February 13, 2016
Scripture Reading: 1 John 5:16-18
16If you see any brother or sister commit a sin that does not lead to death, you should pray and God will give them life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that you should pray about that. 17All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death.
18We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the One who was born of God keeps them safe, and the evil one cannot harm them.
Questions for Reflection:
Yesterday we read where John instructs us to pray with confidence believing that God hears our prayers and answers them. In today’s reading, we are given a particular example of how that might play out within the Christian community. What is the situation that John uses as an example for the church?
The question of how we loving interact and confront sin within the church has been debated for centuries. The church has responded with varying levels of success and at times sin in their approach. Some have used another believers sin as an excuse to gossip and spread ill will, even under the guise of a prayer request: “You need to pray for (insert name of the person about to be gossiped about). They are in a real mess. I heard (gossip).” The real tragedy is that often when we are taking this path, we fail to even pray for the person to begin with. We have just clothed our self-righteous attitudes with the airs of holiness.
Another way that the church has struggled in this area is that they have failed to recognize sin for what it is. The reality of a fallen world is that the presence of sin will exist. Too often we normalize or excuse sin because we don’t want to enter into the messiness that reconciliation and restoration requires. It’s easier to just pretend that it doesn’t exist. However, as followers of Jesus, John instructs us to pray that God would bring life out of sin that reflects a dying world.
One of the things that I’ve learned as I’ve prayed regularly for someone is that God immediately begins to do a work. Sometimes the immediate work is not on the heart of the person I’m praying for, but rather my heart. Have you had that experience before? Here’s one short example from my own life: Several years ago (more than I’m willing to admit now), I spent the summer doing mission work in South Africa. One of the members of our team was driving me crazy. It seemed to me that she was complaining about everything and her attitude stunk. As I was praying about this, I came across a verse in Philippians 2 about complaining. I prepared to use that verse as a weapon the next time she complained, but before I could, it was like God used it as a spiritual 2 by 4 across me. He opened my eyes to see how I had developed a bad attitude toward that person. I was now the one complaining. I realized I needed to ask God to change my heart. Prayer changes things.
Is there someone that you are currently praying for? Is there someone in your life that you long to see reconnect with God or the church? Have you spent time earnestly asking God to work? Spend time today in prayer asking God to work in their lives. Pray with a spirit of humility and a willingness to repent if God reminds you of sin that has creeped into your life.