Down an Unfamiliar Road

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R. Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FIVE (Lesson CXIV) 04/18/23

^5:17 Doing wrong is always a sin. But there is sin that does not lead to eternal death.

But it was through Ezekiel that God laid it out in no uncertain terms:

 “Some of you are saying, ‘The Lord is unfair!’ But listen, children of Israel. I am fair. You are the ones who are not fair! When good people change and start doing bad things, they must pay the consequences for the bad things they do.  But if bad people change their ways and become good and fair, they will save their lives. They will live! They saw how immoral they were and came back to me. They stopped doing the sinful things they did in the past. So that’s why they will live and die!‘  But the people of Israel said, ‘That’s still not fair! The Lord is still unfair!’  But God replied, ‘I am being fair! You are the ones who are unfair!  Why? Because, children of Israel, I will judge each of you only for what you do!  So come back to me! Stop committing those crimes and do away with those things that cause you to sin!  Throw away all the terrible idols with which you committed your crimes! Change your heart and spirit. People of Israel, why should you do things that will cost you your destiny? I don’t want to let you go! Please come back and live!’ This is what the Lord God said.”^[1]

Among the faithful, knowing that doing wrong is always a sin ought to be an unquestionable truth that whatever is contrary to God’s Law is sin and, in its nature, mortal; for where there is a transgression of the Law, there is sin and death.^[2] But this terrifying truth brings with it a word of encouragement. If all unrighteousness without exception is sin, it follows that not every sin is deadly. No true believer of God’s Word would accept that the slightest departure from righteousness should involve eternal damnation.

However, there is a sin that does lead to death for which there is no effective prayer. This is an exception to the general rule that God answers all prayers prayed in His will.  Therefore, it is only proper to request help for a person sinning who wants to change and repent. The reference here is not to the sin leading to spiritual death – eternal separation from God. All sin can ultimately lead to death, but that is not the meaning here. The idea here is that a Christian can die a premature spiritual death because of prolonged and stubborn sinning.

COMMENTARY AND HOMILETICS

This verse has comments, interpretations, and insights of the Early Church Fathers, Medieval Thinkers, Reformation Theologians, Revivalist Teachers, Reformed Scholars, and Modern Commentators.

Œcumenius (501-599 AD) comments that only those sins that are not repented lead to death. For example, although he showed remorse, Judas did not repent and was led off to his death. But whoever gives themselves over to the Anointed One cannot commit a mortal sin, even though their nature remains unchanged and they still sin.^[3]

With a studious monk’s spiritual insight, Bede the Venerable (672-735) The variety of sins is such that everything which disagrees with the law of fairness is a sin. However, for minor infractions of the kind which are almost impossible to avoid in this life, the righteous can be forgiven without too much difficulty. But other sins are so contrary to righteousness that they will lead the one who does them into eternal punishment without any doubt unless they decide to put them right.^[4]

Respected Reformation writer Matthew Poole (1624-1679) feels that the Apostle John suggests that believers should be cautious of all sin, especially deliberate wrongdoing. However, they should not think that every sin would make them hopeless as sinning deadly would do.^[5]

With a spiritually contemplative mind, Matthew Henry (1662-1714) ensured that all believers have eternal life in the covenant of the Gospel. Therefore, let them thankfully receive what the Scriptures say about always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that our labor is not in vain.^[6]The Lord Jesus invites us to come to Him in all circumstances, notwithstanding the sin that hampers us. Our prayers must always be offered in submission to God’s will. Some prayers are quickly answered, and others are granted when appropriate according to God’s preference.

We ought to pray for others, as well as for ourselves. There are sins that war against the soul’s spiritual life. We cannot pray that the sins of the unrepentant and unbelieving should be forgiven while they are such; or that mercy, supposing that forgiveness should be granted to them while they willfully continue sinning. But we may pray for their repentance and enrichment with faith in the Anointed One and all other saving mercies. We should pray for others and ourselves, pleading with the Lord to pardon and recover the fallen and relieve the tempted and afflicted. And let us be truly thankful that no sin, of which anyone truly repents, is deadly.^[7]

With scholarly meditation, James Macknight (1721-1800) agrees with other commentators that all unrighteousness is sin. By unrighteousness, the Apostle John means everything by which our neighbor is injured in violation of God’s law.^[8] Perhaps, notes Macknight, by making this observation, John intended to imply that for the spiritually sick sinner to repent sincerely, they must first make restitution to everyone they injured by their unrighteousness:^[9]in which case their sin will not be deadly.^[10]

More concerned with the Church than its sacraments William Jones of Nyland (1726-1800) asks, what are we to understand by the “unforgivable sin?” First, we must endeavor to agree on what the Apostle John means by “death.” There are three distinct uses of the word in the sacred Scriptures. (1) The death of the body. (2) That death of the spirit is common to all who are apart from the renewing grace of God. (3) The “eternal death,” which is the antithesis of “eternal life,” which is the destiny of those who insist on walking on the broad way to hell instead of the narrow path to heaven.^[11]

Thus, “death” in the text cannot mean either (1) the death of the body, for that is the destiny of all mankind;^[12] or (2) the spiritual death for unrepentant sins. In this case, death must be the antithesis of life. Such a sin involves the abiding loss of the life derived through God’s Son.^[13] The rejection of the Anointed One necessarily consists of abandoning Him who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.^[14] If a person deliberately and decidedly rejects the only Light through whom they can obtain eternal life, what remains for them is to abide in the night of death. For such people, John does not encourage us to pray. He neither prohibits nor commands us to pray for them.

In conclusion, let the fact that it is possible to commit an unforgivable sin make us more watchful and pray against every sin and all sins. Beware of beginnings in evil. Secondly, let this gracious assurance as to the result of prayer for those who have sinned lead us to often visit the throne of grace on behalf of our fellow believers who have not committed the unforgivable sin.^[15]

At age fifteen, Joseph Benson (1749-1821), a young theologian preaching and holding cottage prayer meetings, sees what the Apostle John says as giving witness to the happiness of believers who have eternal life in the Anointed One and having their prayers of faith heard for His sake.^[16] It’s as if John had said, “Yes, He hears us for ourselves and others. That is, any child of God who sins a forgivable sin.”But, of course, that is any sin except that which is spoken of in the awful words of our Lord Jesus the Anointed One as unpardonable, namely, the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.^[17] Instead, it might be the sin of falling away from God’s fellowship and righteousness.^[18] In that case, an intercessor can ask, and God will offer pardon and salvation for that repentant backslider.

Then, there is an unforgivable sin for which John advises us not to interrupt because the punishment may be temporal death. Every deviation from perfect holiness is sin, but all sin is not unforgivable, nor does God determine to punish every sin with temporal death.^[19]

A servant of God whose preaching was doctrinal, imaginative, quaint, and earnest, Robert Finlayson (1793-1861) says that the Apostle John gives us confidence in knowing that we speak boldly with God because we have the Divine life, as children do their parents. Our boldness comes out, especially in our asking. We are full of wants, so we need to be constantly asking. We ask in the confidence of being heard. If we ask anything, He pays attention to us – which only has one qualifier that we ask according to God’s will. If we are to ask according to God’s will, then the meaning is that we are to have our desires in proper order, that is, lined up with God’s will.

We must have them examined for appropriate submission to God’s desires for us and be informed about God’s desires for us so that we understand the blessing that He holds out for us. As Jesus was praying in a particular place, after he finished, the disciples, filled with a sense of their shortcomings, said, “Lord, teach us to pray.” It is not the language of our prayers that we need to have improved, so much as our simple responsiveness to the Divine will.^[20]

Without using complicated language, Albert Barnes (1798-1870) feels that the Apostle John inserted verse seventeen to guard against what he just said. While there is an unforgivable, blasphemous sin, there are many other forms and degrees of sin for which intercessory prayer may be offered. Everything, he says, which is and does not conform to the holy law of God, is to be regarded as sin; but we are not to suppose that all sin of that kind is forgivable. Many commit sins that we may hope will be reconciled, and it is proper to pray for them.

Deeply affected as we may be in view of the fact that there is a sin which can never be pardoned, and much as we may pity one who has been guilty of such a sin, yet we should not hastily conclude in any case that it has been committed and should constantly bear in mind that while there is one such sin, there are multitudes that may be pardoned and that for them we must pray unceasingly.^{[21] [22]}

With impressive theological vision, Richard Rothe (1799-1867) says that although the Apostle John distinctly excludes the unforgivable sin from others, here he speaks of Christian intercession; his readers are not to imagine that, after the exclusion of such sin, no sins at all remain, of which. One can think in connection with what he has been saying about the Christian’s intercession for a sinning spiritual brother or sister. Accordingly, John now shows them how comprehensive the idea of sin is and how there may also be a sin, which is not deadly. For John, the concept of sin is as incomprehensive as the idea of unrighteousness is incomprehensible. Unrighteousness is any and every way of acting contrary to God’s will and law.^[23] But all such unrighteousness is not in itself an unforgivable sin.^[24]

Consistent with the Apostle John’s point of view, Heinrich A. W. Meyer (1800-1882) notes that the connection of verse seventeen is tied to what goes before; but precisely what the relationship of thought is intended to be, is a point of some difficulty, and one on which interpreters have differed. Nevertheless, two things must be observed to find the answer: First, the subject before the Apostle John’s mind is intercessory prayer for other sinful Christians. Second, the sentence indicates that all sins are a component meant by the general word sin.

We may believe, however, that this verse also has a forward look; in this view, it suggests the idea of sin as covering all unrighteousness and being mainly “not a deadly sin.” It may thus cling to the Christian believer to some degree; but when a Christian is viewed in the light of their ideal of spiritual life. The Epistle, therefore, returns at the end to a thought associated with its beginning. With this view, verse eighteen may be regarded as gathering up the idea John intended to impress upon his readers as the beginning and end of his Epistle.

The Son of God, in the person of Jesus the Anointed One, is come into the world as the Light to give eternal life through the knowledge of God ‒ a life originated by a Divine force, and which has its being in the sphere of the Divine Light.We know that the one who is born of God does not continue sinning ‒ the Jesus Light-Life is not intermingled with darkness; we know that we, who are Christian believers, are of God – we are those who possess the Jesus Light-Life which is free from sin; we know that God’s Son has come and given us an understanding that we may personally know God – and thus we are in God, through being in His Son. ^[25]

According to Robert Jamieson (1802-1880), Andrew Fausset (1821-1910), and David Brown’s (1803-1897) way of thinking, the point that the Apostle John’s statement regarding every wrong a sin includes those of believers. Of course. John was talking about ordinary sins, not the unforgivable ones.^[26] In such cases, believers may intercede for those still in union with God so their communion and fellowship with Him are not severed. It becomes clear in John’s writings that death and life are opposites.^[27]

Furthermore, they offer a fascinating insight that the Greek preposition “unto” means “towards” or “with regard to” in the sense of trending. In other words, the spiritual brother or sister is not transgressing God’s Law in the fashion that an unforgivable sin. The chief commandment consists of faith and love. Therefore, the principal sin is that by which faith and love are destroyed. In the former case is life, in the latter, death. If it is not evident^[28] that it is a sin deadly, it is lawful to pray. But when it is a deliberate rejection of grace, how can others hope to obtain life for them?”^[29] If we pray for the unrepentant, it must be a matter of God’s will, not the intercessory request for an erring spiritual brother or sister.^[30]

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[1] Ezekiel 18:25-32

[2] Romans 6:23

[3] Œcumenius: Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, Bray, Gerald, (Ed.), op. cit., Vol. XI, p. 227

[4] Bede the Venerable, Ancient Christian Commentary on the Scriptures, Bray, G. (Ed.), op. cit., Vol. XI, p. 227

[5] Poole, Matthew. Commentary on the Holy Bible – Book of 1st, 2nd & 3rd John (Annotated), Kindle Edition  

[6] 1 Corinthians 15:58

[7] Henry, Matthew: Concise Commentary on the Bible, op. cit., pp. 2060

[8] 1 John 3:4

[9] Matthew 5:24-26

[10] Macknight, James: Apostolic Epistles with Commentary, Vol. VI, p. 124

[11] Matthew 7:13-14

[12] Hebrews 9:27

[13] 1 John 5:12

[14] John 14:6

[15] Jones, William: The Pulpit Commentary, op. cit., Vol. 22, pp. 166-167

[16] 1 John 5:10-17

[17] Hebrews 12:31; Mark 3:29

[18] 2 Timothy 3:5

[19] Benson, Joseph: Commentary on the Old and New Testaments, op. cit., p. 348

[20] Finlayson, Robert: The Pulpit Commentary, op. cit., Vol. 22, p. 172

[21] 1 John 3:4

[22] Barnes, Albert: New Testament Notes, op. cit., 1 John 5, p. 4892

[23] 1 John 1:9; 2:19; See Luke 13:27, 23:6; Romans 9.T4; 2 Timothy 2:19.

[24] Rothe, Richard: Exposition of the First Epistle of St. John, op. cit., The Expository Times, July 1895, p. 471

[25] Meyer, Heinrich A. W., Critical Exegetical Handbook New Testament, op. cit., Vol. 10, pp. 818-819

[26] Cf. 1 John 1:9; 3:4

[27] See 1 John 5:11-13

[28] See 1 John 5:16 on “see”

[29] Contrast James 5:14-18; cf. Matthew 12:31-32

[30] Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown’s Commentary on the Whole Bible, New Testament Volume, op. cit., p. 730

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R. Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FIVE (Lesson CXII) 04/17/23

^5:16 Suppose you see your fellow believer sinning (a sin that does not lead to eternal death). You should pray for them. Then God will keep them spiritually alive. However, there is sin that leads to death. So, you shouldn’t pray for that kind of sinner.

The restoration is, in many cases, effective by requesting God’s intercession rather than criticizing the offender. But the prayer must be definite and personal, prompted by what one has seen and felt about the given case, or it is not likely to convince God to answer. It is to be any Christian’s option when they are disturbed by fault and wrongdoing that meets their eyes in the Church. But they must not go around gossiping about or publicizing the story.

These are not the Scripture’s instructions. The Master gave us two plain directions: first, “If a brother sins against you, go to him privately and confront him with his fault. You have won back a brother if he listens and confesses it.”^[1] Then, by the beloved disciple John, “Lay the trouble before God in prayer.” This is the proper way to take up the case.

By doing it this way, the concerned believer will win a blessing for the offender, come to see the offense in a different light, and avoid the aggravation produced by other less effective methods. Intercessory prayer is the antidote for scandal in the Church. The Apostle James has a postscript to his Epistle on this painful topic; his observation supplements John’s advice: “Anyone who brings a sinner back from the wrong way will save that person from eternal death and cause many sins to be forgiven.”^{[2] [3]}

With his stately speaking style, William M. Sinclair (1850-1917), the Apostle John mentions sin that is not deadly. By this, the apostle probably meant unintentional wrongdoing that does not imply any distinct, willful, deliberate severance from faith in the Anointed One. To divide sins, on the authority of this passage, into moral and mortal is to misunderstand the whole argument of the Epistle. John implies that although prayer can do much for an erring believer, there may be an unwillingness against which it would be powerless: even prayer is not stronger than free will.^[4] The interceding Christian is regarded as gaining life for the erring believer and handing it to them.

But John says there is a limit to the power of intercession. Any conscious and determined sin shows a loss of unity with the Anointed One. Such a state would be a sign of spiritual death. Such hardheadedness would be invincible, as it would not be according to God’s will. Therefore, John thinks that intercession ought to stop here. At the same time, he is careful not to forbid it; he only says that he would not recommend intercessory prayer for token Christians in such cases.^{[5] [6]}

One of the most influential Anglican reconcilers, Charles Gore (1853-1932), reasons that, following what the Apostle John just said, the Apostle Paul defines the true spirit of intercessory prayer – speaking of the intercession of the Spirit in the body of the Anointed One – as “in accordance with God on behalf of saints” – that is, on behalf of consecrated persons who are moving in harmony with the Spirit. Thus, if we take the intercessory prayers of the Final Covenant – our Lord’s great prayer and Paul’s prayers for his converts – we see that they are prayers for perfecting those already in communion with God.

