And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.
If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life—to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death.
(1 John 5:14-17, ESV)
Approaching the end of his epistle, John has a few words on the subject of prayer. Previously on verse 13, John has developed the idea of confidence in God. "I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life." (1 John 5:13) The Word confidence has appeared on to this John’s letter to the Ephesian church several time (1 John 2:28, 3:21, 4:17), because this is what John wants us to have before God. Confidence in God characterise a kind of assurance that we have right fellowship with God. Now John relates this idea of confidence in God to prayer (...this is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to his will…). One of the blessings of having a relationship with God is an answered prayer. This word confidence is also seen in Hebrew 4:16 “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” So why should we come with confidence? John’s response would be that: because we know that He will hear and grant our requests.
But let us not think that we could manipulate God with our prayer. Let’s first look on the verse in details: “If we ask anything according to His will”. Notice here that God’s answer is conditional:
1. First, ask. God wants us to ask Him. A true fellowship requires communication; without communication there’s no real relationship. We communicate to God with prayer: we ask God for things, we tell God our desire, and we give thanks to God for the things He had done for us.
2. Second, ask anything. How many of us that prays things just about our problem again and again? I don’t mean that we couldn’t bring before God our problems, but i would like us to see our prayer whether we pray just a thing or our prayer is about anything. God wants us to ask anything in prayer, not that anything will be granted, but anything in the sense that we can and should pray for everything. Philippians 4:6: “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God”. We pray for the poor, for the nation, for the church, for the gospel, etc. Let our hearts be moved to pray for God’s kingdom because He is God who cares.
3. Third, ask anything according to His will. Total depravity has left man living in a selfish and self-centered existence. For us, sinners if we really want to be honest with ourselves, the driving force behind most of our decisions and choices is our tendency towards self-gratification. I guess this is the focus of prayer that John would like to stress about: that Prayer is about finding God’s will in our lives and not about fulfilling our will through the work of God.
Have a look on the following verses:
“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matt 6:33, ESV)
“If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” (John 15:7, ESV)
How do we know what God's will is? The Scriptures are full of indications of what he is in favor of and what he isn't. So when his will is clear in Scripture, we can be confident of an answer. If it's not, then we seek his will prayerfully and pray as Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane: "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." (Luke 22:42). God wants us to see and discern His will through His word, and to pray His will into action. When we abide in Jesus (as what John has stress about so far: to have right fellowship with Him – living in Him, day by day – then our will becomes more and more aligned with His will, and we can ask what you desire, and more and more be asking according to His will.
There is similar word in english about “to be aligned”, and the word is “to be in-tune”, and i think this word describes who we are as God’s children who is striving to live Christ-like (sanctification progress), which also includes our prayer. If you have any musical instrument, (I have piano at home), and as you might know, after some time, the piano won’t project the same sound as it used to be. What is used to be a “C key” now sounded as “B key”, everything sounds different and not right. At that time, we need to call someone to fix our piano, someone has to do what we call it “tuning process”. The tuning process tries to bring back the sound to what it is intended to be so that the piano is “in-tune”. Prayer is not just communicating with God, and talking with God to fulfil what we desire, but more as way where we try to be “in-tune” with God. We lay before God our weaknesses, and our problems, but as we pray, we are also seeking to seek and understand His will for us, and ask God for strength and wisdom to see His plan and will in and through our lives. This is christian’s prayer. When we abide in God, we then have God’s mind in us - what He desires becomes our desire - this is true fellowship that John stress on. This is then leads to our confidence in prayer that since what God’s desire becomes our desire, we know He hears our prayer, and so whatever we ask (which align to His will), we know that God answers what we prayed for.
We might ask: If it is God’s will why we need to pray? why doesn’t He just do it? Yes, sometimes God will just do His will, but sometime God also wants to have His work and plan in and through us. He appointed us as His fellow workers on earth (2 Cor 6:1; Eph 2:10). God wants us to work with Him, and that means bringing our will and agenda to be in-tune with His. He wants us to care about the things He cares about, and He wants us to care about them enough to pray passionately about them.
Then John on verse 16 and 17 extend on this theme of prayer and suggesting the church to pray for others: for our brothers and sisters who we see sinning, so that God might restore them. Often, prayer is the last thing we do, or the smallest thing we do in regard to our brother having a difficult time. But John suggest: no, we should have care and love for our brothers and sisters (which John had been talking about loving one another numerous times in this letter). On a side note, when John wrote the word brother, he means our fellow Christian’s brothers and sisters. And so, the phrase means that when we see our brothers and sisters in Christ who has fallen in sin, we should pray for them so that God would restore them to the path of eternal life (this is the meaning of “God will give him life”). They are already have life because they have Jesus Christ, but in reality we are still living in this sinful world, and so we often fall in sin. But love among the body of Christ will sustain each other through prayer, that we ought to pray for each other, asking God for His grace and mercy for us, asking that God might graciously “grant” repentance to our fellow brothers and sisters that brings them back to full fellowship with God and His church (remember what John said in 1 John 2: believers belong, but anti-christ depart). See also some verses like Galatians 6:1, 2 Timothy 2:26, James 5:19-20.
