“If you see any brother or sister commit a sin that does not lead to death, you should pray and God will give them life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that you should pray about that. All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death.” 1 John 5:16-17
From the Unforgivable Sin to the Inoffensive Sin. What is this “sin that does not lead to death” that John refers to? I can find no other mention of such a thing anywhere in the Bible. I have a guess that I think is a reasonable example that I’ll get to at the bottom of this post.
From the Garden of Eden forward, the Bible is clear that sin brings death. As God told Adam, “of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.” Adam and Eve did not physically die on the day they disobeyed the only commandment God gave them. But they did die a spiritual death and became separated from God. Throughout the rest of the Bible, whenever sin and death are talked about, the meaning is a spiritual death. As Paul wrote in Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Sin and death are discussed in the same verse 37 times throughout the Bible, with fourteen of those in Paul’s letter to the Romans. Separation from God as the consequence of sin is common to nearly all instances. There are two exceptions. In Romans 5:13, Paul writes, “To be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged against anyone’s account where there is no law.” And the verses in 1 John 5. Two quick points: first, it is reasonable that ignorance of the Law should be an excuse in many cases. If there is no speed limit posted and I am 15 miles over the limit, that should be an effective defense. However, if I am 50 miles over the limit, not so much.
And second, I disagree with King David when he wrote “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight (Psalm 51:4)”. David clearly sinned against Uriah and Bathsheba. We break our relationships with one another when we hurt each other. I have written on the nature of the Psalms as prayers written by human authors, useful for instruction but not, in every instance, God’s perfect Word to us. (Note Psalm 137:9 as the most vivid example: “Happy is the one who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.” I believe this is instructive in its shock value that we must love our enemies.) There are Psalms that are Messianic prophecies and should be regarded in a different light.
Lying is a sin. Lying to save lives is blessed by God in Exodus 1, when the midwives, Shiphrah and Puah tell Pharaoh the Hebrew women give birth before they can get there. If we agree that may be what John is referring to, what other sins, actions that fall short of God’s command to be perfect, would not lead to brokenness but life?
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