1 John 5:13-21

well…we made it.  a study all the way through 1 john.  i don’t know about you, but i feel like i know a little more than i did before we started this journey.  

this past sunday, was interesting, though.  there were two places in the text that i couldn’t fully wrap my head around.  the first was the reality of measuring my personal life experience with the words of the letter.  john writes…or at least appears to write that if we are praying the right way, whatever we ask of god, he will not only hear our prayer, he will do whatever we ask.

This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.  And if we know that he hears us–whatever we ask–we know that we have what we asked of him.  1 John 5:14-15

i know that god does not give me whatever i ask from him.  is it my fault for not asking the right question?  am i not asking according to his will?  am i not praying with enough faith?  is god merely protecting me from my own shallow or destructive requests?  do i just need to keep asking until i get the question right?  is it really all about the fish sandwich?

why shouldn’t prayer be as simple as saying, “god, i am good with whatever you deal.  whatever you deal!  thank you.  amen.”

i’m still laughing about the minor epiphany i had while trying to decode the meaning of the sins that lead to death and sins that don’t lead to death.

If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that he should pray about that.  1 John 5:16

in my relentless pursuit to figure out what it meant, i almost missed the point.  when we see a brother commit a sin, we need to pray for them.  don’t gossip…don’t judge…don’t condemn…don’t confront…don’t jump to conclusion…don’t ignore…don’t follow their example…pray.  pray that god will give them life.

hope the study was good for you.  i’ll be preaching a couple of sermons the next couple of weeks to help lay a foundation for where we are heading this fall.  you need to be there.