Commentary - 1 John 5:16-17

Bird's-eye view

In these challenging verses, the apostle John draws a sharp, practical distinction that flows directly from his teaching on assurance in prayer. Having just told us that God hears us when we ask according to His will, he now gives a concrete example tied to the life of the church. He divides sin into two categories for the purpose of our intercession: sin that does not lead to death, and sin that does. This is not a call for us to set up a new casuistry, meticulously cataloging sins into venial and mortal categories like the medieval church did. Rather, it is a pastoral directive rooted in the immediate context of John's letter. He has been dealing with the secession of apostates, the "antichrists" who went out from them because they were not of them (1 John 2:19). The "sin leading to death" is therefore best understood as this kind of willful, final apostasy, a complete and settled rejection of the truth about Jesus Christ. For the brother who stumbles in the ordinary course of his sanctification, we are to ask, and God will give life. This is a glorious promise for our intercessory prayer. But for the one who has committed spiritual suicide by decisively rejecting the Son of God, John says, "I do not say that he should make request for this." It is a sober recognition that there is a point of no return, a point where a person has so identified with the lie that they are beyond the reach of ordinary prayer. This passage, therefore, reinforces our confidence in praying for struggling believers while warning us of the terrible finality of apostasy.

Outline

Context In 1 John

These verses come at the very culmination of John's letter. He has just laid out the grounds of Christian assurance: the testimony of God concerning His Son (5:9-12) and the confidence this gives us in prayer (5:14-15). The discussion of the "sin leading to death" must be read against the backdrop of the entire epistle, which was written to combat a Gnostic-like heresy that denied the incarnation (the "water and the blood"). John has repeatedly contrasted those who are "of God" with those who are "of the world." He has identified the heretics as "antichrists" who "went out from us, but they were not of us" (2:19). Their departure was the outward manifestation of an inward reality. They had rejected the apostolic testimony about Jesus. Therefore, the "sin leading to death" is not some mysterious, particular transgression, but rather the very sin of these apostates, a final and definitive rejection of the Son of God, who is the only source of eternal life. This instruction on prayer, then, is intensely practical. It teaches the believers how to pray for one another within the covenant community and how to understand the status of those who have abandoned that community and its foundational faith.

Key Issues

Praying on the Front Lines

John is writing to a church at war. A schism has occurred, and men who once professed the faith have now abandoned it, seeking to draw others away with them. In such a setting, prayer is not a quiet, contemplative exercise in a monastery garden. It is battlefield intercession. When a soldier sees his brother-in-arms take a hit, his immediate duty is to help him, to bind his wounds, to get him back in the fight. This is the picture John paints. You see your brother sinning, not defecting to the enemy, but stumbling in the fight. Your duty is to "ask," and God promises to give life. This is a potent encouragement to pray for one another's sanctification.

But then John points to the other side of the battlefield, to the men who have thrown down their weapons, ripped the king's insignia from their uniforms, and walked over to the enemy's camp. They have committed the "sin leading to death." This is not a stumble; it is treason. It is a settled, high-handed rejection of the King. John does not forbid prayer for such a person, but he removes the promise. He says, "I do not say that he should make request for this." This is pastoral realism. We are not to treat apostasy lightly, as though it were just another sin on the list. It is a sin of a different kind, a sin that rejects the only remedy for sin. Our primary prayer focus is to be on the restoration of the saints, not on chasing after those who have made it clear they want nothing to do with the Savior.

Verse by Verse Commentary

16 If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask and God will for him give life to those who commit sin not leading to death.

John begins with a scenario that should be common in any healthy church. You see a brother sin. The word "brother" is crucial; this is about dealing with sin inside the covenant community. This is not a sin of apostasy, not a rejection of the faith, but a failure, a stumble, a transgression. What is the prescribed response? Not gossip, not judgment, not awkward silence, but prayer. "He shall ask." Intercession is the first and most vital ministry we have toward a sinning brother. And the promise attached is staggering. God will "give life." This does not mean the brother was spiritually dead and is now regenerated through our prayer. He is already a "brother." Rather, "life" here means restoration, forgiveness, a renewed vitality in his walk with God, a deliverance from the spiritual deadliness that sin always brings with it. Our prayers are the instruments God uses to keep his saints persevering.

There is a sin leading to death; I do not say that he should make request for this.

Here is the hard boundary. John posits a category of sin that is fundamentally different. It leads to "death", not physical death, though that can be a form of divine judgment, but eternal death, the second death. Given the context of the whole letter, this sin is best understood as conscious, willful apostasy. It is the sin of the antichrists who denied that Jesus is the Christ who came in the flesh. It is the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit that Jesus spoke of, which is attributing the clear work of God in Christ to the devil. It is a final, settled rejection of the truth after having been exposed to it. For this, John offers no corresponding promise for prayer. He doesn't issue an absolute prohibition, but he pointedly refrains from encouraging it. "I do not say that he should make request for this." This is a pastoral caution. We cannot pray for an apostate in the same way we pray for a struggling believer. To do so would be to fail to recognize the gravity of what has happened. The man has committed spiritual suicide; he has rejected the very life we would be asking God to give him.

17 All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not leading to death.

Lest we become complacent about "ordinary" sin, John immediately clarifies. "All unrighteousness is sin." Every deviation from God's perfect law is an offense to His holiness. There are no truly "little" sins. The wages of any and every sin is death (Rom. 6:23). So how can he say there is a sin "not leading to death"? Because of the provision of the cross. For the believer, for the "brother," there is an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous (1 John 2:1). His blood cleanses from all sin. So, a "sin not leading to death" is any sin committed by a genuine believer who remains in fellowship with Christ, because for him, the penalty has been paid and forgiveness is available upon confession. The sin that leads to death, by contrast, is the sin that cuts one off from that very provision by rejecting Christ Himself. John ends on this note of reassurance. Yes, all unrighteousness is sin, but for the true child of God, no sin is ultimate. Forgiveness is always the final word.

Application

This passage has direct and pointed application for how we live together in the church. First, it commands us to be a praying people. When we see a fellow Christian struggling with sin, our first instinct should be to get on our knees for them, not to get on the phone to someone else. We are to bear one another's burdens, and the chief way we do this is through earnest intercession. We should have a robust confidence that God uses our prayers to restore and heal our brothers and sisters. We are agents of "life" in one another's lives.

Second, this passage demands that we take apostasy with biblical seriousness. In our therapeutic and non-judgmental age, we are tempted to soften the edges of unbelief. We want to imagine that those who walk away from the faith are just "on a different journey." John will have none of it. To abandon the apostolic faith in Jesus Christ is to commit the sin that leads to death. It is to place oneself outside the bounds of the covenant promises. While we should mourn for such people and long for God to grant them repentance, we must not act as though their sin is just another stumble. It is treason. We must recognize the line that has been crossed.

Finally, this distinction should drive us to Christ. We are all sinners. All our unrighteousness is sin. The only reason any of our sins are "not leading to death" is because Jesus went to a death He did not deserve in our place. He took the wages of our sin upon Himself. Therefore, let us hate all sin, confess it quickly, and pray eagerly for our brothers. But let us do it all with a profound gratitude for the grace that has made the ultimate distinction for us, the grace that has taken us out of death and brought us into His marvelous life.