Because our right belief has led us to live rightly we
have assurance that we are children of God.
This assurance leads us to have boldness in prayer for our brothers and
sisters in Christ so that they might resist sin.
Lesson Outcomes:
Through this lessons students should:
1. Know
that our eternal life begins now.
2. Gain
a boldness in our prayer for others regarding sin.
3. Be
encouraged to take concrete steps toward prayer and accountability with
others.
Catch up on the
story:
John has just finished up a rather lengthy segment in
which he affirms the importance of the divinity and the humanity of Jesus. Right belief and right practice belong
inseparably together. In fact, one
cannot act properly Christian apart from a right belief about who Jesus is. The proper practice of faith is the way in
which we testify to our right belief.
Through the course of the letter, John has defended the faith against
those who would either deny Jesus’ humanity or his divinity. Those who do either are not children of God. Those who are children of God are those who
believe correctly and allow that belief to shape and give energy to their love
for God and for neighbor. If you have
Jesus, then you have life.
The Text:
John begins the final section of his letter with a brief
one line explanation of why he has written. Verse 13 is the only explicit
explanation we get regarding the reason for John’s writing. The reason is simple, and one that we have
surmised throughout the work. John wants
those to whom he is writing to have the assurance that they have eternal
life.
As we have said at the outset of our study of First John,
John has been writing to those who already believe, not as one who has been
trying to convert those who do not believe.
Here he explicitly notes that he is writing to those “who believe in the
name of the Son of God.” We have also
said that, in the context in which these addressees live, there has arisen a
group of individuals and teachers that have brought the faith of the church
into doubt. The primary issue has
revolved around the nature of Jesus.
John’s desire is that those who read this letter, after hearing his
argument defining what marks a child of God and what doesn’t, would find rest
and peace in the fact that they are, indeed, children of God. Because they have latched onto and confessed
their belief in the incarnate Son of God and because their belief has found
expression in love and care for their neighbor, they are currently in possession
of eternal life.
It should be noted here that John’s audience is currently
in the experience of eternal life. The
language of the text is present and active in nature. It is not in the future tense. They have
eternal life. So often we talk about
eternal life as something that begins in the future. This belief is a bit of a misnomer. As much as the phrase eternal life is
quantitative, in that it goes on forever, it is also just as much qualitative. Eternal life, to a large degree, is about the
nature and quality of life here and now.
So, when John says in the previous verse, to have the Son of God is to
have life, he means that they have life now, a full, rich and abundant life of
love and grace and peace. If we identify
ourselves with John’s audience, and I hope that we do, then you and I have
eternal life here and now as well.
John moves on.
This assurance that we have that we are children of God now gives us a
boldness in prayer. Those who are
children of God can have confidence that when we ask according to God’s will,
in prayer, it will be heard favorably.
God will answer our prayers. Some
use this kind of language to their advantage, thinking that if they are true
believers, if they have enough faith, that God will answer their every
prayer. At times, this kind of verse gets
taken out of context by those who peddle a prosperity gospel. This is not what John is saying. Our prayers must be offered in Jesus’ name
and according to his will.
Our experience has taught us that our prayers, at least
seemingly so, often go unanswered. Jesus
himself offers a prayer, the night before his death, that he might not have to
experience the suffering that was coming his way. What we see from Jesus, though, should be a
model for us as he prays, “Yet not what I will, but what you will.” (Mark
14:36) We do not always know what God’s
will is, yet we can know with confidence that God always hears and is always
working things according to his will.
