"These Things I've Written..." (1 John 5:16-17)

Introduction

1 John 5:16–17 NASB95

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. There is a sin leading to death; I do not say that he should make request for this. 17 All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not leading to death.

Relationships can be difficult in life. They have a rhythm. They develop.

There are peaks and valleys.

Relationships grow and weaken.

Personality conflicts

Think about your relationships in High School. Are there decisions that you used me to make that you would never make now? I hope so!

What about Christian relationships?

How does it make you feel whenever a Christian friend is willing to call you out for a bad decision you are making?

In my opinion, this is when the relationship hits a powerful crossroad.

You can either take the next step, remain where you are, or even weaken the relationship.

This is true for every type of relationship. When Christ is in it, the expectation is different.

Last week, we learned that God hears every prayer uttered from the mouth of a Christian.

How do we pray for our brothers and sisters whenever they walk in sin?

1. We are praying their fellowship with God.

Notice that the first thing that a Christian brother/sister is to do is pray.

Don’t gather up other people and talk about what the person is doing wrong.

Don’t meet the person face to face and call them out.

Don’t judge them for what they are doing.

We ask God to intervene on their behalf and give them life.

The intervention of the believer is not church discipline, but to pray for the person and the situation that they are in.

John expects believers, and specifically their prayers, to help others overcome sin in their lives.

“He shall ask” - The future tense expresses not to ask for permission, but to pray with certainty that God will meet this brother in their life.

What type of life does God offer to Christians that are in sin?

Fellowship. Why is this important?

When a Christian is walking in sin, it is different than a nonChristian. There is a haze in their life that’s keeping them from experiencing God fully in their life. We are asking for the Lord to bring them to a repentance and allow that person to find their way back to walking with God daily.

Jesus is available daily to the Christian which means that all Christians have access to God’s fellowship when they turn their eyes to Him.

It’s not in their character to sin like it used to be whenever they didn’t know Jesus.

1 John 3:4 NASB95

4 Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness.

In church life, prayer is often the last resort that people take when walking with a member who is in sin.

Listen, we are not in the business of casting people out. If you are under the impression that this is how the church is run, please know that this isn’t true.

We don’t operate that way.

We shouldn’t be afraid of engaging in people who are walking in sin though.

There is an important middle ground here that we are to find.

“Sin not leading to death” is where a brother or sister is in. They aren’t condemning themselves to Hell.

They are not walking in forgiveness and are out of union with God. He’s not done with them and He hasn’t left them.

You are showing love and mercy by being involved with their life.

God has given us a place for repentance.

We can intercede on behalf of people and play a role in their coming back.

Spouses

Children

Family

All relationships.

2. We always pray for the SOUL of a non believer.

This subject, if mishandled is a ticking time bomb.

“There is a sin leading to death”.

John identifies a type of sin that cannot result in forgiveness and eternal life.

It’s the type of sin that flatly rejects God’s grace. It denies Jesus’ humanity.

The nature of sin is found in unbelief. It’s not just a specific action of disobedience. Its a class or species of sin.

It is cut off from the fellowship of Jesus Christ.

Not ever sinner can be given life in answer to prayer, however. John draws a distinction between a sin that does not lead to death and a sin that leads to death.

Romans 5:12 NASB95

12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned—

Romans 6:23 NASB95

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

James 1:15 NASB95

15 Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.

Johns day, there were two terms that people would have been aware of in the church.

1. Apostasy - The denial of Christ and the renunciation of the faith.

A person who had claimed a faith in Christ and had since fallen away.

2. The blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. - A deliberate, open-eyed rejection of truth.

A person who rejects Jesus Christ.

This is the sin leading to death. If the ‘sin leading to death’ is the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit committed by a hardened believer, how can John call him a brother. To be exact, he does not.

This person is already in fact, dead and needs to be given life.

The difference between apostasy and blasphemy agains the Holy Spirit is one may receive life through a Christians prayer, while the other is facing the second death.

What about the false teachers of the day? They were not apostates, they were counterfeits. “antichrists”.

I treat guests of my home differently than my family members.

Jesus, on the cross, pleaded only for those who knew not what they were doing in crucifying Him, not for those wilfully resisting grace and knowledge.

Hebrews 6:4–6 NASB95

4 For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, 5 and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, 6 and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.

If a Christian enters the midst of the church, there should be a different expectation upon them compared to a nonChristian.

Don’t expect a nonChristian to:

Value scripture.

Tithe

Tithe

Understand suffering for Christ

Lead others

To act religious.

When person becomes a Christian, we are to still exhibit grace but we are not to rest on our laurels whenever a brother/sister is willfully walking in sin.

They weren’t made to be this way.

Why is it important to make this distinction?

We need to know that pray is the first source of dealing with conflict.

We cannot put a person in a position that they don’t belong.

Don’t pray for a nonChristian to exhibit “good” behavior.

Align our thinking with God’s thinking.

Once we know the appropriate response to sin, we can begin the work of praying for healing.

Have you ever had a prayer warrior? There is nothing like it in the world.