Our Lord’s voiced principle, “I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours,”^[7] appears in the other examples. So, then, the standard action of intercessory prayer is within the responsive body. From there, it flows within the body so prosperous and united in life that those on the outside are impressed and desire the same. So here, John speaks about intercessory prayer as a petition for the cleansing and recovery from incidental sins of those who are still responsive to God and living the true life.

However, for those who hand themselves back to the world of darkness and death by deliberate apostasy, we cannot help thinking of those leaders in error whom John describes as antichrists – he does not say that we should pray for them. On the contrary, he does not forbid it. It is, for instance, very hard to suppose that John did not pray for the young man in the story Clement tells,^[8] who had been guilty of the most flagrant apostasy from the Anointed One and become a leader in outrageous crimes, entrusted to the Apostle John, is described as “dead – dead to God.” It is very difficult to believe that John did not pray for him as soon as he heard of his sad case before; he so lovingly and bravely sought and won him. But he does tell us that this is not the standard action of intercessory prayer.^[9]

Beyond any doubt, remarks Alonzo R. Cocke (1858-1901), that having introduced the assurance enjoyed by the believer in prayer, the Apostle John passes to the subject of special prayer. Prayer is the expression of the Anointed One life. In the pleading of prayer is mingled faith and love. Hence, when a Christian sins, loving prayer for them goes out to reinstate them at God’s throne. Relief from sin is our fellow believer’s most significant need; our prayer for them will express itself concerning that need. How much more in unison with the Anointed One is prayer for the erring spiritual brother or sister than hostile criticism? Feeling their need and realizing our weakness, we are lenient in our judgment and take their case to a loving, forgiving Father.

Such prayer should go out for all stumbling Christians except those who have committed an “unforgivable sin.” What, then, is the unforgivable sin? Johann Eduard Huther’s (1807-1880) explanation is, perhaps, as good as any: “If any man sees his brother sin in such a way that the sin which he commits does not involve absolute renunciation of Anointed One, and therefore does not necessarily bring condemnation with it, he shall pray for him.” Of course, according to this, the unforgivable sin involves “absolute renunciation of the Anointed One,” and “necessarily brings condemnation with it.” It also indicates that no Anointed One-life has ever existed in the heart guilty of it; no such sin could co-exist with that life.^[10]

In reviewing what the Apostle John says in this verse, Archibald T. Robertson (1863-1934) points out that most sins are not mortal, but clearly, John conceives of a sin that is deadly enough to be called “deadly.” This distinction is familiar in the rabbinic writings and in the Septuagint, where we read “to incur a death-bearing sin,”^[11] since many crimes then and now bear the death penalty. There is a distinction^[12] between sinning willfully after full knowledge and sins of ignorance.^[13]

Jesus spoke of the unpardonable sin,^[14] attributing the manifest work of the Holy Spirit to the devil. John may have this idea in mind when he applies it to those who reject Jesus the Anointed One as God’s Son and set themselves up as antichrists. Concerning John’s caution about praying for those worthy of the death sentence due to their sin, even if they ask, it can only be unforgivable. John does not forbid praying for such cases; he does not command prayer for them. He leaves them to God.^[15]

With an eye for detail, David Smith (1866-1932) tells us that after the assurance that prayer is always heard, never unanswered, the Apostle John specifies one kind of prayer called “intercession,” in the case of a “fellow believer” who is caught sinning. Prayer will allow their restoration, with one reservation that their sin be “not deadly.” The reference is to those who had been led astray by the heresy, moral and intellectual, which had invaded the churches of Asia Minor. They had closed their ears to the voice of conscience and their eyes to the light of the Truth. As a result, they were exposed to the operation of that law of degeneration in the physical, moral, intellectual, and spiritual domains. 

We should observe how tenderly John speaks of “unforgivable sin.” There is a fearful possibility of a person putting themselves beyond the hope of restoration, but we can never tell when he has crossed the boundary. If we were sure that it was a case of “unforgivable sin,” we should refrain from praying for them. But, since we can never be sure, we should always keep on praying. So long as a person is capable of repentance, they have not sinned deadly.

Therefore, (1) the intercessor will give them life instead of death, or (2) God will give them life in answer to the intercessor’s prayer. The former avoids an abrupt change of subject and attributes it to the intercessor of what God does through them, paralleled by what the Apostle James says.^[16] [17]

Inspired by Jesus’ words, “Go into all the world,” Edward J. Malatesta (1932-1998) indicates that in the preceding section, we saw that verse thirteen concludes both the Apostle John’s third exposition of communion with God and the body of the entire letter. But just as a prologue and epilogue characterize the Fourth Gospel, this epilogue can be conveniently divided into reflections on prayer: verses fourteen and fifteen, sixteen and seventeen, and the compact summary of the main teaching in verses eighteen to twenty-one.

While verse eighteen is linked to verses sixteen and seventeen by the theme of sin, verses eighteen to twenty-one can best be considered a development of verse thirteen because of the importance given to the theme of knowledge. The second half of the epilogue will concern us at this juncture, for it contains the letter’s last expression of interiority.^{[18] [19]}

With a Jewish convert’s enthusiasm for the Christian Messiah, Messianic writer David Stern (1935) informs us that Judaism distinguishes between unconscious sin, for which sacrifices atone, and deliberate, “high-handed” sin, for which only death atones. In the context of this letter, those who deliberately choose not to “keep trusting in the person and power of God’s Son,”^[20] who do not obey God’s commands,^[21] and who do not love their spiritual brothers and sisters,^[22] “are not spiritually alive.”^[23] Therefore, a believer’s responsibility to a spiritual brother or sister caught sinning is not only to ask God to give them life but also to “show them their fault,”^[24] to “set them right in a spirit of humility,”^[25] and to “turn” them “from their wandering ways.”^{[26] [27]}

As a seasoned essayist on the Apostle John’s writings, John Painter (1935) finds that verse sixteen introduces a new subject, though it still comes under the heading of confidence in prayer. It clarifies what asking according to God’s will means in a particular instance. It also concerns the policy on prayer concerning sin. Three matters are specified. First, it is a sin committed by a spiritual brother or sister in the Lord. The wrongdoing is perceptible so that it can be seen. Second, it is a sin, not deadly. In John’s Gospel, the expression is used of Lazarus, whom Jesus says that his sickness is not deadly.^[28] For Lazarus, that meant it was not a sickness that would lead to his death. Third, in the process of the story, the expression takes on a second level of meaning concerning spiritual death.

But the question remains: How is the expression understood here in verses sixteen and seventeen? Much of the rest of the verse needs to be filled in by the reader. The context makes it fairly clear how the gaps should be filled. First, if the outlined conditions are fulfilled, the one who sees will ask. The future tense here is an implied appeal or command. Second, the context of verses fourteen and fifteen clarifies that they will ask God. When God is the one to whom the request is made, it is evident that “He” will give them life.

This can only be the spiritual brother or sister whose sin is not deadly because the one who sees the sin committed is a believer who has God’s Son and already has life.^[29] In an additional clause, John resumes reference to the one sinning, but now in a generalizing fashion extending the scope to cover those sinning, not deadly.^[30]

Ministry & Missions Overseer Muncia Walls (1937) agrees with others that verse sixteen is a problematic verse to interpret. Commentators are divided about just what John means by this verse. First of all, if we see our spiritual brother or sister sin, why should we pray for them? Shouldn’t they be the ones who do the praying? In chapter one, didn’t John say that God will forgive us if we confess our sins? How can we pray for a fellow believer who has sinned to be of any help to them? John is speaking here about intercessory praying. John had just spoken previously in this Epistle about seeing them in need and how we should help them if we have the things they need.

John goes beyond the physical needs to spiritual needs in this verse. We who are strong should help bear the infirmities of the weak. Just what is a “sin which is not deadly?” And what is an “unforgivable sin?” This is the problem that presents differing opinions from the commentators. We know that many laws under Torah did not require the death penalty, whereas adultery, idolatry, and judgment resulted in execution. But John is not writing under the law, nor would we think he is having any comparison with the law.

However, intercessory prayer is not mandatory if it involves a “sin that leads to death.” This is puzzling, admits. We do not know exactly what John has in mind. Judaism distinguished between deliberate or presumptuous sins – sins of open rebellion against God that are punishable by death versus sins of ignorance or carelessness that can be atoned for.

So, who then is excluded from worthwhile prayer? The text offers no clues. It might refer to blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.^[31] But the epistle’s content may imply that the sin John has in mind is false teaching. For anyone to say that life should be given to those who deny Jesus the Anointed One, hate their spiritual brother or sister, and refuse the witness of God would be a contradiction. This verse places the child of God in the position where they must decide prayerfully and sincerely who to pray for and in what manner. No believer wants to find themselves praying against the will of God. ^[32]

Expositor and systematic theologist Michael Eaton (1942-2017) thinks that the controversial situation in Ephesus has been so fierce John must tell them to pray for those who are struggling with doubts concerning the false teachers. Some of John’s friends have fallen into lovelessness and neglect Christian fellowship. But the Christians can help each other. Is it that the Christian can pray, and God will give the stumbled Christian life? Or is it the Christian should pray, and the Christian will give life to their friend who has fallen into sin?

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[1] Matthew 18:15

[2] James 5:20

[3] Findlay, George G., Fellowship in the Life Eternal: An Exposition of the Epistles of St. John, p. 403

[4] Cf. 1 John 2:1; Luke 22:31, 32; John 17:9; Hebrews 7:25

[5] Cf. Matthew 12:31-32; Mark 3:29; Hebrews 6:4, 6; 10:26-27

[6] Sinclair, William M., New Testament Commentary for English Readers, Charles J. Ellicott (Ed.) op. cit., Vol. 3, p. 493

[7] John 17:9

[8] Eusebius of Caesarea, Church History, Bk. 3, Chap. 23:6-19

[9] Gore, Charles: The Epistles of St. John, op. cit., p. 207

[10] Cocke, Alonzo R: Studies in the Epistles of John; or, The Manifested Life, op. cit., pp. 133-135

[11] Numbers 18:22

[12] Hebrews 10:26

[13] Ibid. 5:2

[14] Matthew 3:29; 12:32; Luke 12:10

[15] Robertson, Archibald T., Word Pictures in the New Testament, op. cit., pp. 1970-1971

[16] James 5:20

[17] Smith, David: The Expositor’s Greek Testament, 1 John, op. cit., pp. 197-198

[18] Interiority means inner character or nature

[19] Malatesta, Edward J., Interiority and Covenant, op. cit., p. 318

[20] 1 John 5:13

[21] Ibid. 5:2-3

[22] Ibid. 4:21

[23] Ibid. 5:12

[24] See Matthew 18:15-17

[25] Galatians 6:1

[26] 1 John 5:19-20

[27] Stern, David H., Jewish New Testament Commentary. op. cit., loc. cit., Kindle Edition

[28] John 11:4

[29] 1 John 5:12

[30] Painter, John. Sacra Pagina: 1, 2, and 3 John: Volume 18, op. cit., p. 597

[31] Mark 3:29

[32] Walls, Muncia: Epistles of John and Jude, op. cit., pp. 93-94

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R. Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FIVE (Lesson CXI) 04/14/23

^5:16 Suppose you see your fellow believer sinning (a sin that does not lead to eternal death). You should pray for them. Then God will keep them spiritually alive. However, there is sin that leads to death. So, you shouldn’t pray for that kind of sinner.

The Apostle Paul also testifies how much he bore this fruit of mediation and sought the intercession of the churches for himself.^[1] For instance, John Newton (1725-1807) begged for help, even from faraway believers.^[2] The extraordinary religious interest in Scotland in the 1850s seems to have begun and been mainly sustained by mutually intercessory praying among the laborers.^[3]

As the Apostle John puts it in verses fourteen and fifteen when we ask God . . . God cares about what we say . . . He gives us whatever we ask from Him according to His will. In other words, there is the meaning of pleading, the most earnest petition, as one who feels their utter dependence. The intercessor, receiving a divine answer, commits to this ‒ this marvelous thing ‒ for the sinning spiritual brother or sister.^[4]

With the ability of a linguist’s concentration on nuances, Greek word scholar Marvin R. Vincent (1834-1921) states that the difficulty of verse sixteen lies in explaining unforgivable sin. It is impossible to determine their exact meaning with certainty. Some reasons are as follows: Such sin as God punishes with deadly sickness or sudden death. The Church punished such sins with ex-communication (so the older Catholic theologians say). An unrepented sin. Envy. A sinful state or condition. The sin by which the Christian falls back from Christian life into eternal death. The anti-Christian denial that Jesus is the Anointed One. The phrase “unforgivable sin”^[5] is a death-bearing sin, and the distinction between sins deadly and sins not deadly is common in Rabbinic writings.

In whatever way these scriptures and writings may have prompted John’s view of unforgivable sin, we must not assume that they determine the sense in which he uses it. Life and death in the passage must correspond. Bodily death and spiritual life cannot be meant. We must interpret verse fifteen in the light of John’s remarks elsewhere concerning life and death. For instance, in verse twelve, John says: “Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life.” Then in chapter three, verses fourteen and fifteen, John writes, “If we love our spiritual brothers and sisters who are believers, it proves that we have passed from death to life. But a person who has no love is still dead. Anyone who hates another spiritual brother or sister is a murderer at heart. And you know that murderers don’t have eternal life within them.”

These interpretations explain why some of the best authorities agree that the unforgivable sin does not refer to a specific act but a class or species of sins. It involves sinful tendencies that sever the fellowship bond with the Anointed One. Hence the passage is written in the keynote of fellowship which pervades the Epistle. Whatever breaks the connection between the soul and the Anointed One, and, by consequence, between the individual and the body of believers, is deadly, for there is no spiritual life apart from the Anointed One. It is indeed true that this tendency exists in all sin. Sin is essentially death. But a distinction is to be made between sins which flow from human imperfection and infirmity, and sins which are open manifestations of a character alienated from God.^[6]

Whenever I was asked to explain the unpardonable sin or sin deadly, I used a very simple illustration. You are walking along a riverbank when you see someone struggling to keep their head above water. So, you yell to them, “Do you need help!” They shake their head, “No.” As you watch they are having more and more difficulty keeping from drowning. Again you yell out, “I can help you; let me help you!” Once more, they wave their arm at you as if to say, “Leave me alone.”

Now you can see that they will not make it to shore, so you throw them a round lifebuoy tied to a rope to pull them ashore. When the buoy reaches them, you shout, “Grab it! Pull it to you! Hang on and I’ll save you!” One more time they do not heed your voice calling out to save them. Then, you see their head go under and it never comes up. Their dead body is later recovered downstream. But God will never charge you for their spiritual death. This is the unforgivable sin when a lost sinner refuses to hear or heed the lifesaving Gospel when the Holy Spirit calls out to them through conviction of their sins. They are forever lost and will never experience the joy of heaven but be tormented for eternity by hell’s flames.

Noting the Apostle John’s doctrinal implications, John James Lias (1834-1923) states that verse sixteen in the Revised Version (1881) reads, “If any someone sees their spiritual brother or sister sinning,” implies the person is doing the action rather than it is suspected. We now perceive the drift of the Apostle John in the previous verses more clearly. Many of us have come to regard prayer as so entirely a selfish matter that we assume almost as a matter of course that when we ask anything of God, it will be for ourselves. The Apostle has nothing of the kind in his mind. The prayer he is thinking of has nothing selfish. The natural outcome of a loving attitude results from the indwelling of God’s Son. It consists, therefore, not of petitions for us but for others.

And the Apostle John points out the limits of such intercessory prayer are governed by the mysterious power of self-determination with which God has endowed every person. Nevertheless, he writes, “They shall ask, and they shall give life to those whose sin does not result in spiritual death.” These words are full of difficulties. At first glance, it would appear that “they shall ask” and “they shall give” are interpreted to be in close connection with each other and relate to the same subject.

But then two questions arise. Can “to him” in the singular be associated with “for them” in the plural? And, can the giving life to the sinner be established by anyone but God? The Authorized Version solves the difficulty by introducing a new subject, shown in the Amplified Version, “he will pray and ask [on the believer’s behalf], and God will for him give life to those whose sin is not leading to death.”

