Vs. 5:14 – This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. -
I have thought this verse and the next were parenthetical, dealing with we believers having confidence that our prayers will be answered (assuming our requests fit His will). That premise is true in the context of these two verses. But I think it may be bigger than that small premise.
As I look at verses 14 through 20, perhaps the contextual area is larger than just two verses (14 &15). As believers our hope is based on our relationship with God. We communicate with Him, and He with us. But many people do not put much stock in prayers, saying, "What's the use?" They think prayer is just a feel-good exercise. Or perhaps prayer is inner focused, similar to repeating a mantra, yoga-like until you are feeling peaceful. Some people think that prayer is only for you and I to focus our thoughts and desires. In their view prayers are useless.
Prayers are not useless. Prayers are not just an exercise. If God does not exist, and if He does not love us - then praying would be a waste of time. You might as well cast Those positive feeling exercise (the prayers) into the wind for all the good it will do. This is not the musical 'Paint Your Wagon' in which one of the actors sings "I talk to the trees, but they don't listen to me."
God does exist. He does love you. And the most amazing thing of all God wants a relationship with you. On Valentine's Day our Pastor Gene preached on this very subject - communication. You can hear the sermon linked here, or in the Meadow Springs Community Church podcast "Adventurous Living". The message is about how we communicate with one another in marriage. A significant part of communication is listening to the other person in the relationship. God has told us throughout the scripture to seek Him, call upon Him, search for Him. If you do, you will find Him, because he listens. 2 Chron. 7:14; Psa. 17:6, 31:17, 5:15, 86:7, 91:15.
Vs. 5:15 – And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him. -
Confidence. We need not fear that He will not listen, that He will not respond. We can know He hear us! God is not an absentee landlord. Jesus is not inattentive to our conversations with Him. He hears us, and more importantly He listens. Too often we respond to someone else with, "Uh-huh." "Yeah." Either we don't really listen, or we are merely waiting for a chance to jump in with our opinion. THAT NEVER HAPPENS when we talk with Jesus. He is more than willing to listen to our prayers as if we are the only person to whom He is listening. One of the advantages of being an omni-present omni-powerful God. No matter where you are, He is near you. Acts 17:27 Add to the fact He is near you, He loves you!
This has many ramifications. Start with 1 John 1:9 "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." If I cannot KNOW, and have complete faith in Jesus hearing and acting, this verse is meaningless. I would be hopeless - in every sense of the word - a loser and without hope. When in trials I need peace and strength which I lack. I have no confidence that I will survive if He is not listening. If I cannot trust He hears when I confess He is Lord, and that I believe that He died for my sins, and that I believe in Him - and that He will save me as He promised - I am among all people the most pitiful. 1 Cor. 15:19 I will have fallen for a ruse, a massive con game ("con game" from 'confidence game' where the perpetrator gains someone's confidence and trust, and then crushes that trust).
I do not believe the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are running a con game against the whole world. That thought is from the Devil. He is the one that convinces people that faith is wrong, that Christ is not needed in our lives.
In addition, we must also know that God is not a genie exploding from a lamp when we rub it. The personal aggrandizement stuff that genies provide is not part of this equation - If we ask anything according to His will. Look back to verse 14. In the context of vss. 14-20 (especially 14-16) Jesus wants us to pray for others, always with the purpose of leading them to Him. In some cases, it is to bring people back to Jesus after they have strayed.
This is where the confidence is needed. I believe 'brother' is refering to another follower of Christ, not necessarily a sibling. God will save, with eternal life, those we pray for. If we observe another believer falling into sin, we are to pray for God to restore that person.
Which brings me to one of the most difficult passages in the New Testament: sin leading to death. What is that? I needed to consulate 'experts', because this is a tough one. We know that the consequence of sin is death - both physical and spiritual. Start with Gen. 2:17,18; Gen. 3:1-8. From the very beginning of mankind's relationship with God, death has loomed over us because of sin. (Interesting to ponder: perhaps Eve did not hear the command to not eat from the tree of knowledge - it was said to Adam before Eve came on the scene, as the narrative indicates, though I may be reading too much into that. Remember, Adam needed to share that command with Eve. Maybe it is the first instance of husband-wife mis-communication.)
However, Eve did not give the correct answer when Satan taunted her. She did not quote God's words as Jesus did when He was tempted. She was tricked into disobedience. Adam knew better, and did it anyway. Adam reminds me of Red Skelton's comedy bits about the 'Mean Widdle Kid." The character would say, "If I do this, I'll get in trouble." (Short pause) "I dood it anyway." Adam's is the more egregious sin.
It doesn't matter which was 'worse', both sins broke the relationship. It is Adam's sin. It is Eve's sin. It is in our genes, our biology - we are lost.
Ezekiel says it plainly, "The man who sins will surely die." Ezek. 18:20,21
Do be mistaken, there is no way for you to NOT sin. This verse does not say 'If you sin, then you die', which would logically imply 'If you do not sin, then you will not die.' We sin because we are sinners. Ergo sum we all die. The Psalms echo this (14:1-3; 53:1-3). In the gospels, John 3:12-21, 36. Paul also says it simply, bluntly, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of the Lord." Rom. 3:23
Think on that. If we cannot match His glory, we cannot live with Him. Doomed! But all is not lost. God the Father has provided by the power of the Holy Spirit, through His only Son the means to live in peace with Him.
If the point of this that all sin is death, then what is John writing about? John was not writing to non-believers. His readers had already transitioned from the domain of darkness to the kingdom of light Col. 1:12-13. All of their sins have been forgiven. For you and I, any and all of our sins were 'future' on the world's timeline (God is eternal and timeless, so nothing is future for Him.)
