1 John 5:16-17 (KJV)
If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it.
All unrighteousness is sin: and there is a sin not unto death.
I have frequently thought that the Bible is filled with passages that, while we can often find some explanation for them, those explanations always seem to fall short. To me, the only complete answer must be that we wait until we get to heaven to fully understand what the Lord meant to say. It should be no surprise that an eternal Book cannot be fully grasped by a mortal mind.
Some relegate the “sin unto death” to something that prevents a soul from being saved. There is only one sin that does that: the rejection of Christ as Saviour. I am convinced that so long as a person has breath in his body, we ought to pray for him to come to Christ. I would pray the same for any man, regardless of what I personally thought of his sin.
I see these verses summed up this way:
All unrighteousness is sin.
Let us never excuse sin, but seek to mortify it and put it away in our flesh. I take it that we have enough to deal with in ourselves that we do not need to spend our time dwelling on another man’s sins.
Those sins may then be classified:
Those sins for which we pray for others.
I am thinking here of obvious, outward, antisocial, and perhaps even terrible sins. We ought to pray for those involved to be delivered from them. I have a friend whom I helped encourage to create a biblical program intended to help those caught in these sorts of sins. He now travels the world teaching churches how to implement this helps ministry.
Those sins for which capital punishment is called.
Despite the bleating of liberal souls who think capital punishment is too cruel ever to be carried out again, there are souls whose propensity to brutality demands that such judgment continue. We ought to pray for them to be saved, but not pray for them to be spared.
There are sins “not unto death.”
I realize I am stretching the text somewhat, because a case can be made that the passage speaks only of two classes of sin. But since the “sin not unto death” is repeated and emphasized, I will also mention those sins common to man. Some others may never see in us. Some which, while still unrighteous and sinful, are not considered offensive by society. Some we battle until our dying day and discover, on those occasions when we do gain victory over them, that there is yet an underlying sin we still must fight.
#1John5 #AllUnrighteousnessIsSin #KJVBible #BiblicalDiscernment
“All Unrighteousness Is Sin” — The Sobering Truth Many Ignore
Has modern Christianity confused boldness with bitterness?
I’d genuinely like to hear your thoughts. Have you seen believers stand firmly for truth while still showing the love of Christ — or do you think anger has too often become the louder voice? Leave a comment below and join the conversation.
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