Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (To the Greater Glory of God)
From: 1 John 5:14-21
Prayer for Sinners
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[14] And this is the confidence which we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. [15] And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have obtained the requests made of him. [16] If any one sees his brother committing what is not a mortal sin, he will ask, and God will give him life for those whose sin is not mortal. There is sin which is mortal; I do not say that one is to pray for that. [17] All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin which is not mortal.
The Christian's Confidence as a Child of God
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[18] We know that any one born of God does not sin, but He who was born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him.
[19] We know that we are of God, and the whole world is in the power of the evil one.
[20] And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, to 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. [21] Little children, keep yourselves from idols.
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Commentary:
14-15. Earlier, the Apostle referred to confidence in prayer and to how we can be sure of receiving what we pray for: that confidence comes from the fact that "we keep his commandments and do what pleases him" (1 Jn 3:22). Now he stresses that God always listens to us, if we ask "according to his will". This condition can be taken in two ways, as St Bede briefly explains: "Insofar as we ask for the things he desires, and insofar as those of us who approach him are as he desires us to be" ("In I Epist. S. Ioannis, ad loc."). The asker therefore needs to strive to live in accordance with God's will, and to identify himself in advance with God's plans. If one does not try to live in keeping with God's commandments, one cannot expect him to listen to one's prayers.
When prayer meets those requirements, "we know that we have obtained the requests made of him", as our Lord himself assured us: "if you ask anything in my name, I will do it" (Jn 14:14). "It is not surprising, then," the Cure of Ars teaches, "that the devil should do everything possible to influence us to give up prayer or to pray badly, because he knows better than we do how terrible it is for hell and how impossible it is that God should refuse us what we ask him for in prayer. How many sinners would get out of sin if they managed to have recourse to prayer!" ("Selected Sermons", Fifth Sunday after Easter).
16-17. "Mortal sin": the meaning of the original text is "sin which leads to death". The gravity of this sin (St John does not specify its exact nature) recalls the gravity of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit (cf. Mt 12:31-32) and of the sin of apostasy which Hebrews speaks of (Heb 6:4-8).
The Fathers have interpreted this expression in various ways, referring to different grave sins. In the context of the letter (in the previous chapters St John often speaks about the antichrists and false prophets who "went out" from the community: 2:19) the best interpretation seems to be that of St Bede and St Augustine, who apply it to the sin of the apostate who, in addition, attacks the faith of other Christians. "My view is", St Augustine says, "that the sin unto death is the sin of the brother who, after knowing God by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, attacks brotherly union and in a passion of envy reacts against that very grace by which he was reconciled to God" ("De Sermo Dom. In Monte", I, 22, 73).
If St John does not expressly command his readers to pray for these sinners, it does not mean that they are beyond recovery, or that it is useless to pray for them. Pope St Gelasius I teaches: "There is a sin of death for those who persist in that same sin; there is a sin not of death for those who desist from sin. There is, certainly, no sin for the pardon of which the Church does not pray or from which, by the power which was divinely granted to it, it cannot absolve those who desist from it" ("Ne Forte").
Referring to this passage of St John, Pope John Paul II says: "Obviously, the concept of death here is a spiritual death. It is a question of the loss of the true life or 'eternal life', which for John is knowledge of the Father and the Son (cf. Jn 17:3), and communion and intimacy with them. In that passage the sin that leads to death seems to be the denial of the Son (cf. 1 Jn 2:22), or the worship of false gods (cf. 1 Jn 5:21). At any rate, by this distinction of concepts John seems to wish to emphasize the incalculable seriousness of what constitutes the very essence of sin, namely the rejection of God. This is manifested above all in apostasy and idolatry: repudiating faith in revealed truth and making certain created realities equal to God, raising them to the status of idols and false gods (cf. 1 Jn 5:16-21)." And after referring to blasphemy against the Holy Spirit (cf. Mt 12:31- 32) he adds: "Here of course it is a question of extreme and radical manifestations--rejection of God, rejection of his grace, and therefore opposition to the very source of salvation (cf. St Thomas, "Summa Theologiae", II-II, q. 14, a. 1-3)--these are manifestations whereby a person seems to exclude himself voluntarily from the path of forgiveness. It is to be hoped that very few persist to the end in this attitude of rebellion or even defiance of God. Moreover, God in his merciful love is greater than our hearts as St John further teaches us (cf. 1 Jn 3:20), and can overcome all our psychological and spiritual resistance. So that, as St Thomas writes, 'considering the omnipotence and mercy of God, no one should despair of the salvation of anyone in this life' ("Summa Theologiae", II-II, q. 14, a. 3, ad 1)" ("Reconciliatio Et Paenitentia", 17).
18-20. "We know": each of these verses begins this way. He does not mean theoretical knowledge but that understanding that comes from living faith. St John is once again stressing the Christian's joyful confidence, which he has been expounding throughout the letter (cf. 2:3-6 and note). This confidence is grounded on three basic truths: 1) he who is born of God does not sin (cf. 1 Jn 3:6-9 and note); 2) "we are of God", and therefore we are particularly free of the world, which is still in the power of the evil one (cf. 4:4; 5:12); 3) the Son of God has become man (cf. 4:2; 5:1). The incarnation of the Word is the central truth which sheds light on the two previous ones, because our supernatural insight is the effect of the Incarnation (v. 20): Jesus Christ, true God and true man, is also eternal life, for only in him can we attain that life.
