to hold (used in very various applications · verb — present active indicative, 1st person plural
in
πρὸςpros
G4314
a preposition of direction · preposition
him
αὐτόν,auton
G846
the reflexive pronoun self · personal pronoun — accusative singular masculine
that
ὅτιhoti
G3754
demonstrative · conjunction
if
ἐάνean
G1437
a conditional particle · conditional particle
ask
αἰτώμεθαaitōmetha
G154
to ask (in genitive case) · verb — present middle subjunctive, 1st person plural
thing
τιti
G5100
some or any person or object · indefinite pronoun — accusative singular neuter
to
κατὰkata
G2596
(prepositionally) down (in place or time) · preposition
his
αὐτοῦautou
G846
the reflexive pronoun self · personal pronoun — genitive singular masculine
will
θέλημαthelēma
G2307
a determination (properly · noun — accusative singular neuter
heareth
ἀκούειakouei
G191
to hear (in various senses) · verb — present active indicative, 3rd person singular
us
ἡμῶνhēmōn
G2257
of (or from) us
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
John 14:13 And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
Jeremiah 29:12-13 Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.
Jeremiah 33:3 Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.
1 John 3:21-22 Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.
John 15:7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
Matthew 7:7-11 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
Matthew 21:22 And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.
Psalms 34:17 The righteous cry, and the LORD heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 1 John 5:14-17
Here we have,
I. A privilege belonging to faith in Christ, namely, audience in prayer: This is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us, Jo1 5:14. The Lord Christ emboldens us to come to God in all circumstances, with all our supplications and requests. Through him our petitions are admitted and accepted of God. The matter of our prayer must be agreeable to the declared will of God. It is not fit that we should ask what is contrary either to his majesty and glory or to our own good, who are his and dependent on him. And then we may have confidence that the prayer of faith shall be heard in heaven.
II. The advantage accruing to us by s…
the confidence--boldness (Jo1 4:17) in prayer, which results from knowing that we have eternal life (Jo1 5:13; Jo1 3:19, Jo1 3:22).
according to his will--which is the believer's will, and which is therefore no restraint to his prayers. In so far as God's will is not our will, we are not abiding in faith, and our prayers are not accepted. ALFORD well says, If we knew God's will thoroughly, and submitted to it heartily, it would be impossible for us to ask anything for the spirit or for the body which He should not perform; it is this ideal state which the apostle has in view. It is the Spirit who teaches us inwardly, and Himself in us asks according to the will of God.
Adam Clarke on 1 John 5:14
This is the confidence - Παρῥησια, The liberty of access and speech, that if we ask any thing according to his will, that is, which he has promised in his word. His word is a revelation of his will, in the things which concern the salvation of man. All that God has promised we are justified in expecting; and what he has promised, and we expect, we should pray for. Prayer is the language of the children of God. He who is begotten of God speaks this language. He calls God Abba, Father, in the true spirit of supplication. Prayer is the language of dependence on God; where the soul is dumb, there is neither life, love, nor faith. Faith and prayer are not boldly to advance claims upon God; we mu…
"And this is the confidence which we have towards Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He will hear us." He does not say absolutely what we shall ask, but what we ought to ask.
Those who possess technical skills and know how to repair things are fully confident that when the need arises they will be able to do so. Similarly these holy men, John and the other apostles, knew from their own experience that if they asked God for what was pleasing and acceptable to him, they would obtain it. For God is most generous to those who have this knowledge and will grant the requests of those who ask according to his will.
And this is the confidence that we have toward him, etc. He provides us with great confidence to hope for heavenly goods from the Lord, because even in this life, whatever we ask of him in a salutary manner, we obtain, according to what he himself promises believers in the Gospel: "I say to you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours" (Mark XI). But it must be noted that we are heard by the Lord when praying in such a way, provided we ask for what he has commanded. He himself says, "Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness" (Matthew VI). Hence, John rightly interposed after saying, "Whatever we ask, we receive from him," by adding, "according to his will." Therefore, we are commanded to have full and undoubted confidence of being heard only regarding those things which align not with our own benefits or temporal comforts but with the Lord's will. This is also to be included in the Lord's Prayer: "Your will be done" (Matthew VI), that is, not ours. For if we remember the Apostle's words: "For we do not know what to pray for as we ought" (Romans VIII), we understand that sometimes we ask for things contrary to our own salvation, and it is most beneficial for us that those things we ask are denied by him who perceives our benefit more rightly than we do. This undoubtedly happened even to the teacher of the Gentiles himself.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Assurance · Saints privileged to have, of: Answers to prayer — Saints privileged to have, of: Answers to prayer
Prayer · Should be offered up: With confidence in God — Should be offered up: With confidence in God
Prayer, Answers To · Received by those who: Ask according to God’s will — Received by those who: Ask according to God’s will
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
John Gill on 1 John 5:14
And this is the confidence that we have in him,.... Either in God, to whom prayer is made; or in the Son of God, through whose blood and righteousness believers in him have confidence with God at the throne of grace; they can come with boldness and intrepidity, and use freedom and liberty of speech, as the word here used signifies; especially when they have the Spirit of Christ with them, and are under the sprinklings of the blood of Christ, and have a comfortable assurance of being heard and answered; and this is what the Jews call , "the consideration", or "attention of prayer" (s), which they explain thus;
"after a man has prayed, he judges in his heart that the holy blessed God will giv…
1 John 5:13-15
13. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.
13. Haec scripsi vebis credentibus in nomen Filii Dei, ut sciatis quod vitam habetis aeternam, et ut credatis in nomen Filii Dei.
14. And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:
14. Atque haec est fiducia quam habemus erga eum, quod si quid petierimus secundum voluntatem ejus, audit nos.
15. And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.
15. Si autem novimus quo…
Whoever has the Son has life: Those who have the Son of God living in them have God’s eternal life now—they enjoy the presence of God’s Spirit (2:20, 25, 27), and they have the guarantee of eternity with God (see Eph 1:13-14).