Then John introduces “unforgivable sin.” He further goes on to say that we must get rid of the notion that any such sin can be readily recognized by those among whom the person who commits it lives. So far as this refers to a sinful act, it is no doubt correct. But the condition of evil described by this passage would surely be readily recognizable as antagonistic to the Anointed One and other Christians. It would not be contended, for instance, that if the heart of a heathen were disposed towards the life which is in the Anointed One, it would be useless to pray for them. On the contrary, it would deprive those engaged in missionary work of great comfort and encouragement if we refused to let them expect an answer to their prayers on behalf of the heathen, of whom Jesus said, “are not far from the kingdom of God.”^[7]

But that is not what John had in mind when he said, “I am not saying you shouldn’t pray for those who commit it [unforgivable sin].” In this case, though there may be hope, there can be no certainty that prayers for such sinners will be answered. There is doubtless some reason for the substitution here of the Greek verb aiteō denoting the confident petition of a child, inquiringly and expecting the gift to come. On the other hand, erōtaō suggests imploring, begging, or pleading.

So, it may be observed: (1) that the intercessory prayer of which the Apostle speaks is offered by one united by faith to the life of the Anointed One for all who are or may be possessors of that life; (2) that there are those whose conduct places them outside that certainty which under all other circumstances the Christian has that their prayer will be answered; and (3) that we misunderstand the Apostle if we suppose him to forbid prayer even for the most hardened sinner upon earth. He does nothing of the kind. All he says is that he is not speaking of such persons just at present because, in their case, at least we do not “know that we have the petitions we have asked.”

If we are to understand the passage, we must not treat it as an isolated assertion but keep the context clearly in view. It is impossible to grasp its meaning unless we keep in mind its close connection with the idea (1) of the union of humanity in the Anointed One and (2) of the consequent value, duty, and effectiveness of intercessory prayer.^[8]

A tried and tested biblical scholar who believes in the up-building of the Christian life, Robert Cameron (1839-1904) rejoices in God’s amazing grace for reaching so far and bringing so near, stooping so low, and raising so high. As a matter of progression, what we ask, according to His will, is heard, and our petitions answered. With such closeness to God, we make His will our will, and then He who responds to all things according to His will must act in harmony with our prayers. If we know God’s perfect will and accept it cheerfully, it will be impossible to ask what He is unwilling to grant. Our asking must be in accordance with His generous giving and mighty power.

As soon as we are brought face-to-face with God, we come into contact with other believers. Therefore, let us fill our consecrated hours of prayer and worship with the spirit of kindness toward our fellow believers. “If anyone sees a brother sinning a sin, not toward death, he shall ask of God.” The brother, or the one who has the standing of a brother, may take a course that leads to spiritual death. In that case, we may ask, and God will give them life. However, there is an unforgivable sin, and John does not encourage us to pray for the one engaged in that kind of foolery.

However, he allows it, but he assumes that if a person persists in taking a course that leads to death, death it will be. Then John puts in a piece of information that every departure from straight, upright, or godly is a sin, or literally, is missing the mark. It is coming short of the end, failing to attain the will and purpose of God. This departure may be internal and external – in thought and desire as well as in speech and act. It is a sin in God’s eye, even before we express it in actions and words of anyone. But while this is true, every sin is not deadly.^[9]

As a spiritual mentor, Ronald A. Ward (1920-1986) notes that up until now, the Apostle John has been speaking about making requests to God. In verse sixteen, he gives a particular example. If a Christian catches a fellow believer sinning, they must quickly decide if they should pray for their rescue or not based on whether the sin is forgivable or unforgivable. If the sin is moral and forgivable, pray for God’s intervention and bring them back to the path to eternal life. However, if the sin is mortal and unforgivable, John suggests they not include them in their prayers. In either case, it is all up to God.^[10] In the First Covenant, we find unforgivable sins,^[11] but in the Final Covenant, we have the balance.^{[12] [13]} Some Christians offer to pray for an unbelieving sinner but drive them away.

Manifestly and distinctly, Erich Haupt (1941-1910) explains that what follows in the Apostle John’s narrative shows that intercession has for its aim the winning of our brethren for the kingdom of God. But, before we look closely at the link between verses sixteen and seventeen and what precedes, we must examine the meaning of the verses themselves. What are we to understand by “unforgivable sin?” At the outset, John has in view a sin that irrevocably shuts the gates to eternal life, the consequence of which is death of the most disastrous kind. That there is such a sin, or such sins is affirmed by the Final Covenant.^[14] This lies at the foundation of all such passages as proclaim an eternal condemnation.

What is peculiar and startling in our passage, is that our intercession depends upon whether or not the sin is deadly, thus indicating that its character may be discernible. Our possible knowledge of this mortal kind of sin may be reasonably questioned. For instance, our Lord sees the Pharisees in the act of sinning, or the unforgivable sin, because they would assign His works to the inspiration of Beelzebub;^[15] but, on the other hand, He prays for His murderers, and therefore did not, according to our present passage, regard the unforgivable sin as conclusive in them: now in these cases would not human eyes have judged them differently?

It is impossible, to decide the greater or lesser alienation of a sinner from eternal life based on the more or less violent demonstration of sin as an act. For, even as a hardened sinner may be brought around by divine grace and saved from destruction, so may an individual devout in the eyes of others who desecrate everything sacred. Difficulties must be solved by observing what John elsewhere teaches concerning the ideas lying before us: first, that of sin; and, secondly, that of prayer.^[16]

With his Spirit-directed calculating mind, Alfred Plummer (1841-1926) comments that the “prayer of faith” succeeds when done in accordance with God’s will. It is the sole limit as regards prayer on our behalf. However, is there any other limit in the case of prayer on behalf of another? Yes, the other person’s will. God endowed human willpower with royal freedom that not even His will forces it. If a human’s will has deliberately and stubbornly resisted God with persistence, the Apostle John says we have no guarantee of an answer from God.^[17]

So, says John, if we see any Christian brother or sister sinning, we are to pray for this erring believer. However, the phrase “and he shall give him life” is unclear. It may mean either God or the intercessor may give, and “him” may mean the intercessor or the sinner for whom intercession is being made. We can compare what the Apostle James says, “Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins.”^[18] Commentators are divided over this subject. Throughout Scripture, it is clear that to ask is the believer’s part, and to give is God’s. But, when two verbs are so closely connected as these, “will ask” and “will give,” it seems unfair to interpret them as; “he will ask, and God will give.” It seems better to translate; “he will ask and give him life.”^[19]

A prolific writer on the Final Covenant Epistles, George G. Findlay (1849-1919), tells us that one particular matter of prayer weighs on the Apostle John’s mind: The case of erring brethren calls for the intervention of Christian prayer.  John said at the beginning, “we have an Advocate with the Father.”^[20] Thus, the powers and merit of the great Advocate are to be called on their behalf. But Anointed One is not the only Advocate. He shares this office with His redeemed brethren; He has “loosed us from our sins and made us priests to God, even His Father.”^[21] We are also reminded of the Apostle Paul’s directions, “Spiritual brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently.^[22]

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[1] Cf. Romans 15:30; Ephesians 6:18-20; Philippians 1:19

[2] Newton, John: “Letter XL,” The Christian Correspondent or a series of Religious Letters, written by The Rev. John Newton to Captain Alex. Clunie, from 1761 to the latter’s death in 1770 (Hull: Printed by George Prince, 1790). While Newton was in the Caribbean islands he met a ship captain, Alexander Clunie. Newton was a Christian but had not grown in the faith. Clunie was an older man and a mature Christian who disciplined Newton and later introduced him to a pastor in London. They maintained a lifetime friendship.

[3] Remembering the 1859 Revival in Scotland revealed that The United Presbyterian Church also, the third largest denomination in Scotland, reported that within their congregations 129 new prayer meetings had been started in the previous year and over the past two years attendances at prayer meetings had doubled.

[4] Sawtelle, Henry A., Commentary on the Epistles of John, op. cit., pp. 60-61

[5] Cf. Numbers 18:22

[6] Vincent, Marvin R., Word Studies in the New Testament, op. cit., pp. 370-372

[7] Mark 12:34

[8] Lias, John James: The First Epistle of St. John with Exposition, op. cit., pp. 400-410

[9] Cameron, Robert: The First Epistle of John, or, God Revealed in Light, Life, and Love, op. cit., p. 242

[10] See 1 Corinthians 9:22; Romans 11:14; 1 Timothy4:16; James 5:20

[11] Numbers 15:30ff; 18:23; Jeremiah 7:16; 14:10ff; see Luke 13:34

[12] Matthew 12:31ff; Mark 10:27

[13] Ward, Ronald A., The Epistles on John and Jude, op. cit., p. 58

[14] See Matthew 12:31 and parallels; Hebrews 6:4

[15] Matthew 12:22-32

[16] Haupt, Erich: The First Epistle of St. John: Clark’s Foreign Theological Library, Vol. LXIV, op. cit., pp. 325-327

[17] See 1 Thessalonians 5:25; Hebrews 13:18, 19; James 5:14-20; cf. Philippians 1:4

[18] James 5:20

[19] Plummer, Alfred: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, N. T., Vol. IV, pp. 165-168

[20] 1 John 2:1

[21] Revelation 1:6

[22] Galatians 6:1

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R. Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FIVE (Lesson CX) 04/13/23

^5:16 Suppose you see your fellow believer sinning (a sin that does not lead to eternal death). You should pray for them. Then God will keep them spiritually alive. However, there is sin that leads to death. So, you shouldn’t pray for that kind of sinner.

The Greek aiteō denoting the petition for sin not deadly to eternal life, is a humble and trusting petition in the direction of God’s will and prompted by brotherly love. The Greek erōtaō suggests that pleading for pardon for an unforgivable sin would be like asking a doctor to prescribe a particular medication for a terminally ill patient on hospice. These matters are outside a believer’s sphere of interceding for someone sinning deadly. Some suggest that this yearning is not presented in words indicating this is a spiritual brother or sister, thereby demonstrating they never deserved that name.^{[1] [2]}

As a faithful and zealous scholar, William Graham (1810-1883) notes that from prayer in general, the Apostle John now comes to a particular case. The ordinary principles that guide us in our supplications are somewhat limited in their application. To understand this problematic passage of verses sixteen and seventeen, we must lay down the following principles, which perhaps may lead to the proper exposition.

The life and death mentioned in the text cannot be eternal life or death, for God never promised to remove from anyone the curse of eternal death and endow them with the blessings of eternal life in answering the prayer of another. But God has promised to heal the sick members of the Lord’s body by the prayer of faith, raise them, and forgive their sins.

Therefore, comparing this passage of James and our text and applying the principles mentioned above, we arrive at the following conclusions: (1) The unforgivable sin is a sin which the Lord, for the punishment of the sinner, and to be a warning to others, visits with temporal death. (2) Any person mentioned in the text only performs the gift of healing, along with the church elders mentioned by the Apostle James.^[3] (3) The promise of life, given in the text, is the promise of restoration, or recovery, by the power of God, at the prayer of faith, to their former state of health.

So, this verse may be paraphrased thus, “If anyone among you, endowed with the gifts of healing, see a fellow believer laboring under the effects of some sin, which, however heinous, you are led by the indwelling Spirit to believe is not to be punished with the judgment of temporal death, like Ananias and Sapphira, then, in that case, you are warranted to pray for it, and God has given to your prayer the promise of restoring him to life and health.”

Indeed, there are cases where it is the manifest intention of God neither to heal the sick nor raise the dead. In such instances, as in others where temporal death is to be inflicted for the punishment of certain sins, you are not required to exercise the gift of healing: they have sinned deadly, and no special gift of healing is to be exercised in their case. This exposition is strengthened by verse seventeen. All sin leads to death, for the wages of sin is death, and all unrighteousness, namely, every violation of the law of brotherly love, is sin, though, in God’s mercy, they will suffer the punishment of temporal death.^[4]

With the zeal of a scriptural text examiner, William E. Jelf (1811-1875) says that the best way to explain the Apostle John’s introduction of this dogmatic statement in verse sixteen is to view it as a case in which prayer, according to God’s will, is heard and one which is not God will leave unanswered. Of course, its doctrinal value is not the least altered, but it comes upon us rather unexpectedly, without connection with the context. Here, the apostle distinguishes between sins that are not deadly and those that are and takes for granted that one is distinguishable from the other. The question is: “What are their natures and characteristics that distinguish one from the other?”

In the Septuagint (LXX) Version, a sin worthy of death was one of which death was the penalty under the Mosaic law, but here the words “will give him life” exclude the notion of bodily death. Another interpretation similarly excluded is those sins God punishes with physical sickness.^[5] In addition, those sins which the Church punished by ex-communication would suppose that individuals had the power of neutralizing such sentences, which certainly is not consistent with the view of ecclesiastical discipline held by those who favor this interpretation, nor again is it likely that such a formula in that early age was invented for this definite class of sins. It must also be an actual, not a technical term; its elements must have existed in John’s mind, not merely formal and unreal meaning in ecclesiastical phraseology.

Furthermore, it cannot mean bodily death; if so, it must mean some mental state of which death was the appropriate expression, the spiritual death of the soul. And when and how does this occur to a Christian? It is not any single sin or sort of sin, such as certain sins committed after baptism, for there are no such unpardonable sins. The blood of Jesus the Anointed One cleanses from all sin on faith and by repentance. So, a state of spiritual death can only be that state where repentance and faith are impossible.

There is but one sin whereby a person is brought to be in a death state, and that is where it excludes the possibility of repentance and faith, which are the two conditions of the sinner spiritual life being re-invigorated. One of these would be the state, springing from the intellect, which excludes faith, such as the sin against the Holy Spirit, which ipso facto[6] prevented anyone from receiving the Anointed One because it prevented our Lord’s saving miracle as evidence of His Divine mission.^[7]

After checking the text closely, Richard H. Tuck (1817-1868) states the usual distinction between the sins of frailty and will. Sins of spiritual weakness are possible for a child of God. It indicates that, for a time, the renewed spirit is dormant – those born of God cannot willfully sin. Willful sin in one claiming to have the Divine life does not bring it into the sacred sphere of Christian prayer for one another because such is not regarded as possible. John does not go so far as to say that it is not a subject for prayer at all.^[8]

With an inquiring spiritual mind, Johannes H. A. Ebrard (1819-1893) finds the Apostle speaking of a limit on the world-overcoming prayer power. If any petition might be supposed to be “according to the will of God,” it would undoubtedly be the petition for the conversion and salvation of our neighbor. So, it is indeed prayer, not for us, but for them. Therefore, springing from love is a request, not for earthly good, but a soul’s salvation to be ready for God’s coming kingdom.

Hence, there is the possibility of being misled into the theoretical notion that every prayer for the conversion of another human must be heard and granted. Nevertheless, our transformation proceeds in a sphere of its own. It touches on all points of voluntary human determination. In this realm, there is a point at which the human will have so hardened itself against the converting influences of God’s grace that God cannot and will not offer any salvation. However, intercession has no assurance of being heard upon reaching this point.^[9]

With a spiritual mentor’s mind, Friedrich Düsterdieck (1822-1906) lays down the following norms for the exposition of the idea of unforgivable sin: 1) That it may be known; 2) That it can be committed only by a member of the Christian community; 3) That for those who have committed it “there may not be prayer;” 4) That in and of itself it is not distinguished from every other sin, since every sin is an unforgivable sin.

Accordingly, the Apostle John decides that any Christian charged with an “unforgivable sin” cannot be since “sin against the Holy Spirit,^[10] is committed by unbelievers. Neither can lack of repentance continue even to bodily death since it could never be known whether they would have continued their unrepentance to the grave. Therefore, it is nothing other than the shipwreck of faith or backsliding.^[11]

After contemplating John’s train of thought, William Kelly (1822-1888) says that by abiding in love, we stay in God and in us. This, through His grace, expels prominent or petty hindrances and gives us boldness through a love that is unchanging amid all changes. God is pleased with this boldness in counting on His care for us during our trials, weakness, needs, sorrow that sickness brings, painful circumstances, and all the ways in which we are put to the test daily.

