BIG IDEA:
THE ASSURANCE OF A RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD BRINGS QUALIFIED CONFIDENCE THAT GOD WILL ANSWER OUR PRAYERS
INTRODUCTION:
– Importance of Prayer
– Why doesn’t God always answer our prayers?
I. (:14-15) THE EXTENT AND LIMITATION OF OUR CONFIDENCE THAT GOD WILL ANSWER OUR PRAYERS
A. (:14) The Limitation of Our Confidence
“And this is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.”
This word “boldness” or “confidence” has been used previously in the Epistle:
– in conjunction with judgment — 2:28; 4:17
– in conjunction with prayer — here and 3:21,22
Wuest: “‘Ask’ is aiteo, ‘to ask for something to be given.’ It is in the middle voice in which the person acting in the verb does so in his own interest. It is in the present subjunctive, which speaks of continuous action. Thus, the total idea is, ‘if we keep on asking for something for ourselves.'”
Hoke: ” John tells us that we can have confidence when we pray. Who wouldn’t like to have confidence in prayer? I suppose that the reason why we do not pray more boldly is because we lack this confidence in prayer. But we can have confidence. We can have confidence if we understand the basis upon which God answers prayer.”
Ryrie: “The limitation is gracious because His will is always best for His children.”
B. (:15) The Extent of Our Confidence
“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.”
Prayer involves petition. It is not just some abstract cry of pain to some unknown being. We should expect a hearing and we should expect God to answer.
Stedman: “the certainty of hearing and the certainty of having”
II. (:16-17) THE EXTENT AND LIMITATION OF OUR INTERCESSION FOR THE SINS OF OTHERS
A. (:16a) The Limitation of Our Intercession
“If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death”
B. (:16b) The Extent of Our Intercession
“he shall ask and God will for him give life to those who commit sin not leading to death.”
C. (:16c-17) The Classification of Sins
1. “There is a sin leading to death; I do not say that he should make request for this.”
2. “All unrighteousness is sin”
Just because John has singled out a “sin unto death” let’s not minimize the fact that all unrighteousness is sin.
Plummer: “The condition of Divine sonship is incompatible, not merely with sin unto death, but with sin of any description.”
3. “and there is a sin not leading to death.”
Two major interpretations:
1) sin unto death refers to a genuine believer who is judged by God with physical death on account of persistence in some type of willful sin
cf. I Cor. 5;
Problem: the death spoken of would have to be physical death; the rest of the context of the epistle talking about spiritual life and death distinctions
2) sin unto death refers to the apostasy of a professing believer ( who was never genuinely saved) — like the false teachers in this context in 1 John;
Problem: individual called a “brother” — but he would be claiming to be a brother and would appear so to us
Other people suggest:
– Catholic interpretation: difference between mortal and lesser sins
– blasphemy against the Holy Spirit; the unpardonable sin
Stedman: “Now do not let curiosity over this mortal sin (or rather, much better, ‘the sin unto death’), keep you from seeing the relationship of these verses to what he has just said. These two verses are an illustration of a request that is in the will of God, as contrasted with one that is not in the will of God. That is what he has just been talking about, urging us to pray only concerning that which is the will of God. He then gives us these two illustrations, one which is in the will of God, one which is not. The ‘sin which is not unto death’ is the kind which permits a concerned brother to ask God for deliverance from that sin for an erring brother and the will of God is to grant that request. The ‘sin which is unto death’ is the kind to which God has already determined upon a certain response and no prayer is going to change his mind. Therefore, it is useless to pray. That is why John gives this illustration.”
Findlay: “The Apostle has made here the exception to the gracious rule ‘Ask and it shall be given you,’ which truth requires, — an exception which probably his own deep experience of life of prayer had compelled him to admit. But he gives us no criterion of the sin that is beyond forgiveness; he leaves it wrapped in the mysteries which surround the thrones of eternal judgement.”