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1 John 5:14–15
“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.”
In today’s passage, John begins to offer some concluding remarks and applications of the teaching of his first epistle. Having told us how we might find assurance of salvation, the Apostle gives us a few final exhortations before he finishes writing. John is concerned not only that his readers believe the truth but also that they put it into practice.
First John 5:14 returns to the subject of confidence before God, which John spoke of in 3:21–22. We saw then that when we are assured of our salvation, we gain confidence before God, confidence that makes us obey His will and thus receive from Him what we request. True assurance produces obedience, and obedience results in our seeing answered prayer in accordance with God’s will.
When we studied 3:21–22, we were careful to note that our obedience is not necessarily the cause of God’s affirmative responses to prayer, nor does it ensure them. We know that God says yes to our prayers only when we pray according to His will. Obedience is linked to such answered prayer in that those who obey God know His will and therefore pray in line with His will much of the time.
In 5:14, John tells us explicitly that God “hears us”—that is, He answers our prayers in the affirmative—and adds the important qualifier “if we ask anything according to his will.” Verse 15 likewise tells us that “if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.” Both verses give us confidence that anything asked for in accordance with the will of God will be done.
In one sense, this can go without saying, since the Bible uniformly asserts that God’s will is always done (for example, Job 42:2). We may ask why, then, we pray at all. In the first place, we pray because we are commanded to do so (Matt. 6:5–15). God tells us to pray, and since He is our Lord, we must do so. Moreover, though God’s will is always done, He often uses us to accomplish His will, and our prayers are among the means that He has appointed to bring about the ends that He has decreed. Prayer, then, is not an exercise in futility for those who belong to God. The sovereignty that guarantees that His will shall be done is the very thing that makes prayer effectual rather than empty, for the God who ordains the end ordains the means with it, and He has been pleased to include the prayers of His people among those means.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
God’s will is always accomplished, and we must remember that our prayers are meaningfully used by God to bring about His purposes. God has decided to use us to accomplish His ordained ends. Let us ask God to help us submit to His will in all things.
For further study
- Matthew 6:9–13
- James 4:2–3
The bible in a year
- Ezekiel 25–26
- James 5
- Ezekiel 27–29
- 1 Peter 1–2