1 JOHN 5

As Christians, people who profess that Jesus Christ is the Lord which by implication means we are born of God, we must love one another because everyone who loves God, loves His children (1 John 5:1). And what does it mean to love God? It means to keep His commands (1 John 5:3a).

God's commands are actually for our own good. Thou shall not steal, thou shall not kill, thou shall not commit adultery, love thy neighbour as you love thyself. When you keep all these, you will be at peace with God, yourself and everyone around you. Guilt, fear, anxiety, regret, will have no place in your life. And the Bible tells us that when you keep these commands, it is proof that you love God and by extension, you love His children (1 John 5:2-3). When you love someone you wouldn’t want to do things that will displease the person or cause the person discomfort.

Now we know that the flesh wouldn’t want to keep God's commands. The flesh would want to live life anyhow and do things anyhow without caring about their negative effects. And so the flesh will see these commands as a burden, as something impossible. But the Bible tells us that whatever has been born of God conquers the world, conquers the flesh and its desires. Therefore, God's commands will be easy to follow. And we as Christians, have conquered the world by reason of the fact that we believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God—through our faith, we have conquered the world (1 John 5:3-5). 

Verses 6 to 9 go on to restate the truth that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and God testified to this Himself. And whosoever believes in Him, has this testimony within him/her. Whosoever doesn’t believe has rendered God a liar. And what is this testimony? That God has granted us everlasting life and this life is in His Son—whosoever believeth in Him will not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16b), I am the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6), I am come to give life and to give it more abundantly (John 10:10b). Verse 12 summarises it all by saying that whoever has Jesus has life and whoever doesn’t have Jesus doesn’t have life! 

“And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us” 1 John 5:14 KJV. From this we learn that for our prayers to be heard, we must ask—ask and it shall be given unto you (Matthew 7:7a; Luke 11:9a); if you ask for anything in My Name, I will do it (John 14:13-14; John 15:7). And secondly, what we are asking for must be according to His will. These are the major components of effective prayers. Much as we are to ask, we should endeavour to make sure that what we ask for is the will of God. Recall when Christ was teaching His disciples to pray, His opening words were “Our Father which art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done...” Also recall when Christ walked on earth, during His lowest moments when His time to go to the cross was drawing near, He asked God to take it away from Him but after He asked and above what He asked, He said that let God's will be done and not His. And do you know what? God's will was that Christ will be nailed to the cross to save mankind so He didn’t take away that part for the sake of His Son, no. He let Him go to the cross for the fulfilment of His will. Therefore, we should bear in mind that when we ask outside God's will, our prayers will not be heard because God's will takes pre-eminence. It must be done. Even Christ, God the Son Himself acknowledged this fact. Many at times we may find ourselves consistently asking for a particular thing and it seems to keep delaying, it seems as if we haven’t prayed or fasted enough. We must also bear it in mind that it may also mean that it isn’t the will of God. Either that it isn’t the will of God at all and it will never be answered or it isn’t the will of God for it to be delivered unto us at the time and so we would have to wait. Whatever the case, the foundation of all our prayers should always be the will of God.

Verses 16 and 17 enjoin us to be our brother's keeper—where we see a Christian committing sin, it is our duty to pray for him/her, that God may restore life to him/her. Therefore when a Christian stumbles, it will be wrong for us to cut him/her off or laugh at them. This is in line with the opening verses of this chapter where we are commanded to love the brethren. It is by reason of this love that we will pray for anyone who has derailed. By doing this, we are portraying our love for God and displaying that we are Christ-like in deed. God is love and it is by reason of this that He gave us His Son, Jesus to die for our sins. God saw that we were in sin, He didn’t turn away from us, He didn’t condemn us. Instead He sent His Son to redeem us, to pick us up from the pit of sin. Now if we say that we are of God and we love Him, we must in turn extend this hand of love to the brethren.

The concluding verses of this chapter proceed to list out certain key truths that we must know: that as Christians and they who are born of God, we do not sin. This means that we aren’t to continue in sin, we are new creatures in Christ and we are to remain free of sin. 

Next, we are of God while the world is controlled by the devil. This is to serve as a warning that we may face persecution or situations where our faith will be put to test. In these cases, if we remember that we are of God but the world isn’t, we will not fail.

Next is that we should know that Jesus Christ has come and has given us understanding so that we may know God, and we are in Him. He is the true God and He is everlasting life. If we are ever conscious of this, we will not stray from the path of righteousness.

Lastly, we are to guard ourselves from idols. Idols come in many forms. Whatsoever thing we prioritize above God becomes an idol. It can be money, a job, your marriage, just name it. It is our duty to always be on guard and ensure that God remains number one in our lives.