1 John 5:14-17 (Praying As We Should)

Chapter 5

Verses 14-17:

"Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.
If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death. There is sin leading to death. I do not say that he should pray about that. All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to death."

I'll seperate this entry into two parts, prayer towards God (v. 14-15) and prayer for brethren (v. 16-17):

Prayer towards God
"Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything...He hears us." I realize I left an important part of that first verse out, I wish to make a point first. That the confidence we have is that we would dare to call upon the God of heaven and earth because of our Mediator, Jesus. "Christ Jesus our Lord...in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him" (Eph 3:11b,12). "For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, 'Abba, Father'"(Romans 8:15).

One thing that comforts us as Christians, is that even though troubles or evils should come upon us, we know that God is our deliverer and rely on His fatherly love towards us.

"If we ask anything according to His will..." (Somewhat briefly mentioned before, cf. 3:22). This expression is interjected by the Apostle into the statement as if to make sure he was not misunderstood when he said this. One does not watch such things as TBN with out quickly getting the impression that expressions like this are perverted much to promote their health and wealth gospel. Seems as though the Apostle knew that sort of thing might happen. I can't word it much better than Calvin does so I'll let him talk:

"Though God has promised has promised to do whatsoever his people may ask, yet He does not allow them an unbridled liberty to ask whatever may come to their minds; He has at the same time prescribed to them a law according to which they are to pray...if it was allowed to every one of us to ask what he pleased, and if God were to indulge us in our wishes, it would be to provide very badly for us...He teaches us by his word what he would have us to ask, and he has also set over us His Spirit as our guide and ruler, to restrain our feelings...We ought also to ask the mouth of the Lord to direct and guide our prayers; for God in His promises has fixed for us, as it has been said, the right way of praying." (Calvin Commentaries on 1 John, Pg. 266)

And so I think that with a bit of your own dicernment this can be applied to the following verse as well. The faithful always regard God's commands in their prayers, they are not loose to pray for all that they desire.

Prayer for Brethren
Going into verse 16 the idea of prayer is not lost, but it now extends to our brethren.

Taking this in subcategories more or less, first I'll examine the Apostle's command for praying for the brethren (v. 16a), then attempt to clarify between the two sins: ones leading to death and ones not leading to death (v. 16b, 17).

First, the Apostle's command to pray for sinning brethren:
"If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death"(v. 16a). As I've said our prayers now extend to a brother in sin, that they may as well avail our brothers and sisters. The Apostle here exhorts us to pray for the salvation of one another, and to have us pray for the falls of a brother/sister. "Surely it is iron hardness to be touched with no pity, when we see souls redeemed by Christ's blood going to ruin"(Calvin). Listening to the words of the Apostle, we must at all cost avoid the codemning of our brethren or doubting their salvation, rather than praying fervently for them instead (something of personal application to myself).

Two Sins:
I believe, perhaps, that if I attempt to explain the "sin leading to death," the other type will be whatever is not included in that. Rather than attempting to summarize and put into my own words what the Reformation Study Bible has to say I will just put word for word what they say:

"Some connect this sin with the unforgivable sin mentioned in Matthew 12:31, 32; Mark 3:28-30; Luke 12:8-10. More likely, John is referring to a stubborn refusal to accept the message of the gospel (cf. 1:10, John 8:24)." (Reformation Study Bible)

Most likely this sin is that of apostasy as seen in 1 John 2:19, it is not a transgression of a single commandment, but a total abandonment and alienation of the faith. For the Apostle will add in the upcoming verses that the children of God do not sin, they do not forsake God. In other words those that do commit the sin leading to death, forsake God completely, and turn themselves over to Satan to be his slave. "I do not say that he should pray about that."

In any case it is important to understand that "all unrighteousness is sin..." this does not give one liberty to say something such as "well this is a sin not leading to death so I am going to indulge in it." This is contradictary to everything that has been said so far in this book (cf. 2:3-5; 3:4,6).

I would certainly suggest more study on that, as I will be sure to do.

Citation:
*Calvin's Commentaries on 1 John
*Reformation Study Bible (NKJV)