18. "In this Johannine affirmation", Pope John Paul II teaches, "there is an indication of hope, based on the divine promises: the Christian has received the guarantee and the necessary strength not to sin. It is not a question therefore of a sinlessness acquired through one's own virtue or even inherent in man, as the Gnostics thought. It is a result of God's action. In order not to sin the Christian has knowledge of God, as St John reminds us in this same passage. But a little earlier he had written: 'No one born of God commits sin; for God's seed [RSV: "nature"] abides in him' (1 Jn 3:9). If by 'God's seed' we understand, as some commentators suggest, Jesus the Son of God, then we can say that in order not to sin, or in order to gain freedom from sin, the Christian has within himself the presence of Christ and the mystery of Christ, which is the mystery of God's loving kindness" ("Reconciliatio Et Paenitentia", 20).
19. "The whole world is in the power of the evil one": although the Greek term may be neuter and would allow a more abstract translation ("in the power of evil"), it is more consistent with the context to take it in a personal sense. St John is pointing up the contrast between Christ's followers and those of the evil one: whereas the world (in the pejorative sense) is like a slave in the power of the devil, true Christians are in Christ, as free people, with a share in Christ's own life. "We have been born of God through grace and have been reborn in Baptism through faith. On the other hand, those who love the world are in the power of the enemy, be it because they have not yet been liberated from him by the waters of regeneration or because, after their rebirth, they have once more submitted to his rule through sinning" ("In I Epist. S. Ioannis, ad loc.").
20. "Him who is true": that is, the only true God as distinct from false gods; the Jews used to refer to God as "the True", without naming him. When St John goes on to say that "we are in him, who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ", he is confessing the divinity of Christ and the fact that he is the only mediator between the Father and mankind.
21. Although at first sight, this formal exhortation may seem surprising, it was appropriate in its time, because these first Christians were living in the midst of a pagan world, and were exposed to the danger of idolatry.
However, St John may be speaking metaphorically: the true danger facing Christians, then and now, is that of following the idols of the heart-- that is, sin; in which case he is giving this final counsel: Keep away from sin, be on your guard against those whose fallacious arguments could lead you to sin.
John Again Bears Witness
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[22] After this Jesus and his disciples went into the land of Judea; there he remained with them and baptized. [23] John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there; and people came and were baptized. [24] For John had not yet been put in prison.
[25] Now a discussion arose between John's disciples and a Jew over purifying. [26] And they came to John, and said to him, Rabbi, he who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you bore witness, here he is, baptizing, and all are going to him." [27] John answered, "No one can receive anything except what is given him from heaven. [28] You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him. [29] He who has the bride is the bridegroom; the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice; therefore this joy of mine is now full. [30] He must increase, but I must decrease.
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Commentary:
22-24. A little later on (Jn 4:2) the evangelist makes it clear that it was not Jesus himself who baptized, but his disciples Our Lord probably wanted them from the very beginning to get practice in exhorting people to conversion. The rite referred to here was not yet Christian Baptism--which only began after the resurrection of Christ (cf. Jn 7:39; 16:7; Mt 28:19)--but "both baptisms, that of St John the Baptist and that of our Lord's disciples [...], had a single purpose-- to bring the baptized to Christ [...] and prepare the way for future faith" (St John Chrysostom, "Hom. on St John", 29, 1).
The Gospel gives the exact time and place of this episode. Aenon is an Aramaic word meaning "wells". Salim was situated to the north-east of Samaria, south of the town of Scythopolis or Beisan, near the western bank of the Jordan, about twenty kilometers (thirteen miles) to the south of the Lake of Gennesaret.
The Gospel notes that "John had not yet been put in prison" (v. 24), thus rounding out the information given by the Synoptics (Mt 4:12; Mk 1:14). We know, therefore, that Jesus' public ministry began when John the Baptist's mission was still going on, and, particularly, that there was no competition of any kind between them; on the contrary, the Baptist, who was preparing the way of the Lord, had the joy of actually seeing his own disciples follow Jesus (cf. Jn 1:37).
27-29. John the Baptist is speaking in a symbolic way here, after the style of the prophets; our Lord himself does the same thing. The bridegroom is Jesus Christ. From other passages in the New Testament we know that the Church is described as the Bride (cf. Eph 5:24-32; Rev 19:7-9). This symbol of the wedding expresses the way Christ unites the Church to himself, and the way the Church is hallowed and shaped in God's own life. The Baptist rejoices to see that the Messiah has already begun his public ministry, and he recognizes the infinite distance between his position and that of Christ: his joy is full because he sees Jesus calling people and them following him.
"The friend of the bridegroom", according to Jewish custom, refers to the man who used to accompany the bridegroom at the start of the wedding and play a formal part in the wedding celebration--the best man. Obviously, as the Baptist says, there is a great difference between him and the bridegroom, who occupies the center of the stage.
30. The Baptist knew his mission was one of preparing the way of the Lord; he was to fade into the background once the Messiah arrived, which he did faithfully and humbly. In the same way, a Christian, when engaged in apostolate, should try to keep out of the limelight and allow Christ to seek men out; he should be always emptying himself, to allow Christ fill his life. "It is necessary for Christ to grow in you, for you to progress in your knowledge and love of him: for, the more you know him and love him, the more he grows in you. [...] Therefore, people who advance in this way need to have less self-esteem, because the more a person discovers God's greatness the less importance he gives to his own human condition" (St Thomas Aquinas, "Commentary on St John, in loc.").
Source: Daily Word for Reflection—Navarre Bible Commentary