“I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. 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. If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life—to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death. We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him. We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. And we know 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, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols.”

A Path of Sanctification

1. Sanctified in Answered Prayers

“I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.”

In the conclusion of his letter, John does something similar to his words near the end of his gospel account, and identifies an overall purpose for his writing. He says in John 20:30–31,

“Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

This statement serves as a culmination, a capstone on his gospel so that there is no question as to his purpose in his writing. We now see the same thing as John begins his conclusion to the letter of 1 John. It makes complete sense, but all this that John has written that refines and shores up our understanding and approach to God is written to Christians. This isn’t some elitist, “we’re better than you,” Christians only message – they are words that affirm and sanctify the believer, and call those who are without God to the Truth they have not yet known. Though, to the one who lives in rebellion, who has chosen war against God and those who have been redeemed by Him, what could the words of Truth mean? What sense could that which leads to eternal life mean to someone who is mired in the temporal desires of the world? But this remains John’s mission, his purpose in writing this letter, just as in his gospel – that the reader might come to fully know the Truth, and in doing so, receive true life.

“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 the story of the prodigal son, we often focus on the figure for which the parable is named – the prodigal, the wayward son who submits and returns to the home of his father, who is greeted with joy and celebration. We sometimes fail to see the lesson of, or even remember the brother of the prodigal, despite the fact that the brother’s account takes up a good third of the parable. In Luke 15:25–32 Jesus teaches,

“Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.’ But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’ And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’”

There’s a lot that we could take away from that in terms of not fostering jealousy or bitterness against new converts, and against not becoming conceited in the security of our relationship with God. It bears remembering the parable of the workers in the vineyard, and that those who came late were paid the same wage as those who came early, all out of the generosity of the master. But the matter of the older son, and as it relates to today’s passage helps remind us of the security we have in our affirmed relationship with Christ. We are not strangers to our Father, we are not distant or alienated from Him, but are called His children and made co-heirs with Christ. We are heard, seen, and tended to. Our needs are met, our prayers answered, not based around flawed human imagining, but perfectly by the will of God. Romans 8:26–28 tells us,

“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

And so we may be bold, not arrogant, but confident and assured that on the foundation of our faith in Christ, God is building us up, meeting all needs and honoring every request, to our good, and His glory.

2. Sanctified in Freedom from Sin

“If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life—to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death.”

This idea of “sin that does not lead to death,” seems like an odd concept at first glance. After all, Romans 6:22–23 says,

“But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

How then can there be “sin that does not lead to death,” if sin by its very nature garners death? Applying the context of Scripture as a whole, it would seem that sin that does not lead to death would the temptations and stumblings of the believer. Continuing in Romans, Paul later writes in 7:21–25,

“So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.”

Salvation does not mean that we no longer face the temptation of sin, however it does completely change our relationship with darkness. For the one for whom sin remains a practice, a habit, an uncontested, or even delighted in means of behavior, it most certainly gleans its wages of death – this is not the nature of things for the one who is a new creation in Christ. This is something that we can see modeled in how Jesus prays for the disciples. In Luke 22:31–32, Jesus says to Peter,

“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”

During the High Priestly Prayer, Jesus says in John 17:12,

“While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.”

Jesus prays for His followers at that present time, as well as those of us who will come to follow Him in the future – but not Judas Iscariot. The disciples fall short at times – they bicker among themselves, they show poor faith, or a lack of comprehension for the Truth that Jesus teaches them. But they are reproved, corrected and are ultimately raised to positions of glory through their submission under the mighty hand of God. Meanwhile in both Matthew and Mark’s gospels, Jesus is recorded saying that for the one who betrays the Son of Man it would have been better for them had they never been born. While Satan may have demanded to have Peter, that the disciples may be sifted like wheat, it is Judas the traitor for whom the verbiage is used in both Luke and John that, “Satan entered into him.” We don’t see Jesus praying for Judas’ repentance or restoration, because Judas’ relationship with sin was entirely different than the other disciples. Practically, this takes us back to what John has emphasized throughout this letter of 1 John – there is a difference between stumbling in the temptation of our sin, as addressed in 1 John 2:1,

“My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”

Versus the one who is not just tempted, but is fully immersed in their sin, as stated in 1 John 3:4–6,

“Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.”

If I see a brother or sister stumbling and struggling with the weight of their flesh, it is entirely right that I pray for their forgiveness, that they may be strengthened and convicted, purified, and restored – that God would affirm them in the Light and Life that He has given, and deliver them. But for the one who is in love with the world, who revels and delights in their sin, I cannot pray this same thing. Certainly, I want them to reach repentance – but it is the difference between wanting someone who is alive to live a full and healthy life, compared to wanting someone who is dead to become alive. God resurrects the dead, He does raise those who are perishing in their sin to new life in Him – but I can’t pray for the salvation of another in the same way that I would pray for the restoration of a brother or sister. Salvation and sanctification are two different things, two different processes, and two different prayers.

“We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.”

