There is a certain satisfaction upon reaching a satisfying conclusion to a book or a movie. A good ending follows the peak of the action and ties up the loose ends, reminding the audience of the journey and driving home the meaning of all that has come before. Likewise in this last section of the apostle’s letter, John has just reached the climax of his letter, explaining that we can know with complete assurance that we have eternal life by believing in Jesus (see 1 John 5:13 [1]) and now he turns to make sure that we understand the ramifications of this knowledge in the face of the spiritual situation in the world in which we live.
1 John 5:14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.
Have you ever had one of those big presentations at work, where your boss’s boss’s boss is present? Confidence in that sort of situation is priceless. How much more important is having confidence when we approach the sovereign God who created the universe asking for help. What a precious promise it is to know that he will always listen to our requests and answer any that are not in opposition to his will. It does bring me confidence and comfort to know that my potentially selfish or myopic requests are filtered through Him so that only good can come of my prayers!
Upon reading this again I find it noteworthy that this is a plural “we” that approaches God in petition. I tend to read the Bible from a western, individualistic perspective. An eastern collective perspective is more likely what John intended. “We”, the church of Jesus, are to pray together. In fact, John is repeating the words of Jesus:
Matt 18:19-20 “Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”
Joining in prayer with another believer provides an additional check that what an individual prays is in God’s will. Certainly, God hears our solitary prayers too, but I think having a community of prayer is essential.
1 John 5:15 And if we know that he hears us -whatever we ask- we know that we have what we asked of him.
I find the notion that God “cannot hear us” as strange. It makes such perfect sense to me that God can hear me, that I don’t see it as a barrier. But the Jews were raised with a temple, a physical locale, where you went to pray and be heard by God. In fact, the high priest would go into the holiest place once a year to intercede for the people. In a world of pagan idols and temples the concept of a transcendent God who could hear your thoughts, not just your words, anywhere, was a mind-blowing concept. Perhaps you have grown up accepting the revelation that there is no “sacred space” where you go to be heard by God. The idea that knowing that God hears us is enough to give confidence that our requests will be answered affirmatively still boggles the mind, even with the caveat that our requests are in the name of Jesus, meaning submitted under his authority, according to God’s will.
Perhaps it may help to picture a business with an infinite money supply. If you are considering a purchase for the good of the business, get it! In prayer we need to shed our scarcity mentality and believe that God has the resources and will answer. He is our loving heavenly Father, and he has no shortage.
1 John 5:16 DCB If anyone should see his brother commit a sin that does not lead toward death, you should pray and God will give them life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead toward death. There is a sin that leads toward death. I am not saying that you should pray about that.
I have created my own translation using “toward” repeatedly to translate the key Greek preposition “pros” which means “moving toward a goal and destination” or figuratively to move “mentally or emotionally toward a goal”. The idea seems to be that these people’s sin is desiring death and acting in this desire presumably by dealing it out. This is reinforcing what John said earlier in this letter in 1 John 3:15 “Anyone who hates a brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.”
Verse 16 seems like an abrupt transition from the prior two verses. John has moved from the general assurance that God will hear and answer prayer, to the specific things John is passionate for believers to pray about. We may be tempted to look at people in a bad light when they sin, and get angry, especially when they try to cover up sin and deny it. This is even worse when they are people in authority, like pastors, because in so doing they communicate that they view appearances as more important than integrity. We also may be tempted to gossip about the sin of others or feel justified in exposing them. Instead, John says to pray on their behalf, and our prayers will have eternal ramifications. The clear implication is that these prayers are according to God’s will who desires their restoration. I can only imagine how things might be different in this world, if we all lived this out and prayed as our first response to the sin of others.
1 John 5:17 All wrongdoing is sin and there is sin that does not lead to death.
The word translated “wrongdoing” is adikia which literally means “unrighteousness”. Missing the mark is part of learning in archery. So too in life. There is not condemnation for missing the mark, but rather God restores us even as we learn from our mistakes and grow more like Jesus.
Sin is challenging to recognize and comes from many sources. Often sin originates from selfishness or thoughtlessness. In these instances, we may not even recognize we are sinning. Sometimes we can recognize a need to change a sinful pattern of behavior, but then fail to do so due to a lack of self-control. Sometimes sin is really a mindset of ingrained response, like lashing out in anger, that we can only change by retraining the mind to act instinctively in a different way. Sometimes the sinful mindset is assimilated from the twisted values of our culture. A culture may try to normalize behavior that God declares is sin. For example, in the ancient Greek and Roman cultures that John lived, prostitution (particularly with religious prostitutes), divorce, murders in the arena for entertainment, pedophilia, slavery, orgies and homosexuality were all common practice. Our culture is no different and has its own list of twisted morals, allowing or even condoning behaviors like abortion, pornography and racism. Clearly that is not an exhaustive list, and we still have many on our list that we hold in common with ancient Roman and Greek culture.
1 John 5:18 We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the One who was born of God keeps them safe, and the evil one cannot harm them.
This verse literally says “We know that everyone having been born (perfect tense) out of God does not commit sin” (present indicative active tense). This is a very challenging assertion!