We might ask then, if we should only pray according to
God’s will then why pray at all? If
God’s will is going to be done if we pray or not, why do it? One commentator offers this explanation,
To speak in such terms is to assume
that God’s will must be understood in a static kind of way, as if God has made
a detailed plan beforehand of all that is going to happen –including the fact
that we are going to pray in a particular way and at a particular time. But while the Bible does speak of God’s plan
and purpose for the world, to speak in such deterministic terms is inconsistent
with the freedom which the Bible itself assigns to God’s children, and it
wreaks havoc upon the biblical idea of the personal relationship which exist
between God and his children. The point
is rather that the believer must seek to submit his will to God’s by saying,
“Your will be done” (Mt. 6:10). It is as
we freely yielded ourselves to God that he is able to accomplish his will
through us and our prayers…Through prayer we make ourselves instruments of
God’s will, and at the same time, in a manner that lies beyond human
comprehension, he is able to act powerfully to answer our prayers.[1]
This confidence in prayer, for
John, concerns one area specifically, and that is prayer for a brother or
sister in Christ who has fallen into sin.
Here, John advises, that if you see a brother or sister sin, you should
pray for that one that God would give life to the offender. Our prayers, it seems, should be specifically
concerned with helping other refrain from sin and to recover from sin.
Verse 16 gets a little tricky,
however, as John makes mention of “mortal sins” (the NIV renders it, “sin that
leads to death”), and those that are not mortal. What does he mean by this? Does not all sin ultimately lead to
death? Indeed it does, but John is
probably referring to the kinds of sin which are committed by those who are not
children of God and those that are.
Let’s clarify for a moment. When John refers to “what is not a mortal
sin” he is referring to sins that are committed by individuals who are
considered children of God. They have
confessed rightly about the nature of Jesus Christ. They have born out their confession about Jesus
through their constant love and concern for their brothers and sisters in the
faith as well as their neighbors. They
have a desire to be obedient but yet have fallen into some kind of sin, either
deliberate or not. As we have noted in
an earlier lesson, this kind of sin happens when we do not, as Wesley said,
“keep ourselves” in God –breathing in God’s love and grace and constantly
exhaling it as well. John is concerned
that we pray for this type of person so that they may confess their sin,
repent, and so that they can continue to walk in newness of life. This sin, which is not mortal sin, according
to John, can lead to death, but it does not have to. The praying community of faith can help in
this regard.
What then is the mortal
sin? If the non-mortal sin is committed
by those who have a desire to be and remain children of God, then the mortal
sin is committed by those who consciously and deliberately choose to deny God
and walk in the way that leads to death.
For John, this way that leads to death is rooted in a denial of Jesus
Christ and a consistent failure to love one’s brothers and sisters. If Jesus is the only one in whom real life
can be found, there can be no life for those who deny him. We may guess, that those whom John is warning
his hearers against in this letter, are those who are guilty of committing this
mortal sin. Notice that we have not
identified one individual sin that ultimately leads to death. To try and do so would be unfruitful.
We may be troubled by John’s
statement that we should not pray about those mortal sins. I do not believe that John wishes that we
should not pray for those people. How
can our refusal to pray for those who are consciously against God and his Son
be an expression of our love for our neighbor?
Quite simply, it cannot be.
Keeping in mind John’s primary audience and concern, those who are
already children of God, it makes sense that he would emphasize prayer for our
brothers and sisters in Christ. Also
keeping in mind the tone of the rest of the letter, love requires of us
concrete action for others. Prayer,
while seemingly not a concrete action, is a good and proper response for those
who are far from God, especially for those who might seem to be too far-gone.
In verse 18 John begins to wrap
up the letter by reiterating that those who have been born of God do not
sin. God protects them from the evil
one. At the same time, however, that the
children of God are under the power of God, the rest of the world seems to be
under the power of the evil one. It is
precisely because the world is so pervasively under the influence of the evil
one that we should approach God in confident prayer. We know the nature of the world, and the
battle that rages in it, because God has revealed himself to us, giving us
understanding about who Jesus is and who we are in the light of that
understanding.
Verse 20 acts as a confession
and summary of what has gone before in the letter. We know that the Son of God has come. We have heard, and seen and felt him. He was from the beginning. He has given us understanding, he has
revealed himself to us so that we might know him and enjoy fellowship with him. He is truth and light, in him is no darkness,
no sin. Jesus is God’s Son, the true God
and it is through him that we are now enjoying eternal life.
So What…?
