Seven Rhythms: Freedom From Strongholds - 1 John 5:13-21
What do you do when you see someone sin? What do you do when someone sins against you? Let me tell you what I did recently when I felt someone sinned against me. My daughter and I were driving home from her school, and I turned left at an intersection and followed the arrows on the road that indicated I needed to merge into the left lane because the right lane of traffic was ending. A big black truck revved its engine at me from behind and sped past me, traveling partially on the other side of the road. The driver then hit their brakes in front of me and immediately indicated they were turning right onto the next accessible street. I honked my horn to inform them of their irrational and hazardous behavior. I shared with my daughter that this person was an idiot and that she should never drive with her emotions like this individual was. The driver showed their appreciation for my corrective honk and flipped me off.
After witnessing their creative hand gesturing, I started evaluating my actions. I wondered if I had cut them off, but I didn’t notice it because I was engaged in a conversation with my daughter. I also started to reflect on how I reacted. I had immediately judged the person to be an “idiot,” and then I shared that appraisal with my daughter. As I retold this story to my wife and reflected on it afterward, I began to feel disappointed with my reaction. Studying the passage we are covering this week and reviewing this event simultaneously made me realize a dangerous practice in my life. When I see someone sin, my reaction, more often than I would like to admit, is to judge and gossip. I will talk to myself about the wrong I have witnessed and create a disparaging narrative about why it happened. I will judge. Then, I will share that narrative with someone else. I will gossip. God is not pleased with this practice, and John will encourage us in our passage today to react to sin differently.
Big Idea: Gossip to God. John encourages us to note the sins we see others commit and pray for those who commit them. Prayer is not my immediate reaction when I see sin and definitely not my reaction when I am sinned against. I believe that one of the reasons for this is because I see sin as primarily an offense against me or the person being sinned against. Sin indeed is that, but it is also more than that. Sin is a danger to the one sinning. Sin brings death and demonic bondage into our lives. John will encourage us to pray for sinners to be freed from this bondage and experience the life God would have for them.
1 John 5:14-15, “14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.”
John starts this section of his letter by emphasizing the effectiveness of prayer. When we pray in accordance with God’s will, we can be assured that it will happen. We shouldn’t read into this passage that God will do everything we ask Him to do. God is not a genie. Prayer is not an instrument we use to bend God’s will to ours. Prayer is a vehicle to invite God's will into our lives. Alignment with God’s will is not the only qualification that John puts on our prayers. Every request we make to God should be qualified, as Jesus’ prayer was in the garden of Gethsemane before His crucifixion, with “not My will, but Yours be done.”
It is surprising to me how John applies this idea of God answering our prayers that align with His will. I want Him to apply this idea to sickness and suffering. Here is how I want the rest of the passage to read, “If anyone sees his brother sick or suffering… he shall ask, and God will either heal or deliver him.” Unfortunately, that is not what it says. The occasion here for our prayers is the sin of others, not their experience of suffering and sickness.
1 John 5:16-17, “16 If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life—to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that. 17 All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death.”
When you see sin, pray. I often pray for those who are sick and suffering. I tried this week to recall when I prayed for someone who was sinning. It took me some time to come up with an example. It definitely wasn’t my first reaction when that driver cut me off and then flipped me off. I believe my negligence in this area is my narrow view of sin. I live as if sin is only an offense to the one being sinned against and not a danger to the one who sins. John highlights the effect of sin on the one sinning when he writes about the result of our prayers.
Our prayer results in God giving our “brother,” our fellow believer, life. Life here should be understood as the “eternal life” that John mentions in this letter and his gospel. It is a life characterized by communion with God that will reach its fullest expression in the afterlife. Sin drains the enjoyment of the eternal life that God has given to everyone who believes in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins. When I see a brother or sister in Christ sin, my heart should grieve for them that they are allowing brokenness and a sense of dying into their lives. If I genuinely viewed sin as a danger to the one sinning, I would pray more for those I see sinning. I should have invited my daughter to pray that the driver who cut us off would be delivered from the anger and impatience they were displaying and that this moment wouldn’t lead to them experiencing greater bondage to rage and selfishness. A more serious view of the bondage of sin would cause me to intercede more for my brothers and sisters in Christ.
In the following few verses, John explains more about how God brings life to those we pray for who are sinning. These verses give us great hope when we pray for our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. We will go back to the “sin that leads to death” and how John speaks of not praying for that type of sin. Before we move on, we should note that when we want to help others grow in their spiritual life, we need to acknowledge that we are called to do our part, God will do His part, and we hope the one we are helping does their part. We can’t do God’s part or their part. We can only do our part. Seeing spiritual growth as having these three parts will help us grasp the hope in the following verses and unlock the puzzle of why we are not called to pray for the sin that “leads to death.” When we pray for those struggling with sin, we invite God to do His part in bringing about life change.
1 John 5:18-20, “18 We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him. 19 We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. 20 And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. 21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols.”
John very clearly and boldly states that continual sin is unnatural for the Christian. Their “new birth” in God has changed their nature, which makes habitual sin alien to who they now are. Christians do sin, and John has already pointed this out in the first chapter of this letter in 1 John 1:9-10. We will sin and are instructed to confess our sin to God so that we may be cleansed from that sin.
