A querist asks, “Can you please clarify for me what John is referring to in 1 John 5:16 regarding a brother’s sin?”<\/p>\n
The King James Version renders this verse:<\/p>\n
\n“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.<\/strong>“<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
The English Standard Version renders this verse:<\/p>\n
\n“If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life – to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that.<\/strong>“<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Looking at the statement, “There is a sin unto death” in 1 John 5:16-KJV, John does not allude to some specific sin which leads to death; it is not “a sin” (as used in the King James Version), because there is no article (“a”) in the Greek text; but simply “sin” (as used in the ESV and NKJV) – any sin that one is not repentant of.<\/p>\n
This text suggests that there are those for whom we may, and should petition God’s forgiveness. By way of contrast, there are those for whom such efforts are futile. In the first instance, the brother is not persistently sinning (present tense) toward death (spiritual destruction – Romans 6:23a; James 1:15). On the other hand, there is sin toward death, i.e. unrestrained rebellion – a mental attitude of total indifference to and rebellion against the will and purpose of God (an apostate). This is sin (any and all sin) that a brother refuses to confess. A New Testament example can be found in Acts 5:1-11, regarding the sin of Ananias and Sapphira. Both the Hebrew writer and Peter, present the idea of individuals possessing a perverse mental attitude resulting in apostasy in Hebrews 6:4-6; cf. Hebrews 3:12; 2 Peter 2:1-22.<\/p>\n
The distinguishing difference obviously is this: In the former case the brother confesses his sin and turns therefrom (1 John 1:9). In the other instance, the apostate continues to sin in his rebellion to God’s law (1 John 3:8). Paul asks these questions regarding our continuing in sin: “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” (Romans 6:1-2). He answers the question in Romans 6:6, “our old man (of sin) is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.”<\/p>\n
A case in point is found in Paul’s address to the Corinthian brethren. It is rather apparent that the brother in Corinth, who had so scandalized the church by his flagrant fornication (1 Corinthians 5:1-5), had, at a later time, repented and openly acknowledged his wrong. And so the brethren were encouraged to forgive and comfort him (cf. 2 Corinthians 2:6-7).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A querist asks, “Can you please clarify for me what John is referring to in 1 John 5:16 regarding a brother’s sin?” The King James Version renders this verse: “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 … Continue reading “The \u201cSin Unto Death\u201d – What Is It? – Bible study”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44911\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}