Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 John 5:17
All unrighteousness is sin: and there is a sin not unto death.
17. All unrighteousness is sin ] A warning against carelessness about breaches of duty, whether in ourselves or in others. All such things are sin and need the cleansing blood of Christ (1Jn 1:9, 1Jn 2:2). Here, therefore, is a wide enough field for brotherly intercession. The statement serves also as a farewell declaration against the Gnostic doctrine that to the enlightened Christian declensions from righteousness involve no sin. Comp. the definition of sin as lawlessness in 1Jn 3:4.
there is a sin not unto death ] Or, as before, there is sin not unto death: Wiclif, Tyndale, Cranmer, and the Genevan here omit the indefinite article, though they all insert it in 1Jn 5:16. A warning against despair, whether about ourselves or about others. Not all sin is mortal: an answer by anticipation to the unchristian rigour of Montanism and Novatianism.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
All unrighteousness is sin … – This seems to be thrown in to guard what he had just said, and there is one great and enormous sin, a sin which could not be forgiven. But he says also that there are many other forms and degrees of sin, sin for which prayer may be made. Everything, he says, which is unrighteous – adikia – everything which does not conform to the holy law of God, and which is not right in the view of that law, is to be regarded as sin; but we are not to suppose that all sin of that kind is of such a character that it cannot possibly be forgiven. There are many who commit sin who we may hope will be recovered, and for them it is proper to pray. Deeply affected as we may be in view of the fact that there is a sin which can never be pardoned, and much as we may pity one who has been guilty of such a sin, yet we should not hastily conclude in any case that it has been committed, and should bear constantly in mind that while there is one such sin, there are multitudes that may be pardoned, and that for them it is our duty unceasingly to pray.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 17. All unrighteousness is sin] , Every act contrary to justice is sin-is a transgression of the law which condemns all injustice.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
He intimates they should be cautious of all sin, especially more deliberate, (which the word seems to import), but would not have them account that every sin would make their case so hopeless, as such sin, which he called sinning unto death, would do.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
17. “Every unrighteousness(even that of believers, compare 1Jn 1:9;1Jn 3:4. Every coming short ofright) is sin”; (but) not every sin is the sin untodeath.
and there is a sin not untodeathin the case of which, therefore, believers may intercede.Death and life stand in correlative opposition (1Jo5:11-13). The sin unto death must be one tending “towards”(so the Greek), and so resulting in, death. ALFORDmakes it to be an appreciable ACT of sin, namely, the denyingJesus to be the Christ, the Son of God (in contrast to confessthis truth, 1Jn 5:1; 1Jn 5:5),1Jn 2:19; 1Jn 2:22;1Jn 4:2; 1Jn 4:3;1Jn 5:10. Such wilful deniers ofChrist are not to be received into one’s house, or wished “Godspeed.” Still, I think with BENGEL,not merely the act, but also the state of apostasyaccompanying the act, is includeda “state of soul inwhich faith, love, and hope, in short, the new life, is extinguished.The chief commandment is faith and love. Therefore, thechief sin is that by which faith and love are destroyed. In theformer case is life; in the latter, death. As long as it isnot evident (see on 1Jo 5:16,on ‘see’) that it is a sin unto death, it is lawful to pray. But whenit is deliberate rejection of grace, and the man puts from him lifethereby, how can others procure for him life?” Contrast Jas5:14-18. Compare Mat 12:31;Mat 12:32 as to the wilfulrejection of Christ, and resistance to the Holy Ghost’s plaintestimony to Him as the divine Messiah. Jesus, on the cross, pleadedonly for those who KNEW NOTwhat they were doing in crucifying Him, not for those wilfullyresisting grace and knowledge. If we pray for the impenitent,it must be with humble reference of the matter to God’s will, notwith the intercessory request which we should offer for abrother when erring.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
All unrighteousness is sin,…. All unrighteousness against God or man is a sin against the law of God, and the wrath of God is revealed against it, and it is deserving of death; yet all unrighteousness is not unto death, as the sins of David, which were unrighteousness both to God and man, and yet they were put away, and he died not; Peter sinned very foully, and did great injustice to his dear Lord, and yet his sin was not unto death; he had repentance unto life given him, and a fresh application of pardoning grace:
and there is a sin not unto death; this is added for the relief of weak believers, who hearing of a sin unto death, not to be prayed for, might fear that theirs were of that kind, whereas none of them are; for though they are guilty of many unrighteousnesses, yet God is merciful to them and forgives, Heb 8:12, and so they are not unto death.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
All unrighteousness is sin ( ). Unrighteousness is one manifestation of sin as lawlessness (3:4) is another (Brooke). The world today takes sin too lightly, even jokingly as a mere animal inheritance. Sin is a terrible reality, but there is no cause for despair. Sin not unto death can be overcome in Christ.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Unrighteousness [] . This is the character of every offense against that which is right. Every breach of duty is a manifestation of sin. Compare 1Jo 3:4, where sin is defined as ajnomia lawlessness, and lawlessness as sin. See Rom 6:13.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “All unrighteousness is sin.” (pasa adikia) all kinds of unrighteousness – a) thoughts, b) imaginations, and c) deeds exist as and constitute lawlessness against the holiness of God. a) thoughts Pro 24:9; Mat 12:36; Mat 15:19, b) imaginations, Gen 6:5; and c) deeds Rom 3:23.