What, then, should be our feeling? Have we boldness of faith in our present intercourse with God and reckoning on Him through the grace that delivered us from death and sins, that gave us life and the Holy Spirit? and are we trembling and doubtful in the little troubles of this life? Is not this unworthy and a strange inconsistency? By faith, bold about the best blessings; let us have no less confidence about these minor things’ day by day. We should never doubt that He who loves us goes with us through anything sent to prove us.

The words: “This is the boldness which we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us.” Certainly, we should be ashamed to ask anything against His will. His words let us know His will and what is not. But there is more: “And if we know that He hears us, we know that we have the petitions we asked of Him.”^[12] Let us never doubt Him in these comparatively small trials after proving His infinite love in the deepest wants that can be!

Chapter four offers that nothing is too great for anyone in union with the Anointed One, and in chapter five, nothing is too small for God’s love. How easily we forget to act when it might be for His answer, and then calls come in when it cannot be! Prayer is due to our God and a rich blessing to us and others. But it is not as it should be without the boldness which honors God’s love for us.^[13]

With holiness doctrine expertise, Daniel Steele (1824-1914) states that the sin the Apostle John mentions is not limited to a single act, such as a crime worthy of punishment by death or punished by the church with ex-communication. It is instead a tendency to sin in defiance of the known law of God willfully persisted so obstinately against the influences of the Holy Spirit that repentance becomes a moral impossibility, just as a person may starve themselves so long as to lose the power to appropriate, digest and assimilate food. Just as abstinence from food leads to death, some have a career of sinning and refusing the offers of grace until the power to receive grace perishes. Here arises the question, “How can we know when a sinner has reached this fatal point? How can we know when we are excused from intercessory prayer on their behalf?”

So far as our powers of perception are concerned, the line between God’s mercy and wrath in this world is indistinguishable. But since prayer is prompted and helped by the Holy Spirit,^[14] the total absence of such prompting and assistance for an individual, whether a spiritual brother or sister in the church or not, affords the believing Christian, who has the spirit of prayer for sinners, grounds for the implication that this person has sinned deadly, having passed the point of sin which marks the soul for eternal despair. John pauses to note one exception to this promise. Praying for another becomes useless when that person in persistent sinning reaches the point beyond which there is no possible passing from spiritual death into life.

Hence, since the “unpardonable act” is a sin , however shocking, it is the culmination of a state or habit of participating in sin willfully chosen. It is the deliberate and final preference of darkness to light, falsehood to truth, sin to holiness, the world to God, and spiritual death to eternal life. It is the choice of Milton’s Satan, “Evil, be thou my good; by thee at least divided empire with Heaven’s King I hold.”^{[15] [16]}

After sufficient examination of the Greek text, Brooke Wescott (1825-1901) says that this awareness of some spiritual brother or sister sinning should be the duty of every Christian. At the same time, since we cannot see what’s in their heart, the character of the sin towards which intercession is exercised is seen outwardly. It is not a matter of suspicion or doubts about a fellow believer’s commitment to holiness. The end of prayer is the perfection of the whole Christian body. The believer prays for themselves only as a member of the Christian society. John is only dealing with Christians and the necessity for mediation.

The expression “sinners” (inadequately rendered in Latin as peccatores) emphasizes the act’s outward character. Sin begins in the mind and is only carried out by the body. Therefore, a person is a sinner inwardly before they sin outwardly. ^[17]

As a commentator and translator of many German religious works Jacob Isidor Mombert (1829-1913) agrees that intercession is improper for those who have unforgivable sins. There is not enough mediation for such sins. After all, it is an unpardonable sin. That is why the Apostle John neither requires nor advises us to make intercession for those sinning deadly. Every Christian is, to some degree, in a state of grace so long as they are invited to repentance.

We learn this from those words of John: “All unrighteousness is sin, and there is an unforgivable sin.” To some degree, we are vulnerable to different sorts of sin because of latent sinful tendencies due to imperfection. However, the person who committed them is still within the realm of pardon and has not forfeited the entitlement to the promises and covenant of repentance.

Nonetheless, there is an unforgivable sin. It is where some proceed beyond the measures of the Gospel and the usual methods of repentance caused by stubbornness and preserving a sin, by willful, spiteful resisting, or despising the offers of grace and the means of pardon. For such a person, John does not encourage us to pray. Our prayers will do no good for anyone who goes beyond the limit.

Any sin that displeases God must be repented and might need many mighty prayers for their pardon. Yet, anyone in the state of grace and pardon stays within the covenant of mercy. Their intention should be to return to duty. Being in a state of grace is having a title to God’s loving-kindness, not being rejected by God but beloved, and, for mercy’s sake, having these measures to live a holy Christian life.^[18]

Like a spiritual farmer planting the seed of God’s Word, Henry A. Sawtelle (1832-1913) remarks that the phrase “any man” is a praying Christian. The “brother” is a fellow born-again believer. In the case supposed by the Apostle John, the intercessor must “see,” be personally aware of the person’s offense to know its true nature; it is not enough to learn of it through others. They must observe the person in the act of sinning. And the sin must not be deadly.

In other words, it must not be the sin to which a death sentence is ordered and can never be forgiven. So, having spoken of the effectiveness of Christian prayer as the expected fruit of God abiding in us, John proceeds to talk about prayer’s usefulness in a particular direction – namely, when it takes the form of intercession on behalf of other believers, especially those who have lapsed into sin. A Christian’s priestly office is analogous to the Anointed One in chapter seventeen of John’s Gospel.

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[1] See 1 John 2:19

[2] Alford, Henry: The Greek Testament, op. cit., Vol. IV, pp. 509-510

[3] James 5:14-16

[4] Graham, William: The Spirit of Love, op. cit., pp. 343-345

[5] Cf. James 1:2-3

[6] Ipso facto (“by the fact itself”)

[7] Jelf, William E., Commentary on the First Epistle of St. John, op. cit., pp. 77-80

[8] Tuck, Richard H., The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary, op. cit., p. 329

[9] Ebrard, Johannes H. A., Biblical Commentary on the Epistles of St. John, op. cit., p. 337

[10] Matthew 12:31

[11] Düsterdieck, Friedrich: Biblical Commentary on the Epistles of St. John, op. cit., p. 339

[12] 1 John 5:14, 19

[13] Kelly, William: An Exposition of the Epistles of John the Apostle, op. cit., p. 385

[14] Romans 8:26

[15] Milton, John: Paradise Lost, Printed by S. Simmons, London, 1674, Book IV:110

[16] Steele, Daniel: Half-Hours with St. John’s Epistles, op. cit., pp. 142-145

[17] Westcott, Brooke F., The Epistles of St. John: Greek Text with Notes, op. cit., p. 191

[18] Mombert, Jacob Isidor: Lange’s Commentary on the New Testament, op. cit., Vol. IX, p. 176

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R. Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FIVE (Lesson CIX) 04/12/23

^5:16 Suppose you see your fellow believer sinning (a sin that does not lead to eternal death). You should pray for them. Then God will keep them spiritually alive. However, there is sin that leads to death. So, you shouldn’t pray for that kind of sinner.

Considering everything the Apostle John has said so far, Adam Clarke (1774-1849) states that verse sixteen is a challenging passage and has been variously interpreted. What is the forgivable sin, for which we should ask life, and it will be given to those who commit it? And what is the unforgivable sin, for which we should not pray?

There are three chief opinions on this subject: (1) It is supposed that there is here a suggestion to a distinction in the Jewish law, where there was “a sin punishable by death;” and “a sin not punishable by death.”

1. Murder – Exodus 21:12,14; Leviticus 24:17,21; Numbers 35:16-21;30-31 2. Kidnapping – Deuteronomy 24:7 3. Child sacrifice – Leviticus 20:2 4. Both the man and woman who commit adultery – Leviticus 20:10; Deuteronomy 22:22-24 5. Rape – Deuteronomy 22:25 6. Daughter of a priest who became a prostitute – Leviticus 21:9 7. An idolater – Exodus 22:20; Deuteronomy 17:2-5; Numbers 25:1-5 8. Breaking the Sabbath – Exodus 31:14; 35:2; Numbers 15:32-36 9. A woman having sex before marriage – Deuteronomy 22:21-22 10. Homosexuality – Leviticus 20:13 11. Incest between a man and his father’s wife – Leviticus 20:11 12. Incest between a man and daughter-in-law – Leviticus 20:12 13. A man who marries a woman and her mother (all three must die) – Leviticus 20:14 14. Bestiality (Sex with an animal) – Exodus 22:19; Leviticus 20:15-16 15. A false prophet – Deuteronomy 13:5; 18:20 16. A false witness – Deuteronomy 19:16-21 17. A disobedient son – Deuteronomy 21:18-21 18. A child who assaults his father or mother – Exodus 21:15 19. A child who curses his father or mother – Exodus 31:17; Leviticus 20:9 20. Men who are fighting and hit a pregnant woman, causing her to lose her baby – Exodus 21:22 21. A man whose ox kills someone after previously goring other people – Exodus 21:28-29 22. A witch – Exodus 22:18 23. A medium or spiritist – Leviticus 20:27 24. A brother, son, daughter, wife, or friend who entices you to go after other gods – Deuteronomy 13:6-11 25. Everyone in any town that entices people to go after other gods – Deuteronomy 13:12-15 26. A blasphemer – Leviticus 24:10-16, 23 27. Anyone who failed to abide by a decision of the court – Deuteronomy 17:8-12 28. Any non-Levite who tried to set up or take down the Tabernacle – Numbers 1:51

(2) All other sins were punishable but could be forgiven through repentance. Only a few of these were carried over into Federal Law in America, such as treason, espionage, murder, large-scale drug trafficking, or attempted murder, especially of a witness, juror, or court officer.^[1] (3) But when it comes to crimes against the Anointed One’s Law, only one carries the death penalty: Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.

With unwavering trust in the Apostle John’s teaching, William Lincoln (1788-1844) says that the Apostle John’s words, respecting unforgivable sin, need an explanation. Some people at once conclude that what is meant here is unpardonable sin. That is not what is meant by the apostle. What is meant is bodily death.

The idea is that a professing believer who grieves God’s will is seen in two cases from the Final Covenant. Ananias and Sapphira were professed believers ‒ whether they were sincere or not, they sinned grievously and were struck with death. That was an unforgivable sin– bodily death – they died. Some persons come to the Lord’s table, “not discerning the Lord’s body, for this reason many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.”^[2] In plain terms, they died physically not spiritually. They behaved at that table as if they were partaking of an everyday meal. We forget that the bread we share is the communion of the body of the Anointed One.

So, if God deals with His children’s sins through discipline, their future is beyond our judgment, and we must leave it to God. You can imagine a case like this, a person who is guilty of such fearful sin that instead of feeling love for them, the feeling is horror and surprise; they may be anxious that their sin will allow the enemies of God to make fun and they are horrified that they could be guilty of such evil. Well, as long as they have life, pray for them. However, when God deals with their unforgivable sin, we must leave them in God’s hands.^[3]

After analyzing John’s conclusions, Gottfried C. F. Lücke (1791-1855) comments that here in verse sixteen, the Apostle John distinguishes between an internal and external community of Christians; only the former consists of God’s true children, and the latter contains a medley of perfection and imperfection. John can, accordingly, without contradicting himself,^[4] quite well suppose the possibility of mortal sin within the Christian community. John does not declare whether mortal sin can be forgiven or not. However, he prohibits Christians from interceding for believers who sin but not deadly for no other motive than this, that otherwise the essential distinction between good and evil, between light and darkness, between the communion with God and the communion with the world, would be weakened and obscured in the Christian’s conscience.

If, according to God’s eternal law and judgment, the loss of eternal life in the Anointed One is inseparably combined with the sins of infidelity, worldliness, and lack of charity because they directly abolish the Christian principle: the faithful Christian cannot and may not implore God to give life to those who commit mortal sin. He would be asking what cannot be granted; he would be praying for that which is repugnant to God’s will; he would confound light with darkness, in God who is holy and just, and thus suppose a repugnance in God. Therefore, the Christian may ask of God, only for such as do not unforgivable sin, and, consequently, do not eradicate the spiritual life in themselves; for, in that case, only if His request is according to God’s will and can be granted.^[5]

Without using complicated language, Albert Barnes (1798-1870) writes that from the general assurance that God hears prayer, the Apostle John turns to a particular case that may be graciously and effectually employed in rescuing a fellow believer from death. There has been a great diversity of opinion regarding the meaning of this passage, and the views of expositors of the Final Covenant are by no means settled as to its true sense. However, a passing reference to some of them will show the difficulty of determining the passage’s meaning and the impropriety of any very great confidence in one’s judgment.

Among these opinions are the following: Some have supposed that the sin against the Holy Spirit is intended; some that the phrase denotes any appalling sins, such as murder, idolatry, or adultery; others have implied some wrong punishable by death by the laws of Moses. Then others feel that it identifies a sin that subjected the offender to ex-communication from the synagogue or the church; A few take it as a reference to sins that brought a fatal disease upon the offender, as in the case of those who abused the Lord’s Supper at Corinth.^[6]

Several interpret it as crimes committed against the Law, for which the offender was sentenced to death, meaning that when the charge alleged was false and the condemnation unjust, they ought to pray for the one who was condemned to death and that they would be spared; but when an offense has been committed, and the offender deserves to die, they ought not to pray for them, or, in other words, that by “the unforgivable sin,” offenses against the civil law are referred to, which the magistrate had no power to pardon, and the punishment of which he could not commute.^[7]

With impressive theological vision, Richard Rothe (1799-1867) points out that to make it more transparent that the Christian, by way of a believing prayer to the Anointed One, really possesses a spring of eternal life, John adds that utilizing such devotion, they not only draw spiritual energy for themselves, but even shares it with a fellow believer who has sinned, and whose true life has thereby become impaired can still obtain life from the Redeemer. It is the most striking proof of the greatness of the believing Christian’s power from the Redeemer. John, in this passage, is by no means thinking of giving a command to intercede for our brethren.^[8]

But supposing that a Christian sees their fellow Christian sinning and becoming spiritually sick, they assume that it will be unnatural for them to do anything else than intercede with the Redeemer for them. And by so doing, they will renew their spirit since, through intercession, a sinning spiritual brother or sister will receive the grace that heals from the Redeemer. Does that mean a Christian can give spiritual life to others through prayer? No. The question discussed here is the power of faith in the Redeemer to bestow life, namely, true, eternal life.^[9]

Consistent with the Apostle John’s advice, Heinrich A. W. Meyer (1800-1882) finds the Apostle John changing the thought from a general prayer to a particular prayer for a sinning believer. This change, and the introduction to a fellow Christian, may relate to brotherly love, which is so prominent in the Epistle. We may believe, however, that the new verses sixteen and seventeen are suggested partly in connection with some dangers which belonged to the time and surroundings of those to whom the apostle was writing.

The fact that the prayer here spoken of is limited to the case of sinning and that the unforgivable sin is prominent confirms this view. Moreover, the prominence of the unpardonable sin is highlighted, not only because it is distinctly mentioned but also by the notable exception of it in the other verses.^[10]

According to Robert Jamieson (1802-1880), Andrew Fausset (1821-1910), and David Brown’s (1803-1897) suggestion, let us examine the Apostle John’s supposition that when you see your fellow believer sinning (sin that does not lead to eternal death). You should pray for their recovery. Then God will revive their spiritual Life. They point out that this does not imply on a special occasion but under any circumstance.

The key here is that this wrongdoing is not part of any unforgivable sin. Therefore, John urges intercessory prayer for God to revive that person’s spiritual life with CPR (“Christian’s Prayer of Repentance”). They go on to tell us that John’s formula includes a kind reprimand accompanying one’s intercession. It is because this person’s spiritual life was in the process of being forfeited when the believer’s intervention obtained its restoration.

The oft-disputed portion “shall give life” is better translated as “shall obtain life.” John is adamant that intercessors should never assume the authority that their prayer empowers them to give the spiritually dying believer new life.  Instead, their humble petition is according to God’s will. Anyone requesting spiritual life for someone who has committed an unforgivable sin would imply they were more merciful than God.