Jesus himself indicated there are some sins that can't be forgiven. "Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven." Matthew 12:31 (NASB).
There is only ONE sin that separates us from God - rejection of His Son Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. So what is blasphemy of the Holy Spirit? Denying He exists, and is the One who draws us to Christ - most likely. Rejecting the leading of the Holy Spirit, and trying to come to Jesus on your terms rather than His, is attempting to attain salvation apart from Christ. Rejecting the leading of the Holy Spirit is a major problem. Again, John is writing to Christians. They presumably have done none of this. Yet, John is warning them there are those who have done the unforgivable.
A couple of the commentaries propose this sin is rejecting Jesus after having said and committed yourself to Him. This is extremely troublesome, for there are many of us with children who have fallen away from the faith. Am I not to pray for that child of mine? God forbid! That is unthinkable for me. I cannot abandon my child because he has made a big, big mistake! I pray constantly that God will not let his heart be so hardened by his unbelief, that he denies Jesus exists, that God exists. That, perhaps, is the sin unto death - not only rejecting your faith, but also stepping over the line to denying God and Christ's existence. Sometimes this is labeled apostasy.
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Vs. 5:17 – All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not leading to death. -
Almost everything said above applies here. All sin leads to death. Confessing Jesus gives life. John cannot (surely, he does not) mean that if we sin after we accept Jesus we will die. We're all dead, dead, dead if that is so. Also, I do not believe he means there are sins we can commit without penalty, or at least very little punishment. I equate this with a Catholic Church point of view - venal versus mortal sins. John is repeating a theme: there is a sin that inevitably leads to death (or second death, or separation from God, or going to hell) which is rejection of Jesus as Son of God, denying the Holy Spirit, turning your back on God. All other sins are covered by Jesus' death and resurrection.
Continuing the thought beginning this paragraph, v. 14, 15 - if we pray according to God's will in order to 'reclaim' a fellow believer who has strayed from the way, He will hear us. Conversely, it appears that if a believer begins to commit apostasy - rejecting Jesus, rejecting the call of the Holy Spirit, blaspheming the Holy Spirit, denying God the Father, and trying to draw others away (the last is my thought, thinking along the lines of testing the Spirit to determine orthodox teachers and rejecting false teachers (anti-Christs)) - we are not to pray for them. God will deal with them. We are not to try to bring them back 'into the fold'.
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Vs. 5:18 – We know that no one who is born of God sins; but He who was born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him. -
These three verses, (18-20) may or may not be a continuation of the 'sin not leading to death' thoughts above. But it is a message introduced early in this letter. When we have Christ in our lives, and are controlled/empowered by the Holy Spirit, we will not live in sin. Again, we will commit sins until we go to heaven. We are broken. But we are not consumed by sin, We are not condemned to practice sin. 'Practice' as in doing it on purpose, over and over and over, all the while knowing better. 'Practice' as in practicing law, or a doctor's practice - and endeavor, avocation, way of life.
One truism from this verse - Jesus was born of God through Mary. God has Jesus at His right hand in heaven, and has been there since the resurrection and ascension. Satan cannot touch Him - cannot bother, cannot torture, cannot tempt, cannot annoy. Satan is helpless. When we are reborn, 'born of God', we now are under the umbrella of protection. God will not allow us to be taken away by Satan. Now, how that corresponds to a believer becoming apostate is a quandary. I would ask, if I am God's, how do I become an enemy of God? How do I progress from belief to antipathy to Him? If I am in His hand, if I am protected by Him, how do I stray so badly that I hate HIM?
The first half of this verse indicates 'no one'... sins. Can I conclude from this that the one who becomes apostate was never born of God? I think this verse is not directly about Jesus, even though it does fit with what He as done, and where He is.
The first part of this letter is setting forth the way you can know you are saved, by putting forth 'If...Then' statements. We know we are His if we obey His commands. Likewise, we can know we are kept by God, kept safe, if we keep His commandments. And if we keep His commandments, He will keep us. There is no need to worry about being apostate, or sins that lead to death if we follow Him. He will not let us fall. Praise the Lord!
Vs. 5:19 – We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. -
While the rest of the world is beset by Satan, and is under Satan's sway - God calls people to Him. Those that respond to Christ are no longer under the power of Satan. Isn't that amazing!
***Vs. 5:20 – And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. -
Verses 18, 19, and 20 each start off with 'we know' - (1) God keeps those who are born of Him; (2) We are God"s, but the world is Satan's; (3) the Son of God has come to show us understanding and the truth, including both the Son and the Father. When we listen to the gospel, God himself through the Holy Spirit helps us to understand. When we commit our selves to Jesus we can see the truth more clearly, and we understand and see the eternal life.
Knowledge and understanding, eternal life - what more could we ask for?
Vs. 5:21 – Little children, guard yourselves from idols. -
This statement seems to come out of the blue. Just as in the Old Testament, there is always the danger that we will begin to substitute a physical object for the real thing. Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well, 'God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth.' John 4:23, 24 If we substitute any object, whether it is the cross, the shroud of Turin, a chalice, an empty tomb, for our worship we open ourselves to trouble. If we pray to an icon, a picture, any object, we are not worshipping Christ, we are not worshipping God.
Go back to verse 20 - we have the Son, we have understanding, we have the truth. We have the true one, we have the eternal life. Don't be distracted by things, stuff. We have the true one - focus on Him, and Him alone. We will be fine.
End of chapter.
Completed 22Jun2015