2) “And there is a sin not unto death.” There is John affirms, lawlessness not unto, or bringing one face to face with death. Sin can be overcome in Jesus Christ, thru the new birth, 2Co 5:17, and the power of the Spirit, Gal 5:25; 1Jn 1:8-9. Daily sins should be daily confessed and may be daily forgiven, keeping one in daily fellowship with God and one another, 1Jn 1:7; Mat 6:11-15.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
17 All unrighteousness This passage may be explained variously. If you take it adversatively, the sense would not be unsuitable, “Though all unrighteousness is sin, yet every sin is not unto death.” And equally suitable is another meaning, “As sin is every unrighteousness, hence it follows that every sin is not unto death.” Some take all unrighteousness for complete unrighteousness, as though the Apostle had said, that the sin of which he spoke was the summit of unrighteousness. I, however, am more disposed to embrace the first or the second explanation; and as the result is nearly the same, I leave it to the judgment of readers to determine which of the two is the more appropriate.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
17. Unrighteousness All wrongdoing or voluntary wrong-being. It may be an offence against man; it may be a corrupting of our own nature; it may be a small act, even a thought; but in each and every case it is appropriated by God as an offence against himself, and so is a sin.
Not unto death It may be a small offence, a shortcoming, a moral error, and then, though a sin, it is not unto death. There may be an underlying spirit of repentance, of elastic repellance, so that it may not forfeit our justification or destroy our regeneration. And even if it render us unregenerate, it is not, therefore, necessarily unpardonable. Repentance may restore our sonship of God.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1Jn 5:17 . To guard against indifference to transgressions occurring in the Christian’s life, the apostle continues: .
is not synonymous with , chap. 1Jn 3:4 ; for whilst there serves to strengthen the idea , the idea is here more particularly defined and strengthened by ; , namely, is the character of every offence against that which is right, “every breach of duty” (Meyer). Though, on the one hand, every such transgression is sin; yet, on the other hand, it must be maintained that every sin does not lead to death; hence : is not adversative, but serves to emphasize the thought.
does not belong to (Luther: “some sin is not to death”), but to : “ there is sin not unto death. ”