Called the poetical theologian par excellence, Johann P. Lange (1802-1884) believes that the Apostle John’s simple annulment is that no prayer should be made for those with mortal sins. He only makes prominent the circumstance that he confines himself to, saying that intercession should be made for the person with moral wrongs. It is essential to note the difference in the words employed by John. In contrast, he made use of the Greek verb aiteō (“he shall ask”) and then used the verb erōtaō (“he shall pray”) [KJV]. The Greek aiteō and erōtaō mean “to ask” [KJV] and imply equality on the part of the asker and the one for whom the favor is sought. Jesus designates His petition by that term.^[11]

We should note that aiteō denotes the confident petition of a child inquiringly and expecting the gift to come. On the other hand, erōtaō suggests imploring, begging, and beseeching. Hence, the force of erōtaō refers to intercession for a believer committing a mortal sin. However, it doesn’t guarantee the assurance of success or that the mediation will be heard or answered.^[12]

With an inquiring mind, Daniel D. Whedon (1808-1885), the Apostle John, gives an example of a prayer that is heard, with its possibility of apparent failure. Yet it is not only a particular instance, but it lies within the category of spiritual life. Therefore, prayer for Moral Sin accords with divine will, but not in the case of Mortal sin. But an unasked question is facing us. So, what is this mortal unforgivable sin?

The phrase was familiar to the Jews. God told Moses to tell the people, “From now on, the people of Isra’el are not to approach the tent of meeting, so that they will not bear the consequences of their sin and die.”^[13] The Rabbis based their distinction on this verse of sins deadly and not deadly. But when transferring the expression to the Final Covenant, it does not necessarily retain precisely the same meaning. Does the Apostle John assume that we must know whether a fellow believer’s sinis unforgivable? 

The Apostle John goes on to reaffirm that they need to find this out. There isa distinction between mortal and moral sins. And he explains why the prayer is not granted because it is not according to God’s will.^[14] We, therefore, hold that mortal sin is an “unpardonable sin,” the sin against the Holy Spirit.^[15] But let no one charge God as unfaithful if the prayer fails to be fulfilled because the believer proves to be rigid and stubborn.

There is a deliberate reaffirmation of the actuality of such a sin. It is confirmed as a solemn fact and a reason for ungranted prayer. We should not take this as an absolute prohibition. It is only caution in advising prayer if the deadly nature of the sin is known. We should leave that to God, pray in hope, but not be disappointed or discontented with God if it proves to be an unpardonable sin.^[16]

In line with Apostle John’s conclusion, Henry Alford (1810-1871) urges us to join in confidence concerning prayer and the all-essential Christian principle of brotherly love. By doing so, we have the duty and the practice of intercessory prayer for an erring spiritual brother or sister, but not with a defined limitation. These verses address anyone “having seen” a fellow believer, one born of God as they are, is not merely a logical conclusion but more graphic, describing the person actually in the act and under sin’s bondage.

This adds to the Apostle John’s command to ask God for their forgiveness. In doing so, they assure that this person will continue to have spiritual life. Such praying is interceding for their spiritual brother or sister. Everlasting life is not bestowed on someone by intercessory prayer, nor is it accompanied by a brotherly connection to give the sinner a repentant heart. But, understood as explained by John, the restoration of divine life was necessary because sin brought them to the precipice of falling away from their faith. Therefore, there is a difference of importance here.

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[1] Clarke, Adam: Wesleyan Heritage Commentary, op. cit., Hebrews-Revelation, pp. 398-399

[2] 1 Corinthians 11:29

[3] Lincoln, William: Lectures on the Epistles of St. John, op. cit., Lecture VIII, p. 162

[4] See 1 John 3:6-9, & 5:18

[5] Lücke, Gottfried C. F., A Commentary on the Epistles of St. John, op. cit., p. 285

[6] 1 Corinthians 11:30

[7] Barnes, Albert: New Testament Notes, op. cit., 1 John 5, p. 4889

[8] See such. Apostolic commands in 1 Timothy 2:1-4; James 5:14-20, etc.

[9] Rothe, Richard: Exposition of the First Epistle of St. John, op. cit., The Expository Times, July 1895, p. 470

[10] Meyer, Heinrich A. W., Critical Exegetical Handbook New Testament, op. cit., Vol.10, pp. 816-817

[11] John 14:16; 16:26; 17:9, 15, 20

[12] Lange, Johann Peter: Commentary on the New Testament, op. cit., Vol. IX, p. 171

[13] Numbers 18:22 – Complete Jewish Bible

[14] 1 John 5:14

[15] Matthew 12:31-32

[16] Whedon, Daniel D., Commentary on the New Testament, op. cit., p. 280

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R. Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FIVE (Lesson CVIII) 04/11/23

^5:16 Suppose you see your fellow believer sinning (a sin that does not lead to eternal death). You should pray for them. Then God will keep them spiritually alive. However, there is sin that leads to death. So, you shouldn’t pray for that kind of sinner.

COMMENTARY AND HOMILETICS

This verse has comments, interpretations, and insights of the Early Church Fathers, Medieval Thinkers, Reformation Theologians, Revivalist Teachers, Reformed Scholars, and Modern Commentators.

Hippolytus of Rome (170-235 AD) was one of the most influential early Christian theologians. He reports that an impostor named Callistus^[1] established a school of theology in resentment of the Church. He first invented the policy regarding indulgence in sensual pleasures, saying that he had all their sins. For those who attend a different congregation and is called Christian, should they commit any wrongdoing, they are not responsible for their forgiveness unless they hurry over and join his school of theology. Many people were content with their regulation since they were convicted in their conscience and rejected by numerous sects. After being forcibly ejected from the Church.^[2]These new followers of Callistus crowded into his school.

One of Callistus’ teachings was that if a bishop was guilty of any sin if even an unforgivable sin,^[3] he ought not be deposed. As a result, bishops, priests, and deacons, who had been twice and thrice married, were allowed to retain their position among the clergy. Also, should anyone ordained get married, Callistus permitted them to continue in their ministry if they had not sinned. After all, does not the Scriptures say, “Who are you to judge someone else’s servant?”^[4] Not only that, but our Lord stated, “Let the tares grow along with the wheat.”^[5] In other words, let those who are guilty of sin remain in it.

This imposter Callistus also pointed out that when Noah gathered the animals into the ark, both dogs, wolves, and ravens, he kept everything clean and unclean safe from the flood. So, says Callistus, should the Church not proceed in the same manner?  But, Hippolytus marvels, how can so many Scriptures be falsely interpreted?^[6] Is it any wonder that what Hippolytus thought to be blasphemous and immoral became common practice in the Church later and followed to this day? I’m sure the Apostle John would tremble and weep if he were told this is how his words in verse sixteen were so misused.

With a studious monk’s spiritual insight, Bede the Venerable (672-735 AD) distinguishes between “mortal” and “moral” sins. According to God’s will, these things are asked for because they are part of what it means to love our brothers. John is talking here about trivial, everyday sins that are hard to avoid but easy to put right. The question of what constitutes a mortal sin is complicated, and it is hard to accept that there are people whom John tells us not to pray for when our Lord tells us that we should pray for those who persecute us.

The only answer to this is that there must be sins committed inside the brothers’ fellowship which are even more severe than persecution from outside enemies. Mortal sin, therefore, occurs when a brother opposes friendship after he acknowledges God by the grace of our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One given to him, and when he starts to fight against that grace, by which he has been reconciled to God, with the weapons of hatred. But on the other hand, a nonmortal sin does not infringe on brotherly love but merely fails to show it adequately because of some weakness of the mind.^[7]

Respected Reformation writer Matthew Poole (1624-1679) interprets what the Apostle John says here in verse sixteen about unforgivable sin. It implies that the erring member does not appear uncooperative or uncaring. Therefore, they should pray for their recovery with confidence.^[8] But there is an unpardonable sin, namely, which does not deserve death, as all sin does, nor which argues a person to be probably in a present state of death or born again, which the sinful ways may do of many that never made profession; but of such as have apostatized from a former careless profession of faith into heresy and immorality, and continue with stubbornness against all methods of recovery, are referred to as “twice dead.”^[9] John did not forbid praying for these lawless sinners, but neither did he not encourage prayer for them without any hope or expectation of success^[10]

Influenced by his Arminian view of salvation, Daniel Whitby (1638-1726) says we should note the phrase here. “He shall give him life” cannot reasonably be interpreted as eternal life for three reasons: 1) Eternal life does not depend on the prayers of others; nor can they be sure that their intercession will succeed since it belongs only to them who truly repent and reform their lives. 2) Because the person’s sin is not mortal; namely, they have not committed a sin that requires eternal damnation. 3) An unforgivable sin is that which eternal death will undoubtedly follow, by God’s decree.

The Apostle John’s words, “If a believer sees their spiritual brother or sister committing a moral sin,” sounds like those of the Apostle Paul, who wrote, “If they see someone overtaken with a fault,”^[11] defined as an act of injustice against a fellow believer. So, to awaken them from their wrongdoing, God inflicted sickness on them, as He did on the Corinthians.^[12] That sickness then becomes the object of prayer. So also, John’s words, “Let them ask, and He will give them life,” seem parallel to the Apostle James’ statement, “The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will restore them to health.”^[13]

In case this interpretation does not meet some doubter’s standards, then consider how, after all the miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit, granted in confirmation of the Gospel, many Jewish converts apostatized from their faith and relapsed back into their former Judaism. This backsliding may be termed an unforgivable sin. It could also be compared to what our Savior represents as the sin against the Holy Spirit, which is unforgivable.^[14] And they who commit it are those for whom it is impossible to renew unto repentance,^[15] and to whom there remains nothing but fearful anticipation of judgment.^[16] Then John adds, “there is no need to pray for them.”^[17]

From his Scriptural viewpoint, William Burkitt (1650-1703) notes that the Apostle John informed us in verse fourteen of believers’ comfort in their prayers for themselves; God grants all that they request. So now, in verse fifteen, he relates the benefit that others receive by their prayers and themselves, assuring them that if they did pray for an offending member, God should hear what they desired. Still, unless the person they prayed for committed the unpardonable sin, by which we are to understand falling away from the Christian faith back into idolatry, as appears from the words in verse twenty-one. 

There John’s caution has no manner of dependence upon what went before unless we understand the unforgivable sin in this sense; the sin against the Holy Spirit, it comes to the same; for what is that sin but a renouncing of Christianity, denying the truth of the Christian faith, after illumination and conviction by the Holy Spirit, and maliciously persecuting the sincere professors of it? Make note; a believer is not to hide their eyes from being observant but ought to take notice of the sins and miscarriages of their fellow saints, which they cannot do if they neglect to observe them.^[18]

An Anglican priest opposing the monarchy of Church and State in favor of a constitutional parliamentary system, Thomas Pyle (1674-1756) hears the Apostle John saying this here in verse sixteen: Before I conclude, I must advise you in one moral principle, relating to any fellow believers among you who are suffering from some extraordinary spiritual heart problem as divine punishment for any dishonorable sins.

Now where the offense is not of the most willful and determined kind, where, by the circumstances, you gather that the punishment inflicted was not sent for their destruction but only to awaken them to a sense of their breaking of God’s law, and you find them willing to repent; in such a case, let the Christian ministers attend to them, interceding with God for them by earnest prayers, which, upon their repentance, will a pardon of their sin, and for restoring them to spiritual health again.

But when you discover this person backslidden, let heaven censor them for a chronic and incurable degree of scandalous vice and immorality, or for willful and total disregard of their Christian faith. In that case, you have no obligation to throw away your prayers for them but justly leave such a person to God’s justice, as one that has rejected all methods of repentance and restoration to God’s graces.^[19]

With meticulous Greek text examination and confirmation, Johann Bengel (1687-1752) finds that the Apostle John adds the most important in all cases is that you can pray even for another, in a most serious matter.^[20] That way, the regenerated can know this sin as “sinning a sin, is not punishable with everlasting separation from God.” Thus, praying is lawful if it is not evident that it is an unforgivable sin. 

Therefore, we can say about the disease that caused Lazarus’s death, “It is not deadly.”^[21] But King Hezekiah was sick deadly,^[22] had he not recovered by a miracle. But John is here speaking of death and life.^[23] Moreover, what is meant by unforgivable sin, is declared from the opposite side in verse seventeen, where the subject is all unrighteousness. Therefore, any unrighteousness committed in everyday life is not a sin that brings eternal death.

But, the unforgivable sin is not an ordinary or sudden sin but a state of the soul, in which the flame of faith, love, and hope, in short, the new life, is extinguished when anyone knowingly and willingly embraces the acknowledged punishment, not from the temptations of the flesh, but the love of sin. It is a deliberate rejection of grace. A person pushes everlasting life away while committing this sin: how can others procure eternal life for them?

Yet there is also a sin to the death of the body; for instance, in the case of the people, for whom the prophet Jeremiah wanted to petition God three times but was denied each time: “Those who would not listen to God’s voice.”^[24] “Those who would not obey God’s Word,”^[25] “Those who love to wander into wickedness,”^[26] Christians are not to assume the authority which would imply requesting forgiveness for a sinner who has sinned the unforgivable sin.^[27] [28]

With scholarly meditation, James Macknight (1721-1800) notes that according to Joseph Benson (1749-1821), the immoral sin of which John speaks is any single sin a believer commits through infirmity or by mistake. So also, Philip Doddridge (1702-1751) says it is any sin, except that the Anointed One declared it unpardonable.^[29] But as no sin will be pardoned which the sinner has not repented of, the circumstance by which the sinner for whom death is required distinguishes it from those whom God might ask for their life, namely, that their sin is not a deadly sin, implies that they have repented of their sin.

Some scholars, like those above, think that John authorizes any saintly person to ask God for eternal life for all penitent sinners, except those who have sinned against the Holy Spirit; and assures them that in answer to their prayer, God will grant eternal life to such sinners.

Macknight’s point may appear complicated due to the language and grammar of that time. But it is pretty simple: If you are praying for some backslider whose immoral sins have blocked their relationship with God, or some sinner who has not yet repented unless they’ve committed an unpardonable sin, God will honor your prayer for them.

Benson and Doddridge’s opinions are vulnerable to two objections. First, unless a sanctified Christian knows whether the person, they ask eternal life for, has sincerely repented of their sins; they are not warranted to ask eternal life for them, especially with the boldness mentioned in verse fourteenth. Second, although any dedicated person may pray for eternal life for a fellow believer, the scripture gives no one reason to think that asking for eternal life for their spiritual brother or sister has any influence in securing that blessing. Little does right-reasoning warrant such an unreasonable expectation.

Nevertheless, according to Benson and Doddridge, it is expressly promised that anyone who sees their spiritual brother or sister committing an immoral sin and asks God’s eternal life for them will undoubtedly have it granted. This concept proposes that without such a prayer, the sinner’s repentance would not procure God’s mercy and grace. Therefore, believe that in this passage, John speaks of persons and things very different from those that these scholars had in mind.^[30]

So, what is this difference of opinion all about? It involves whether a prayerful believer can bring eternal life to a sinning Christian or does it all depend on God to determine. Praying does not activate eternal life in a weak believer or sinner. But praying can move God in mercy to send the Holy Spirit to draw this person back into His saving arms. In addition, by this fallen person knowing that you, a faithful and sanctified believer, are praying for them, God will hear you and answer your prayer. That is a real shot of believing faith passed on to another.

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[1] The Bishop of Rome from 217-222 AD

[2] Elucidation XII

[3] 1 John 5:16

[4] Romans 14:4

[5] Matthew 13:30

[6] Hippolytus: Refutation of all Heresies, Bk. IX, Ch. VII, p. 131

[7] Bede the Venerable, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scriptures, Bray, G. (Ed.), op. cit., Vol. XI, p. 227

[8] 1 John 5:14

[9] Jude 1:12

[10] Poole, Matthew. Commentary on the Holy Bible – Book of 1st, 2nd & 3rd John (Annotated), Kindle Edition

[11] Galatians 6:1

[12] 1 Corinthians 11;30

[13] James 5:15

[14] Matthew 12:32

[15] Hebrews 6:4-6

[16] Ibid. 10:26-27

[17] Whitby, Daniel: Critical Commentary and Paraphrase, op. cit., p. 471

[18] Burkitt, William: Expository Notes, op. cit., Vol. II., pp. 378-739

[19] Pyle, Thomas: A Paraphrase of the Epistles of the New Testament (1725), op. cit., p. 402

[20] Cf. 1 John 2:1

[21] John 11:4

[22] Isaiah 38:1

[23] See 1 John 3:14

[24] Jeremiah 7:12-16

[25] Ibid. 11:10-14

[26] Ibid. 14:10-11

[27] 1 Samuel 15:35; 16:1; Mark 3:29

[28] Bengel, Johann: Gnomon of the New Testament, Vol. IV, op. cit., p. 151

[29] Matthew 2:31-32; Mark 3:28-29

[30] Macknight, James: Apostolic Epistles with Commentary, Vol. VI, pp. 117-118

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R. Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FIVE (Lesson CVII) 04/10/23

^5:16 Suppose you see your fellow believer sinning (a sin that does not lead to eternal death). You should pray for them. Then God will keep them spiritually alive. However, there is sin that leads to death. So, prayer for that kind of sinner will not help.

