1 John 5:14-21
Confidence and Compassion in Prayer
14 Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.
16 If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death. There is sin leading to death. I do not say that he should pray about that. 17 All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to death.
Knowing the True—Rejecting the False
18 We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him.
19 We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.
20 And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, 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.
21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.
Final words are given to us here at the end of the book by John to bolster our confidence of faith and spiritual understanding. We have a certain confidence through conviction of the truth of the gospel and person of Jesus Christ by God’s Spirit living inside us who confirms the words of truth of this life. This confidence assures us when we pray that Jesus hears and answers according to His word and will as we ask in trusting faith for our petitions. Our prayers, however, must be according to His will with our lives practicing it as well (John 15:7, 1 John 3:22), and not just our misplaced or selfish desires (James 4:3) for our gain and not for God’s glory. This is why the prosperity imitation gospel is no good news at all as it perverts prayer into self-serving idolatry in a sense. True worship in spirit and truth seeks to live and pray for what is God’s will revealed in scripture. This is our confidence then that when we pray for His will to be done on earth as in heaven we will see the answer as we prayed for. We are also told to be careful who we pray for. If someone is living a sin that ends in death due to an unrepentant mindset, we are told to refrain from praying for that sin until the person repents and seeks forgiveness from the Lord (1 John 1:9) first. This does not mean that we cannot or should not pray for other sins of unrighteousness, just the ones heading towards the consequences of unrepentant behavior and hearts. This is further explained by the fact that those truly born again by God do not seek to habitually practice sin without true repentance or remorse to God as evidenced by turning from sin to Him over and over. It does not mean that anyone is sinless but that the direction and intention of our lives are set on righteous obedience through repentance and faith. We therefore do not give opportunity to the devil who is our adversarial lion seeking to devour us (1 Peter 5:8) by keeping our path set away from sin to follow Him who leads and guides us (Psalm 31:3) for His name’s sake. The entire world follows the deceiver but we follow the true and living Lord over all who made Himself known to us that we may understand and keep ourselves in Christ the Son of God who alone is true and perfectly sinless in divine righteousness. This truly is the true God and eternal life as John summarizes here. Since we worship Him, let us take heed to these final words as His children, “keep yourselves from idols,” as we worship and follow the Lord, not the world or our own desires and pursuits. What is the direction of our lives and prayers? We should dwell on these final words concerning our salvation and direction of our lives in prayer because we are in Christ and His love.
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