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
17 All unrighteousness is sin: and there is a sin not unto death.
Ver. 17. There is a sin not unto death ] All sins and blasphemies shall be forgiven unto men, but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, &c. See Trapp on “ Mat 12:31 “ See Trapp on “ Mat 12:32 “ Every sin (in the desert considered) hales hell at the heels of it. Flagitium et flagellum ut acus et filum. There is no venial sin in itself. But the unpardonable sin is here distinguished from all other sins; 1. By the nature of it; it is not any one sin against the law, nor yet is it the direct breach of the whole law,Heb 10:28Heb 10:28 ; but it is a sin against the gospel, a wilful and malicious refusing of pardon upon such terms as the gospel offereth it, scorning to be beholden to God for any such free favour. 2. By the effect, it is a sin unto death, it is infallibly damning, there is no expiation, but a certain fearful expectation of fiery indignation to devour these adversaries, Heb 10:27 . God not suffering himself to be derided, nor his Spirit to be despited, smites them with an incurable blindness and reprobacy of mind; whereupon follows, 1. An impossibility of repentance, Heb 6:6 ; Heb 2:1-18 . A desperate fury whereby they continue raving and raging both against the physic and the physician, to their own endless ruth and ruin.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
17 .] All unrighteousness is sin (in the words we have a reminiscence of ch. 1Jn 1:9 , , , , and also, but not so directly, of ch. 1Jn 3:4 , which is virtually the converse proposition to this. Here the Apostle seems to say, in explanation of what be has just written, “SIN is a large word, comprehending all unrighteousness whatever: whether of God’s children, or of aliens from Him.” The thoughts which have been brought into these words, that is a mild word, meant to express that every slight trip of the good Christian falls under the category of sin, and so there may be a sin not unto death, or, on the other hand, that it is a strong word, as Grot., “ vocat non quamvis ignorantiam aut obreptionem subitam, sed quicquid peccatur aut cum deliberatione aut dato ad deliberationem spatio,” or thirdly, as Beza, that “peccata omnia hactenus paria sunt, ut vel minima minimi peccati cogitatio mortem ternam millies mereatur ” and “omnia per se lethalia esse peccata,” are equally far from the meaning of the words, whose import is, as above, to account for there being a sin not unto death as well as a sin unto death); and there is a sin not (in this case not , because no hypothetical case is put, nor one dependent on judgment, but an objective fact) unto death (not having death for its issue: within the limit of that , from all of which God cleanseth all those who confess their sins, ch. 1Jn 1:9 ).
Our first canon of interpretation of the and is this: that the and the of the passage must correspond . The former cannot be bodily death, while the latter is eternal and spiritual life. This clears away at once all those Commentators who understand the sin unto death to be one for which bodily death is the punishment, either by human law generally, as Morus and G. Lange, or by the Mosaic law, as Schttgen, or by sickness inflicted by God, as our Whitby and Benson; or of which there will be no end till the death of the sinner, which Bed [81] thinks possible (“Potest etiam peccatum ad mortem, p. usque ad mortem, accipi.” But he rejects this himself), and Lyra adopts. This last is evidently absurd, for how is a man to know whether this will be so or not?
[81] Bede, the Venerable , 731; Bedegr, a Greek MS. cited by Bede, nearly identical with Cod. “E,” mentioned in this edn only when it differs from E.
Our second canon will be, that this sin unto death being thus a sin leading to eternal death, being no further explained to the readers here, must be presumed as meant to be understood by what the Evangelist has elsewhere laid down concerning the possession of life and death. Now we have from him a definition immediately preceding this, in 1Jn 5:12 , . And we may safely say that the words here are to be understood as meaning, “involving the loss of this life which men have only by union with the Son of God.” And this meaning they must have, not by implication only, which would be the case if any obstinate and determined sin were meant, which would be a sign of the fact of severance from the life which is in Christ (see ch. 1Jn 3:14-15 , where the inference is of this kind), but directly and essentially, i. e. in respect of that very sin which is pointed at by them. Now against this canon are all those interpretations, far too numerous to mention, which make any atrocious and obstinate sin to be that intended. It is obvious that our limits are thus confined to abnegation of Christ , not as inferred by its fruits otherwise shewn, but as the act of sin itself. And so, with various shades of difference as to the putting forth in detail, most of the best Commentators, both ancient and modern: e. g. Aretius, Luther, Calvin, Beza, Piscator, Corn.-a-lap., Tirinus, Baumg.-Crus., Lcke, Huther, Dsterd.
Our third canon will help us to decide, within the above limits, what especial sin is intended. And it is, that by the very analogy of the context, it must be not a state of sin, but an appreciable ACT of sin , seeing that that which is opposed to it in the same kind , as being not unto death, is described by . So that all interpretations which make it to be a state of apostasy, all such as, e. g. Bengel’s “peccatum ad mortem est peccatum non obvium, neque subitum, sed talis status anim in quo fides et amor et spes, in summa, vita nova, exstincta est,” do not reach the matter of detail which is before the Apostle’s mind.