When we look back on our lives, I wonder how many people and situations we saw headed for harm and destruction, but instead of standing in the breach, we stood in judgment and did not care if they fell to their ruin.  John makes sure his readers understood whom he was talking about.

I’m sure John was aware of a form of censorship practiced among the Jews in his day.  It was a form of what we call today “ex-communication.”  In Hebrew, it is called “shammetha.”[1]  At first, it was observed that people were released from all debts every seven years.^[2]  But it eventually began to refer to someone who was discharged or separated from the congregation.  In one place, we read: “For it is taught: ‘One who has been ‘separated’ [as under a ban] by the Master is [deemed] ‘separated’ from the disciple, but one who has been ‘separated’ by the disciple is not [deemed] ‘separated’ from the Master.’ [That means], not ‘separated’ from the Master; but to everybody else, he is [‘separated’].”^[3]

We read in the Jewish Talmud that it became a form of enforced public discipline, especially if they were denounced for having sinned against the words [of Holy Writ] which is called “Shammetha.”[4] When Rabbis discussed the subject of how the word “shammetha” came about, we read: “What is [the etymology of the word] shammetha? ‒ Said Rab, [It is], sham-mitah, ‘death is there.’  Samuel said, [It is], shemamah yihye, ‘he shall be a desolation [staying there as a curse]; and its effects adhere to one like grease to the oven.”^[5]  So we can see how John equates those mistakes made by believers as not being of the same magnitude as the Jewish shammetha. Today, the Amish people call it “shunning.”

Here we see that the early church fathers developed the distinction between Mortal and Venial Sin, as taught by the Roman Catholic Church today. Under Jewish law, there were sins for which sacrifices could be offered to receive forgiveness. Still, other sins required stoning to death or being cut off from the congregation and never allowed into the Temple or synagogue again.  It is demonstrated by what happened to Dothan and Abiram for offering strange fire on the altar.^[6]

We also find this distinction between mortal sin and moral sin when Eli, the high priest, warned his sons, “‘If one person sins against another, God may mediate for the offender; but if anyone sins against the Lord, who will intercede for them?’ His sons, however, did not listen to their father’s rebuke, for it was the Lord’s will to put them to death.”^[7] So John makes it clear that when it comes to mortal sin.

This kind of sin can only receive forgiveness through the prayer of the guilty person to God.  They must confess and be apologetic for their wrongdoing.  And only God, through the Anointed One, can forgive them.  No priest, saint, elder, pastor, bishop, or other religious person can pray that prayer for the sinner. 

God made this very clear to Jeremiah, “Do not pray for this people nor offer any plea or petition for them; do not plead with me, for I will not listen to you.”^[8] When Jesus prayed His prayer for the disciples, He told the Father, “I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those, You have given me, for they are Yours.”^[9] Therefore, John is not excusing moral wrongdoing. 

The point is not that if God hears our prayers, He grants them (as if we could ever pray to Him without His being aware of it), but that if we know that He hears our prayers, we already have what we have asked following His will. It may be years before we perceive that our prayers have been answered: perhaps we may never be able to see this in this world, but we know that God has responded to them.

So, we see that God “hears” all prayers because He is all-knowing, but He only listens to those prayers under certain conditions. Corresponding confidence of assured answer to prayer follows the conviction of being heard.  We “know” that God hears us due to Spirit-imparted information. John conditioned “whatever” with “according to His will” in the previous verse. When a child of God believes God’s promises in prayer, God moves His hand for that believer. 

However, God has specific rules for answering prayer, first, praying in Jesus’ name [Yeshua, meaning “Savior”] consistent with His person and works and based on that authority,^[10] abiding in fellowship (the Spirit-filled life),^[11] and asking in faith,^[12] according to God’s will.^[13] God never violates Himself to answer our prayers.  He will not contradict His holiness to answer prayer.  As a parent will not give a sharp knife to a small child, so God will not provide certain things to His children.  He loves us too much to do that.  God will not give us something that will hurt us.

On the other hand, God does give us things we ask for according to His will. God wants to provide you with more than you imagine as you give your children more than oatmeal and underwear. If we would capitalize on this privilege of prayer, He will do amazing things for us.^[14]

How does this position respecting God’s hearing of our prayers affect the question of intercession for the salvation of others, and especially of an erring spiritual brother or sister? If any prayer can be made with confidence of success, surely it is this. It is an unselfish prayer, a blessing of love. It is also a prayer in harmony with God’s will, a prayer for the extension of His kingdom.

The Apostle John points out that this reasonable expectation has limits. The prayer of one human being can never cancel another’s free will. If God’s will does not override man’s will, neither can a fellow believer’s prayer. When a human will has been firmly and persistently set in opposition to the Divine will, our intercession will be of no avail. And this seems to be the meaning of “unforgivable sin;” (willful and obstinate rejection of God’s grace and persistence in unrepented sin).

When it comes to the word “death,” it corresponds to “life” spoken of above; and if the one is eternal, why not the other? Are sins punished with loss of life in this world, whether by human law or Divine will be meant? Christians have often suffered agonies of mind, fearing that they have committed what they supposed to be the “unforgivable sin.” But if they do not seek a pardon, they may come near to it. There are certain statements made respecting this mysterious passage against which we must be on our guard.

It is laid down as a canon of interpretation that the “unforgivable sin” is one that can be known and recognized by the intercessor. John neither says nor implies this. He indicates that some sins may be perceived but not unforgivable sins. Again, it is asserted by some that John forbids us to pray concerning unpardonable sin. The apostle is much more reserved. He encourages us to intercede for a sinning spiritual brother or sister with complete confidence in receiving an answer. But there is a limit to this. The sinner may be sinning deadly; in that case, John does not encourage us to pray.

So, the object of prayer in this verse is a believer out of fellowship with God. The Greek noun adelphois, “brother,” clearly indicates that the person in need of prayer is a Christian.^[15]  The words “a sin” suggest that the issue is a specific or identifiable sin. The person who prays about this situation must “see” the sinning for themselves. They do not buy into religious gossip or slander. Christians operate on the principle of objectivity when correcting fallen Christians. 

Therefore, the issue here is not rumor or gossip via the grapevine but objective knowledge about the fact of a Christian’s sin.  Secondhand information might be false.  The usual response is to react subjectively to some sinful tendency in a believer. However, the spiritual believer does not pick up the phone and tell everyone they know about it.

The idea of “death” here is not spiritual death but physical.  Some Christians die prematurely because of prolonged unconfessed sin.^[16] Some Christians die physically before their expected time. Christians begin eternal life at the point of salvation and can never lose that salvation at any future issue.^[17] Christians also have the possibility of sinning until they reach the grave. There are several occasions of the “unforgivable sin” in the Word of God. 

Ananias and Sapphira are cases in point.^[18]  God sentenced them to death for misrepresentation of the facts.  Paul assigned a Corinthian Christian living in incest to die should they refuse to repent.^[19] The prophet Moses committed the unpardonable sin by striking the rock.^[20] Also, Achan, one of the twins born to Judah and Tamar, committed an inexcusable sin by hiding condemned garments. He and his family were put to death for this.^[21] 

However, we should not confuse the “unforgivable sin” with the unpardonable sin. Only unbelievers can commit an unpardonable sin; these are two different situations. The unpardonable sin was the sin of attributing the miracles of the Anointed One to the work of Satan.

Furthermore, the spiritual Christian who asks God to intervene for the carnal Christian to save their spiritual life.  “Life” here is fellowship with the Lord.  Sin separates us from God’s family.  Christians can effectually pray for the spiritual condition of believers out of friendship. This is a case in which prayer is effectual.  Any sin not involving the unforgivable sin is amenable to God answering prayer.  It is difficult to distinguish between those who commit the sin unto physical death and those who do not.  The spiritual life of the person who does not commit sin punishable by death is worth saving. 

Another thing to notice is that “pray” is a different Greek word than “ask” earlier in this verse.  The idea of “pray” is to request or inquire.  John does not encourage his readers to inquire about the healing of a narrow-minded Christian because the carnal Christian has willingly severed their relationship with God. That is a matter between the carnal Christian and God. God has His way of dealing with the obstinate. Christians living in ongoing sin can reach the point of being under a physical death sentence. Most sins that Christians commit do not result in immediate physical death or a sentence of physical death.  That is why we can pray for them. 

There is a sin where prayer is not effectual. It is an exception to the general rule that God answers all prayers prayed according to His will. So, for instance, it is useless to request a person out of God’s will with plans to sin until they die because he is under sin’s death sentence. That’s why the reference here is not to the sin leading to spiritual death – eternal separation from God.  Of course, all sin ultimately leads to death, but that is not the meaning here.  The idea here is that a Christian can die a premature physical death because of prolonged and stubborn carnality.

My, what a call for repentance and reconciliation!  This is what John was talking about and what he wanted his readers to be aware of.  While we may be familiar with Paul’s saying, “For the wages of sin is death,”^[22] we may not be as acquainted with this saying of James, “Then when lust is conceived, it brings forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, brings forth death.”^[23] So what does John mean here when he talks about seeing, “…a Christian spiritual brother or sister sinning in a way that does not lead to death?”^[24]

In this verse, let’s look at what John says about sin: “Every kind of wrong-doing is sin.”  The Greek noun hamartia John uses here means: “missing the mark, to err, to be mistaken, (as in making the wrong choice”). However, John is clear that when someone who is part of the Kingdom of God errs or misses the mark, this does not lead to death. He goes even further when you see a Christian spiritual brother or sister sinning, should you pray for them to turn away and be forgiven?

When it comes to sinners, our prayer should be for the Holy Spirit to help us be instrumental in bringing them the good news to convict them of their sins and draw them to the Anointed One where they can be cleansed and made new. Prayer for a sinner’s sins to be forgiven is like a prayer for a single person not to get a divorce. You must be married for that to be a possibility.  So, it is with praying for a person’s forgiveness. They must be followers of the Anointed One before the Father can answer such a prayer. So, when it comes to a sinner getting forgiveness for their sin, they must be the one to pray that prayer, not you.

For instance, to maintain a system of Penitence, medieval Roman Catholic scholars invented categories of sins, mortal and venial,^[25] with no such technicalities in mind. By “deadly sins,” they meant all such as the John recognizes here in verses sixteen and seventeen, and none other; that is to say, sins of surprise and spiritual weakness, having no malice or willful disobedience, such as prejudice or momentary neglect of duty. Should a dying person fail to recognize such an end’s fearful nature even after a life of love and obedience, not repent of such sin before expiring?^[26]

The ethical or moral classifications of sins under the heads of mortal and venial have been based upon the Apostle James’ words.^[27] It lends no authority to such attempts and has worked untold mischief in the Church. The Apostle John tells us that the distinction between mortal and venial exists, but he supplies us with no test by which one person can judge another in this respect. By pointedly abstaining from making any classification of sins into mortal and venial, he virtually condemns it. What neither he nor the Apostle Paul ventured to do, we may well shrink from doing. The same overt act may be a mortal sin in one case but not another.

The attitude of mind with which the sinner contemplates their act before and after the commission makes all the difference, and how seldom this is known to fellow believers! The change from the Greek verb aiteō, “we ask,” to the verb erōtaō, “pray for it,” is noteworthy. John uses the former in verses fourteen and fifteen, at the beginning of verse sixteen, and the latter at the end of verse sixteen. The latter is the less humble word of the two and is often used by equals or superiors requesting compliance with their wishes. Perhaps the Apostle John uses it here to indicate that a prayer of this kind is not humble.

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[1] Babylonian Talmud: Seder Mo’ed, Masekhet Mo’ed Katan, folio 14b, Shammetha, meaning “to ban”

[2] See Deuteronomy 15:1-2

[3] Babylonian Talmud: Seder Mo’ed, Masekhet Mo’ed Katan, folio 17a

[4] Ibid. folio 14b, footnote (11)

[5] Ibid. folio 17a

[6] Numbers 16:1-35

[7] 1 Samuel 2:25

[8] Jeremiah 7:16; cf. 11:14; 14:11-12

[9] John 17:9

[10] Ibid. 14:13-14; 16:23-24

[11] John 15:7; Psalm 66:18; James 4:3

[12] James 1:5-8; Jeremiah 33:3

[13] 1 John 5:14

[14] Proverbs 15:29; Luke 11:1; 18:1; Acts of the Apostles 6:4; 12:5; Romans 12:12; Ephesians 6:18; 1 Thessalonians 5:17; 1 Peter 4:7

[15] 1 John 2:9-11; 3:14-15; 5:1

[16] 1 Corinthians 5:5; 11:30

[17] John 10:10; 10:28-29; 17:11

[18] Acts of the Apostles 5:1-11

[19] 1 Corinthians 5:1-5

[20] Numbers 20:8, 12

[21] Joshua 7:19-26

[22] Romans 6:23

[23] Romans 6:23

[24] See verse 16 above

[25] In the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1885) also (1861 & 1863)

[26] Tertullian: Ante-Nicene Fathers, Elucidations, Vol. 3, op. cit., p. 761

[27] James 1:15

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R. Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FIVE (Lesson CVI) 04/07/23

^5:15 He listens to us every time we ask Him. So, we know that He gives us whatever we ask from Him.

As a lover of God’s Word, Peter Pett (1966) says that our knowing Jesus the Anointed One through the Spirit by the Father fills us with boldness. Thus, we see that we can approach Him in prayer and believe He hears us. He is our Father Who gave us spiritual life, and when we come to Him as His children, seeking only His will, we can be sure that, whatever we ask, He will hear and respond so that we can also know that we will receive the petitions we ask.

Prayers for worldly things only displease Him and will rightly be rejected. But prayers concerned with the spread of His Word and the establishing of His Kingly Rule will undoubtedly be heard, and we will have them in the end. The answer may not come as we expect or desire but come it will. This is very much a statement that we can have complete confidence that in the end, the Gospel will prevail through our prayers.^[1]

In his unorthodox Unitarian way, Duncan Heaster (1967) states that the Apostle John has just cited answered prayer as proof that the Spirit dwells within us, progressively revealing His will, so our prayers are not hit and miss but coincide with His will. But there can still be a residual doubt about whether prayer is being answered as we envisaged and requested. John, therefore, parallels “He hears us” with “obtaining the requests we asked.” Through possessing the Spirit, the Comforter, we have the Lord “doing” things in response to what we ask.[2] But the Lord’s “doing” in response may not be articulated in the terms we expected. The request [literally, “the asking”] will be “done,” but not always as expected.^[3]

Bright seminarian Karen H. Jobes (1968) says that the verb “hear” suggests that God understands the request and answers prayer. But does God answer every request? Does believing that we are heard magically grant what we ask for? How does confidence that God hears us amount to our having what we ask? One must always submit to God’s perfect and omniscient will in asking. Even Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane prayed, “not as I will, but as You will.”[4] Since, in any given situation, we may not know whether what we’re asking is in God’s will, whenever it seems God has not answered, we must receive that in the confidence of knowing we were heard. We have what we ask according to His will, even if His will is “No” or “Not yet.”

