1 John 5:13-21

Conclusion. A reminder of the writer's purpose, an assertion of the value and also the limitations of intercessory prayer, and a summary of the teaching of the epistle.

1 John 5:13. that. life: John wishes his readers to have no misgiving as to the reality of their religious experience, though the appended clause (even... God) indicates that the security is bound up with a right view of Jesus.

1 John 5:14 f. When our prayers for ourselves or for others are in accord with God's will, He hears and will answer them.

1 John 5:16. a sin not unto death. a sin unto death: this distinction has given rise to much discussion. Death symbolises the hopeless ruin of the moral personality. Unto death denotes, not that the gravest sin actually and at once produces death, but that it looks in that direction, has that tendency. In the light of the teaching of this epistle the sin unto death will mean such a view of Christ as saps the foundation of faith and obedience. It is such heresy as poisons conduct. John evidently thought his heretical opponents guilty of this mortal sin hence his reassertion of the contention that sin attached to every act of unrighteousness. For the view that certain forms of apostasy are fatal to the soul, cf. Hebrews 6:4; Hebrews 10:26 f.

1 John 5:18. In both experience and faith the Christian has distinct characteristics. In view of his new birth he cannot be guilty of habitual sin, but is preserved from it by the power of God. Moreover he sees in Christ a real Incarnation of God in man, and through that view attains to a right conception of God and the possession of eternal life.

1 John 5:19. in the evil one: i.e. in his embrace. Unlike the Church which, because of its inner life, is secure from being harmed by the evil one, the sinful world is wholly in his power.

1 John 5:20. This is the true God: true here means real, genuine; the revelation of God in Christ, as the Church interpreted it, being thus distinguished from the false view of God taught by John's opponents With the true doctrine was bound up a valid experience (cf. John 17:3).

1 John 5:21. Avoidance of the pagan worship prevalent in Asia Minor may here be enjoined (Zahn). But a serious danger of that kind would surely have elicited more than this incidental warning. Idols, therefore, more probably symbolises any form of unreality or falsehood which threatens to draw the soul away from Christ.