1John 5:16-21

Sunday Morning Bible Study

January 27, 2013

Introduction

Do people see Jesus? Is the gospel preached? Does it speak to the broken hearted? Does it build up the church? Milk – Meat – Manna Preach for a decision Is the church loved?

This is a book about Real Issues

What’s real? What’s the truth?

We’ve been addressing issues like:

Who is God? What is He really like?
What is a Christian? What is a Christian really like?

Last week we talked about prayer, the intersection of what happens with a real Christian interacts with a real God.  This week we look at one aspect of prayer…

5:16-17 Sinner Prayers

:16 If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death. There is sin leading to death. I do not say that he should pray about that.

:16 If anyone sees

Third class condition, a “more probable future” condition. 

:16 sees – horao – to see with the eyes; to see with the mind, to perceive, know

Aorist active subjunctive

:16 sinning – hamartano – to be without a share in; to miss the mark; to err, be mistaken; to miss or wander from the path of uprightness and honour, to do or go wrong; to wander from the law of God, violate God’s law, sin

Present active participle

:16 a sin – hamartia – to be without a share in; to miss the mark; to err, be mistaken; to miss or wander from the path of uprightness and honour, to do or go wrong; to wander from the law of God, violate God’s law, sin; that which is done wrong, sin, an offence, a violation of the divine law in thought or in act

:16 which does not lead to death

Literally, “not toward death”

:16 he will ask – aiteo – to ask, beg, call for, crave, desire, require

We saw this word used last week in terms of prayer, and that it pointed towards “specific requests”.

Future active indicative

:16 he will give – didomi – to give

Future active indicative

:16 life – zoe – life

:16 for those who commit sin – hamartano – to be without a share in; to miss the mark; to err, be mistaken; to miss or wander from the path of uprightness and honour, to do or go wrong; to wander from the law of God, violate God’s law, sin

Present active participle

:16 not leading to death

Literally, “not toward death”

:16 a sin (2nd time) – hamartia – to be without a share in; to miss the mark; to err, be mistaken; to miss or wander from the path of uprightness and honour, to do or go wrong; to wander from the law of God, violate God’s law, sin; that which is done wrong, sin, an offence, a violation of the divine law in thought or in act

:16 leading to death

Literally, “toward death”

:16 he should pray – erotao – to question; to ask; to request, entreat, beg, beseech

This word has a very similar meaning to aiteo.  Is there a difference?

Trench says that the difference has to do with the attitude of the person asking.
Aiteo is used when an inferior is asking something of a superior.  It may be a slave asking a master, it may be a person asking God.
Erotao is used when an equal is asking another equal.  It is the word always used when Jesus is praying to God, whereas aiteo is used when we are praying to God.
This is the only place where erotao is used to describe a prayer of a person asking something from God.
Thayer says that the difference is in what is asked for.
Aiteo is used to ask for something to be given, not done, and is focused on the thing asked for rather than the person you are asking.  Erotao is a request for a person “to do” something (rarely give), is focused on the person being asked, and is used more for exhortation (“I am asking you to do this…”)

:17 All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to death.

:17 unrighteousness – akidia – injustice, of a judge; unrighteousness of heart and life; a deed violating law and justice, act of unrighteousness

:17 sin – hamartia (both times) – to be without a share in; to miss the mark; to err, be mistaken; to miss or wander from the path of uprightness and honor, to do or go wrong; to wander from the law of God, violate God’s law, sin; that which is done wrong, sin, an offence, a violation of the divine law in thought or in act

:17 not leading to death

Lit. “not toward death”

:16 sin leading to death

What a strange phrase.  What does this mean?  The issue centers on what kind of “death” (eternal or physical).  Two views:

The Unpardonable Sin

(Mt 12:32 NKJV) Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.
The idea here would be that if a person has sinned, but not committed the unpardonable sin, then you should be praying for them.
If they have committed the unpardonable sin, then perhaps you should think twice before praying.
The problem I have with this view is, how do you know they have committed the “unpardonable sin”?

