“These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God. This is the boldness which we have toward him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he listens to us. And if we know that he listens to us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions which we have asked of him.”

1 John 5:13-15

There is this synergy suggested here between the holy God and the human creatures that he has made, and has given eternal life. John has written his Epistle so that the Christian people will know that they have eternal life, because they continue to believe in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. The existence of our faith is the proof that we are born of God and that we are believers in his holy word.

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

Hebrews 11:1

Faith is not a blind hope or an empty wishing. It is a kind of evidence for the things that are hoped for. It is the evidence of the things that these unseen and spiritual entities exist. The faith in the human soul is out worked in the love that John has talked about in his epistle. The faithfulness of God, and God’s faithfulness in us is the synergy that is spoken about here.

John is building our faith by showing what it is and what it is not. It is not blind but bears the fruit of love for God and our fellow human beings around us. Without this love we have no assurance of faith, or the salvation that is promised here. Without this love we have no assurance that we belong to the household of faith, because love is the identifying mark of the Christian believer. Our love for God is the motivation behind all we do, and motivates our love for other people. As we examine ourselves to see if we are true, let us put love on the throne of our hearts and as the thermometer of the hotness of our faith towards God.

We must not be unrealistic and imagine that we love God when we don’t. We cannot love God and at the same time wish ill for other people. If we do not love other people and yet insist that we still love God we are actually kidding ourselves and the truth is not in us. The synergy between ourselves and our creator should be obvious and it centres itself completely around the existence of eternal love in our hearts. It is the synergy between the three persons of the holy Trinity who are bound together with love towards each other at all times. This eternal love makes the three persons of the Trinity into one person – the one person of the holy God, the one true God.

This leads to an understanding between the creator and his redeemed creature, the Christian. The person who believes in him will get to know the will of God in their lives, and will pray accordingly. The synergy is so great that God and the person work together in prayer that his holy purposes will be carried out in the life of the person and in the things that are prayed for. There will be no empty prayers but prayers that are in conformity with the will of God because the person who is praying knows what God wants and prays for what God wants. This ultimately means that their prayers are always answered.

“…he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ…”

Ephesians 1:9-10

Whatever we ask according to his will he hears us and he will give us what we ask for. Knowing God is the key – knowing him in the forgiveness of sins and a daily walk of devotion and obedience with him, through the days of our lives. And if we pray according to his will He hears us and if He hears us, He will answer the prayer that we have prayed because it is according to His will. We walk in conformity with His will for us, and we have the presence of God in our lives. We can walk in this way because of what Jesus did for us in shedding His blood to cleanse us from sin and guilt.

“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.”

1 John 1:7

Faith is the active ingredients and the catalyst that makes the synergy happen and keep the Christian in tune with God and walking with God every single day. Love is the motivation, love for God that feeds our desire to know Him and love and obey Him more. It is not a woolly feeling of goodwill, but the heartfelt desire to keep his holy commandments and walk with Him.

“If you love me, keep my commandments.”

John 14:15