Before we know Christ we are marked by sin, we walk in step with the world, we exist in the grip and sway of Satan. But in Christ, we are held in righteousness – it’s not that we will never face the temptation that remains in the nature of our current flesh, and it’s not that Satan will not seek to destroy us – but we are held apart. Again returning to the High Priestly Prayer, Jesus prays in John 17:14–15,

“I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.”

Jesus is fully God, and fully Man, and in being fully Man, He perfectly models who we are to be in our relationship with God. As we’ve already read in today’s passage,

“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.”

Jesus asks that we be made different, separated, in but not of the world, and kept from the evil one – if Jesus in His perfection has asked this of the Father with whom He is One, then it only makes sense that despite trials and suffering, despite struggles and temptation, we are preserved from the destructive plans of the enemy, we are guarded and secured by our Father, who among many things is our perfect and unfailing Chief Shepherd.

3. Sanctified in True Understanding

“We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.”

We know that God is supreme, but Scripture is uncompromising in communicating that the fallen world is lorded over by Satan. Ephesians 2:1–3 says,

“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”

The enemy is the driving force behind the culture and behavior of the world – but we aren’t part of this, we’re distinctly separated. Philippians 3:17–21 says,

“Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.”

Understanding the condition of things, of seeing the world for what it truly is in its fallen state, testifies to the transformative knowledge of the Spirit. This is not something we discern by our own understanding, but come to know through the righteous Truth of Christ.

“And we know 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, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols.”

I think we struggle with the concept of idols in today’s society. While not entirely gone from the world, the majority of people, certainly in western culture aren’t bowing down before carved images. Most people don’t pray to statues, they don’t sacrifice and burn meat or grain or people in worship of some unseen force – yet idol worship is rampant and pervasive, just as much now as when the Scriptures of the Bible were written. If we look at the account of the prophet Balaam in Numbers, we see as he repeatedly attempts to curse Israel on behalf of the Midianite king Balak, only for God to turn the curses to blessings in his mouth. The whole matter is wrapped up in Numbers 24:25, which simply says,

“Then Balaam rose and went back to his place. And Balak also went his way.”

The next verse, beginning the next chapter says in Numbers 25:1

“While Israel lived in Shittim, the people began to whore with the daughters of Moab.”

This may seem entirely unrelated to the whole Balaam incident, even more so when we read Numbers 25:2–3 say,

“These invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. So Israel yoked himself to Baal of Peor. And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel.”

The New Testament however gives us context for the transition between the events around Balaam, and Israel turning from God. 2 Peter 2:15–16 says while discussing the folly of false prophets,

“Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.”

And Jude 10–11 says,

“But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam’s error and perished in Korah’s rebellion.”

Jude in particular helps us see the depth of Balaam’s wickedness, putting him in the same company as Cain, the first murderer, and Korah, who sought to kill and dispossess Moses out of envy and ambition. But it is the words of Jesus to the church at Pergamum in Revelation 2:14 that give us the greatest clarity into Balaam’s sin, and why I bring all this up in regard to John’s caution around idolatry,

“But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality.”

The jump from Numbers 24 to 25, which may not seem entirely connected at a glance, are directly intertwined. Unable to curse the people of Israel, Balaam counseled Balak to send the women of Moab among the men of Israel to seduce them. In their newfound attachment through sexual relations, the men also began to worship the gods of Moab, they spurned God, earning His wrath, as Israel had, “yoked himself to Baal of Peor.” What does this have to do with John’s closing to his letter, and the urging that we keep ourselves from idols? An idol isn’t just an image of wood or metal that is bowed down to, it is anything that you yoke yourself to apart from God. We are called to one gospel, that of Jesus Christ crucified and resurrected for the sins of man. We are called to one yoke, one burden – the light and easy one that comes from Christ and Christ alone. Anything that we give our heart and mind over to that is not Christ becomes our idol. Sex is such an easy example because so often romantic attraction causes people to compromise moral standards, and blur lines of what is right and wrong so that they can have what they desire, but the possibilities for idolatrous pitfalls are endless. What commands your attention and controls your life that’s not God? Is it your job that holds your highest devotion? Are you so ride or die for your favorite celebrity that your sincerest worship is offered up to them? Are you so adoring of your husband, or wife, or children that they have become your foundation, or make up the center of your life? If we are truly changed in Christ, if we are drawn to and delight in the commandments of God, then we stand in the true and revelatory knowledge and understanding of our salvation through the Son of God. We are changed, we are made new, and we are inheritors of eternal life. Don’t overcorrect – I’m not saying that you can’t enjoy a football game, and I’m certainly not saying that you shouldn’t show loving devotion to your spouse and children. But a child of God is, among many things, one who abstains from idols, because we stand in Truth, we desire the will of our Father above all else, and in the understanding of the Spirit we see idols for what they are – hollow imitations that lead to death, while we have been given the Light of eternal life.

Pastor Jake’s sermon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxLalNnWoC4