The Christian life may not be easy, but it is rooted in simplicity.
Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.
I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 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. 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. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death. 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. We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.
The Christian life may not be easy, but it is rooted in simplicity. Those who have made Jesus their savior, Lord, shepherd, and King have life for eternity, starting today. Those who reject Jesus do not have life beyond this physical one. Those who deliberately attribute the work of God to some lesser devil have committed the eternal sin from which there is no repentance (Matthew 12:24; Mark 3:29; John 8:23-24), thus condemning themselves to spiritual desolation (Stott). The permanence of utter desolation should cause any thinking person to carefully evaluate his or her positions on Jesus. Those who walk in darkness may not be lost, but may still respond to the light of the Christian’s prayers on their behalf.
Faith in Jesus, both fully human and fully divine, offers a blessed assurance that cannot be crafted by any institution, intellect, or ingenuity. The confidence Christ promised offers more than hope for a future; it offers eternal life beginning immediately. Stott wrote, “Christian confidence belongs not just to the future, to the parousia… and the judgment day… but to the here and now” (184). Eternal life begins at salvation and, while the believer’s life on earth is imperfect (human nature still sins), it is continually growing in devotion to the Lord and in becoming more like Christ. Tony Evans put it this way, “God wants you to know that you have eternal life–not based on your fluctuating faith–but based on the object of your faith, Jesus” (1379). This fluctuating human faith is stabilized by the Holy Spirit, making Christians aware that “all sin is in the sharpest antagonism to their essential principle of life” (Meyer). The battle against a sin nature lasts for the duration of this physical life, but the closer believers grow to God, the less entangled with sin they remain.
The most powerful weapon the Christian has to fight both internal predilections to sin and external lies of the antichrists in this world is prayer. Believers have complete confidence that God hears their prayers. They are permitted to approach the throne of grace boldly to receive mercy and grace (Hebrews 4:16), and while at the throne, they know that whatever they ask according to God’s will, he will hear and respond. Stott emphasized that, “prayer is not a convenient device for imposing our will upon God, or for bending his will to ours, but the prescribed way of subordinating our will to his. It is by prayer that we seek God’s will, embrace it, and align ourselves with it” (Stott, 185). By prayer Christians put aside selfish thoughts and desires, seeking after God’s plan and desire for them. Prayer acknowledges God’s sovereignty juxtaposed against human frailty. Prayer petitions for needs, laments for communal and personal sins, and intercedes on behalf of others. Above all, prayer worships the Lord God in all its forms. Prayer binds the hearts and minds of believers to unity in standing against the schemes of the devil (Ephesians 6). Van Neste noted, “This is a call to bold praying, a reminder that assurance is not just for ourselves but is intended to energize us for service such as boldly praying for the advance of God’s kingdom, for his will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Prayer is powerful protection and provision for the saints as they fight against false teachers, wicked philosophies, and people who reject the gifts of God as beneath their superior knowledge.
False teachers then and now love the idea of special knowledge. If postmodern philosophies have taught nothing, they have made clear that this world contains no absolute Truth, but rather a series of personal truths that change with the wind. There is no room in a postmodern culture for Jesus; it is under the control of the spirit of antichrist. The antichrists (the false teachers to whom John referred in chapter two) attempted to deceive the church at Ephesus by proclaiming a special knowledge that rejected Jesus as the Christ. They have received their due: physical death. What awaits them is spiritual destruction as well. The same is true of those who teach from the spirit of the antichrist in current culture. The enemy still whispers lies to those who wander blindly; the enemy speaks through those who allow the spirit of antichrist in. This is the sin that leads to death.
Christians need not fear the sin that leads to death. Those who are born of God are protected by the Holy Spirit. Christians know they belong to God and are secure in Jesus because they know that real life comes through the Father who gives eternal life through the Son. The world may belong to the evil one, but believers in Jesus are loved and protected by God, the Father, Creator of heaven and earth.
References
The ESV Bible. Crossway, 2001, www.esv.org/.
Calvin, John. “Commentary on 1 John 5.” Calvin’s Commentaries, Bible Hub, https://biblehub.com/commentaries/calvin/1_john/5.htm.
Evans, Tony. Tony Evans Bible Commentary. Holman Bible Publishers, 2019. ISBN 978-0-8054-9942-1.
Meyer, Heinrich. “Commentary on 1 John 5”. Meyer’s Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/hmc/1-john-5.html. 1832.
Minter, Kelly, et al. When You Pray. Lifeway Press, 2023.
Palmer, Earl F., The Communicator’s Commentary Series, Volume 12: 1,2,3 John; Revelation. Word, Inc. 1982.
“Postmodernism.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Spring 2024 ed., first published 30 Sept. 2005, substantive revision 5 Feb. 2015, plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2024/entries/postmodernism/.
Stott, John R.W. The Letters of John. Tyndale New Testament Commentaries, vol. 19, InterVarsity Press, 1964, 1988.
Van Neste, Ray. “1 John: A Commentary.” The Gospel Coalition, 2024, www.thegospelcoalition.org/commentary/1-john/.
Defaulting to Grace 