Introduction
The sin of death is the extreme sin that the apostle John warns against in 1 John 5:16-17:
“If anyone sees his brother committing a sin that does not lead to death, he will ask, and for him God will give life to those who commit sin that does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death; I am not saying that you should ask for that. All injustice is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death.
This passage presents four interpretive challenges that we can unfold as four pairs of questions. (I have marked the answers that seem most likely to me.)
What follows briefly presents and evaluates four main views of who commits the sin that does not lead to death and who commits the sin that leads to death in 1 John 5:16-17 (focusing on the first three challenges interpretations of the previous table).
Viewpoint 1. One believer commits both sins and the second believer apostates.
God can restore the first sinful believer and thus confirm that he has eternal life, but the second sinful believer—who was a genuine believer—apostates by decisively rejecting Jesus and will therefore experience eternal death. So “a sin that does not lead to death” is any sin except apostasy, and “sin that leads to death” is apostasy. This opinion defines apostasy as a sin that a genuine believer can commit.
Evaluation: This view is incorrect because it rejects eternal security. That is, it does not claim that God sovereignly preserves all genuine Christians through faith as eternally saved and secure. In his first letter, John explains how to view theologically people who were once part of the Christian community but later rejected Christ and left the community: “They came out of us, but they were not really from us, because if they had been from us, they would have remained with us. But they left, so that it would be manifested that not all of them belong to us».
Therefore, someone can claim to be a believer, but if they do not persevere in the faith, it shows that they have never been a genuine believer. (See the articles «” Y .)
Viewpoint 2. An unbeliever commits both sins.
God can give the first unbeliever eternal life, but the second unbeliever will experience eternal death. So “a sin that does not lead to death” is any sin except “sin that leads to death,” and “sin that leads to death” is apostasy, like the false teachers in 1 John that he had rejected. decidedly the true teaching about who Christ is and what Christ did. John Stott argues that the “brother” who commits a sin that does not lead to death is not a Christian:
John must here use the word in a broader sense, either of “neighbor” or of a nominal Christian, a member of the church who professes to be a “brother.” Certainly in 2:9, 11 the word “brother” is not strictly used, because the hater is not a Christian at all but “in the dark.” In 3:16-17 too the word seems to have this broader connotation, in which we are commanded to lay down our lives “for our brothers” and to supply the material needs of a “needy brother”. Since Christ died for the wicked and for his enemies, we can hardly suppose that we should limit our sacrifice and service exclusively to our Christian brothers and sisters, and have compassion only for them. Such a broad connotation of the word brother, also implicit in the teaching of Jesus (Mt 5:22-24; 7:3-5), “does not arise so much from the character and position of the one whom you call your brother, as from the nature of the affection with which you regard it” (Candlish). This suggestion is supported by a somewhat similar passage in the letter of James (5:19-20).”
Evaluation: This reading is possible. But it is highly unlikely for at least two reasons: (1) John explicitly identifies the first sinner as “brother” (1 Jn 5:16), a term that elsewhere in the letter refers to genuine Christians (eg. , 3:13-17). (2) View 2 should say that the only sin that leads to eternal death is decisively rejecting Christ and His Atonement, but the Bible teaches that any sin leads to eternal death (Rom 6:23).
Viewpoint 3. One believer commits both sins and God can discipline the second believer with physical death.
Unlike view 1, this one affirms eternal security. Unlike the other three views, “life” and “death” are physical and temporary (not eternal). So “a sin that does not lead to death” is a sin for which God does not discipline a believer with physical death, and “sin that leads to death” is a sin for which God may discipline a believer. with physical death (as in 1 Cor 11:30). The phrase “leading to death” translates πρὸς θάνατον (pros thanaton), and the only other place the phrase appears in the New Testament is in John 11:4, referring to physical death. When Jesus heard that Lazarus was sick, he said: “This disease is not for death ” (Jn 11:4).
Evaluation: This view is possible but unlikely for at least three reasons: (1) John pairs “life” and “death” in 1 John 5:16-17, and every time this letter mentions “life” or “death” it refers to eternal life and eternal death. (For life, see 1:1, 2; 2:25; 3:14, 15; 5:11, 12, 13, 16; for death, see 3:14, “we know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers. He who does not love remains in death”). As for the pros thanaton Parallel in John 11:4 and 1 John 5:16-17, the literary context of the two passages differs significantly: John 11 deals with physical life and death, and 1 John deals with eternal life and death. (3) John explicitly identifies the first sinner as a “brother,” but he does not identify the second sinner that way.
Viewpoint 4. A believer commits a sin that does not lead to death, and an unbeliever commits a sin that leads to death.
According to this point of view, God promises that he will give eternal life (ie, the future resurrection life) to sinful believers who repent (2:25). But the second unbeliever will experience eternal death. So “a sin that does not lead to death” is any sin that a believer might commit (eg, 1:8-2:1), and “sin that leads to death” is any sin that a believer may commit. unbeliever can commit, especially in the context of 1 John: the apostasy of the false teachers. An unbeliever, by definition, is unrepentant and therefore sins in a way that leads to eternal death. More specifically, 1 John repeatedly warns believers about people who had previously claimed to be believers but had left the Christian community (eg, 2:19). They decidedly rejected the true teaching about Christ and were disobeying God’s commandments and not loving believers. They were sinning in a way that inevitably leads to eternal death.
Evaluation: This view seems more likely than the others since (1) it identifies the “brother” as a genuine believer; (2) identifies life and death as eternal; and (3) identify the sins in the context of the letter.
conclusion
I conclude the following regarding the four main views on 1 John 5:16-17:
- View 1 (one believer commits both sins and the second believer apostatizes) is incorrect.
- Points of view 2 to 4 may be correct.
- Point of view 2 (an unbeliever commits both sins) seems less likely than points 3 and 4.
- Point of view 3 (one believer commits both sins and God can discipline the second believer with physical death) seems more likely than point 2.
- View 4 (a believer commits a sin that does not lead to death, and an unbeliever commits a sin that leads to death) seems very likely.
Believers continue to sin, but sin does not characterize believers. What characterizes believers is that they confess their sins to the one who is faithful and just to forgive them their sins and to cleanse them from all unrighteousness (1 Jn 1:9). Believers have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous (2:1). They do not sin leading to eternal death.
Unbelievers sin in a way that leads to eternal death. In particular, this is tragically the case with unbelievers who have decisively departed from the faith; they are apostates, people who once claimed to be Christians but irreversibly abandoned and renounced orthodox Christianity.
Originally posted on . Translated by Sol Acuna Flores.
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