1 John 5:16-17
1 John - Walking in the Light of God’s Word • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Today we are going to be taking on the next 2 verse of 1 John - 5:16-17
We’re going to be looking a bit at the area of intercession, intercession is the act of praying on behalf of others.
“Intercessory prayer might be defined as loving our neighbour on our knees.” Charles Brent
Often when we may think of intercession, we think about someone who has a physical need. Whether ill health, protection, or a financial need.
But how often do we intercede for a spiritual need?
If we look at the apostolic intercessory prayers found in the Bible there are some common key themes:
For wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God (Eph. 1:17)
For strengthening with might in the inner being (Eph. 3:16, Col. 1:11)
For love to abound (Phil. 1:9, 1 Thes. 3:12)
For the knowledge of God's will (Col. 1:9)
That the Word of the Lord would run swiftly [rapidly spread and powerfully take hold] (2 Thes. 3:1)
To glorify God in unity, with joy, peace, and hope (Rom. 15:5-6, 13)
To preach with boldness and power (Acts 4:29-30)
In 1 John 5 John addresses another spiritual area for intercession:
16 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. 17 All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death.
John describes a situation in which one of the members of the church sees another member committing a sin and there is the call to pray, to intercede on this persons behalf, and God will respond and give them life.
Before I move into the complexities of the passage, I want to start with the heart here:
“Discernment is God’s call to intercession, never to faultfinding.” Corrie Ten Boom
What is God’s heart here? God’s heart is not for the labelling of people, it’s not to condemn, it’s not to expose to shame, it’s not to pride in our own comparative holiness. God’s heart is for life for repentance and restoration.
But, I believe the church due to in the past being very condemning and judgemental, has now unfortunately, become so unconcerned about sin and so full of cheap grace:
“Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance.... Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Randy Alcorn says:
“Any concept of grace that make us more comfortable sinning is not biblical grace. God’s grace never encourages us to live in sin, on the contrary, it empowers us to say no to sin and yes to truth.” Randy Alcorn
God wants us to be holy, pure, set apart, readily available to do His will, not caught up in sin.
16 for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”
When we see someone sin 1 John 5:16 says our automatic response should be to pray out of concern and love for them. To intercede for a softening of their heart, for a revelation of God truth and love. For them to return to the place of intimacy and life in God.
So now for the complexities: John says there are 2 types of sin - sins which lead to death and sins which don’t lead to death. But at the same time John says in verse 17 that all wrongdoing is sin, but nevertheless there is a kind of sin which does not lead to death.
Where do we go with this?
In the OT there was a recognised difference between 2 kinds of sin
The unconscious or unintentional sins for which forgiveness was provided by the annual sacrifice on the Day of Atonement.
And deliberate sins for which no animal sacrifice was possible to provide forgiveness. The only result was the death of the sinner.
27 “If one person unintentionally does something wrong, a one-year-old female goat must be sacrificed as an offering for sin. 28 The priest will offer the sacrifice to make peace with the Lord for that person, and that person will be forgiven. 29 You must give the same instructions to everyone who does something wrong unintentionally, whether they are native-born Israelites or not. 30 “But any native-born Israelite or foreigner who deliberately does something wrong insults the Lord and must be excluded from the people. 31 That person has despised the Lord’s word and broken the Lord’s command. He must be excluded completely. He remains guilty.”
So when we consider sins which fall into these 2 categories, what do we see when we look back at the Letter of 1 John itself?
John’s focus has been on what it means to be a child of God. He provides a number of sins which are incompatible with being a child of God:
Refusal to accept Jesus as the son of God (1 John 5:12)
Refusal to obey God’s commands (1 John 5:3)
Refusal to love others (1 John 4:20)
These sins are an active refusal, they are not just a one off or slip up, they are a lifestyle and reflect those who live and belong under the kingdom of darkness rather than the kingdom of light. So sins which lead to death are sins which are incompatible with being a child of God. The person who consciously and deliberately chooses this way of life will only have death and separation from God to face.
“Sin that leads to death is deliberate refusal to believe in Jesus Christ, to follow God’s commands, and to love one’s brothers. It leads to death because it includes a deliberate refusal to believe in the One who alone can give life, Jesus Christ the Son of God.” - I. Howard Marshall
On the other side, sins which do not lead to death are those which we can all fall into, but which do not involve the rejection of God and His way of salvation. Where we still recognise sin as sin which needs a saviour, where we love God and desire to obey His commands and to love others, where we long to be freed from sin.