So here we also see an interesting word of “sin leading to death and sin not leading to death”. This is somewhat a difficult word, and there are different views on this, but my take is this: what are things that leads to death? well all sin leads to death, isn’t it? That is why John continues on verse 17, and said “all wrongdoing is sin”, and we know the wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23). But John continues saying there is sin not leading to death, so the question is “what is not leading to death?” or “what is leading to life?” John has told this numerous time in this letter that life is found in Jesus (the Son); “whoever has the Son has life, whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life” (1 John 5:13). So that’s it! Eternal life is in Jesus Christ! Therefore, although we are sinners, and we do sin (we often fall to sin), but we trust Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior (who has eternal life); and so we have eternal life in Him. Even we do sin, we confess, and sin no more (or not keep on sinning). We have confidence in Christ who is our standing before God, because He is the perfect One. On the other hand, “sin leading to death” then must mean a sin where one rejects Christ, they went out from us (the church), and won’t come back, because they are not of us (church / body of Christ) - “anti-Christ”. Sin unto death is a type of sin where one who deliberately refuse to believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. This is in contrast with sin that is done by our fellow brothers and sisters, because although they do sin, they don’t keep on sinning, instead we see repentance. Praise God that He forgives our sins! Is the "sin unto death" the same as the "unforgivable sin" of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit? (Matthew 12:31). I would say It is: The Pharisees, even in the face of miracles, attributed Jesus' miracles to the devil. They absolutely and steadfastly refused to believe in Jesus. They "blasphemed defiantly" and so could not be saved because they persisted in their unbelief.
On the other hand, we should not “judge” people easily that they have done “unforgivable sin” just because they still live in sin, because God’s time is not our time. We ought to pray hard for our brothers and sisters fervently and continuously, and that shows our love and cares for one another just what John has been talking about again and again. In the context of 1 John, it seems that John used such language to refer to the opponent of the gospel where they deny Jesus Christ is the Son of God. From that denial flowed both their love-lessness and their law-lessness with regard to sin.
We ought to pray for our brothers and sisters because true love demands seeking the best for them: to have the true life (eternal life in Jesus Christ). We pray for our brothers and sisters to be walking in the light and in full fellowship with God, because we enjoy our fellowship with God. We pray for them as an act of love because God loves them too; and since true fellowship (or to abide in Christ) has made our hearts to be aligned with Him, we become to feel what He feel, we become to grieve what He grieves, and we become to love what He loves (as God loves His children).
~ Paul Hartono
If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life—to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death.
(1 John 5:14-17, ESV)
Approaching the end of his epistle, John has a few words on the subject of prayer. Previously on verse 13, John has developed the idea of confidence in God. "I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life." (1 John 5:13) The Word confidence has appeared on to this John’s letter to the Ephesian church several time (1 John 2:28, 3:21, 4:17), because this is what John wants us to have before God. Confidence in God characterise a kind of assurance that we have right fellowship with God. Now John relates this idea of confidence in God to prayer (...this is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to his will…). One of the blessings of having a relationship with God is an answered prayer. This word confidence is also seen in Hebrew 4:16 “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” So why should we come with confidence? John’s response would be that: because we know that He will hear and grant our requests.
But let us not think that we could manipulate God with our prayer. Let’s first look on the verse in details: “If we ask anything according to His will”. Notice here that God’s answer is conditional:
1. First, ask. God wants us to ask Him. A true fellowship requires communication; without communication there’s no real relationship. We communicate to God with prayer: we ask God for things, we tell God our desire, and we give thanks to God for the things He had done for us.
2. Second, ask anything. How many of us that prays things just about our problem again and again? I don’t mean that we couldn’t bring before God our problems, but i would like us to see our prayer whether we pray just a thing or our prayer is about anything. God wants us to ask anything in prayer, not that anything will be granted, but anything in the sense that we can and should pray for everything. Philippians 4:6: “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God”. We pray for the poor, for the nation, for the church, for the gospel, etc. Let our hearts be moved to pray for God’s kingdom because He is God who cares.
3. Third, ask anything according to His will. Total depravity has left man living in a selfish and self-centered existence. For us, sinners if we really want to be honest with ourselves, the driving force behind most of our decisions and choices is our tendency towards self-gratification. I guess this is the focus of prayer that John would like to stress about: that Prayer is about finding God’s will in our lives and not about fulfilling our will through the work of God.
Have a look on the following verses:
“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matt 6:33, ESV)
“If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” (John 15:7, ESV)
How do we know what God's will is? The Scriptures are full of indications of what he is in favor of and what he isn't. So when his will is clear in Scripture, we can be confident of an answer. If it's not, then we seek his will prayerfully and pray as Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane: "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." (Luke 22:42). God wants us to see and discern His will through His word, and to pray His will into action. When we abide in Jesus (as what John has stress about so far: to have right fellowship with Him – living in Him, day by day – then our will becomes more and more aligned with His will, and we can ask what you desire, and more and more be asking according to His will.
