And this is the boldness which we have towards him, that if we ask him anything according to his will he hears us.
John has just told believers they may know they have eternal life. Now he speaks of confidence toward God in prayer, which raises two questions: what is that confidence built on, and what may we ask for?
This boldness is not a new subject. It grows straight out of the assurance of the verse before.
There is boldness in the presence of the God who has given us eternal life in His Son. This comes right after John says he wrote the letter so that believers might know they have eternal life. Clearly this is not a bare doctrine. Those who have that life have liberty and confidence in the presence of the God who is love.
Take away that certainty, and such praying becomes impossible.
Without knowing that we have eternal life, and that we are His children, such boldness would be impossible. No wonder that those who do not believe we enjoy both of these now dismiss such boldness as improper... It is the main driving principle of Christian prayer. It ought to run through our every petition.
The phrase sets a limit. But it does not leave us guessing.
How can we tell the Lord's will apart from our own wishes and imaginings? By His word. If I go and pray for a thing not founded on the knowledge of the Lord's will as revealed in His word, I cannot have confidence about it. If He were to grant me what I desire, He might very likely only be answering my own foolish, corrupt will.
There is a second side. Another promise from the Lord sounds far wider — until you see what abiding does to the one who asks.
In the next chapter our Lord gives further teaching on the same subject: "If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you" (John 15:7). Here it is according to the will of God, which rules out everything not of that character. But our Lord says, "what you wish"; and this brings before us a very important aspect of prayer... We abide in Christ, always remembering that we depend on Him for everything and that without Him we can do nothing. His words remain in us, shaping us after His own mind and forming Himself in us. Then we cannot help but express His own thoughts and His own desires. So "what we wish" must, in that case, be "according to His will."
Another writer connects this boldness with a broken will.
Such is the boldness we have towards Him: if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. This means our own wills must be broken, and we must be spiritual. Without that, our thoughts and feelings do not move in the line of His will.
The promise is not limited to great crises. It reaches into ordinary days and ordinary obstacles.
Here is a confidence in God that applies to all the details of life I may be called to pass through... How wonderful this is! God's ear is always open to us. Surely we would not want to ask for anything contrary to His will... Suppose I am in earnest to do God's will — to preach the gospel, for instance — and there are hindrances in the way, Satan in the way. I have only to ask. All God's power is at my disposal, because His ear is open to me.
Being heard settles the outcome without settling the method. The one who prays makes requests; he does not set terms.
If we know that He hears us, we also know that we have the petitions we asked of Him. He, according to His perfect love and wisdom, reserves to Himself to answer our petitions in His own time and way... it is our privilege to make known our petitions to God, but not to dictate to God as to His answer. He may see fit to keep us waiting, but in the meantime we have the comfort of knowing that He listens to everything we ask that is in accordance with His will.
It also shows how to view prayers that go unanswered, and where confidence turns into presumption.
When prayers go unanswered, we gladly recognise that they were not according to His will. It is not true faith when fanatics, like faith-healers, say that God must do certain things. That is not faith but presumption.
- Ground — This confidence rests on knowing you have eternal life and are God's child. Without that, such boldness is impossible.
- Guide — We do not guess His will. He reveals it in His word, and we cannot pray with confidence for what His word does not support.
- Growth — As Christ's words shape us, our own wishes come to match His will, and "what you wish" and "according to His will" meet.
- Guarantee — His ear is open in all the details of life; ask, and God's power is at your disposal for doing God's will.
- Grace in the answer — He answers in His own time and way. We may bring requests, but we cannot dictate terms. Saying God must act is presumption, not faith.
And if we know that he hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions which we have asked of him.
This verse builds on the one before it. God hears prayer that matches His will, so the person praying can count the matter as settled. But what does it mean to "have" something you cannot yet see? And how should that change the way you wait?
The word "know" appears twice in this verse. One writer stops to explain what kind of knowing this is.
We are allowed, and even urged, to ask of Him who loves and knows all. So we are taught to count on His answer of grace. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask — and this knowing is inward and conscious, not knowledge from outside — we know, with that same inward knowing, that we have the requests that we have asked of Him. What could make the believer bolder? The answer may not be what we had in mind. It comes in a wiser, deeper and more intimate way.
To "have the requests" is not a promise that the reply will look like the picture in your head. One writer also shows where real prayer begins.
We are not told that the answer will come just as we expected. But we know that the request has gone in, and that God will certainly answer it. It has been well said that all true prayer comes down from above first. The desire to see Christ glorified takes shape in His presence, and then goes up again as a true request.
If God hears at once, why does the answer often come slowly? One writer sees the delay itself as part of the good God is doing, and warns against praying as if we were telling God what to do.
God in His goodness gives us everything that is good for us. But He keeps the choice, the means and the time in His own hands... He may not answer at once. This training in patience is a blessing to our souls, and often does us more good than an immediate answer. It shapes our dealings with God and teaches us dependence. It is good for us to know that we should not pray as if we were dictating to God. Yet the faith that has prayed still feels sure that God has heard, and this confidence comforts and holds us up.
Verses 14 and 15 each deal with a different fault in the person praying. One writer sets them side by side, then applies this confidence to praying for someone else.
Verse 15 will check all impatience, as verse 14 checks all self-confidence. The answer may not come at once. But we know — we are inwardly conscious — that we have the requests that we have asked of Him: requests for ourselves, requests for others... To be in haste to deal with evil in another has often made matters worse. To be brought to our knees before God for a brother is to love him with a pure heart.
The verse is not only for private comfort. When a believer meets opposition while doing what God wants, God's open ear becomes a resource.
