I John 5:13-20
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. 14This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.
16If 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. 17All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death.
18We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the one who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him. 19We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. 20We know also 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—even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
21Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.
The most bizarre ending to a book of the Bible.
Four parts
1) You have eternal life - the point of the book
2) You can pray with confidence - an additional benefit of the life - communication with God
(a bizarre trip down the "what should we pray" trail.
3) You are safe from the evil one - Deceptively powerful passage about the Jesus being God.
4) Keep yourselves from idols - random closing words - Gladys - drive fast and take chances.
Lets identify the land minds
Two big ones, and one minor one.
1) What is a mortal sin?
2) When we pray for our brother, what happens, or more specifically, what happens in his/her life.
Minor one
Why does John end the book talking about idols?
Preaching points:
When we live a life of confidence, things change. Our expectations change, our prayers change, and our view of the world changes.
When we take the book of John as a whole we see a man who is intent on a purpose. He is the last disciple standing, and he wants to make sure that the trajectory of the Christian faith is solid, and that the lines between the truth and that which is not true is very clear.
As we have been saying of the last few weeks, the assurance that John is giving us is the like the assurance we have when we close our eyes and sit on a chair. We know the chair is there. We know we have eternal life.
This assurance can be seen in the way we love each other, the way we read the Bible, and the way we pray.
This assurance extends into our personal safety. "Yea, though I walk through the valley of death."
This assurance even extends to our ability to discern idols, and to avoid them
To live is Christ, to die is gain.
Posted via email from Mark Kraakevik
