Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 1 John · About this commentary
Confidence Toward God
1 John 3:21-22
21 Beloved, if our hearts don’t condemn us, we have boldness toward God; · WEB
The other case is taken up — the heart that does not accuse — and what follows is a promise about prayer with a condition attached.
Verse 21 completes the pair. The previous verse handled the condemning heart; this one handles the heart that does not condemn, and what it yields is the same word used of the meeting at his coming 1 John 2:28: boldness, the freedom to speak openly.
That is worth noticing. The letter uses one word for how a person stands before God at the end and how he stands before him now. The confidence is not two different things.
Verse 22 then makes the promise, and it is as wide as it looks: whatever we ask, we receive from him. The letter does not hedge it here, though it will supply the governing qualification two chapters later — asking according to his will 1 John 5:14.
The reason given is the part that resists misuse. Because we keep his commandments and do the things pleasing in his sight. Read as a transaction this would make prayer a payment, and the letter has spent three chapters ruling that out. Read in context it is the same logic as everywhere else in this letter: obedience is not the price of the relationship but the sign that it is real, and someone genuinely wanting what God wants is asking for things God intends to give.
Which is why the next verse immediately says what the commandment actually is, before anyone can build a system out of this one 1 John 3:23.
settled What this mark means