In enquiring what this is, we must be guided by the analogy of what St. John says elsewhere. Our state being that of life in Jesus Christ, there are those who have gone out from us, not being of us, ch. 1Jn 2:19 , who are called , who not only “have not” Christ, but are Christ’s enemies, denying the Father and the Son ( 1Jn 2:22 ), whom we are not even to receive into our houses nor to greet ( 2Jn 1:10-11 ). These seem to be the persons pointed at here, and this the sin: viz. the denial that Jesus is the Christ the incarnate Son of God. This alone of all sins bears upon it the stamp of severance from Him who is the Life itself. As the confession of Christ, with the mouth and in the heart, is salvation unto life ( Rom 10:9 ), so denial of Christ with the mouth and in the heart, is sin unto death. This alone of all the proposed solutions seems to satisfy all the canons above laid down. For in it, the life cast away and the death incurred strictly correspond: it strictly corresponds to what St. John has elsewhere said concerning life and death, and derives its explanation from those other passages, especially from the foregoing 1Jn 5:12 ; and it is an appreciable act of sin, one against which the readers have been before repeatedly cautioned (ch. 1Jn 2:18 ff., 1Jn 4:1 ff., 1Jn 4:5 ; 1Jn 4:11-12 ). And further, it is in exact accordance with other passages of Scripture which seem to point at a sin similarly distinguished above others; viz. Mat 12:31 ff., and, so far as the circumstances there dealt with allow common ground, with the more ethical passages, Heb 6:4 ff; Heb 10:25 ff. In the former case, the Scribes and Pharisees were resisting the Holy Ghost ( Act 7:51 ) who was manifesting God in the flesh in the Person and work of Christ. For them the Lord Himself does not pray ( Luk 23:34 ): they knew what they did: they went out from God’s people and were not of them: receiving and repudiating the testimony of the Holy Ghost to the Messiahship of Jesus.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
1Jn 5:17 . A gentle warning. “Principiis obsta.” Also a reassurance. “You have sinned, but not necessarily ‘unto death’.”
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
unrighteousness. App-128. Compare 1Jn 3:4.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
17.] All unrighteousness is sin (in the words we have a reminiscence of ch. 1Jn 1:9, , , , and also, but not so directly, of ch. 1Jn 3:4, which is virtually the converse proposition to this. Here the Apostle seems to say, in explanation of what be has just written, SIN is a large word, comprehending all unrighteousness whatever: whether of Gods children, or of aliens from Him. The thoughts which have been brought into these words,-that is a mild word, meant to express that every slight trip of the good Christian falls under the category of sin, and so there may be a sin not unto death,-or, on the other hand, that it is a strong word, as Grot., vocat non quamvis ignorantiam aut obreptionem subitam, sed quicquid peccatur aut cum deliberatione aut dato ad deliberationem spatio,-or thirdly, as Beza, that peccata omnia hactenus paria sunt, ut vel minima minimi peccati cogitatio mortem ternam millies mereatur and omnia per se lethalia esse peccata,-are equally far from the meaning of the words, whose import is, as above, to account for there being a sin not unto death as well as a sin unto death); and there is a sin not (in this case not , because no hypothetical case is put, nor one dependent on judgment, but an objective fact) unto death (not having death for its issue: within the limit of that , from all of which God cleanseth all those who confess their sins, ch. 1Jn 1:9).
Our first canon of interpretation of the and is this: that the and the of the passage must correspond. The former cannot be bodily death, while the latter is eternal and spiritual life. This clears away at once all those Commentators who understand the sin unto death to be one for which bodily death is the punishment, either by human law generally, as Morus and G. Lange, or by the Mosaic law, as Schttgen,-or by sickness inflicted by God, as our Whitby and Benson; or of which there will be no end till the death of the sinner, which Bed[81] thinks possible (Potest etiam peccatum ad mortem, p. usque ad mortem, accipi. But he rejects this himself), and Lyra adopts. This last is evidently absurd, for how is a man to know whether this will be so or not?
[81] Bede, the Venerable, 731; Bedegr, a Greek MS. cited by Bede, nearly identical with Cod. E, mentioned in this edn only when it differs from E.
