1 John 5:16-17 and "Sin Leading to Death"

The passage above has been confused and misunderstood by many commentators and pastor-teachers alike. The confusion partially stems from how the sentences are structured and the fact that they read so strangely in both the Greek and English. So it is no surprise that these words John received from the Spirit to write are so controversial. There have been a host of interpretations that either do injustice to the text or ignore and/or misunderstand it altogether. But these two verses must be kept within their context if the correct interpretation is to be rendered.

The key to discerning the teaching of these verses is to study them in their context while rightly understanding the words “life” and “death” as meant by John (verse eighteen also helps to give us the interpretation of this passage as we will see later below). One must consider the structure, theme, intent, and context of part or the entire book (depending). Those elements of interpretation are the most critical in deciphering the answer to our passage here.

Verses sixteen and seventeen should not be interpreted in isolation from the rest of chapter five as if a new and random topic has begun. Instead, we should understand these verses in light of the ones that come before (keeping them in their proper context) and in the entire scope of John’s message throughout the book.

The words “life” and “death”

1 John 5:16-17 relates to verses ten to fifteen, which build upon them.

To properly grasp verses sixteen and seventeen, we must understand what is meant by the words “life” and “death” mentioned therein. It is clear from the preceding verses (and all other instances where the word appears) that this life is eternal. A good understanding of John’s use of words will clearly indicate that life and death are described as eternal in almost every single instance. Almost all usages of life and death in 1 John refer to eternal spiritual realities. Much of the apostles’ writing contains contrasting comparisons between eternal life and death to show the reader the truth of belief versus unbelief (the benefits of one and the consequences of the other). He often does this by warning his readers to stay true to the faith.

The word “life” throughout verses (10-15) is eternal, meaning that the death in verses sixteen and seventeen can only be so as well since the apostle says in verse twelve, “Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.”

John wishes to give his readers assurance of eternal life (I write these things so that you may know you have eternal life vs 13) and encourages them to pray for those whose outcome may appear gloomy because of their present conduct. To help assure the eternal life of the brother or sister in Christ struggling badly with sin, John encourages his listeners in verse sixteen to pray for those who have fallen into a pattern of sinning. This connects with verses fourteen and fifteen, encouraging us to ask anything in the Lord’s name. How much more should we pray for a sinning brother or sister whose behavior could lead to the complete death of their faith? Continuing in sin will only cloud the believer’s hope, so their eternal life will be less certain (I write these things so that you may know you have eternal life). So John exhorts others within the church to intercede for the sinning brother so their future will be more certain for them (since continuous sin can lead to apostasy).

For this reason, verse sixteen says, He (another brother or sister) shall ask and God will give him life.” The word life is spiritual (restoration to fellowship) and eternal (protection from everlasting death), not physical. The previous verses in our context (10-15) confirm this. Verses sixteen and seventeen are contrasting eternal life with eternal death. Throughout his entire epistle, John has been warning his readers of the dangers of rejecting Jesus Christ and the fate of those who do so. This is why our interpretation of verses sixteen and seventeen must stay within bounds of the structure of this book and the intended theme and purpose of John’s message throughout it.

What sin leading to death is

Those who commit sin leading to death are unbelievers living in a continuous and unrepentant state of sin because they serve it (1 Corinthians 6:9-11 rightly says idolaters will not inherit the kingdom of Heaven). Just as how John contrasts eternal life to eternal death, so now he does the same with believers and unbelievers (here is how you can tell the difference between the two to give you assurance of eternal life—the person must examine themselves to see which they are)). Those living this sinful lifestyle (sin leading to eternal death) are unbelievers and can refer to those who were always so from the start and/or apostates who may have been believers originally. In the end, however, it makes no difference because rejecting Jesus Christ results in condemnation in both cases.

Regarding apostates (those who were actually believers at one point), whatever faith they had disappeared once they made up their mind to indulge in sin for the rest of their lives. If they’ve made their final decision (something only the Lord knows), there is no hope for them in the end. If an apostate is involved, they have already crossed the line and become unbelievers (they would not be in the process of apostatizing). Sin leading to death is not referring to sinning believers still possessing faith. Sin not leading to death, on the other hand, is only a deviation (assuming the believer repents) instead of a continuous lifestyle (there is a big difference between a struggling believer and a person who could care less about indulging in any whatever manner of sinful behavior-believers care while unbelievers don’t). The word “brother” is not present in the phrase “there is sin leading to death” because an unbeliever is not a family member in Christ. Since no one born of God (verse eighteen) goes on sinning (commits apostasy by becoming an idolater) in the manner described by John, that would mean those committing the sin leading to death aren’t born again (whether some of them were at one point would be irrelevant).

