A Sin That Is Not Unto Death

In one of the more difficult to understand passages in the New Testament, we find a distinction made between a “sin not unto death” and a “sin unto death”. Here is that passage of interest, including the context of the believer petitioning God according to His will:

And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: and if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him. 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 John 5:14-17).

We notice in this text not only a distinction made between categories of sins, but also a distinction between prayer according to God’s will and prayer that is not suggested or recommended. By presenting us with the need to make these distinctions, the word of God gives us to understand that communion with Him is necessary for effectual prayer. Godly exercise and spiritual thought must be the habit of one who prays expecting his prayers to be answered.

How do we understand this matter of some sins being “unto death” and some sins “not unto death”? We find in a few other places in the New Testament that the commission of sins or fleshly carelessness may bring illness and death (I Corinthians 11:29-32), and we learn that repentance and confession can bring physical healing from an illness brought on by sinning (James 5:14-16). But this exhortation calls upon an intercessor to discern the comparative gravity of the sin of a Christian brother or sister, for the purpose of obtaining “life for them.”

The spiritual Christian, one who is in daily communion with God and seeks His glory, is then reponsible for discerning between these categories of sin. According to the measure that he desires joy and blessing in the soul of his fellow Christian, he has the godly freedom and the right to address his Father on behalf of the faltering believer whose sin has not reached the level of deserving the judgment of physical death. But “all unrighteousness is sin”, and a sinful or fleshly course still tends toward death and has the savor of it (Romans 8:5-13). Just as there is no enjoyment in death, so there can be no real enjoyment of the “life of Jesus”¹ in the soul and spirit of a Christian who lives according to the flesh.

Hoping to make the teaching of our scripture passage practical for us, I will take a bit of a risk here in suggesting some examples of the difference between sins that are “unto death” and those that call for life-restoring intercessory prayer. Cursing and swearing, as Peter did while warming himself in the palace of the high priest, is certainly sinful, but there was room for restoration and refreshment of life for him. But to blaspheme God or blatantly lie to the Holy Spirit, as Ananias and Sapphira did, seems to have the character of a sin unto death, and did indeed result in immediate physical death for the deceitful couple. Another distinction might be seen in the realm of sexual sin: no doubt indulging in pornography is unrighteous and fleshly, and it would call for restoration of the beleagured soul back to a joyful Christian life by the intercession of others, but the sin of wanton adultery could be discerned by the spiritual person to be “unto death”, and therefore not a matter he is exercised to pray about, though he certainly should grieve over the impending judgment deserved by that sinner. One more example: Hating a brother or sister in one’s thoughts, as contrasted with following through with the act of murder, would be another distinction that should exercise the spiritual mind, though this would be an extreme scenario. Matthew 5:27-28 and I John 3:15 affirm for us the truth that “all unrighteousness is sin”, and that every sin is so much more grievous in the sight of God than it is in our eyes, but our passage in I John 5 still assumes the distinctions and actually gives us the responsibility to distinguish, using wisdom from God.

In the natural realm, sickness often brings before the mind of a man the fact of his mortality, so that he does all he can to have the enjoyment and vigor of life restored to him, knowing that many illnesses left untreated lead to an early death. What then is the remedy for a sickly Christian life that has an aura of death, in the moral realm? It is fervent intercessory prayer on the part of the spiritual man or woman, leading to contrition, confession, and repentance on the part of the sinning brother.² The blessed result of such a scenario is that the intercessor’s joy is fulfilled, the restored brother’s enjoyment of the Christian life is refreshed, the Lord Jesus rejoices in the restoration one of His sheep, and God the Father of spirits is glorified.

¹ II Corinthians 4:10-12

² James 5:15-16; Galatians 6:1; II Timothy 2:24-26