Our second canon will be, that this sin unto death being thus a sin leading to eternal death, being no further explained to the readers here, must be presumed as meant to be understood by what the Evangelist has elsewhere laid down concerning the possession of life and death. Now we have from him a definition immediately preceding this, in 1Jn 5:12, . And we may safely say that the words here are to be understood as meaning, involving the loss of this life which men have only by union with the Son of God. And this meaning they must have, not by implication only, which would be the case if any obstinate and determined sin were meant, which would be a sign of the fact of severance from the life which is in Christ (see ch. 1Jn 3:14-15, where the inference is of this kind), but directly and essentially, i. e. in respect of that very sin which is pointed at by them. Now against this canon are all those interpretations, far too numerous to mention, which make any atrocious and obstinate sin to be that intended. It is obvious that our limits are thus confined to abnegation of Christ, not as inferred by its fruits otherwise shewn, but as the act of sin itself. And so, with various shades of difference as to the putting forth in detail, most of the best Commentators, both ancient and modern: e. g. Aretius, Luther, Calvin, Beza, Piscator, Corn.-a-lap., Tirinus, Baumg.-Crus., Lcke, Huther, Dsterd.
Our third canon will help us to decide, within the above limits, what especial sin is intended. And it is, that by the very analogy of the context, it must be not a state of sin, but an appreciable ACT of sin, seeing that that which is opposed to it in the same kind, as being not unto death, is described by . So that all interpretations which make it to be a state of apostasy,-all such as, e. g. Bengels peccatum ad mortem est peccatum non obvium, neque subitum, sed talis status anim in quo fides et amor et spes, in summa, vita nova, exstincta est,-do not reach the matter of detail which is before the Apostles mind.
In enquiring what this is, we must be guided by the analogy of what St. John says elsewhere. Our state being that of life in Jesus Christ, there are those who have gone out from us, not being of us, ch. 1Jn 2:19, who are called , who not only have not Christ, but are Christs enemies, denying the Father and the Son (1Jn 2:22), whom we are not even to receive into our houses nor to greet (2Jn 1:10-11). These seem to be the persons pointed at here, and this the sin: viz. the denial that Jesus is the Christ the incarnate Son of God. This alone of all sins bears upon it the stamp of severance from Him who is the Life itself. As the confession of Christ, with the mouth and in the heart, is salvation unto life (Rom 10:9), so denial of Christ with the mouth and in the heart, is sin unto death. This alone of all the proposed solutions seems to satisfy all the canons above laid down. For in it, the life cast away and the death incurred strictly correspond: it strictly corresponds to what St. John has elsewhere said concerning life and death, and derives its explanation from those other passages, especially from the foregoing 1Jn 5:12; and it is an appreciable act of sin, one against which the readers have been before repeatedly cautioned (ch. 1Jn 2:18 ff., 1Jn 4:1 ff., 1Jn 4:5; 1Jn 4:11-12). And further, it is in exact accordance with other passages of Scripture which seem to point at a sin similarly distinguished above others; viz. Mat 12:31 ff., and, so far as the circumstances there dealt with allow common ground, with the more ethical passages, Heb 6:4 ff; Heb 10:25 ff. In the former case, the Scribes and Pharisees were resisting the Holy Ghost (Act 7:51) who was manifesting God in the flesh in the Person and work of Christ. For them the Lord Himself does not pray (Luk 23:34): they knew what they did: they went out from Gods people and were not of them: receiving and repudiating the testimony of the Holy Ghost to the Messiahship of Jesus.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
1Jn 5:17. ) all wickedness. Instances of sin not unto death are of constant occurrence in life.-, and) and that too. The enunciation is this: Every wickedness is sin, (but) not (necessarily sin) unto death: but lest any one should interpret that too lightly, he prefaces it with the words, is sin.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
all: 1Jo 3:4, Deu 5:32, Deu 12:32
and: 1Jo 5:16, Isa 1:18, Eze 18:26-32, Rom 5:20, Rom 5:21, Jam 1:15, Jam 4:7-10
Reciprocal: Mat 12:45 – and the
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1Jn 5:17. All unrighteousness is sin. (See the comments at chapter 3:4.) John makes this statement that it might not seem he is underestimating the seriousness of any sin. He wishes only to show that not all sins are as fatal as others; that there is such a sin not unto death.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
5:17 {16} All unrighteousness is sin: and there is a sin not unto death.
(16) The taking away of an objection: indeed all iniquity is comprehended under the name of sin: but yet we must not despair therefore, because every sin is not deadly, and without hope of remedy.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Because some sin does not lead to premature physical death, we should pray for our brethren when they sin (cf. 1Jn 1:9). Prayer for a sinning Christian is a concrete demonstration of love for that brother or sister (1Jn 3:23).
These verses are not distinguishing between mortal (unpardonable) and venial (pardonable) sins, as Roman Catholic theology uses these terms.