This understanding of the 2 types of sin in the passage, that of deliberate sin leading to death and that of unintentional sin which does not lead to death is helpful but does lead to some further questions.
Firstly: Why pray and intercede for another Christian if his or her sin is not one that leads to death? Why pray that God will give them life?
Verse 17 says:
17 All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death.
Sin remains sin, and sin is dangerous, sin is a characteristic of living in darkness and not as a child of light, a child of God.
4 Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness.
Any sin is stepping out from under the reign of Jesus as King. It is active rebellion against the King and His perfect law. Any sin is therefore damaging to our relationship with Jesus. We grieve the Holy Spirit. We cause pain to Father God. We mar our relationship which causes us to step back from intimacy with God.
Too often we can think it’s from God’s side, that He becomes distant, but when we have accepted Jesus death and resurrection, accepted Jesus as saviour and Lord, when we have started that love relationship with God and He comes and makes Him home in us through the Holy Spirit. Father God looks at us and sees Jesus’ righteousness, He no longer sees our sins, they have been paid for on the cross.
1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
But the reality is:
23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.
There is a fine line between unintentional and deliberate sin. The truth is that all of us at times can cross that line and intentionally and knowingly sin. Unlike in the OT where there was no sacrifice possible for deliberate sin, in Christ Jesus He gave His life in our place, a sinless perfect life for our sinful broken life.
Jesus life is the only sacrifice available for deliberate sin.
As I said we often think it’s from God’s side that He steps back when we sin, when actually it is us who step back from Him and His infinite love.
Just think for a moment - if you hurt someone accidentally and they know what you have done it can be difficult to fess up. Even if you know they love you and will forgive you. If you then hurt them again deliberately it is even harder and even if their love and forgiveness is constant, each time you continue to deliberately hurt them it becomes harder and harder to return. It comes to a point where the relationship is so painful that you have to choose, either recognise what you are doing is wrong and stop doing the thing which causes the hurt, and enter back into relationship. Or say what you are doing is not wrong, and walk away from the relationship to stop the constant pain.
This is why we need to pray to intercede for each other, for a softening of heart, for a conviction of sin, for the experience of God’s love to outweigh and overcome any worldly pleasure. We need to pray for true repentance.
Because an unintentional sin can lead to becoming a deliberate sin, which can lead to a turning away completely from God. A rejection of Jesus and His lordship, and if a person chooses to reject Jesus, Jesus is the only way to forgiveness and is life. therefore the person is on the way to death.
John says at this point of total rejection of Jesus, there is no point in praying for that person - there is an acceptance that a person may sin and walk away and never choose to return. That they have chosen their path, and to pray in a sense would be to ask God to remove the persons free will to make their own choice.
This leads to the further question of whether this sin that leads to death can be committed by a true Christian who is a child of God?
4 It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age 6 and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.
26 If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left,
The fact that John constantly is warning the believers throughout the letter of 1 John against the possibility of sinning, and failing to continue in the truth, also suggests there is a possibility.
We don’t know where a person is at, only God knows, it’s not something to live in fear about: if you even care about sin and your relationship with God, your heart is still soft, your heart hasn’t become hardened.
However, the Bibles’ teaching serves as a warning to all who know God’s truth: do not reject or abandon your faith. Do not accept sin and entertain it. Do not allow your love for God to grow cold. Keep on pursuing a love relationship with Him.
As it says in
16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
Keep short accounts, there’s a place for being real with one another regarding what we are struggling with. To confess to one another. When we bring things into the light they no longer hold power over us. We need to be praying, interceding for one another, to forgive and build one another up.
“A Christian Fellowship lives and exists by the intercession of its members for one another, or it collapses. I can no longer condemn or hate a brother for whom I pray, no matter how much trouble he causes me.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Going back to 1 John 5:16 it says we should pray for someone we see struggling and God will give them life.
It starts with gaining the heart of God for that person, seeing and loving them as Jesus sees and loves them, then interceding to release God’s heart for that person.
“As believers, we have access to the heart of God, and as intercessors, we have the power to release His heart onto the earth.” Bill Johnson
Let’s today make the choice to intercede for one another, to release God’s heart onto the earth.
