Sin Not Leading to Death?

1/25/2007

Hi, It was really great talking with you yesterday. An “opposition” that has come up and I’ve been meaning to ask you about is the verse in 1 John about if you see someone sinning a sin not unto death then you are supposed to pray. Now how that has been applied is this: instead of always thinking it is our job to help people live more like Jesus we should simply pray and not tell them to change because that would be “pressuring them”, etc. People use this to negate everything else the Bible says and effectively relieve themselves of being a kingdom of priests. So, what is a “sin not unto death” anyway? Is this saying that sometimes if you see someone sin that you don’t attempt to help them except by praying?

Thanks,

Wow, they TOTALLY misunderstand that Verse! They actually have it backwards!

OF COURSE Heb.3:12-14 and Gal.6:1-2, 1Cor.5, Titus 3:10, Acts 3:23, Jer.23:22, Ezek.9, Joshua 7, and a hundred other places make it CLEAR that we MUST be involved, just as we are with our own children, or we are irresponsible! Does 1Jn.5:16 REALLY imply that we should disobey God in Heb.3:12-14 and Mat.18:15? Of course not. 1John does NOT say, “ONLY pray”. Of course we pray for those who can be redeemed from their sin and bought back, but not to the NEGLECT of obeying clear Commands to BE INVOLVED. To be involved without prayer is ridiculous; to “pray” without caring to intervene when necessary is cowardice and disobedience. YES of course we PRAY (FIRST and FUNDAMENTALLY) for those in sin, for their souls and for what we need to be and do for the situation. GOD has to give the direction, not just some fixed “way to do things” as if there is a “How To” manual of how to “wrestle to present one another perfect in Christ”—”night and day from house to house with tears”. There is not some gimmick available.

OF COURSE, PRAY. But, that does NOT imply disobeying the clear COMMANDS to care about others enough to DO something. John CERTAINLY doesn’t say “PRAY INSTEAD OF ACTION”. That is a terrible reading of that Verse, if one tries to make believe it means “pray but don’t DO anything”. John never said ANYTHING like that, nor did any apostle or Jesus we have recorded ever teach or act like that—passivity. Not in the OT, not in the NT. That’s just terribly wrong to try to make it say, “ONLY pray” rather than “PRAY!” John made it verrrrry clear in that same letter that REPENTANCE is mandatory for anyone who has the Spirit. Start in chapter 1 and go all the way to the last paragraph of chapter 5 and two things are clear: REPENTANCE is NOT OPTIONAL for anyone who has the Spirit. And being uninvolved in ACTION (be warm and well-fed!) is unloving and is a farce.

John contrasts “HE SHOULD PRAY” for God’s Intervention and for what he should DO for one “kind” of sin—with another “kind” of sin: “the sin that leads to death.” Now what IS the sin Jesus said could NEVER be forgiven, and therefore there is no reason to “pray” about? Are we more “loving” than God that we should oppose Him when HE has given this one over to Satan? Why would we fight God? There ARE those who God has made a Decision about, and has HIMSELF sent them “a powerful delusion, that they would believe the lie” and are “vessels of dishonor” to accomplish His Purposes through the back door, and there is no POINT fighting God and “praying against God” on Matters where He has decided to use those Marked for Death in ways of His own choosing. We would not be (the context!) PRAYING ACCORDING TO HIS WILL if we make ourselves better than God and more merciful by “praying” for those He has Marked for other Purposes. The “context” is NOT about ignoring sin (and thus disobeying other Commands of God to do so, and demonstrating lack of love by saying “be warm and well-fed” but I won’t try to save your life). The context is about the dangers and depth of sin and worldliness and idolatry, and God’s hatred of sin, and the Spirit’s power in a human heart, if He’s there, to help them hate sin—and about the fact that GOD SHOULD DIRECT OUR PRAYERS, ACCORDING TO HIS WILL, not ours.

The entire LETTER is John (a PERSON) begging them to “love not the world or the things of the world!” It wasn’t John “praying” but John BEGGING them to consider what he was writing to them, and telling them to consider that the New Covenant itself and the gift of the Spirit will ALSO testify that what he, John, is admonishing them about, is TRUE.

I’m out of time for now. Does that little “taste” help some?

Love,