What Does 1 John 5:15 Mean?
And if we know that he hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we hold the requests we have asked of him.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.THE KEY
The same Greek ask-word runs through “ask,” “petitions,” and “desired,” tying what you ask to what the verse says you have.
THE MEANING
The verse gives you two linked certainties: he hears you, and you have the requests you have made to him. It places the petition in the present of that hearing, without describing the form or timing of its answer.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It unsettles the belief that a request is nowhere until its result can be seen: the verse already calls the petition something you have before the one who hears.
THE ROOT
αἰτώμεθα
aitōmetha
GROWS FROM
αἰτε- (aite-), the Greek word family of αἰτέω
to ask, request
Across the English words “ask,” “petitions,” and “desired,” Greek holds the same αἰτέω (aiteō) family together. The request remains the through-line from asking to the petition the verse says you have.
ALSO GROWS
aiteō: to ask, request
αἰτέω
This verb appears in the forms translated “ask” and “desired.”
aitēma: a request, petition
αἴτημα
This noun names the petitions themselves, carrying the same ask-family into what is requested.
THE PATTERN
Being heard lets a request be held with confidence before its visible outcome is named.
He does the delight of those in awe of him; he hears and responds to their outcry, and delivers them.For everyone who asks takes hold, and the one who searches finds, and to the one who knocks, it will be opened.And this is the open speech we hold toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.THE THREAD
Until now you have asked nothing in my nature. Ask, and you will take hold, so that your joy may be filled.In Greek, “asked” and “ask” here belong to the same αἰτέω (aiteō) family that links “ask,” “petitions,” and “desired” in 1 John 5:15. “In my name” speaks of his nature, showing what shapes the asking as the shared root carries it toward receiving.
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