1 John 5:14

And this is the confidence that we have before him: that ¹  whenever ²  we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

Job 34:28; Ps 31:22; Ps 34:17; Ps 69:33; Pr 15:29; Jer 29:12,13; Jer 33:3; Mt 7:7-11; Mt 21:22; Joh 9:31; Joh 11:42; Joh 14:13; Joh 15:7; Joh 16:24; Eph 3:12; Heb 3:6,14; Heb 10:35; Jas 1:5,6; Jas 4:3; Jas 5:16; 1Jo 3:21; 1Jo 3:22

¹ tn For the third time in 5:9-14 the author uses the construction αὕτη ἐστίν ({auth estin; 5:9, 11, 14). As in the previous instance (5:11) the ὅτι (Joti) clause which follows is epexegetical (explanatory) to the pronoun αὕτη and explains what the “confidence” (παρρησία, parrhsia) consists of (technically the subject is ἡ παρρησία, the predicate nominative is the pronoun αὕτη, and the ὅτι clause explains the predicate nominative): “And the confidence which we have before him is this, namely, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.”

² tn A third-class condition is introduced by ἐάν (ean) + present subjunctive. Because the apodosis also contains a present tense verb (ἀκούει, akouei) this belongs in a subcategory of third-class conditional sentences known as present general. In the Koine period ἐάν can mean “when” or “whenever” and is virtually the equivalent of ὅταν (Jotan; see BDAG 268 s.v. ἐάν 2). Thus the meaning here is, “whenever (i.e., if) we ask anything according to his will, then he hears us.”