Today we finish the book of 1 John as we begin a new week. This week we will read: 1 John 5 - Monday, 2 John - Tuesday, 3 John - Wednesday, Jude - Thursday, and we begin our journey through Luke's Gospel account with Luke 1 on Friday.
John begins to wrap up the first of his epistle's with a summary of his theology. "Get born again, love God, love people. We are commanded to love, if we don't love we can't say we are following Jesus."
He then makes a very interesting presentation on the Spirit, the water, and the blood. These three testify to Jesus Christ and they verify the Gospel claims of John. John says if we live in this truth, we can ask anything according to His will in Jesus name and God will hear us. We can even ask for sins to be forgiven!
Here is a place where I bet you read and re-read the text. I know I did. What is a mortal sin? How does this concept of a mortal sin impact salvation? I have read many commentaries and web sites and I still am not sure where I come down on all of this.
An interesting definition I read for mortal sins read this way; "Mortal Sin is sin that has a deadly impact on our relationship with God." This theologian went on to say that any willful act of disobedience that "kills" the grace of God in the sinner.
John closes with another extreme stance on being sinless. "We know that those who are born of God do not sin, but the one who was born of God protects them, and the evil one does not touch them." 1John 5:18 NRSV. I wish I understood this more fully. I guess it is my own weakness and sinfulness that keeps me from understanding. It has not been my experience that "those who are born of God do not sin,". Lord help me to understand and to walk with you.
About Me
- Pastor Bill
- I am a committed follower of Jesus Christ, a happy husband, father and grandfather!
4 comments:
I was a bit surprised, confused and if I may be honest, a little disappointed when John says he did not tell us to pray for people that commit a sin which leads to death.
My understanding is that these sins include refusing the testimony of Jesus, or constantly blocking the works of the Holy Spirit.
I would think that these people would require more prayer than those comitting sin NOT leading to death...
What is the reasoning here, PB?
Am I missing the big picture somewhere?
Or am I reading too much into it?
Help!
(thank you)
What a passage.
I love how he continues to clarify all that we have read so far, and go a little deeper also.
Pastor Bill, it is pretty wild this middle portion of passage. I read it and re-read it and just read it again after I read your comment and it's still hard to swallow/grasp. I'll revisit it again tomorrow. Something is pretty serious that he's talking about...
MW, you're right. We should pray for these people. They need it, and God will hear our prayers.
I love how he starts of the conclusion by reassuring us of our salvation. He must have known that for all the generations to come people would be concerned about how sure their salvation would be.
No question about it if you read these words: "13I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life"
He also does tell us that we can really lay our Prayers on God, and they will be heard.
What a promise this chapter ends with. How awesome.
Good luck with that middle section...
From Liverpool,
Marshall
Mark and Marshall,
Your read was my read. Uncomfortable and confusing. John seems clearly to have situations in mind that are beyond redemption. I still encourage you to pray for everyone unless Holy Spirit stops you - and only then if it is clearly HS. I will look into this more, but so far it has not been very satisfying!
Love Bill
I wonder (and this is without looking up anything to back up my wondering) if in John's mind praying for someone involves a close relationship, perhaps physical contact with them, laying on of hands or something. Maybe he's trying to prevent hard or danger coming to believers who might risk themselves to be physically present with someone who has committed a mortal sin (whatever that is.) Just a rambling thought...
"[God's] commandments are not burdensome." Nice verse. How often I act as if following God is a burdensome chore instead of a path to abundant life.
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