1 John 5:15Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Turning this sign into the clearest proof, he says: if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, then we also know that we receive from Him all that we ask of Him. He speaks as though saying: if we ask God for what accords with His will, He hears us. If He hears us in our petitions, then we know that we bring petitions in agreement with His will, and that what we ask is already ours. Such things are the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, which He Himself commanded us to seek in the Gospel (Mt 6:33).

The apostle gives us great assurance that we may hope for heavenly blessings from the Lord. For even in this life, whatever we ask rightly, we receive, according to what He Himself promises believers in the Gospel: “I say to you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you receive it, and it will be yours” (Mk 11:24).

Believers in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, must have such confidence in the goodness of the heavenly Father on the basis of the teaching of the Lord and Savior Himself.

He says to His disciples: "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened" (Mt 7:7-8).

And: "Whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive" (Mt 21:22). He also said: "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and become My disciples" (Jn 15:7-8).

"Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you" (Jn 16:23).

Every believer senses in his own heart the assurance of the unfailing inheritance of eternal life. He knows almost by touch the immutability of the promise given to him.

For who among the members of the Church has not experienced, and who does not know, that the Lord fulfills the desires of those who fear Him and does not deprive them of His good things?

When He does this for the purposes of temporal life, will He refuse us what is needful for salvation and eternal life?

"He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not also with Him freely give us all things?" (Rom 8:32).

We receive what we ask: if we have such boldness, or such confidence and hope, that God attends to our prayers in every case, whatever we ask of Him, then we are also confident that we shall receive from Him what we ask, according to His will.

"He who has the Son of God," that is, who believes in Him with his soul and heart, "has life. ... These things I have written to you, that you may know that you, believing in the Son of God, have eternal life" (1 Jn 5:12, 13).

The Apostle then says that the good possessed by believers gives them such confidence that they will be heard in all their prayers, provided, of course, that these prayers accord with the will of God. An example is prayer for the correction and salvation of a sinning brother.

Yet here one must make a great distinction between ordinary sins and sins unto death, for which the Apostle does not command prayer (1 Jn 5:14-17).

The fulfillment by Jesus Christ of what Christians ask constitutes the third proof of His divine power and majesty. This proof is drawn from Christians themselves, from their own state.

In explanation of this passage, Blessed Theophylact says: "The Apostle speaks, as it were, in this way. If we ask God for what conforms to His will, then He hears us. If He hears us in our petitions, then we know that we offer petitions in accordance with His will, and that we have the things asked by us in our very possession. Such objects are the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, which He Himself commanded us to seek in the Gospel" (see Mt 6:33).

Those who learn from the experience of a craft how everything necessary for some work is accomplished have a more perfect hope that, when the task comes, they will be able to perform it. So also the holy men, John and the apostles with him, learned from their own experience what would be pleasing and acceptable to Him, since they often ask God. They learned this and foresee beforehand that, whenever they ask in this way, they receive what they desire according to the will of God.