There is similar word in english about “to be aligned”, and the word is “to be in-tune”, and i think this word describes who we are as God’s children who is striving to live Christ-like (sanctification progress), which also includes our prayer. If you have any musical instrument, (I have piano at home), and as you might know, after some time, the piano won’t project the same sound as it used to be. What is used to be a “C key” now sounded as “B key”, everything sounds different and not right. At that time, we need to call someone to fix our piano, someone has to do what we call it “tuning process”. The tuning process tries to bring back the sound to what it is intended to be so that the piano is “in-tune”. Prayer is not just communicating with God, and talking with God to fulfil what we desire, but more as way where we try to be “in-tune” with God. We lay before God our weaknesses, and our problems, but as we pray, we are also seeking to seek and understand His will for us, and ask God for strength and wisdom to see His plan and will in and through our lives. This is christian’s prayer. When we abide in God, we then have God’s mind in us - what He desires becomes our desire - this is true fellowship that John stress on. This is then leads to our confidence in prayer that since what God’s desire becomes our desire, we know He hears our prayer, and so whatever we ask (which align to His will), we know that God answers what we prayed for.
We might ask: If it is God’s will why we need to pray? why doesn’t He just do it? Yes, sometimes God will just do His will, but sometime God also wants to have His work and plan in and through us. He appointed us as His fellow workers on earth (2 Cor 6:1; Eph 2:10). God wants us to work with Him, and that means bringing our will and agenda to be in-tune with His. He wants us to care about the things He cares about, and He wants us to care about them enough to pray passionately about them.
Then John on verse 16 and 17 extend on this theme of prayer and suggesting the church to pray for others: for our brothers and sisters who we see sinning, so that God might restore them. Often, prayer is the last thing we do, or the smallest thing we do in regard to our brother having a difficult time. But John suggest: no, we should have care and love for our brothers and sisters (which John had been talking about loving one another numerous times in this letter). On a side note, when John wrote the word brother, he means our fellow Christian’s brothers and sisters. And so, the phrase means that when we see our brothers and sisters in Christ who has fallen in sin, we should pray for them so that God would restore them to the path of eternal life (this is the meaning of “God will give him life”). They are already have life because they have Jesus Christ, but in reality we are still living in this sinful world, and so we often fall in sin. But love among the body of Christ will sustain each other through prayer, that we ought to pray for each other, asking God for His grace and mercy for us, asking that God might graciously “grant” repentance to our fellow brothers and sisters that brings them back to full fellowship with God and His church (remember what John said in 1 John 2: believers belong, but anti-christ depart). See also some verses like Galatians 6:1, 2 Timothy 2:26, James 5:19-20.
So here we also see an interesting word of “sin leading to death and sin not leading to death”. This is somewhat a difficult word, and there are different views on this, but my take is this: what are things that leads to death? well all sin leads to death, isn’t it? That is why John continues on verse 17, and said “all wrongdoing is sin”, and we know the wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23). But John continues saying there is sin not leading to death, so the question is “what is not leading to death?” or “what is leading to life?” John has told this numerous time in this letter that life is found in Jesus (the Son); “whoever has the Son has life, whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life” (1 John 5:13). So that’s it! Eternal life is in Jesus Christ! Therefore, although we are sinners, and we do sin (we often fall to sin), but we trust Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior (who has eternal life); and so we have eternal life in Him. Even we do sin, we confess, and sin no more (or not keep on sinning). We have confidence in Christ who is our standing before God, because He is the perfect One. On the other hand, “sin leading to death” then must mean a sin where one rejects Christ, they went out from us (the church), and won’t come back, because they are not of us (church / body of Christ) - “anti-Christ”. Sin unto death is a type of sin where one who deliberately refuse to believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. This is in contrast with sin that is done by our fellow brothers and sisters, because although they do sin, they don’t keep on sinning, instead we see repentance. Praise God that He forgives our sins! Is the "sin unto death" the same as the "unforgivable sin" of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit? (Matthew 12:31). I would say It is: The Pharisees, even in the face of miracles, attributed Jesus' miracles to the devil. They absolutely and steadfastly refused to believe in Jesus. They "blasphemed defiantly" and so could not be saved because they persisted in their unbelief.
On the other hand, we should not “judge” people easily that they have done “unforgivable sin” just because they still live in sin, because God’s time is not our time. We ought to pray hard for our brothers and sisters fervently and continuously, and that shows our love and cares for one another just what John has been talking about again and again. In the context of 1 John, it seems that John used such language to refer to the opponent of the gospel where they deny Jesus Christ is the Son of God. From that denial flowed both their love-lessness and their law-lessness with regard to sin.
We ought to pray for our brothers and sisters because true love demands seeking the best for them: to have the true life (eternal life in Jesus Christ). We pray for our brothers and sisters to be walking in the light and in full fellowship with God, because we enjoy our fellowship with God. We pray for them as an act of love because God loves them too; and since true fellowship (or to abide in Christ) has made our hearts to be aligned with Him, we become to feel what He feel, we become to grieve what He grieves, and we become to love what He loves (as God loves His children).
~ Paul Hartono
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