God Hears Us

Introduction

Many times, Christians want to separate the first and second table of God’s law. Typically, the first table deals with loving God while the second table deals with loving your neighbor. Because God gives life, you should avoid false gods (Exodus 20:1–3). But God also gave your neighbor life, you should therefore love your neighbor. John doesn’t separate these commands either. In today’s passage, he jumps from one table to the other as if it is all meant to be together.

 The Passage

These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. This is the confidence which we have before 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 which we have asked from Him. If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask and God will for him give life to those who commit sin not leading to death. There is a sin leading to death; I do not say that he should make request for this. All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not leading to death. We know that no one who is born of God sins; but He who was born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him. We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. 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. This is the true God and eternal life. Little children, guard yourselves from idols.1 John 5:13–21

Explanation of the Passage

After John recalls the victory, we have in Christ and ministry of the Spirit (vv. 1-12), he ends the letter tying together the major themes of the letter.

He first gives a summary of the letter by explaining eternal life should bless your neighbor (vv. 13-17). The purpose of the entire letter was for Christians to know they have eternal life by believing in Jesus (v. 13). This results in confidence when we pray according to God’s will (vv. 14-15). And it’s God’s will we focus our prayers on our brothers and sisters (vv. 16-17).

The second section reminds us that you can’t love your brothers and sisters without the love of the father (a nine-year-old needs his dad’s money to buy his mom a birthday gift; vv. 18-21). All those born of God are protected from the Devil while the rest of the world lives under the power of the devil (vv. 18-19). Jesus came for us to know we are born of God and have eternal life (v. 20). Because God gives us eternal life, flee from idols which only give eternal death (v.21).

Eternal life means God Hears You.

God hears you because He saved you. We were all born in the sin of Adam, which means we failed to meet God’s standard. But when God graciously saved us, He gave us the righteousness of Jesus. We now meet God’s standard. Without Christ, we have no access to God. Now, in Christ, God welcomes us. God hears you because He hears Jesus. We should therefore pray like Jesus would pray, according to God’s will (Mark 14:36).  

 God hears you, so talk about what He wants to hear about. God loves His church, so pray for His church, your brothers and sisters. John wasn’t trying to evangelize the lost with this letter, but encourage the Christian. Most preaching should be like this. Those who believe in Jesus pray in His name. And those who pray in Jesus’ name pray (John 14:13; 15:16; 16:23-26) for Jesus’ people. (1 John 3:22)

John zeros-in on an important, but often neglected aspect of payer. We should pray for our Christian brothers and sisters to repent of their sin. When we notice a brother or sister in sin, we should first talk about it with God, not our neighbor. When we suspect our sister fell into serious sin, first pray about it to God, don’t bring up your suspicions at prayer meeting (Our church isn’t bad at this, but it does happen). Eventually, you should tell Johnny about his sin as well after you take the log out of your own eye (Luke 6:42).

Interestingly, John says praying for an apostate to stop sinning won’t stop his problem. Notice how John separates sin into two categories: sins not leading to death and sins leading to death. Why pray for a brother sinning if it doesn’t lead to death? Because unrepentant sin leads to death and apostacy (Hebrews 6:4-6; 10:26ff; 12:16-17; see also Mark 3:29; Matthew 12:22-32). It is possible to have a relationship with God in church but eventually fall away, which God already knew you would do (everyone in church has a real relationship with God just like Judas was a real disciple). We all know someone who grew up in church but now rebelled. We think the problem is a bad boyfriend or drugs. The true problem is rebellion, not alcoholism. Praying for Johnny to drop the bottle when he’s already dropped Jesus won’t help him at all.

Eternal life means God Loves You.

For those in Christ, Jesus walks with you wherever you go. When you walk into God’s throne room in prayer, Jesus walks in with you. When you serve your Christian brother or sister, Jesus serves them with you. As Christians, we should remember that there are some places and things God approves of and some He doesn’t. God loves you so you should love Him.

Every now and then a non-Christian notices sin in their life they want to get rid of. But they’re powerless to destroy sin. Because God is stronger than Satan, He is therefore stronger than our temptations (John 10:28; 17:12, 15). Believers can defeat sin (not perfectly) while unbelievers never defeat sin. The best unbelievers can do is trade one sin for another (e.g., an alcoholic trades liquor for idolatry through meditation).

If God is your father, Satan is not your father. Satan hates God and does His best to undermine God in whatever way he can. Satan doesn’t really care if someone worships Buddha, is an atheist, or is a false Christian hiding a secret sin. He doesn’t care what the idol is, he just wants one in your life. That’s why John ends this letter with a reminder to tear down the idols in your life; Satan put them there.

Conclusion

We seek to make much of Jesus. The only way to make much of Jesus is by faith. But faith isn’t a hidden feeling. It obeys commands; it has a father, and brothers, and sisters. Faith is something you can see the effects of like the wind. That’s why people of faith pray. So, make much of Jesus by making much of prayer. And always, when you pray, make much of God’s people.