The word “sin” is in the singular in every instance it is used in verses sixteen and seventeen. But this does not affect the meaning of our two verses. Sin not leading to death can involve all types of sins a believer can commit (this is also the case with sin leading to death). The key difference is how they are being committed (one is a struggling, temporarily deviant believer, while the other is an unrepentant, unbelieving idolater—that is one and the same as a rejection of Jesus Christ which is exactly what sin leading to death is—choosing to serve king sin is to reject the One true King).

We should also observe that the word “the” does not come before the phrases, “there is sin not leading to death” and “there is sin leading to death,” so that calling either of them “the sin of” is technically misleading (a common word unfortunately added by many pastors and theologians).

To continue, John clarifies, “All unrighteousness is sin.” The apostle did not want his readers to get the impression that anything shy of unbelief was right in any way. But these sins John had in mind in verse sixteen (sin not leading to death) could be any habitual disobedient behavior that would negatively affect the believer’s walk with the Lord by putting them out of fellowship with Christ. And John was very much aware that continuous sin could lead to apostasy (a departure from the faith resulting in eternal death).

Salvation can only be lost by reverting from believer to unbeliever status. Sin (when it is involved since it doesn’t always have to be for a believer to come to reject Jesus Christ later on) is not the direct cause for this but a highly contributing factor that will contribute to the death of a person’s faith by hardening their heart toward God if taken too far (a free will decision to give one’s life over to it). And this is the danger John sees in this type of critical situation. They (those committing sin not leading to death) haven’t “crossed the line” yet, but could do so if they keep going. Therefore, prayer is crucial to help prevent this from happening before it does (even if the person is nowhere close to apostasy, there is still always a risk). God does not throw us out of His family over sins which He paid for on the cross because salvation is by grace through faith alone and not of works. Only when our wrong behavior leads to a rejection of Jesus Christ (no longer following or serving Him but something else we have put in His place) will this happen. And we must remember that it is not God who forced the breakup but the individual in question who chose to leave. Continuous, unrepentant sin damages faith by hardening the heart and eventually forces the person in question to make a choice to either continue believing in Christ or to reject Him entirely. Believing and following are synonymous because you cannot believe in Christ if you no longer follow and, thus, serve Him.

Prayer and God granting the believer life

For reasons above, John encouraged his believing audience to pray for those caught up in such a pattern of disobedience (whatever sins are involved). It may be a bit confusing when the text says, “ He shall ask, and God will give him life,” since the person in question is still a believer and not an apostate. But John is simply teaching that a sinning brother who repents will be restored to fellowship with Christ and will continue to receive God’s saving grace to sustain them until they reach eternity (assuring them of their eternal life). The Lord did not and will not condemn the individual just because they fell into sin for some time because salvation is by grace through faith alone and not of works (Ephesians 2:8-9, 1 John 2:1-2, John 3:18). Since continuous sin can lead/contribute to apostasy, repentance will result in a future eternity spent with Jesus Christ (whoever endures in their faith will be saved — granted eternal life — will not be hurt by the second death). The sinning brother or sister doesn’t lose their salvation just because they fall into a gross pattern of sinning for some time (salvation is by faith through grace only and not of works). But if they don’t repent and choose instead to give their life over to sin entirely (idolatry), then they have (by a free will choice) given up on their faith (stopped following and thus believing in Jesus Christ).

Thus, repentance brings about two results: the restoration of fellowship for the believer with God (which will result in the person experiencing the full Christian life again negatively affected by their prior sin) and the preservation of eternal life and protection from everlasting condemnation (since the person in question has chosen to remain a faithful follower of Jesus Christ). Whenever Christians fall into a nasty pattern of sin and refuse to get right with God, their fellowship with Him will negatively be impacted. Additionally, their salvation will be threatened if they persist on the wrong course. Thus, others in the church should lovingly intercede through prayer on their behalf for the Lord to bring them back into fellowship. But if the person refuses to repent and comes to reject their Master entirely, then God’s grace can no longer sustain them because we are all saved by grace through faith alone. The Lord never removes Himself from someone unless they leave Him first. It is not for no reason that 2 Timothy 2:12b states, “If we disown Him, He will disown us.”

Verse sixteen does not imply that our prayers (suggesting others believers will come to find out about the person’s behavior) will always result in the individual’s repentance. John did not mean that intercession would override the person’s free will but that prayer could help. The Lord would hear the requests and convict the person (and discipline them as well) of their wrongdoing. The response can be negative or positive depending on the disposition of the person’s heart.