As
much as John in concerned with our right belief about who Jesus is, he is just
as concerned about our constant care for our brothers and sisters in the
faith. As we have said before, John
believes, and so do we, that right belief shapes our daily life and practice of
faith. The letter closes with a concern
for prayer. Notice, however, that the
concern for prayer is not individually or selfishly focused, even though one
might be able to read it that way.
John’s concern regarding prayer is that it be used to accomplish the
will of God and that will is that those who believe might not fall prey to
sin.
You
and I are children of God! We have an
assurance that we have, at this very moment and in this very place, eternal
life. Because we have this assurance
that our faith and action gives us we now can approach God in prayer with
boldness interceding for our brothers and sisters that they might grow in
Christlikeness avoiding sin. When they
do fall into sin, we pray with boldness that the one who is in us who is
greater than the one who is in the world will rescue them from that sin,
restoring them to wholeness.
We
are in this thing together. It is our
job, as a community of faith that confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord, to help
each other grow in our understanding of right belief. If we do not struggle together in our
attempts to rightfully articulate and live our beliefs then we will not be able
to struggle with one another, in prayer and in accountability through the power
of the Spirit, to avoid sin. We confess
our orthodox faith in the fully human and fully divine Jesus Christ through our
constant love and care for our neighbor and brother and sister in Christ. This faith leads us to pray with boldness for
our brother and sisters in Christ.
Practically
speaking, entering into a relationship with a few select individuals to pray
for one another is one of the best ways to live out the faith that John is
describing. Discuss our Spiritual Formation groups with your group. You can find a list of questions that will
guide you in prayer for one another at wgcn.org/discipleship.
Critical Discussion Questions:
- What does God look like in this text/Who is God in this text/What is God doing in this text?
- God, in his wisdom, knew that it would be impossible for us to live out our faith merely as individuals. So, God has given us the gift of his Church so that we might help each other recover from and remain free from sin. In doing so, through the power of the Holy Spirit, the sin that could lead to our death does not have to lead to our death!
- What does holiness/salvation look like in this text?
- Our holiness, our continual growth in Christlikeness, is tied up with our care for and actions toward our brothers and sisters in the faith. We cannot claim to be children of God if our love does not find concrete expressions of care for those around us. One of these expressions is our constant prayer for those who struggle with sin. We pray with boldness because we know that it is God’s will that none of us remain a slave to sin.
- How does an encounter with this story shape who we are and who we should become?
- This passage should clarify some of our reasons for prayer. Yes, prayer is part of the way in which we draw close to God. We pray for physical healing. But our constant concern should be for our brothers and sisters in Christ so that they might remain free from sin. This prayer, while it can be general in nature, should compel us to dive deep into each other’s lives, so that we can pray specifically for the sins that each of us struggle with. Praying, “Lord, help so and so remain free from sin” is good. Asking of that person, “What known sins have you committed since our last meeting?” is better.
Specific Discussion Questions:
Read the
text aloud. Then, read the text to yourself quietly. Read it slowly, as if you were very
unfamiliar with the story.
1. John
begins his epilogue stating that he writes all of these things so that they
might “know that you have eternal life.”
Why might John’s hearers doubt the fact that they have eternal life?
2. The
language of the phrase “know that you have eternal life” is present and active,
not future. What does it mean that we
currently have eternal life? How might
this be different than you’ve previously understood it?
3. Because
we are children of God we have assurance that we have eternal life. John says this gives us boldness in
prayer. How do our prayers have to be
offered in order for them to be favorably heard?
4. John’s
main concern regarding prayer is our prayers for our brothers and sisters so
that they might resist and recover from sin.
What are the two types of sin John mentions? How do they differ? John does not offer a list of sins that are
mortal and those that are not. Why
doesn’t he give us a list?
5. Why
is John so concerned with our prayer for others to resist sin? What kind of role do we have in helping each
other resist and recover from sin? What
specific things might we do?
6. Often
our prayers center on physical needs. How often do you prayer for others’
spiritual needs?
[1] I. Howard
Marshall, The Epistles of John, (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans
Publishing Co., 1978), 244-245.
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