John concludes his first letter today, and in it he sums up the main message of the letter, which is to help his readers feel confident in their salvation. He also promises us that if we pray in accordance with God's will we will see our prayers answered. He will then make a mysterious statement which deals with sin in the believer's life---sin that can lead to the Lord taking the believer out of the world.
"I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life." (1 John 5:13) Did some of John's readers, whom he refers to as those who believe in the name of the Son of God, have doubts about whether their souls were saved? It could be, because even very sincere and devout Christians can be afflicted with doubts about their salvation, particularly if they suffer from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and related conditions. Satan will try to use our weaknesses against us, and if he can he will keep us from experiencing the joy that should be ours as a result of our salvation. A person can develop what is known as "religious scrupulosity", which is defined as a condition that causes the sufferer to have "obsessive concerns about blasphemy, having committed a sin, behaving morally, maintaining purity, and about going to hell". This condition causes the sufferer to: doubt he was ever saved in the first place, or, have fears that he will somehow lose his salvation.
In John's letter he has provided his readers with a checklist by which they can test whether they belong to Christ. One of the questions on this checklist is: is the person who claims to be saved still living comfortably in the same old sinful lifestyle as he did before? Another question is: does the person who says he is saved love his fellow man as Christ has commanded? If the person's life has been changed, and if he is uncomfortable when he messes up, and if he is now able to love those who aren't always so lovable, then these things are proof that he belongs to Christ and that Christ is at work making him more like Himself.
If we belong to the Lord, we should want what He wants for our lives. And if we pray according to His will, we are going to receive the answers to our prayers. "This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us---whatever we ask---we know that we have what we asked of Him." (1 John 5:14-15) There are things that we can know are God's will. Examples would be when we pray for God to help us to love others more, or when we pray for the strength to resist a temptation, or when we pray to better understand our Bibles and to be able to apply Biblical principles to our lives, or when we pray for the Lord to increase our faith in Him. God honors requests like these. We can make these requests with confidence, knowing He is willing and eager to say "yes" to them.
God honors godly requests we make also for others. John urges us to pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ, and most especially to pray for them when we see them fall into sin. "If you see any brother or sister commit a sin that does not lead to death, you should pray and God will give them life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that you should pray about that. All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death." (1 John 5:16-17) What on earth is he talking about? These two verses are quite mysterious, but we will begin with the first half of verse 16 which clearly instructs us to pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ when we see them messing up. Sadly, our first reaction might be to shake our heads and look down on them for their sin. We aren't perfect ourselves and we have no right to have this attitude. Another thing we may do wrong is, instead of talking about them to God, we talk about them to others. If we have anything to say about the sin of our brother or sister, we should be saying it to God while we're asking Him to bring that person to repentance and to help that person to turn away from their sin.
But what does John mean about sin that leads to death? We know John can't be talking about spiritual death (eternal separation of the soul from the presence of God). He's clearly talking about believers since he refers to them as "brothers and sisters". Therefore he must be talking about physical death. The Lord sometimes removes a believer from this life because they have fallen into such sin that they must be taken out either to prevent them from falling into even worse sin or else to prevent them from pulling other believers into sin with them. The Apostle Paul gives an example of this in 1 Corinthians 11 when he scolds some members of the church for treating the Lord's Supper in a disrespectful manner. He says that some believers have already died because of the way they repeatedly dishonored the Lord in regard to the supper that is meant to honor the sacrifice He made. In this context, John appears to be saying something like: "If a brother or sister is dying of a terminal illness, and the Lord reveals to you that His intention is to take the believer home due to the sin the believer has fallen into, do not pray for the Lord to heal this person. What the Lord is doing is for the person's own good, so his spiritual condition does not grow worse. It may even be for the good of the church as a whole, so this person doesn't influence other believers to fall into the same sin. You may pray for your brother or sister in other ways, but do not pray for the Lord to heal them if He has shown you that it is best to take them on out of this life. In that case you would be praying against the will of God, and God is not going to say 'yes' to a prayer that goes against His will."
Now John makes his concluding remarks by reminding us that the one who devotes himself to Christ will not be able to live comfortably in a sinful lifestyle like unbelievers. He tells us we who belong to Christ will not live like the world, which is under the influence of Satan. Instead we will live like the children of God, who are under the influence of Christ. Because we are His children, we must be careful not to become entangled in idolatry, which in our day doesn't often take the form of bowing to an image. In our day the devil has disguised idolatry, but at its core it's still the same old thing: putting something else in place of God. "We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the One who was born of God keeps them safe, and the evil one cannot harm them. We know that we are the children of God, and that the whole world is under control of the evil one. We know also 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 by being in His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. Dear children, keep yourselves from idols." (1 John 5:
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