Slices
Prepare
When you pray, how confident are you that God hears your prayer? How sure are you that God will answer your prayer? How would you explain your confidence or lack of it?
Bible passage
Concluding affirmations
13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. 14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: 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 what we asked of him.
16 If you see any brother or sister commit a sin that does not lead to death, you should pray and God will give them life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that you should pray about that. 17 All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death.
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. 19 We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. 20 We know also 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 by being in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
21 Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.
Explore
John has written to reassure true believers that they have eternal life. With that assurance of relationship with God, they should be confident in asking God for things according to his will (vs 13–17). So much of the letter has focused on loving one another, and here he gives the example of praying for another believer who commits sin.
What is the sin that leads to death? It is rejecting God’s Spirit as he points us to Christ (4:2,3). If someone denies that witness, they are not a brother or sister in Christ (see 2:3,4,22). There is life only in Christ (v 20). Pray for their salvation, but that is not John’s main focus here. He is encouraging believers to pray for one another according to God’s will.
The last few lines are a blitz of truth statements to comfort and challenge the readers. Believers don’t live lives defined by sin (v 18). God protects them. This world is controlled by the evil one (v 19). Our whole faith is wrapped up in our being in Christ (v 20). We are united with him and so have eternal life.
Respond
John lovingly ends by calling his dear children not to let their gaze shift to any alternative to the true God! How has this letter encouraged you to keep your eyes on Jesus?
Deeper Bible study
Lord, like the shepherds of old, I draw near to know you more, whom to know is life eternal, and to grow in confidence that you hear my prayers.
John places his final bookend here, by repeating his main purpose, which is that by believing in Jesus we might gain eternal life (vs 13,20). It is also the climax towards which the whole letter builds. We can know that we have received this life, without the aid of the special knowledge claimed by false teachers. He also wants us to have confidence in the power of prayer and boldness to approach God’s throne.1 John was taught to pray ‘your will be done’ by Jesus himself;2 he reminds us that God hears us when we pray accordng to his will (v 14) and that, when we do, we will receive whatever we ask.
If we see another believer sin, we should pray for them (vs 16,17). Many prominent leaders have fallen into wrongdoing lately and it can discourage us in our own discipleship if we do not pray for them. John reflects the common understanding of degrees of sin in his day,3 but he does not prohibit praying for those guilty of a ‘sin that leads to death’ (v 16), saying only that he is not advocating it and is uncertain of the outcome. Prayer remains the healthiest of a range of possible responses.
The repeated word ‘know’ in verses 18–20 could be the headings of a three-point sermon. It also sent out a challenge to the early Gnostic heretics that those who are born of God belong to him and not the devil. The teaching that the whole world is under the control of the evil one should neither surprise nor intimidate us; it is certainly evident today, as it was in John’s time. Yet John himself heard Jesus say that we should be at peace because he has overcome the world.4
Think about John’s closing plea (v 21). Could this apply to any of our seasonal activities or attitudes? What might Exodus 20:3 and 4 mean for us today?
1 Heb 4:16 2 Matt 6:10 3 Gary Burge, The Letters of John, The NIV Application Commentary, Zondervan, 1996, p217 4 John 16:33
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: Zephaniah 1–3; Revelation 15
Pray for Scripture Union
It may be nearly Christmas, but many of our volunteers are already working on our Easter holiday programme. Please pray for the leaders of our Easter holidays as they prepare, and for more team members to come forward to serve.