"So long as a man in his heart of hearts hates sin and hates himself for sinning, so long as he knows that he is sinning, he is never beyond repentance, and, therefore, never beyond forgiveness; but once a man begins to revel in sin, and to make sin the deliberate policy of his life, and loses all sense of the terror and the awfulness of sin and also the feeling of self-disgust, he is on the way to death, for he is on the way to a state where the idea of repentance will not, and cannot, enter his head." [Note: Barclay, p. 143.]
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Spiritual death is in view. |
Physical death is in view. |
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The offender is a brother. |
The offender is a brother. |
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The sin not unto death = any sin other than unbelief in Christ |
The sin not unto death = any sin that does not shorten one’s life |
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God will grant spiritual life to the guilty in answer to prayer. (Prayer is never a guarantee of eternal life.) |
God will grant extended physical life to the guilty in answer to prayer. (God did this for King Hezekiah; cf. Jas 5:15.) |
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The sin unto death = unbelief |
The sin unto death = serious sin that shortens physical life |
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John did not commend prayer for the person who commits the sin of unbelief. (One would think that he would commend it; cf. Rom 10:1.) |
John did not commend prayer for the person who commits sin that shortens physical life. (Evidently he believed such praying would be useless; cf Jer 7:16.) |
We should demonstrate concern about the obedience of others as well as our own obedience. When we become truly concerned about our obedience we will become concerned about the obedience of our brethren. God gives us eternal life, but we can give physical life to others in some situations as we ask God in prayer to be merciful to them.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Chapter 18
SIN UNTO DEATH
1Jn 5:17
THE Church has ever spoken of seven deadly sins. Here is the ugly catalogue. Pride, covetousness, lust, envy, gluttony, hatred, sloth. Many of us pray often “from fornication and all other deadly sin, Good Lord deliver us.” This language rightly understood is sound and true; yet, without careful thought, the term may lead us into two errors.
1. On hearing of deadly sin we are apt instinctively to oppose it to venial. But we cannot define by any quantitative test what venial sin may be for any given soul. To do that we must know the complete history of each soul; and the complete genealogy, conception, birth, and autobiography of each sin. Men catch at the term venial because they love to minimise a thing so tremendous as sin. The world sides with the casuists whom it satirises; and speaks of a “white lie,” of a foible, of an inaccuracy, when “the white lie may be that of St. Peter, the foible that of David, and the inaccuracy that of Ananias!”
2. There is a second mistake into which we often fall in speaking of deadly sin. Our imagination nearly always assumes some one definite outward act; some single individual sin. This may partly be due to a seemingly slight mistranslation in the text. It should not run “there is a sin,” but “there is sin unto” (e.g., in the direction of, towards) “death.”
The text means something deeper and further reaching than any single sin, deadly though it may be justly called.
The author of the fourth Gospel learned a whole mystic language from the life of Jesus. Death, in the great Masters vocabulary, was more than a single action. It was again wholly different from bodily death by the visitation of God. There are two realms for mans soul coextensive with the universe and with itself. One which leads towards God is called Life; one which leads from Him is called Death. There is a radiant passage by which the soul is translated from the death which is death indeed, to the life which is life indeed. There is another passage by which we pass from life to death; i.e., fall back towards spiritual (which is not necessarily eternal) death. There is then a general condition and contexture; there is an atmosphere and position of soul in which the true life flickers, and is on the way to death. One who visited an island on the coast of Scotland has told how he found in a valley open to the spray of the northwest ocean a clump of fir trees. For a time they grew well, until they became high enough to catch the prevalent blast. They were still standing, but had taken a fixed set, and were reddened as if singed by the breath of fire. The island glen might be “swept on starry nights by balms of spring”; the summer sun as it sank might touch the poor stems with a momentary radiance. The trees were still living, but only with that cortical vitality which is the trees death in life. Their doom was evident; they could have but a few more seasons. If the traveller cared some years hence to visit that islet set in stormy waters, he would find the firs blanched like a skeletons bones. Nothing remained for them but the sure fall, and the fated rottenness.
The analogy indeed is not complete. The tree in such surroundings must die; it can make for itself no new condition of existence; it can hear no sweet question on the breeze that washes through the grove, “why will ye die?” It cannot look upward-as it is scourged by the driving spray, and tormented by the fierce wind-and cry, “O God of my life, give me life.” It has no will; it cannot transplant itself. But the human tree can root itself in a happier place. Some divine spring may clothe it with green again. As it was passing from life toward death, so by the grace of God in prayers and sacraments, through penitence and faith, it may pass from death to life.
