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Pray With Confidence (11/23/25)
Okay. Have you heard this one? I used to have a beautiful lamp on my desk, but someone stole it. You’d think I’d be upset, but I am de-lighted.
Okay. Have you heard this one? A priest, a pastor, and a rabbit go into a blood donation center. The nurse asks the rabbit, “What’s your type?” The rabbit replied, “I think I am a Type-O.”
Unfortunately for my friends, I love that kind of humor. I enjoy the play on words. But when I come to today’s focal text (1 John 5:13-21), the double-meaning of words is not much fun. A mortal sin (1 John 5:16-17): does that mean physical death or spiritual death? Is a wrongdoing (1 John 5:17) simply making a mistake or is it choosing to do wrong? Does eternal life (1 John 5:20) happen before, after, or during the days we are breathing?
Now you have come to the next paragraph and you probably are thinking that I am going to explain all these mixed meanings. No, I am not. The richness of our encounter with the Scripture is that it can meet us wherever we are and with what journey we bring. God can meet me wherever I am in my journey. The writer of 1 John tells us that when he addresses his readers: “I 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. “ (1 John 5:13). This session is well titled: “Pray with Confidence.”
1 John 5:16 is a confusing verse. After the writer says we can pray for those who commit sins that are not mortal, he says not to pray about those who commit mortal (deadly) sins. What! Is he saying that we should not pray for someone about to commit a mortal sin? No! We should not pray that an enemy commit a mortal sin! In our own sinful way, we may hope that someone we do not like will break their relationship with God by committing a death sin. No! We are not to pray that that will happen.
The writer of 1 John must have known that many of his readers will be new in the faith. In several places (2:1, 2:12, 2:14, 2:18, 2:28, 3:1, 3:18, 5:21, for example), he names his readers as “children.” God loves the little children…like us!
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By NC Conference of The UMCOkay. Have you heard this one? I used to have a beautiful lamp on my desk, but someone stole it. You’d think I’d be upset, but I am de-lighted.
Okay. Have you heard this one? A priest, a pastor, and a rabbit go into a blood donation center. The nurse asks the rabbit, “What’s your type?” The rabbit replied, “I think I am a Type-O.”
Unfortunately for my friends, I love that kind of humor. I enjoy the play on words. But when I come to today’s focal text (1 John 5:13-21), the double-meaning of words is not much fun. A mortal sin (1 John 5:16-17): does that mean physical death or spiritual death? Is a wrongdoing (1 John 5:17) simply making a mistake or is it choosing to do wrong? Does eternal life (1 John 5:20) happen before, after, or during the days we are breathing?
Now you have come to the next paragraph and you probably are thinking that I am going to explain all these mixed meanings. No, I am not. The richness of our encounter with the Scripture is that it can meet us wherever we are and with what journey we bring. God can meet me wherever I am in my journey. The writer of 1 John tells us that when he addresses his readers: “I 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. “ (1 John 5:13). This session is well titled: “Pray with Confidence.”
1 John 5:16 is a confusing verse. After the writer says we can pray for those who commit sins that are not mortal, he says not to pray about those who commit mortal (deadly) sins. What! Is he saying that we should not pray for someone about to commit a mortal sin? No! We should not pray that an enemy commit a mortal sin! In our own sinful way, we may hope that someone we do not like will break their relationship with God by committing a death sin. No! We are not to pray that that will happen.
The writer of 1 John must have known that many of his readers will be new in the faith. In several places (2:1, 2:12, 2:14, 2:18, 2:28, 3:1, 3:18, 5:21, for example), he names his readers as “children.” God loves the little children…like us!