One Monday, a man described his Sunday morning golf game to coworkers. He paused and addressed one of his colleagues, known to be a Christian, with the comment, “You probably think I’ll go to hell for playing golf on Sunday morning, don’t you?” The Christian looked calmly at the man and replied, “No, I think you’ll go to hell for not believing in Jesus the Anointed One. So, you might as well play golf on Sunday.” Sin, belief, and the afterlife are connected in religious thought, and for Christians, the link of these topics focuses on the person and work of Jesus the Anointed One, God’s Son. These three topics are closely bound together in this final section of John’s letter and, within that context, make sense of John’s last command to keep away from idols.^[5]

^5:16 Suppose you see your fellow believer sinning (a sin that does not lead to eternal death). You should pray for them. Then God will keep them spiritually alive. However, there is sin that leads to death. So, you shouldn’t bother praying for that kind of sinner.

EXPOSITION

The Apostle James echoed this same sentiment when he told his congregation that if they were hurting, pray! If they felt great, sing! And if they were sick, call the church elders and have them pray and anoint you with oil in the name [Yeshua, meaning “Savior”] of the Master. Believing prayer will heal you, and Jesus will put you back on your feet. And if you’ve sinned, you’ll be forgiven – healed inside and out.^[6] So, now comes the Apostle John’s eighth test, the Test of Sin.

So, what exactly did the Apostle John mean by saying, “sin that leads to eternal death?” In Torah, we find a clue where Moses instructed the people that any person, indigenous or immigrant, who sins defiantly against God’s will, is deliberately blaspheming God. Therefore, they must be separated from His people: They despised God’s Word and violated His command. There is no other choice; they must be expelled from the community of believers.^[7] Yet, there is the promise made by the prophet Samuel that if someone mistreats another person, God can mediate for the guilty party. But if someone sins against the Lord, who can intercede?^[8] However, I’m sure John would quickly point to Jesus, our mediator.

I find a tantalizing possibility that the phrase “unto death” may not necessarily imply “spiritual death” or “eternal death.” The Greek preposition pros means “toward.” Therefore, it should be distinguished from pro, which means first or in front of. For example, “unto” may describe a motion coming or going toward a place or point in time or an item’s proximity to another thing, place, or point in time. It may describe the length of time a situation endures and even the relative direction of one object relative to another. Especially in later texts, “unto” is used to emphasize location and little on the direction. It leaves the idea that the person sinning intends to do so until they die. For the Apostle John, that could be the reason he recommends that we not waste time interceding for them. This could indeed be a form of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.

Yet, as we learn from the prophet Jeremiah, there are times when God seems to have had enough.  For instance, when the LORD told Jeremiah: “Even if Moses and Samuel stood here and made their case, I wouldn’t do a thing to help them. Instead, tell them to get out of here; get lost!”^[9] Nevertheless, God would only do so with a heavy heart. His love is still there, but they are not interested in mercy or forgiveness.

Still, Jesus had a similar message when he told His critics that there was nothing done or said that God couldn’t forgive. But if you deliberately persist in your slanders against God’s Spirit, you repudiate the very One who forgives. If you reject the Son of Man out of some misunderstanding, the Holy Spirit can convict you. Still, when you dismiss the Holy Spirit, you’re pushing away the lifesaver tossed to you, and you will drown in your perversity, forever refusing any connection you might have with the One who forgives.^[10]

The Apostle Paul selected the right approach after what Alexander the coppersmith did to him.^[11] He said, “the Lord will judge him for what he did to me.”^[12] The writer of Hebrews stated emphatically that there is no use trying to bring a backslider to the Lord again who once understood the Good News and tasted for the good things of heaven and shared in the Holy Spirit,  is thoroughly acquainted with what God’s Word says, felt the mighty powers of the world to come,  and then deliberately became hostile against God. They cannot bring themselves to repent, even if they nailed God’s Son to the cross again. They already held Him up to be mocked and experienced public shaming by rejecting Him.^[13]

The writer of Hebrews said it very precisely if we quit and turn our backs on all we’ve learned, all we’ve been given, all the truth we now know, we repudiate the Anointed One’s sacrifice and are left on our own to face the Judgment. Remember, those who broke the Mosaic law receive the death sentence. So, think how much worse the punishment will be for those who stomped on the crucified Son of God and treated His blood of the final covenant, which sanctified us as though it were animal blood. They have insulted and outraged the Holy Spirit, who brings God’s mercy to us.^[14]

Be careful, says the Apostle Peter. Once a person escapes the garbage dump of sin by experiencing the love and saving grace of our Master and Savior, Jesus the Anointed One, and then slides back into that same old lifestyle is worse than if they had never left and made clean and presentable to God. It would have been better had they not started on the straight road to God than to start out and then turn back, repudiating the experience and the holy command. There is an old saying that “A dog comes back to eat what he vomited, and after a pig is washed, it goes back and wallows in the mud again.” That is precisely what a person does who turns again to sin’s cesspool.^[15]

When it looked like John was finishing his letter, he got a new thought.  It was undoubtedly inspired by things he may have heard that was going on in the church to whom he was writing.  We catch a glimpse of this rule as far back as Abraham.  When he and Sarah moved to the Negev region to live between the provinces of Kadesh and Shur, Abimelech king of Gerar, was struck by Sarah’s beauty.  So, when he courted her, Abraham told him that she was his sister out of fear.  Some might call this a half-lie since she was his half-sister. Thus when Abimelech added Sarah to his harem, he had a dream that warned him of the consequences because Abraham and Sarah were married.

Quickly, Abimelech apologized to God for his mistake.  But God assured him in the dream by telling him, “Yes, I know you did this with a clear conscience, so I want to keep you from sinning against me. That is why I did not let you touch her. Now return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you to live. But if you do not return her, you may be sure that you and all who belong to you will die.”^[16] As a result, Abimelech was obedient to God’s warning. Then we read, “Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, his wife, and his female slaves so they could have children again, for the Lord had kept all the women in Abimelech’s household from conceiving because of Abraham’s wife, Sarah.”^[17]

This provides a precedent for what John was telling his readers. Later, we see Moses exercising the same restraint after he came down off the mountain and found the Israelites worshiping a golden calf.  God informed Moses that He was so displeased that maybe He should get rid of them and start all over by raising a new nation from Moses’ lineage.  But Moses pleads with God not to do so.  To remember the promises He made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  And what will the Egyptians say after He rescued them so dramatically with signs and wonders, only to destroy them in the wilderness?

The Bible tells us, “Then the Lord relented and did not bring on His people the disaster He had threatened.”^[18]   We could go on with how Moses saved Miriam from death through leprosy by praying for God’s grace;^[19] how Caleb was not kept out of the promised land because of his obedience when all the others rebelled;^[20] how Moses recalls God’s mercy after the people molded and worshiped the golden calf;^[21] how Hezekiah was able to obtain grace for his people when they ate the Passover lamb before being purified;^[22] how Job was able to receive forgiveness for Eliphaz and his two friends for misrepresenting God in their attitudes.^[23]

We also read how Moses was praised for standing in the breach to save the people of Israel from their rebellion.^[24]  And when Amos saw what punishment God had in store for His people, Amos quickly went to God in prayer and prayed for their forgiveness, and God heard him and held back His hand.^[25]  But alas, we read where God did not want to punish His people for their idolatry and blasphemy against Him but ended up saying: “I looked for someone among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found no one. So, I will pour out my wrath on them and consume them with my fiery anger, bringing down all they have done on their heads, declares the Sovereign Lord.”^[26]

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[1] Pett, Peter: Commentary on the Bible, 1 John, op. cit., loc. cit.

[2] John. 14:13,14; 15:7,16; 16:23-26

[3] Heaster, Duncan. New European Christadelphian Commentary: op. cit., The Letters of John, pp. 78-79

[4] Matthew 26:39; cf. Mark 14:36; Luke 22:42

[5] Jobes, Karen H., 1, 2, and 3 John (Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on The New Testament Series Book 18), op. cit., pp. 232, 244-245

[6] James 5:14-15 – The Message

[7] Numbers 15:30-31

[8] 1 Samuel 2:25

[9] Jeremiah 15:1-2

[10] Matthew 12:31-32; cf. Mark 3:28-30; Luke 12:10

[11] John Chrysostom, one of the Early Church Fathers, wrote, in his Homily 10 on Second Timothy, that Paul was referring to his trial when he said Alexander had done him much harm. The next verse relates that he (Alexander) greatly withstood Paul’s words, opposing his message, and the verse after that is clearly about Paul’s trial, saying he had nobody to support him during it. On this view, Alexander was a principal and effective opponent of Paul and probably a witness, and major complainant, against him. He may also have turned others against Paul, perhaps being the cause of the lack of support for him which he mentions here. John Gill’s Exposition suggests Alexander had done great injury to Paul’s character and had reproached and reviled him as a man of bad principles and practices.

[12] 2 Timothy 4:14

[13] Hebrews 6:4-6

[14] Ibid 10:26-29

[15] 2 Peter 2:20-22

[16] Genesis 20:6-7

[17] Ibid. 20:17-18

[18] Exodus 32:14; see 32:31-32; 34:9

[19] Numbers 12:1-5

[20] Ibid. 14:1-25

[21] Deuteronomy 9:7-29

[22] 2 Chronicles 30:15-20

[23] Job 42:7-9

[24] Psalm 106:1-23

[25] Amos 7:1-6

[26] Ezekiel 22:30-31

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R. Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FIVE (Lesson CV) 04/06/23

^5:15 He listens to us every time we ask Him. So, we know that He gives us whatever we ask from Him.

After studying the contest surrounding this verse, John W. (Jack) Carter (1947) says those who teach that God is unreachable; therefore, He is uninterested in us as individuals and pays no attention to our prayers.  John counters their heresy with a statement to assure the faithful that the LORD hears and responds to our prayers.  However, some have taken this verse out of its intended context, creating a “name it and claim it” heresy that holds to the idea that God will do if one’s faith is great enough, whatever we ask. 

Consequently, this is a heresy that only serves to discourage the faithful. John declares that our prayers to the LORD can be stated in great confidence that He will respond, but He does insert a necessary disclaimer: that what we ask is “according to His will.” For certain, we can pray a self-centered prayer that solicits God for some great blessing, and if it is the LORD’s will, He certainly can provide it.  Unfortunately, some misunderstand this passage and become disappointed or disillusioned when they do not hear or understand God’s response to their prayers.^[1]

A man who loves sharing God’s Word, Robert W. Yarbrough (1948) notes that the “if” part of verse fifteen is conditional. It is followed by the “then,” the consequence. If we know that God hears, regardless of what we ask, “we know that we have the requests that we requested from Him.” On the face of it, there are two ways to understand John’s assertion that whatever believers ask if they feel they know that God hears, they can count on God granting their requests if they have sufficient faith. This is a mistaken interpretation. Believers can certainly have faith that God will hear their prayer, but only if it is presented to Him according to His will can they be sure of an answer.^[2]

Skilled in Dead Sea Scroll interpretation and New Testament writings, Colin G. Kruse (1950) sees verses fourteen and fifteen as linked with verse thirteen by the conjunction “and.” Unfortunately, the NIV omitted this in verse thirteen. Nevertheless, the conjunction’s presence suggests that John wants to say that believers also experience confidence in their relationship with God, particularly in prayer and the assurance of eternal life. This is our confidence in approaching God: He hears us if we ask anything according to God’s will.

The NIV translates the KJV “in Him” as “in approaching God.” The Apostle John is speaking about the confidence believers have “in the presence of God,” which is further described as the knowledge that “if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.” This statement recalls the promise of answered prayer made by Jesus to His disciples in the upper room.[3] ^[4]

Believing that Christians can fall away from the faith, Ben Witherington III (1951) concludes that “prayer” is not a device for employing the resources of omnipotence to fulfill our desires but a means by which our desires may be redirected according to the mind of God and made into channels for the forces of His will. Prayer within the context of these fulfilled conditions will be effective prayer. In verse fifteen, John boldly says, “We know that we possess the requests we have made.” So, we not only possess but already possess. This may well be John’s interpretation of the secret for genuine godly prayer: “In proportion, as it becomes real prayer, it carries its answer within it.”[5] ^[6]

With her crafted spiritual insight, Judith Lieu (1951) believes we can affirm that God hears requests made according to His will, for the verb “to hear” regularly implies active response.[7] But the Apostle John now secures that affirmation as one of the foundational certainties that unite the readers with him and all those who share their refrain, “if we know.” Such certainties have already been signaled by the “you/we know,”[8] which was a Johannine testimony formula.[9]

It presupposed that no argument was necessary, although it may have referred back to an earlier demonstration; it is not surprising that at the climax of the epistle, “we know” becomes the leading motive of the passage and holds together the different elements within it.[10] Here the shared knowledge that God hears their prayers is at the same time a shared knowledge that they already possess those things that they have requested. For God to hear is for God to act. The present tense (“we possess”) leaves no room for doubt or hope alone: confidence anticipates reality; the perfect tense “we have made” also acknowledges that this relationship of request and response is repeated.^[11]

Emphasizing the Apostle John’s call to Christian fellowship, Bruce B. Barton (1954) states that this confidence – that a believer can approach God and that He listens to their prayers – is based on the belief that they are His children and have eternal life.^[12] Assurance means boldness of freedom to speak openly to the Anointed One.^[13] This promise focuses on prayer; it specifies that what believers ask for must be according to God’s will, not their wishes.^[14]

So, how can believers pray that way? How do they know what God’s will is? This happens as a part of their growth in their relationship with Jesus the Anointed One. When people choose to place their will in line with God’s will, the Holy Spirit in them will teach them to understand God’s will more completely. The Holy Spirit reveals God’s will as taught in the Bible. The Holy Spirit, in turn, helps them pray in line with God’s will.

Therefore, in communicating with God, believers do not demand their wants or what they should have. Instead, they discuss what He wants for them with God. When believers align their prayers to God’s will, He hears them. And if they know what He hears in their prayers, they can be sure that He will give them a definite answer. Praying in line with God’s will is the key to getting whatever believers ask. They should not think they can obtain anything they want merely to benefit themselves. As the following verses illustrate, prayer in line with God’s will is for the benefit of God’s kingdom.^[15]

A scholar who truly inspires Christian missionaries, Daniel L. Akin (1957) states that it is not that with the assurance of eternal life comes the confidence of heard and answered prayer. The Apostle John addressed prayer earlier;^[16] there, he informed us that God answers our prayers when we are (1) keeping His commandments and (2) doing those things that please Him. Now the Apostle adds the third requirement (3) we must ask “according to His will.” John says we can be confident toward God with these three keys in place as we pray. Indeed, we can know He hears us as we ask, and we “know what we asked for is what we need to fulfill His will for our lives.”

We might ask why anyone would want something contrary to God’s will. He knows what is best for us: His glory and our good. God desires to give us what we would wish to have as long as we are willing and wise enough to choose it. God’s will may differ from what we want, but we must believe this: it will always be better than what we treasure. As the Apostle Paul told the Roman believers: God’s will is “good, pleasing,” and “perfect.” Therefore, our attitude should be that we only want what God wants.^[17]

With a classical thinking approach to understanding the scriptures, Bruce G. Schuchard (1958) says that in the first instance of this verse, the Apostle John stipulates the implications of the certainties of the faith that can and must be known. And if we know that He hears us. The second of three instances in verses thirteen to seventeen of a conditional sentence expresses no uncertainty as it has previously.

The second of three references to “knowing that” suggests that knowing God hears us is to believe that He will provide and already has provided whatever we asked. The parenthetical “whatever we ask” fully amplifies John’s definition of the breadth and the depth of the abundance that the Father desires for His children to possess. We know that we have the requests that we have asked of Him. With the last of three references, “knowing that,” John exhorts again to the certainties of the faith, to solid confidence, whose implications are of the utmost importance.^[18]

Great expositional teacher David Guzik (1961) notes that first of all, God wants us to ask in prayer. Many prayers fail because they never ask for anything. God is a loving God and a generous giver – He wants us to ask of Him. Secondly, God would have us ask anything in prayer. Not to imply that anything we ask for will be granted, but anything in the sense that we can and should pray about everything. God cares about our whole life, and nothing is too small or too big to pray about. As Paul wrote to the Philipians, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done.”[19]

Next, God would have us ask according to His will. It is easy for us only to be concerned with our will before God and to have a fatalistic view regarding His will (“He will accomplish His will with or without my prayers, anyway, won’t He?”). But God wants us to see and discern His will through His Word and pray His will into action. When John wrote this, John may have had Jesus’ words in mind, which he recorded in his Gospel: “If you stay in me and obey my commands, you may ask any request you like, and it will be granted!”[20] When we stay in union with Jesus – living His life in us day by day – then our will becomes more and more aligned with His will, and we can ask what we desire, and more and more be asking according to His will. Then we expect answered prayers.

Some may ask, “If something is God’s will, why doesn’t He just do it, apart from our prayers? Why would He wait to accomplish His will until we pray?” It’s because God has appointed us to work with Him as the Apostle Paul: “workers together with Him.”[21] That means bringing our will and agenda into alignment with His. He wants us to care about the things He cares about, and He wants us to care about them enough to pray passionately about them.^[22]

As an expert in highlighting the crucial part of a biblical passage, Marianne Meye Thompson (1964) comments that the Apostle John is ready to summarize the heart of his concern in these closing sentences. He does so by assuring his readers that they have eternal life. His primary purpose in writing has been to offer pastoral encouragement and instill confidence and hope by reminding his readers of the fellowship with God and each other that they now enjoy. He has comforted them with the thought that, despite the defection of some community members, his readers can be assured of inheriting eternal life. Therefore, he urges them to stand fast and remain loyal to their commitment to God.

By analogy, just as God heard Jesus’ prayers because of His obedience and unity, God hears the faithful believer’s prayers, for they belong to Him. But in the context of our passage, one specific kind of request is heard: the petition on behalf of a sinning community member. The threat to the possession of eternal life is sin that leads to death.[23] Even as Jesus prayed for the perseverance of His followers and continues to intercede for forgiveness, so too is the community charged with the role of interceding for those who need to confess their sin, God will answer these payers, and the sinner will be forgiven and kept safe in eternal life.[24]

Thus the general statements about prayer in verses fourteen and fifteen provide the rationale and basis for the particular requests in verses sixteen and seventeen. The prayer for the spiritual life of another believer who is committing a non-mortal sin is not just one example of the kind of petition God hears; it is precisely the prayer that God wants to hear, even as He answered Jesus’ prayers that His followers kept spiritually alive. It is the heart of God’s will to grant eternal life to those who believe.^[25]

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[1] Carter, Dr. John W. (Jack). 1,2,3, John & Jude: (The Disciple’s Bible Commentary Book 48), op. cit., p. 131

[2] Yarbrough, Robert W., 1-3 John (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament), op. cit., pp. 300-301

[3] John 16:23-26

[4] Kruse, Colin G., The Letters of John (The Pillar New Testament Commentary), op. cit., loc. cit., Kindle Edition

[5] See Matthew 7:7; Mark 11:24

[6] Witherington, Ben III, Letters and Homilies for Hellenized Christians: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary on Titus, 1-2 Timothy and 1-3 John, op. cit., loc. cit., Kindle Edition

[7] Cf. 1 John 4:6

[8] Ibid. 2:20-21; 3:2, 14-15

[9] John 3:11; 21:23; cf. 19:35

[10] 1 John 5:15, 18-20

[11] Lieu, Judith: A New Testament Library, I, II, & III John, op. cit., p. 224

[12] Cf. 1 John 5:13

[13] Hebrews 4:16

[14] John 14:13-14; 15:16; 16:21-24

[15] Burton, Bruce B., 1,2,3 John (Life Application Bible Commentary) op. cit., pp. 114-115

[16] 1 John 3:22

[17] Akin, Daniel L., Exalting Jesus in 1,2,3 John, (the Anointed One-Centered Exposition Commentary), op. cit., loc. cit.

[18] Schuchard, Bruce G., Concordia Commentary, 1-3 John, op. cit., pp. 572-573

[19] Philippians 4:6

[20] John 15:7

[21] 2 Corinthians 6:1

[22] Guzik, David: Enduring Word, 1,2, & 3 John & Jude, op. cit., pp. 97-98

[23] Cf. 1 John 5:16-17

[24] Ibid. 5:18

[25] Thompson, Marianne M., The IVP New Testament Commentary Series, 1-3 John, op. cit., pp. 139, 141

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

By Dr. Robert R. Seyda

FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN

CHAPTER FIVE (Lesson CIV) 04/05/23

^5:15 He listens to us every time we ask Him. So, we know that He gives us whatever we ask from Him

Beyond any doubt, remarks Alonzo R. Cocke (1858-1901), God is no longer afar off when we acquire eternal life. The chasm that separates the creature from the Creator is filled; they enjoy continued fellowship as God’s child. In Him, there is help, counsel, and comfort. This confidence or boldness which arises leads us to prayer. The trust is in God and takes a particular form “that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.” Asking according to His will is an essential condition of prayer and is only possible because of the Anointed One within. With His life inside us in full power and the Spirit guiding us, we only ask for God’s preferred gifts, which He gladly supplies.”^[1]

Esteemed ministry veteran James B. Morgan (1859-1942) specifies an unseen connection between these verses and that which precedes them. The Apostle John addressed himself to those “that believe in the name [Yeshua, meaning “Savior”] of God’s Son.” He referred to counsels he gave them “that they might know they have eternal life.” Their faith will be strengthened, elevated, and purified. by consciously enjoying such a high privilege. He assumes they want the blessedness described in the text to gain higher spiritual ground. It is the exercise of believing in prayer. The connection is the assurance of faith with the spirit of prayer.

Therefore, whenever we sense God’s acceptance, we feel liberty and encouragement to ask Him for those things that are good and necessary. The Apostle Paul expresses this attitude when he tells the Galatians, “Because you are God’s children, He has sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts crying, Abba, Father.” It is what our Lord encouraged, “If your forefathers being evil knew how to give good gifts to their children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him.” In the same spirit, John writes ‒ “This means that when we ask God for things (and those things agree with what God wants for us), God cares about what we say. He listens to us every time we ask Him. So, we know He gives us whatever we ask from Him.”[2] ^[3]

Thinking as a dispensationalist,[4] Arno C. Gaebelein (1861-1945) notes that the conclusion of John’s great Epistle mentions the practical confidence that a believer may have, the outcome of that relationship and fellowship with the Father and His Son, which the doctrinal part so blessedly unfolds. We can come in prayer to Him with boldness and ask, “according to His will” we have the guarantee that God will listen and answer – in His time.

As a loving Father, God listens to the cry of His children, and He answers if it is according to His will, and God’s children would not have it differently and desire anything to be granted them, which is contrary to God’s will. Our unanswered prayers we joyfully recognize as not being according to His will. It is not true faith when fanatics, like “name it and claim it,” faith healers, say God must do certain things. That is not faith but presumption.^[5]

With characteristic fundamental thinking, Alan England Brooke (1863-1939) states that our awareness that God hears whatever we ask according to His will brings a consciousness of possession. In the certainty of anticipation, there is a kind of possession of that which has been granted, though our actual control may be indefinitely delayed. God has heard the petition: the things asked for are already ours by faith. This is perhaps the most natural explanation for verse fifteen. But it is possible that while meditating after urging compliance on prayer, John is trying to find expression for a view of prayer, which gives a more literal meaning to the words in verse fifteen, “we have the petitions” (KJV), “requests” (NLT).

In verse fourteen, John stresses that what he says applies only to prayers offered “according to His will.” It excludes any prayer that expresses the supplicant’s wishes not identified as part of God’s will. Therefore, John defines a valid prayer as a request for knowledge rather than a demand on crucial matters. It must also be accompanied by a readiness to give it up if it opposes God’s will.^[6]

With an eye for detail, David Smith (1866-1932) amplifies the second limitation in verse fifteen. “We have our requests, not always as we pray but as we would pray were we wiser. God gives not what we ask but what we need.” As a backdrop, Smith quotes the character Menecrates in Shakespeare:

            “We, ignorant of ourselves,

                Beg often our harms, which the wise powers

                Deny us for our good; so, find we profit,

                By losing of our prayers.”[7]

Prayer is not dictating to God.^[8]

Harry A. Ironside (1876-1951) illustrates this in his fireside chat manner by saying, “I hold a letter in my hand, and if the person to whom it is addressed is present, please come and claim it. It is addressed to ‘You who believe.’”[9] Now, what would you say? Do you believe First John 5:13 that in the name [Yeshua, meaning “Savior”] of God’s Son? Is the letter for you? Then, let us open it and see what it says. “That you may know that you have eternal life, even you who believe in the name [Yeshua, meaning ‘Savior’] of God’s Son.”

It is a message from the high court of heaven to every believer in the Lord Jesus, the Anointed One. Have you doubted all through the years? Have you been, as the old Afro-American spiritual puts it, “Sometimes up and sometimes down,”[10] yet hoping that you are heaven-bound but not very sure of it? Get settled today, put away your doubts and fears, and look at the risen Anointed One by faith. Take it from the blessed God Himself that “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.”[11]

As an effective spiritual mentor, Ronald A. Ward (1920-1986) points out that the Apostle John said, “believers listen to us,”[12] but now, “God hears us.”[13] We profit from God’s answer to our prayers, and our listeners benefit from the Word of God on our lips. The Apostle John describes a “spiritual law in the spiritual world.” God’s will requires those in union with Him to make their requests known to Him. This desire on God’s part does not narrow the channel through which our prayers travel to Him but widens it. Having eternal life gives us confidence and boldness to approach Him with our needs – meaning we shouldn’t feel too bashful to ask.[14] [15]

With academic precision, Stephen S. Smalley (1931-2018) finds that verse fifteen extends the content and mood of verse fourteen. The keyword “know” occurs for the first time in this section, which deals with Christian inevitable. On the use and significance of the Greek verb oidmen (“to see, perceive”) is translated by the KJV as “know” in this whole passage, especially in verses eighteen to twenty-one, “and if we know that He listens to us, whatever we ask.” It has no parallel in the Johannine literature.[16] God does listen to believing prayer, as verse fourteen made clear.^[17]

An insistent believer in God’s Grace, Zane Clark Hodges (1932-2008) agrees with the Apostle John that God hears requests made in accordance with His will, and a believer can be confident of receiving answers to them. So naturally, Christians today discern God’s will through the Scriptures and follow its advice. But the unit of thought that commences with verse three has focused on the truth that God’s commands are not a burden because faith in God’s Son is the secret of spiritual victory over the world.

In this context, it is natural to suppose that John was thinking especially, though not exclusively, of a Christian’s right to ask God for help in keeping His commands. That kind of prayer is transparently according to His will. Thus, in victorious living, a Christian is relieved of any burden through prayer based on “faith in the name [Yeshua, meaning “Savior”] of God’s Son.”^[18]

As a capable scripture analyst, Ian Howard Marshall (1934-2015) states that if we know that God hears our prayers, we can be sure that we have obtained whatever is best for us ‒ meaning “Our petitions are granted at once, or the granting of the results are perceived in the future.” Of course, if our prayers concern future events, their answers can only be up ahead. But perhaps John means what he says. The spiritual gifts we ask for in prayer are directly available to us. In any case, the point is that God’s children can be sure of an answer when they pray according to His will. “I tell you,” said Jesus, “whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you will receive it, and it will be yours.”[19] We need that confidence today.^[20]

As a seasoned essayist on the Apostle John’s writings, John Painter (1935) points out that verse fifteen elaborates on verse fourteen. The conclusion of verse fourteen, “He hears us,” now becomes the basis of the condition of verse fifteen, “if we know that He hears us whatever we ask.” The assumption that God hears us has already been made conditional to asking according to His will. The new condition builds on that. What follows from this is an elaboration of what it means for God to hear us. It means that “we get the request that we asked from Him.”

Thus, we see that “to hear” means more than simply to be aware of the words. To hear in this sense means to respond positively to what is asked. Thus, to know that God hears means that God grants the requests. It is now explicit that the request is made of God, and it is implicit that God provides whatever has been requested. The hidden assumption is that God is able to provide whatever we ask according to His will.^[21]

Ministry & Missions Overseer Muncia Walls (1937) says that verse fifteen expresses faith. Actually, there are two essential keys to be considered by the child of God in their approach to God in prayer; 1) The will of God – knowing the will of God will result in our praying with more assurance and boldness. Sometimes, like Israel of old, we may plead with God to give us something (something which we don’t actually need), and the Lord, because of our persistence, may permit us to have that thing, but at the same time, it may bring toughness into our soul. So, knowing the will of God is very important. 2) By faith – Prayer must be by faith. We must believe that God is not only able to do what we ask Him for but that He will do it for us. That is what John is speaking about in this verse.^[22]

Expositor and systematic theologist Michael Eaton (1942-2017) points out that it is vital believers know they are experiencing eternal life because it will affect their praying. If we know that we believe and are praying in His will, then we may also know that the answer to that prayer is on its way. John does say, sometimes we do not have a one hundred percent assurance that what we are praying for is God’s will. God allows us to pray generally. But if we know that we are praying in His will, tremendous confidence in prayer follows in our relationship with Him.

Again we know that John does say “if” we pray, and we may not know that He hears us. But we can still pray! And God may answer us even if we do not have total certainty that what we are asking for is His will. But if we do know He hears us, we have it! It may be slow in coming, slow to be visibly realized, but the actual answer to the prayer has already been approved. To have this kind of knowledge in advance gives great peace and joy.^[23]

After scrutinizing the Apostle John’s subject theme, William Loader (1944) notes that the Apostle John repeats the theme of boldness in prayer in these verses.[24] God’s agápē gives us life and encourages us to stand with confidence before God. The model is not that of the pleading servant before a vicious rich man nor begging on one’s knees before the Almighty. Instead, it is one of awe and reverence expressed in acceptance of love and the invitation to be fully present with God, not to diminish oneself. Respect for God based on reverence differs from respect based on being overawed.^[25]

A Great Commission practitioner David Jackman (1945) sees further confidence in verse fifteen that we can know that, with God, hearing means answering. This is the force of the present tense. We have what we asked. There is no “pending” notice with God. Though the outworking of the answer may not be seen until sometime in the future, our requests are granted at once. The trust that opens up our needs to God is not disappointed. ^[26]

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[1] Cocke, Alonzo R: Studies in the Epistles of John; or, The Manifest Life, op. cit., pp. 132-133

[2] 1 John 5:14b-15

[3] Morgan, James B., An Exposition of the First Epistle of John, op. cit., Lecture XLVIII, pp. pp. 478-479

[4] A belief in a system of historical progression, as revealed in the Bible, consisting of a series of stages in God’s self-revelation and plan of salvation through Noah, Moses, and Jesus, who served as Saviors of God’s chosen.

[5] Gaebelein, Arno C., The Annotated Bible, op. cit., pp. 159-160

[6] Brooke, Alan E., A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Johannine Epistles, op. cit., pp. 144-145

[7] The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra, published by Isaac Iaggard & Ed. Blount, 1623, Act II, Scene I

[8] Smith, David: The Expositor’s Greek Testament, 1 John, op. cit., 197

[9] 1 John 5:13

[10] Nobody Knows the Trouble I See, author unknown

[11] Ironside, Harry A., Addresses on the Epistles of John, op. cit., pp. 207-208

[12] 1 John 4:6

[13] Ibid. 5:15

[14] See Mark 11:23ff  

[15] Ward, Ronald A., The Epistles on John and Jude, op. cit., pp. 57-58

[16] See Luke 19:40; 1 Thessalonians 3:8

[17] Smalley, Stephen S., Word Biblical Commentary, Vol. 51, 1,2,3 John, op. cit., p. 296

[18] Hodges, Zane C. John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck, Dallas Theological Seminary, The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, op. cit., Vol. 2, p. 902

[19] Mark 11:24

[20] Marshall, Ian Howard: The Epistles of John (The New International Commentary on the New Testament), op. cit., p. 245

[21] Painter, John. Sacra Pagina: 1, 2, and 3 John: Volume 18, op. cit., loc. cit., Kindle Edition

[22] Walls, Muncia: Epistles of John and Jude, op. cit., pp. 91-92

[23] Eaton, Michael: Focus on the Bible, 1,2,3 John, op. cit., pp. 191-192

[24] See 1 John 3:21-22; cf. 2:28

[25] Loader, William: Epworth Commentary, The Johannine Epistles, op. cit., pp. 73-74

[26] Jackman, David: The Message of John’s Letters, op. cit., pp. 161-162