The Church then is not wrong when she speaks of “deadly sin.” The number seven is not merely a mystic fancy. But the seven “deadly sins” are seven attributes of the whole character; seven master ideas; seven general conditions of a human soul alienated from God; seven forms of aversion from true life, and of reversion to true death. The style of St. John has often been called “senile”; it certainly has the oracular and sententious quietude of old age in its almost lapidary repose. Yet a terrible light sometimes leaps from its simple and stately lines. Are there not a hundred hearts among us who know that as years pass they are drifting further and further from Him who is the Life? Will they not allow that St. John was right when, looking round the range of the Church, he asserted that there is such a thing as “sin unto death”?
It may be useful to take that one of the seven deadly sins which people are the most surprised to find in the list.
How and why is sloth deadly sin?
There is a distinction between sloth as vice and sloth as sin. The deadly sin of sloth often exists where the vice has no place. The sleepy music of Thomsons “Castle of Indolence” does not describe the slumber of the spiritual sluggard. Spiritual sloth is want of care and of love for all things in the spiritual order. Its conceptions are shallow and hasty. For it the Church is a department of the civil service; her worship and rites are submitted to, as one submits to a minor surgical operation. Prayer is the waste of a few minutes daily in concession to a sentiment which it might require trouble to eradicate. For the slothful Christian, saints are incorrigibly stupid; martyrs incorrigibly obstinate; clergymen incorrigibly professional; missionaries incorrigibly restless; sisterhoods incorrigibly tender; white lips that can just whisper Jesus incorrigibly awful. For the slothful, God, Christ, death, judgment have no real significance. The Atonement is a plank far away to be clutched by dying fingers in the article of death, that we may gurgle out “yes,” when asked “are you happy?” Hell is an ugly word, Heaven a beautiful one which means a sky or a Utopia. Apathy in all spiritual thought, languor in every work of God, fear of injudicious and expensive zeal; secret dislike of those whose fervour puts us to shame, and a miserable adroitness in keeping out of their way; such are the signs of the spirit of sloth. And with this a long series of sins of omission-“slumbering and sleeping while the Bridegroom tarries”-“unprofitable servants.”
We have said that the vice of sloth is generally distinct from the sin. There is, however, one day of the week on which the sin is apt to wear the drowsy features of the vice-Sunday. If there is any day on which we might be supposed to do something towards the spiritual world it must be Sunday. Yet what have any of us done for God on any Sunday? Probably we can scarcely tell. We slept late, we lingered over our dressing, we never thought of Holy Communion; after Church (if we went there) we loitered with friends; we lounged in the Park; we whiled away an hour at lunch; we turned over a novel, with secret dislike of the benevolent arrangements which give the postman some rest. Such have been in the main our past Sundays. Such will be our others, more or fewer, till the arrival of a date written in a calendar which eye hath not seen. The last evening of the closing year is called by an old poet, “the twilight of two years, nor past, nor next.” What shall we call the last Sunday of our year of life?
Turn to the first chapter of St. Mark. Think of that day of our Lords ministry which is recorded more fully than any other. What a day! First that teaching in the Synagogue, when men “were astonished,” not at His volubility, but at His “doctrine,” drawn from depths of thought. Then the awful meeting with the powers of the world unseen. Next the utterance of the words in the sick room which renovated the fevered frame. Afterwards an interval for the simple festival of home. And then we see the sin, the sorrow, the sufferings crowded at the door. A few hours more, while yet there is but the pale dawn before the meteor sunrise of Syria, He rises from sleep to plunge His wearied brow in the dews of prayer. And finally the intrusion of others upon that sacred solitude, and the work of preaching, helping, pitying, healing closes in upon Him. again with a circle which is of steel, because it is duty-of delight, because it is love. Oh, the divine monotony of one of those golden days of God upon earth! And yet we are offended because He who is the same forever, sends from heaven that message with its terrible plainness-“because thou art lukewarm, I will spew thee out of my mouth.” We are angry that the Church classes sloth as deadly sin, when the Churchs Master has said-“thou wicked and slothful servant.”