Which sin is unto death

In the case of the Corinthian Church, unworthy communicating was "the sin unto death;" but what it was in others, is not recorded. Thus the passage in John and that in James correspond strikingly, the one illustrating the other.

In the case of the sick brother, spoken of by James, we have the very thing referred to in the first clause of our text—"If any man sees his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he that is, God shall give him life for those who sin not unto death. But then the question would arise, How are we to know when a sin is unto death, and when it is not unto death, so that we may pray in faith?

The last clause of the 16th verse answers this question. It admits that there is a sin unto death; which admission is thus put in the 17th verse—"All unrighteousness is sin; but all sin is not unto death. The word translated "pray" means also "inquire," and is elsewhere translated so—John , "The Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who are you? If thus rendered, the meaning would be, "I say he is to ask no questions about that. He is just to pray, letting alone all such inquiries, and leaving the matter in the hands of God, who, in answer to prayer, will raise him up, if he has not committed the sin unto death.

The passage now becomes plain; and while it remains as an unspeakably solemn warning, it does not teach us that there is some one mysterious sin which infers eternal damnation; still less, that a saint of God can commit such a sin. It maybe thus paraphrased—"If any one see his brother in Christ sin a sin, and see him also laid upon a sickbed in consequence of this, he shall pray for the sick brother; and if his sin be one of which the punishment is disease, not death, the sick man shall be raised up; for all sins that lead to sickness do not necessarily lead to death.

And as to the difficulty, How shall we know when the sin is one which merely infers sickness, and when it is one which infers death? I say this, Ask no questions on this point—but pray, and leave the case to God. Let us now come to the lessons of our text. Don't puzzle yourself with hard questions about the particular kind of sins committed. Be satisfied that it is sin, and deal with it as such. There are sins unto death, and there are sins not unto death.

Do not trouble yourself or others with questions on this point, which no man can answer. Remember that all unrighteousness is sin; and that it is simply with sin, as sin, as a breach of the perfect law of righteousness, that you have to do.

It is not the nature or the measure of its punishment that you have to consider—but its own exceeding sinfulness. Be concerned about a brother's welfare. If any of you see a brother sin, do not let him alone, as if it did not concern you. Do not say, "Am I my brother's keeper? Seek, too, the salvation of the unsaved. They need your pity and your effort. Leave them not. Don't trifle with sin.

Count no sin trivial, either in yourself or another. Do not dally with temptation. Do not extenuate guilt. Do not say, May I not keep my beloved sin a little longer? Part with it, or it will cost you dear. In what way it may do so I know not; but I can say this, that sooner or later it will cost you dear, both in soul and body.

Take it at once to God. Don't puzzle yourself with useless questions as to its nature—but take it straight to God. In the case of a brother, do not raise evil reports against him because of it—but go and tell God about it. In your own case do the same. Do not let it remain unconfessed a moment after it is discovered. It is unrighteousness; it is sin; it is breach of law. God hates it; you must hate it too. You must bring it to that God who hates it; and who, just because he hates it, wants you to bring it to him.

Give it at once to him. He knows how to keep it, and to deal with it. If you keep it to yourself, it will be your ruin. It will be poison in your veins. It will eat as does a canker. It is not too great for him to deal with or to cover. The blood of his only-begotten Son will cover it. Let that blood prove its divine efficacy by the cleansing which it can administer to your soul.

Rest not without forgiveness through the great propitiation. An unforgiven man is an unhappy man. Blessedness is the portion only of the forgiven. John has a lot to say about the topic in these little letters and the verse quoted above may be the most well known of all he has to say.

Ironically, his main point in this context is to encourage his congregations to pray for those who have committed all other kinds of sins besides the one that leads to death vv.

But by setting up the contrast between the two kinds of sins, he naturally piques our curiosity about the more heinous of the two.

It is unlikely that John is talking about sins that lead to physical death, as with Ananias and Sapphira in Acts Rather it is the simpler but subtler observation that those whom one category of "fake Christians" fail to love are called adelphoi "brothers and sisters," or "siblings" for those who prefer an accurate, one-word English equivalent. But the way this term of biological or spiritual kinship is used involves reciprocity. I never call someone my brother who cannot in turn call me his brother.

So that means that the fake Christians in John's community would have also been called brothers or sisters. Thus when this same language of siblingship reappears in 1 John , we dare not assume that it proves John has true believers in mind.

He is simply echoing the language of the community itself as they refer to one another as brothers and sisters. Tragically, some who have these terms applied to them and perhaps apply them to themselves as well may turn out to have been masquerading, wittingly or unwittingly. Are we therefore never to pray for such people? One has to recall that Greeks didn't put their negations in misleading places in their sentences like we do. John very intentionally says that he is not telling them , on this occasion, to pray for those who sin unto death.

This is quite different from him telling them not to pray for them! He's simply saying that he's not talking about the sin unto death in this context but those sins that aren't unto death. Of course, if we knew who those people were who had so hardened their hearts that they had committed what Jesus calls blasphemy against the Spirit Matthew so that God gives them over to their depravity Romans , we could stop praying for them, knowing it was pointless.

But we don't have such knowledge and when we guess as to who such people might be we often guess wrongly. So we dare never stop praying for anyone no matter how much it seems like they might be sinning unto death. Deathbed conversions remain surprisingly common even today, including by some of the once-most-hardened atheists and "believers"-turned atheists! So what is the sin leading to death?