John explains further why a Christian is no longer in bondage to habitual sin. John says that “he who was born of God protects him.” The one being protected is us, and the one doing the protecting, called “born of God,” is Jesus Christ. Christ protects us by not allowing Satan to “touch” us. This doesn’t mean that Satan can’t hurt us or afflict us. It means that we are no longer under his power as the rest of the world is and are no longer held captive to the bondage of continual sin.
After reading this passage, my view of sin expanded, making me want to pray more for my brothers and sisters in Christ. Sin brings death and demonic bondage into our lives. One of the primary victims of sin is the one who sins. In our sin, we become victims of our own villainy. Every sin we commit that remains unconfessed and turned from leads to greater bondage and death. Sin is self-sabotage. It is a spiritually suicidal activity.
When we see sin this way, we will be compelled to pray and ask the Savior to bring life into their lives. Our part is to ask God to do His part in bringing spiritual freedom to those in sin. The last verse speaks of the responsibility that every individual has in their own spiritual growth. We must “keep” ourselves from idols. Yes, God the Son will protect us, but we must also keep ourselves from sin. Understanding this emphasis helps us in understanding when we are to not pray for those who commit the sin “that leads to death.”
1 John 5:16-17, “16 If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life—to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that. 17 All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death.”
This is not the first time prayers for others have been discouraged. God specifically instructed the prophet Jeremiah not to pray for the nation of Israel (Jeremiah 7:16-18; 11:14; and 14:11) because His judgment of them was decided. It is worth noting that John does not directly command his readers not to pray. He instead states he does not command us to pray for those who have committed this sin. He is giving his readers permission not to pray. He is making an allowance, not stating a prohibition. Even with this in mind, it feels odd not to encourage those individuals to be prayed for. If this sin is so serious, leading to spiritual death, why wouldn’t he want us to pray for those who commit it?
Let’s consider first the nature of this sin. John does not state directly what this sin is in this paragraph, but the nature of this sin can be derived from looking at the broader context of this letter. John has been warning his readers about the presence of “antichrists” in their midst.
1 John 2:18-25, “18 Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us. 20 But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge. 21 I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth. 22 Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. 24 Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. 25 And this is the promise that he made to us—eternal life.”
These antichrists have left the community of the church, denied that Jesus is the Christ, therefore denying the Father who sent him, and have abandoned the testimony of the apostles. John is describing an outright and admitted rejection of the gospel message. This sort of rejection must be extreme because Jesus prayed for those who crucified him. Those who nailed Jesus to the cross displayed a significant antagonism toward him, but not to the degree that prevented Christ from praying for them. The sin that leads to death must be a consistent and extreme antagonism toward Jesus. A Christian can’t commit this sort of sin.
John’s permission to not pray for these individuals reminds us that everyone plays a part in their own spiritual growth. We play a part in the growth of others. God plays a part in their growth. And they must play a part in their growth. When someone devotes their heart to an outright rejection of the gospel and an extreme antagonism to Jesus, we must acknowledge the limitation of our actions. We can’t force people into the kingdom of God. We can not make people love God. We should pray fervently for those caught in sin, and only in extreme cases should we feel released from that obligation.
I don’t know the precise line between antagonism and extreme antagonism. Jesus’ line seems pretty far out there, beyond murdering him. The focus of our passage is not where that line is but rather the necessity of praying when we see the sin of others. We must gossip to God. When we see someone caught in sin, we should be grieved by the pain they are causing to others and themselves. We must see the spiritual death and demonic bondage they are bringing into their lives. This should move us to intercede on their behalf and invite God to deliver them.
If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, I encourage you to pray for a brother or sister in Christ who has sinned against you. Before you confront them about their sin, pray for them. I recently remembered a brother in Christ who has sinned against me. As I recalled the events that had taken place, I realized that I had not committed myself to praying for him that he might be delivered from the bondage and death that was being brought into his life because of this sin. I was in sin for not obeying this command given by John. I am committing to pray for this individual every day this week. Will you join me? I believe God will hear our prayers and move greatly in our lives and their life. Let's see what happens together.
If you are not yet following Jesus, I hope you take away from this passage the serious nature of sin. John teaches us that there is no such thing as a neutral spiritual state. John says that if we are not in Christ, we are under the power of the devil. Your sin enslaves you to demonic forces. I don’t say that to scare you but to sober you. I want you to see the reality of your spiritual captivity. Jesus Christ offers you freedom and forgiveness in His death and resurrection. By placing your faith in Him, you can have your sins forgiven before God and experience freedom from the dominion of darkness.
Life Level Application
Head: Read 1 John 3:19-24. In verse 22, what condition does John add to our prayers being answered? How do you think this condition has hurt or helped your prayers?
Heart: Read Jeremiah 2:2-8; 7:16-20; and 11:14-17. Describe the emotions that God is expressing toward His people in these passages. How do you think God’s people felt when they heard these words from Jeremiah?
Hand: Read Ephesians 4:26-27. How can persisting in sin give the devil an “opportunity” or “foothold” in your life?
Habit: Reflect on 1 John 5:16. How can you pray for someone this week that is struggling with a sinful habit?