Here is a confidence in God that reaches into every detail of life I may have to pass through... Suppose I am in earnest to do God's will — to preach the gospel, for instance. Suppose there are hindrances in the way, Satan in the way. I have only to ask. His ear is open to me, and I have all God's power at my disposal. If you know what conflict and difficulty are, you know what a blessing this is: to have God's ear open to you, and to know that if you are doing God's will, you will always succeed in doing it.
This confidence grows along with something else: how well you know God, and how much you enjoy Him.
The better we know Him, and the more we enjoy Him, the freer we will be to ask for what we know is according to His will — for what we sense suits His nature and character. Our freedom in asking reaches exactly as far as our enjoyed sense of what He is. We ask with confidence, because we are conscious of asking according to His will. And if we are conscious of asking according to His will, we are conscious of having His ear. We know we are heard, and that our requests are granted.
- Know Him — Freedom in asking grows as you know God better. The more you know Him, the better you can tell what suits His character, and the freer you are to ask for it.
- Know He hears — Verse 14 removes self-confidence: God hears the prayer that matches His will. That condition is a mercy, not a limit.
- Know we have — The knowing here is inward and conscious, not a calculation. The request has gone in, and God will answer it, though not always in the form we pictured.
- Wait well — Verse 15 removes impatience. God keeps the choice, the means and the timing. The delay teaches us to depend on Him, not to dictate to Him.
- Ask boldly — When you are doing God's will and obstacles block the way, His open ear puts His power at your disposal.
If any one see his brother sinning a sin not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life, for those that do not sin unto death. There is a sin to death I do not say of that that he should make a request.
John has just said that God hears whatever we ask according to His will. Here he gives one example of that confidence, and it is not about us. It is about a brother caught in sin. Two questions follow. What is this "death" a sin can lead to? And why does John stop short of telling us to pray about it? The writers quoted below use an older wording, "a sin unto death," where the ESV has "sin that leads to death."
John's one example of confident prayer has nothing in it for the person praying.
Let us notice that this single example about our praying is one designed to exclude selfish motives. There is nothing in it for us. We do not even get the honour of God using us to win a soul, or to do some other good work that other eyes can see. But when a brother, a child of God, sins, we see how grave it is. It calls for real concern from our own hearts.
What is the "life" God gives in answer?
Some sins are more serious than others — some "unto death," some "not unto death." In the second case sickness may come, and in answer to prayer God will "give him life" — that is, restore him to a measure of health at least. Not all sickness comes from sin, however.
The death in view is not the loss of the soul. It is God dealing with His own children while they are still on earth.
The verse is not about the second death. It speaks of a saint cut off in this world — for a sin of such a kind, or in such circumstances, that God chastises it by death. Sometimes He removed saints who had stood in high honour, like Moses and Aaron, when they displeased the LORD at Kadesh (Numbers 20). Sometimes He struck at once, as with Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5). But the apostle explains the principle to the Corinthian saints... "But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world."
The severity of the sentence says nothing about where the person spends eternity, and Scripture supplies a contrast case.
When the apostle says, "There is a sin unto death," the death he means is not eternal separation from God, but the temporal death of the body, which the Lord inflicts on His own as chastisement... Compare the case of Ananias and Sapphira with that of Simon in Acts 8. In both cases the parties sinned, and sinned deeply. God judged Ananias and Sapphira with death. But Simon showed himself to be "in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity" — an unchanged man, despite his outward belief and his baptism. God leaves him to be judged with the world. Ananias and his wife faced an awful judgment, but it was only temporal, and there is no reason to think their spirits will not be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus (1 Corinthians 5:5).
Readers naturally want to know which sin belongs in this category. The text refuses to say.
The first thing many will ask is, What is that awful sin which cannot be prayed for? Well, in the text it is left undefined. The very same act may be a thousand times more blameworthy in one person than in another. The same act may also weigh far more in one set of circumstances than in another. Ananias and Sapphira told a lie. But they lied in the face of the Holy Spirit's vivid presence — such light, power and grace — and so their lie became a sin unto death. The circumstances gave it a special enormity. So Scripture does not define what may or may not be a sin unto death.
Seeing a brother sin should send us to prayer. But in one case the person praying feels a check.
Seeing a brother sin should lead those who know God's holiness to pray. They should ask that God will not cut him off from this life under His government... But in some cases the heart of the one praying is checked. The apostle would not have the seriousness of sin weakened in such a case. "There is a sin unto death": this may be the reason of the check. [Peter could not have prayed for the life of Ananias and Sapphira.] But he adds, "I do not say that one should pray for that." The word "pray" here is erōtaō... 'to question concerning it.' If there was no question, the apostle would have none raised.
That check is the exception. The rule for every other case is plain.
Discerning a case of sinning unto death takes great nearness to God. In any other case we may pray without hesitation for the brother's life to be spared.
Where God has clearly acted, however, pressing the request would be out of step with Him.
So it would have been quite a mistake about the Lord's mind to pray that a brother should have his life prolonged, when he had sinned in such a way that the Lord meant him to die as a chastisement.
- See — John's one example of confident prayer gains us nothing. It is a brother's sin, felt as the grave thing it is.
- Ask — Seeing a brother sin, we ask that God will not cut him off. The answer is life — health given back.
- Life — The "death" here is bodily, not the second death. God disciplines His own children now, so they will not be condemned with the world.
- Limit — Scripture names no sin as the sin unto death. The same lie can weigh far more in one setting than in another.
- Silence — Only great nearness to God can discern such a case. Where the heart is checked, hold back; in every other case, pray without hesitation.