1 JohnEverlasting Mercy Fellowship

1st John 5:13-21

13 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. 14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15 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. 16 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. 17 All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death. 18 We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him. 19 We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. 20 And we know 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, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. 21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

Prayer

Prayer

What is and isn’t prayer?

What isn’t it? It isn’t exclusive. Anyone can pray. It isn’t more powerful simply because it’s loud, out

loud or peppered with great vocabulary. It isn’t answered based upon preeminence

Purpose of prayer (see 1st Timothy 2:1-4) Supplicate (request) Intercede Requests

Intercessory prayer is the most common type of prayer requested by people you meet.

Commentary on 1st John 5:13-21

John qualifies prayer with the following. It is assumed that your prayer meets with God’s will. Most people seek God’s will through prayer as opposed to praying in accordance with God’s revealed will.

Let’s look at Jesus and how He prayed. Jesus always qualified His prayer with the will of God

(see John 4:34; 5:30; 6:38-40). That God answered Jesus prayer is evidence that His

prayers were in line with the will of the Father. His obedience showed through as confidence when

He prayed to the Father (see John 11:41; 17:15). Jesus prayed for life to return to Lazarus,

perseverance for His followers and forgiveness of sin so that we may continue in life (see 1st John 2:1)

Commentary on 1st John 5:13-21

By way of analogy, the Father heard the prayers of Jesus because they were in line with His will and consequently, He hears the prayer of His children because those prayers are His (see Revelation 5:7-9; 8:2-5).

In context with our text, is the prayer of intercession. The intercession is specific – it is for those members of the church that have sinned (see 1st John 5:16-17).

It is the Father’s will that we live and not die. It is the reason for Jesus death on the cross. It is His will that we should intercede for believers for that.

Let’s get into the meat of the word

Sin that doesn’t kill VS. Sin that does

John draws a distinction between sins in 1st John 5:16-17 1st John 6:16-17

▪ 16 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. 17 All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death.

Are there sins so serious that they can’t be forgiven? Yes. A sin unto death which is a sin that carries you away into the power of the evil one (see 1st John 5:19).

Children of God do not sin that way. If you are truly born of God, you deal with sin by: Confession (see 1st John 1:9) Dependence on God’s forgiveness (see Ephesians

1:6-8)

Sin that doesn’t kill VS. Sin that does

“Sin unto death” is evidence that a person lives in accordance with the world’s system of doing things as opposed to God’s system of doing things. The world’s system is associated with spiritual death (see 1st Corinthians 7:30-32).

People that live in that manner are under the power of the evil one and not participating in the life and forgiveness granted by God through the work of Jesus Christ therefore, this verse is not trying to distinguish types of sins but instead types of sinners.

Christians seek forgiveness of sins through repentance; not in order to keep sinning but in order to deal with the sins we commit.

Where there is no confession of sin, those sins lead to death

Seeing sin

We are to hold each other accountable for the sin we see, not the sin we don’t see. We can only deal with visible sin, not inner sin though we can certainly see the fruit.

If you visibly sin as a believer, your response to it should be confession and subsequent petition to God. Oftentimes, this is where we usually let our pride speak and say things like “you can’t judge me” or “you don’t know what I’m going through”.

We are able to pray for repentant believers. What we can’t do is pray for forgiveness for unrepentant sinners (1st John 5:16). God is holy and will always deal with sin based upon His holiness.

Next week

Greetings to the Church (2nd John 1-3) Living in Love (2nd John 4-6)