" (1 John 5:18) is used there), as it is written: "the devil answered and said before the LORD" (Job 1:9) "send [or, stretch] out Your hand, and TOUCH all which he has" (Job 1:11) and "the Lord said to the devil, Behold, I give into your hand all that he has, but TOUCH not himself" (Job 1:12) and "in all these [things] having happened to him, Job did not SIN at all before the Lord" (Job 1:22).

Now it is possible for someone who has believed to be "SINNING" (1 John 5:18).

It is written two verses earlier in 1 John for example that "if anyone sees his brother SINNING (a) sin" (1 John 5:16). Three chapters earlier in 1 John it is also written: "I-am-writing these (things to) you in-order-that YOU-SIN not. And if anyone SINS, we-have (an) advocate with the Father: Jesus Christ (the) Righteous" (1 John 2:1). This can implied that those who have believed could be SINNING.

If someone who has believed can be "SINNING" (1 John 5:18), then the evil one may be able to be "TOUCHING" (1 John 5:18) that one. 

This would not imply that the evil one would have to enter that one, but simply that the evil one could be "TOUCHING" (1 John 5:18) that one.

For example, the devil could TOUCH Job at some point, as it is written: "the devil said to the LORD" (Job 2:4) "having sent [or, stretched] out Your hand, TOUCH his bones and his flesh" (Job 2:5) and "the LORD said to the devil, “Behold, I deliver him up to you; only preserve his life.”" (Job 2:6). The Lord delivered Job to the devil, for the devil to be TOUCHING Job. The consequence was that "the devil went out from the LORD, and struck Job with painful boils from [his] feet to [his] head" (Job 2:7). The body of Job was affected, but it is not recorded that the devil entered Job.

For more information on the word for "TOUCHING" used in 1 John 5:18, and how it can describe something happening from the outside of a person:

Not everything is an indication that a demon needs to be cast out:
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