1 John 3:22Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

With this boldness we shall certainly receive whatever we ask from Him. Why? Because we keep His commandments. The one who is asked is greatly inclined to listen by the obedient disposition of those who ask, provided that they ask without doubting. Since we keep His commandments and do what is pleasing before Him, we shall hope that our prayers will not be in vain. For when two persons are sincerely disposed toward one another, one usually acts at once for the benefit of the other. What commandment of His have we kept? The one that commands us to love one another (Jn 13:34).

While you remain in this life, for life is a road traveled by all men, listen to the exhortations of your conscience and do not try to deceive it. If you do deceive it as you hasten through life, conscience itself will act as accuser before the judge. It will accuse you, bring the case to judgment, and you will be handed over to inexhaustible punishments. You will not suffer this if, while on the way, you show goodwill toward the accuser and receive its reproofs as spoken with benevolence.

It is as if he said: if we do what He commands, we receive what we ask. With God, both things are necessarily in great harmony: deeds are confirmed by words, and words by deeds.

The Apostle is speaking of true love for one another. Which passage of the Gospel is in view? The one where it is said: “As you wish that men would do to you, do so to them.” Therefore, if we desire our neighbors to be sincerely and guilelessly disposed toward us, then we too must be disposed toward them in exactly the same way. But if this is the Lord’s commandment, then He Himself will entrust Himself to us, provided that we abide and are established in Him with still greater readiness. For He cannot refuse communion with Himself. That is, the effort to obtain Him Who gives us His commandments is not vain. He first confirmed their truth by His own example. If this is so, then, provided that we fulfill everything commanded, He also will fulfill everything we ask of Him, and His mercy will be assured to us.

What, then, remains for a man to do amid the weakness of his flesh and the warfare continually raised against him by the world, the flesh, and the devil? He must pray, mingling prayer with faith in the Lord Jesus, love for neighbors, and the keeping of all the commandments given by God. Of old Scripture proclaimed that “the righteous shall live by faith” (Hab 2:4). And now we hear that “all things work together for good to those who love God” (Rom 8:28). We not only hear this, but every day we experience that the Lord is good and merciful to all who call upon His name and do His will (Ps 85:5).

“Whatever we ask, we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments.” This speaks of God the Father, who through His Son gave men the commandment of love. Through the same Son, He promised believers that He would fulfill all their petitions if they ask anything of the Father in the name of the Son, under the condition that they keep His commandments (Jn 14:13-14). Repeating this promise of the Savior for his readers, and stirring in believers the hope that all their petitions will be fulfilled, the Apostle also repeats the commandment itself. Or better, he reduces all the commandments necessary for salvation to one commandment: faith in the Son of God.

“And whatever we ask, we receive from Him.” This is a new fruit of our true and sincere love for neighbors. If there is peace, stillness, and calm in our heart, or conscience, through love, then none of our prayers will be refused. We shall receive from Him whatever we ask, and every prayer of ours will be heard, according to the word of Christ Himself (Mt 21:22; Jn 14:13; Jn 16:24). “Because we keep,” and so forth. The reason why none of our prayers will be refused is that we keep His commandments. This is understood if we pray for something worthy of prayer, and if our prayer accords with God’s will for us. His commandments are all contained in the commandment of love for neighbors, which is the bond of perfection (Col 3:14). By this we do what is pleasing before Him.

In the closing verses of the chapter, the Apostle offers several considerations to explain the naturalness of that boldness of the sons of God of which he spoke above (1 Jn 3:22-24). When and why does this boldness become natural? “Because we keep His commandments” (1 Jn 3:22). And in what is the essence, or sum, of these commandments expressed? “And this is His commandment, that we should believe,” not with the mind only, but with heart and soul, “in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as He gave us commandment” (1 Jn 3:23). Meanwhile, it is precisely by this, by faith and love, that the children of God are chiefly distinguished. How, then, should they not have boldness before God, when they have such union with Him? For “he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him” (1 Jn 3:24).

Looking at the matter from another side, namely from the side of our conscience, the Apostle says that our conscience also condemns us for evil, but praises us for good. From this the Apostle concludes that God too will condemn us for evil and reward us for good. Therefore we may have firm confidence that our petitions to God will be fulfilled when we feel calm before Him and devoted to Him as children. Indeed, if our own heart, a judge not wholly impartial or sinless, condemns our sinfulness, then it is clear that God, the most righteous and most holy Judge, will condemn us for our sins. Conversely, if our conscience, that unceasing requiter of all our deeds, not only does not condemn us, but even approves us for works of love, then all the more will the good God not condemn us.

The boldness with which those who fulfill His commandments raise their supplications to God does not put them to shame. This is especially true of those who fulfill the commandment of love for neighbors. Whatever they ask of the Lord, He will give them. He fulfills their desires because they fulfill His will, which is expressed in His commandments. What, then, are these commandments?