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All Scripture is from CSB (Christian Standard Bible) unless otherwise noted.

Believe Jesus is the Messiah. John and other eyewitnesses testify that Jesus IS the Messiah (1:1-3) who lived a perfect life, gave Himself up in a sacrificial death, and rose from the dead. It is through Jesus that we can KNOW that we are FORGIVEN. 

Love God & obey His commands. We can’t continue to live in sin & walk in darkness (1:6). 

Followers of Jesus asking that God’s will be done can have confidence that He hears whatever you ask. 

The Ultimate Authority is LISTENING. Are you asking? And…are you asking according to His will?

When we have confidence that He hears us, and we ask anything according to His will, we can trust that we have what we have asked of Him.

Christians are expected to be Prayerful & Faithful.

What is the example of a sin that doesn’t lead to death? 

Some think this refers to physical death. God sometimes kills people who disobey Him. (e.g. Ananias & Saphira; also, some got sick and died (1 Cor. 11:29-30) because of their abuse of the Lord’s Supper)

Others think this refers to spiritual death. False teachers and those who have followed them - those who refuse to believe that Jesus is fully man and fully God - are facing spiritual death. It seems most likely that this is what John is referring to. If so, then John is encouraging believers to pray for Christians who aren’t currently walking in purity - we should ask, and God will give life to him [the believer caught in sin - that doesn’t lead to death]. Paul encourages believers to make the time and effort to help restore them.

Galatians 6:1 Brothers and sisters, if someone is overtaken in any wrongdoing, you who are spiritual, restore such a person with a gentle spirit, watching out for yourselves so that you also won’t be tempted.

Examples in Scripture include confronting, correcting, & restoring 

those caught in sexual sin - man kicked out of Corinthian church (1 Cor 5) and later restored (2 Cor 2). 

Those who mistreated some based on their race (Gal 2:11-14 - Peter ditches Gentiles for visiting Jews) or wealth (James 2:1-9). 

Our greatest example is the Lord Jesus. Jesus, knowing that Peter was about to deny Him briefly, prayed for him.

Luke 22:31–32 31 “Simon, Simon, look out. Satan has asked to sift you like wheat. 32 But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And you, when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”

We should pray for those who have fallen. Confront them with the truth and attempt to help restore them. 

Who is THAT in your life - one who claims Christ but is caught in sin? Are you PRAYING for him/her? Have you GONE to speak with him/her? 

All unrighteousness is sin that Jesus went to the cross to pay for, and sin that is repented of will be forgiven. But, those who have walked away from Jesus; those who deny Jesus is fully man and fully God, and lead others to do the same, will not be treated as sons, but as enemies.

* John - the apostle of Jesus, watched someone who claimed to follow Jesus, later betray Him. Jesus DID pray for Simon Peter, but Jesus DIDN’T pray for Judas. Jesus let him walk away and said these words: “It would have been better for him if he had not been born.” (Mk 14:21).

Peter later writes about people like Judas who had walked away and deceived others to do the same.

2 Peter 2:20–22 20 For if, having escaped the world’s impurity through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in these things and defeated, the last state is worse for them than the first. 21 For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy command delivered to them. 22 It has happened to them according to the true proverb: A dog returns to its own vomit, and, “A washed sow returns to wallowing in the mud.”

John doesn’t ban us from praying for these people, but neither does he encourage it. 

Followers of Jesus, protected by God, are not to live in sin. We cannot continue to live in sin when the Holy Spirit lives in us. In contrast, the whole world is under the sway of the evil one. So, followers of Jesus shouldn’t be surprised when we face difficult days and persecution. 

Jesus has shown us the true One - the only God. Jesus was no mere man and no mere mirage. Those who are in His Son - Jesus Christ (Messiah) are sons and daughters of the true God and have eternal life.

What idols is John warning these Christians to guard themselves from? An idol is a false god, rather than the True God. Anyone or anything that dilutes or distorts who Jesus is and what Jesus says - offering in His place, a pretender, a counterfeit, a false god - is an IDOL.

Besides false teachers attempting to twist the claims and teachings of Jesus, what other people, ideas, or things are attempting to sit on the throne of our hearts rather than Jesus?

If we aren’t PRAYERFUL, it’s probably because we’re PRIDEFUL.

If we aren’t FAITHFUL it’s because we don’t trust who Jesus is and what Jesus says.