Sin and physical death (better view)

There is a sense in the Bible that some sins are worse than others.
When the Law laid out what kind of earthly punishments were appropriate for various sins, there were different kinds of punishments.
You rape a woman, you are put to death.
You steal your neighbor’s lawn gnome, you aren’t put to death.
There are occasions where a person’s sin led directly to their death by God.
Nadab and Abihu (Lev. 10) were two sons of Aaron the high priest.  They were a little bit drunk on the day that the Tabernacle first opened its doors and when fire came down from heaven to consume the sacrifice, they got all excited and rushed into the Holy of Holies to offer “strange incense”.  And fire came out of God’s presence.

And they died.

Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5) were a part of the beginnings of the early church.  At one point a lot of people in the church felt led to sell property and stuff and give it all to the church.  Ananias and Sapphira sold some stuff and pretended to be giving everything when they really didn’t give everything.  Their “sin” wasn’t that they didn’t give everything, but that they were phonies, pretending to be something they weren’t.

And they died.

I think that sometimes when a believer has majorly screwed up their lives and their witness, God will take them home.  Not necessarily as a punishment, and not necessarily sending them to hell, but almost more to keep them from screwing up even more.  And though that’s kind of sad, perhaps that’s not a bad thing.

:16 he will ask

Lesson

Prayer and sinners

There are times when God will nudge us to stop praying for someone.  God told Jeremiah:
(Je 7:16 NKJV) “Therefore do not pray for this people, nor lift up a cry or prayer for them, nor make intercession to Me; for I will not hear you.
But most of the time, it is better that we pray for others.  Samuel said,
(1 Sa 12:23 NKJV) Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you; but I will teach you the good and the right way.
The whole point in our passage is that we ought to be praying for people who are caught in sin.
Even with the “sin unto death”, John isn’t forbidding you to pray for them, he’s just saying that you don’t “have to” pray for them (whatever it is).
We ought to be concerned for those caught in sin.
Jesus came to earth to rescue “sinners”.  Paul wrote,

(1 Ti 1:15 NKJV) This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.

Jesus was known as a “friend of sinners”. (Mat. 11:19)

(Mt 11:19 NKJV) …a friend of tax collectors and sinners!

Paul told we ought to reach out to those who have stumbled:

(Ga 6:1 NKJV) Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted.

Frankly sometimes I don’t always know exactly how to do this.  But I don’t think the answer is to stay away from “sinners”.

I think the place to start is by praying.  And then reach out.

5:18-21 Real Knowledge

John wraps things up by talking about what we “know”.  It’s a review of sorts.

:18 We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him.

:18 we know – oida – to see; to know

This is the knowledge that is based in the head, achieved through thinking and reasoning.

Perfect active indicative

:18 is born – gennao – to be born

Perfect passive participle

:18 does not sin – hamartano – to be without a share in; to miss the mark; to err, be mistaken; to miss or wander from the path of uprightness and honor, to do or go wrong; to wander from the law of God, violate God’s law, sin

Present active indicative

Continuous action

:18 whoever is born of God

Lesson

Born Again

People have interesting ideas of what it means to be a Christian.
Some people think that you are a Christian if you are born in the U.S.A.
Others think you are a Christian as long as you go to church.
Some people say, “I am a Christian, but I’m not one of those “born-agains.”
The Bible says that you MUST be born again.  It’s not an option.  Jesus was speaking to a religious leader when He said…
(Jn 3:3 NKJV) Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
To be “born again” means to have a spiritual “re-birth”.
It’s about recognizing your need for God.  Why do I need God?

The Bible says that my wrong actions, my “sin”, result in separating me from God.

(Ro 6:23 NKJV) For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The Bible says that God has made a way to “fix” our sin problem, and that was to send His Son Jesus Christ to pay for our sins by sacrificing Himself by dying on a cross.

(2 Co 5:21 NKJV) For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Being “born again” is about opening up your life to God.

(Jn 1:12 NKJV) But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:

In a few minutes I’m going to give you a chance to do that very thing.  I’m going to give you a chance to open your heart up to God.

:18 whoever is born of God does not sin

We saw similar statements by John earlier in the letter like:

(1 Jn 3:6 NKJV) Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him.
(1 Jn 3:9 NKJV) Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.

These statements can be very troubling to us because it sounds as if a person who is born again will never, ever commit a single sin.

How many of you here today would claim to be “born again”?  And how many of you here today who are “born again” have sinned this week?
That’s why this is troubling to us.

We dealt with this back in chapter 3 (You can see the notes or listen to it online here), when we examined the Greek grammar of the passage and found that in every case (here too), John uses a “present” tense, which indicates continuous action.

John is saying that Real Christians will eventually stop those habitual sins.  If you are claiming to be born again, yet you continually, habitually commit the same sin over and over and over again, without ever caring to deal with it, then as the astronauts would say, “Houston, we have a problem!”
A person who is “born again” is a person who has allowed God to come into their life.  They have God’s “seed” in them.  And God’s “seed”, the Holy Spirit, will be influencing us to be doing the right things, not the wrong things.

On the other hand, Real Christians do commit sins.

John had dealt with this at the beginning of his letter,
(1 Jn 1:8–10 NKJV) —8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.
(1 Jn 2:1 NKJV) My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

Lesson

Sin less

Not “sinless”. 
One of the traits of a true Christian is that they “sin less”, not that they are “sinless”.
Every day that we are on the earth, we ought to be growing in our relationship with God and learning to deal with more and more sin in our lives.
We will never reach “perfection” until the day we see Jesus.
But we will continue to “clean up our side of the street”.
It’s kind of like getting a “makeover” with God’s help, but one that lasts your entire life.
Play “Extreme Photoshop Makeover” clip.

Letting God work on you is a lot like this.

:18 he who has been born of God keeps himself

keeps – tereo – to attend to carefully, take care of; to guard

Present active indicative

The NAS as well as other modern translations have it slightly different,

but He who was born of God keeps him
The idea is that it isn’t the believer who “keeps himself”, but that it’s Jesus who “keeps him”.
Frankly, both ideas are correct.  There is a sense in which Jesus “keeps” or protects us, and we are also to learn how to “keep” ourselves.

:18 the wicked one does not touch him

wicked one – poneros – full of labours, annoyances, hardships; bad, of a bad nature or condition; in an ethical sense: evil wicked, bad

This is speaking of Satan

touch – haptomai – to fasten one’s self to, adhere to, cling to

Present middle indicative
It’s the word used by Jesus towards Mary after His resurrection:
(Jn 20:17 NKJV) Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father …

Mary had thought she had lost Jesus, but now she’s got a firm grip on Jesus and she wasn’t letting go.  But He had things He needed to do.

It’s the word that describes the woman who was healed when she touched the hem of His garment:
(Mt 9:20 NKJV) And suddenly, a woman who had a flow of blood for twelve years came from behind and touched the hem of His garment.

Do you get the idea that this gal has a good hold on Jesus’ robe?

It’s how Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law when she had a horrible fever.
(Mt 8:15 NKJV) So He touched her hand, and the fever left her. And she arose and served them.

I can see Jesus grabbing a hold of her hand, and she is healed.

It’s a word used to describe how Jesus sometimes healed people, like this man suffering from leprosy:
(Mt 8:3 NKJV) Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately his leprosy was cleansed.

I don’t see this as Jesus lightly brushing His hand on the guy or backslapping his head.  He puts His hand on the guy and leaves it there.  A guy with a disease that you wouldn’t want to touch.

When the blind men outside of Jericho were begging to be healed.
(Mt 20:34 NKJV) So Jesus had compassion and touched their eyes. And immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed Him.

This wasn’t a slap on the back of the head.  He puts His hand on their eyes and leaves it there until they are healed.

Lesson

Satan can’t touch me

As wonderful as it is to think of Jesus putting His hand on someone and holding on to them, this word is being used by John to show us that Satan can’t touch us.  He can’t grab or cling to me.
Play Purell Commercial
That’s a great song line to have in your head when you are afraid of Satan.
Don’t get me wrong, Satan is someone you ought to be afraid of, to be very afraid of. Peter wrote,
(1 Pe 5:8 NKJV) Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
But keep in mind, he can’t touch you.  He can scare you, he can engineer messes around you, but he can’t touch you.
Play Lion and Baby clip
On the other hand, if you don’t have the Lord in your life, guess what it’s like to face the lion?

:19 We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.

:19 We know – oida – to see; to know

Perfect active indicative

:19 lies under the sway of the wicked one

lies under the sway – keimai – to lie, to lie (helpless) like a baby

Jesus called Satan the “ruler of this world” (John 12:31)

(Jn 12:31 NKJV) Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out.

Paul calls Satan the “prince of the power of the air” (Eph. 2:2)

(Eph 2:2 NKJV) —2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience,

Paul calls Satan the “god of this age”

(2 Co 4:4 NKJV) whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.
Satan blinds the minds of those who do not believe.

Those who do not have the Lord are not in a safe place when it comes to the devil.

But those who have been born of God, the devil can’t touch them.

:20 And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.

:20 We know – oida – to see; to know

This is the knowledge that is based in the head, achieved through thinking and reasoning.

Perfect active indicative

:20 has come – heko – to have come, have arrived, be present

Present active indicative

:20 has given – didomi – to give

Perfect active indicative

:20 an understanding – dianoia – the mind as a faculty of understanding, feeling, desiring; understanding

:20 that we may know – ginosko – to learn to know, get a knowledge of

This is that “knowledge by experience”. 

The knowledge starts in your head, but moves to a relationship with God.

Present active subjunctive

:20 Him who is true (both times) – alethinos – that which has not only the name and resemblance, but the real nature corresponding to the name, genuine; true, sincere

This is back to our overall theme – reality, what is “real”

John has been making sure that we are connected to the real Jesus.

An expanded translation of this verse looks like this:

We know with an absolute knowledge that the Son of God has come and is here, and that He has given us a permanent understanding in order that we may be knowing in an experiential way the One who is genuine. And we are in the Genuine One, in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the genuine God and life eternal.

:20 in His Son Jesus Christ

Jesus is the One who is true.

:20 This is the true God

The word “This” should refer back to the closest noun, which is Jesus Christ.  He is “the true God”.

:21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.

:21 Little children – teknion – a little child; in the NT used as a term of kindly address by teachers to their disciples

:21 idols – eidolon – an image, likeness; a false god

:21 keep yourselves from idols

keep – phulasso – to guard; to watch, keep watch

Aorist active imperative

Back in verse 18, we saw that the child of God “keeps himself”.

Here John gets specific, that we “keep” or “guard ourselves” from “idols”.
We should be aware of the things that will try to take the place of God in our lives.

Lesson

On Guard

Even though the evil one “can’t touch” us, we still need to be on our guard.
I need to be aware of how vulnerable I am.
Have you thought about what you can do to steer your life away from some of those triggers?
Sometimes we go out the front door of our home, angry, and so we start toying with the idea of “flirting” with everything and everyone we see.  We tell ourselves that there’s no harm in simple “flirting”.

Play “Flirting” video clip

And you wonder why you sometimes end up in a ditch?

Have you thought about what triggers lead you into sin?
I know that when I get depressed or am under stress, and I’m just a little hungry, I tend to eat.  A lot.  Things I shouldn’t eat.

I’m learning to think ahead and have a small snack between meals, then I’m less hungry, and I am able to handle some of the hunger a little better.  That may not be handling the stress, but it’s handling the hunger.

There are certain things on my computer than can lead me down paths I will regret later.

You can do things to turn down the volume of those temptations.

Look into “Open DNS”, a free service that will work with your router to filter out bad stuff.

Log into Google and turn on “SafeSearch” and “lock” your search settings to filter out stuff your router won’t catch.

YouTube even has a “Safety Lock” to filter out bad stuff.

None of these things are perfect, but they sure turn down the volume.

Illustration
Charles “Kid” McCoy was welterweight boxing champion in 1896.  The phrase “the real McCoy apparently comes from stories about him.  McCoy was only 5’11” and weighed 160 pounds.  He didn’t have a reputation of being the cleanest fighter.  During one fight while he was touring the Pacific Isles, he took on a huge native fighter who weighed over 250 pounds.  When he saw that the other fellow boxed in his bare feet, McCoy tossed some tacks into the boxing ring, and as the fellow pulled one of his feet up to pull out a tack, McCoy decked him.  Another time he was fighting a contender who had the misfortune of being deaf.  Once McCoy discovered his opponent’s disability, he wasted no time in taking advantage of it.  Near the end of the third round McCoy stepped back a pace and pointed to his adversary’s corner, indicating that the bell had rung.  “Oh, thank you so much,” said McCoy’s opponent, “Very civil of you.”  But the bell hadn’t rung at all, and as soon as the other boxer dropped his hands and turned away, McCoy immediately knocked him out.
Sin and Satan both like to work the same way with us.  If we drop our guard for a moment, it will find a way to take advantage of us and clean our clocks.

Are you ready to open up your heart to Jesus?