My first thought was, “Surely this must a be wrong translation!” The translator of the NIV decided to translate this present tense verb as “does not continue to sin” perhaps out of this same conviction. However, for that to be the correct translation I would have expected John to choose either an imperfect tense (incomplete continuing action), a perfect tense (completed action with ongoing ramifications), or a middle tense (used for a repeated habitual action “like walking to and fro”). Since John had three options of tense to mean “continue to sin” but chose none of them, it is pretty clear to me that this is not the right translation.
So why does John assert we will cease sinning (present tense)?
John gives his reason: “the one having been born of God (perfect tense) will protect/guard/watch over them so that the evil one can’t push them around (literally in Greek it is the middle tense of “touch us harmfully” which would be something like habitual bullying!!). Jesus keeps the evil one from messing with us and we stop sinning. Notice John sees a spiritual origin for our sin. Sin is a byproduct of the human race, giving ourselves over to the evil one’s will. (see 2 Cor 4:4) When we are born again and no longer under the evil one’s control we have the power to cease sinning. To me John is stating the new truth about us prophetically. I think we should each claim this verse and believe it as a promise of God. I would say it this way: “I know that I have been born of God and that I will cease sinning, because Jesus is keeping me safe from the evil one.” That is good news, indeed.
1 John 5:19 We know that we are children of God and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.
This is such an important verse I really am trying to cement it in my memory and really study it deeply. The “know” is a perfect tense, so our being children of God is done! It is complete in the past, yet changes everything in the future. “Under control of” is a middle/passive verb keitai meaning “to be laid” (passive: like a baby in a manger) or to lie oneself (middle). The axe “is laid” at the base of the tree (Matt 3:10). It can also mean more figuratively “set and appointed” like a city “laid out as a square” (Rev 21:16). So the verse says literally that “the whole world has been laid/set” or “lain themselves” “in/with/by the evil one.” If the passive, then it begs who did put the world under Satan’s control? Perhaps Adam and Eve (who forfeited the world to Satan by disobeying God), perhaps God himself (in the sense that Satan was cast down from heaven into this world). If the middle tense, then the answer is that we each place ourselves under Satan’s control. Either way this is a sobering statement of the pervasive spiritual lostness of this world.
This spiritual understanding is truly the Biblical world view. Yes, we are children of God, but the evil one, the Devil, has an invisible hold on the whole world. I think this includes the political systems, the religious systems and the philosophical beliefs. It may seem strange, and certainly uncomfortable, but this is what Jesus taught. We tend to view it as a hurting world, but perhaps not a world that’s been forfeited to the evil one:
Matthew 4:8-10 Again, the Devil took him (Jesus) to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.
“All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”
Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”
Notice that Jesus does not say that the Devil’s statement is a lie. Satan is real and is pulling the strings of this world, having usurped the authority of mankind. In this verse Satan claims ownership to all the kingdoms of this world and thus he can offer them to Jesus.
1 John 5:20 We also know that the Son of God has come and given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in Him who is true by being in his son, Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
Jesus arrived and gave us “understanding” which in Greek is literally a compound word meaning “through reasoning” or “through the mind”. The idea is to have thoroughly examined an issue from end-to-end. This is an awesome revelation, that Jesus came to show us completely, to the end, the nature of God so that we can know God, the one who is true. God is not a “side-quest”, knowing God is the “main quest” and life is the “side-quest”! “Know” is a translation of the Greek word gnowsko which is experiential knowledge. For example, Mary says to the angel, “how can I have a baby, I have never “gnowsko” a man?” The idea conveyed to me is that even complete head knowledge falls short of the experience of being in a relationship with the life-giving spirit of Jesus. John wants us to know that this spiritual communion, which the scripture calls being “in” Jesus, is how we experience eternal life with both Jesus and the Father.
The Bible is more than a book that we’re meant to read, in reality it gives us an insight and understanding, through God’s Spirit, about our Creator and Father in heaven, that we would never be able to attain without it. One cannot understand God, Jesus, or the Spirit without the Bible. We can get a general idea, that there is a creator, but we would have no knowledge of the true triune nature of God. God gave us a book of teachings and wisdom in the law, he gave us the Spirit to guide us, and he gave Jesus to teach us and demonstrate God’s love by sacrificing himself for us; how glorious is God, that he did all this for humans, simply out of his love and grace, not because we deserved Him in the slightest?
1 John 5:21 Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.
This command stands out. This final thought may seem like a tack on, but it is not. John has been hammering home the theme that God is love and that God is meant to be our main focus, not the distractions and pleasures of the world. God created us for a devoted relationship with him, to love him and glorify him forever in adoration and worship, even as Jesus’s spirit dwells in our heart by faith. God loves us so much that he sent Jesus to die on a cross to save us. God rightfully desires his Son to be our sole focus. God repeatedly compares idol worship to adultery in the Bible because idols are temptations to be unfaithful to Jesus. Because the whole world is under the influence of the evil one, idol worship is pervasive and leads many astray. Paul points out that pagan sacrifices offered before idols in temples are offered to demons, Satan’s minions (see 1 Corinthians 10:20). Idols are one insidious method that the evil one employs to usurp the rightful place of Jesus in our lives, undermining our trust and devotion to Him.
A serious warning to end this letter, but hidden in this verse is also a delightful reminder that we are truly children dear to God.
[1] see my previous post: 1 John 5:6-13 Can I Really Know My Fate? https://wordpress.com/post/davidboris.wordpress.com/1910
Atheist to Elder 