Just after John writes about praying with confidence and believing God hears our prayers, John writes about seeing sin in the lives of other believers.

Surely you’ve seen sin in others, and surely others have seen sin in us!

When this happens, we have to resist the urge to talk to others about this before we talk to God!

“If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death.” (1 John 5:16)

We need to pray and believe that God can redeem and restore. We should pray confidently about this remembering the verse just before—

“And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him”. (1 John 5:15)

God can set free those who get tangled up in sin. He does it all the time!

But sometimes, God’s children, who still have a free will, refuse to walk away from sin. This is a scary place to be, for sometimes, when this is the case, our loving Father chooses to bring them Home (as in Heaven, Home). “There is sin leading to death”. (1 John 5:17 first part)

It is not our job to ask the Lord to take Home someone caught up in sin! For we do not see all or know all! John wrote, “I do not ask that he should pray about that.” (1 John 5:17)

You may have felt “really spiritual” asking God to take Home someone who is hurting you or those you love “if they know Jesus”. Let me be honest, I’ve prayed that prayer, but I don’t believe this is our prayer to pray and John is saying we shouldn’t pray for this. Our motives are often not clear and we certainly don’t know or see all God does.

But clearly there is “sin leading to death”. “All unrighteousness is sin and there is sin leading to death” (see full verse, 1 John 5:17).

Remember John is writing to believers, and has used the word “brother” here, so it is unlikely that he is talking about the sin of rejecting the Holy Spirit.

It is more likely that John is encouraging us to pray for ourselves, and for each other, to flee sin while knowing that sometimes God will mercifully take Home those who continue to walk in sin causing destruction to themselves and to those around them.

This certainly doesn’t mean every untimely death is due to sin, but it should cause us to soberly ask the Lord to show us sin in our own lives and help us to flee it and lovingly warn others. We should reverentially fear God’s power to control our next breath—while knowing, even in this, He is so very good.

More hard stuff, huh? May we reverentially fear and obey Him while remembering God is always good.

read1John

Note – this is a continuation of my study of 1 John. Go to this page on Facebook or kimjaggers.com to see other posts on this wonderful book of the Bible.