I do not say he should pray about that

Regarding the phrase, “I do not say that one should pray for that,” all John did here was clarify who he was talking about for those he wanted prayer for. His subject involved believers not unbelievers. That is why he said, “I do not say that you should pray for that”- unbelievers serving sin. You could say something like, “I’m not talking about that.” As believers, we can and should pray for everyone (John is not forbidding us to pray for unbelievers). But John’s request was for struggling believers specifically, not unbelievers (he was clarifying his “prayer request” if it were ever to come up). This point explains why John had to explain that all sin is unrighteousness but that different patterns indicate two different types of people to differentiate between believers and unbelievers (here is how you can tell if you are in the realm of eternal life).

Believers and unbelievers are not the same and approach and commit sin differently (unbelievers continue without care or worry vs 18, while believers struggle while caring about their conduct). The phrase, “I do not say he should pray about that” contains no imperative command in any sense (positive or negative)! John was not giving any direct or indirect commands, suggestions, or advice but making a clarification about what he was referring to (what he was talking about). He had to explain that all sin is still inexcusable and unrighteous lest his readers fall into complacency by getting this idea that sin in their own lives wasn’t all that serious. If they confused the type of sin unbelievers commit with the kind committed by struggling believers (sin not leading to death), they may have reasoned that they could go on sinning with impunity without said behavior having any negative consequences to their faith and salvation. Verse eighteen helps to act as a “buffer” against that.

Both believers and unbelievers sin (all sin is unrighteousness), yet John needed to distinguish the two to help his readers understand that a brother in Christ is not someone who makes sinning a lifestyle (verse 18). John referred to a hypothetical situation (although it has and continues to happen all the time) involving a brother in Christ, not an unbeliever. The phrase,"I do not say he should pray for it;" perfectly reflects this. Everyone sins, of course, but John’s particular concern was for struggling believers who differ from unbelievers in HOW they sin.

I should also add that it makes no sense to tell people not to pray for unbelievers (false teacher or not) because we should still do so (the New Testament nowhere advises against it). We have missionaries and apologists for this very purpose; apologists debating and praying for very staunch unbelievers (some of them Atheists). Likewise, the “physical death” interpretation doesn’t hold because no one has any way of knowing whether the sinful conduct of a brother or sister in Christ will lead to physical death because only God knows whether the person will repent or not. The other view that says we shouldn’t pray for God to remove the divine discipline He inflicts on the struggling believer also doesn’t square with the context. That is to say, 1 John 5:16-17 doesn’t have physical death in view.

1 John 5:18

The answer to our two verses continues in verse eighteen to the end of the chapter, where John says, “We know that whosoever is born of God does sinneth not.” It is no accident that this phrase comes right after verse seventeen because truly committed believers (as the verse shows) continue in the faith. They do not give themselves entirely over to sin because that is idolatry, and idolaters cannot inherit the kingdom of God. No, this isn’t teaching that believers can’t fall away (we have already shown they can). But this represents a model believer who does what is expected of them. But there are believers whose hearts aren’t right with the Lord and thus fall way. We have warning passages against this for a reason.

Verse eighteen has the phrase, “But he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.” This tells us that John has a specific type of “death” in mind. Sin can lead to physical death (1 Corinthians 11:28-32), but not in the specific case that John is discussing here (even though sin doesn’t always have to be involved for someone to turn their back on God). The phrase “Whoever is born of God” reveals this fully (explained further below). In other words, truly committed believers don’t continue down a path of sin that leads to unbelief and eternal death.

However, believers (those who die with faith intact) can be taken home by the Lord prematurely as an act of divine discipline for reckless sin they may have fallen into. 1 Corinthians 11:28-32 below reveals this. Why the Lord does this and how it stays within bounds of His righteous and just character are not the point of this study (that is a different topic). Our specific goal is to explain 1 John 5:16-17. We only mention the passage below to show that God can and does use physical death to discipline His children. Those “asleep” below were those who died for their sinful behavior involving the Lord’s supper. Verse thirty-two shows us why this was the case.

As for the phrase “No one who has been born of God does not keep on sinning” (as some translations put it) this tells us that the death John refers to cannot also be physical because all those disciplined by the Lord in that manner (as sad and gruesome as the physical death may be) were still believers born of God despite the tragic result of their behavior. If all four usages of the word death in verses sixteen and seventeen mean loss of physical life, then those believers whom the Lord killed (physically) couldn’t have been born of Him, could not have been saved and would not be in Heaven today (since no one who has been born of God goes on sinning to the end of their faith leading to eternal death). Yet they were saved and are now in glory with the Lord (1 John 5:4). A person born of God dies with faith intact.

I should briefly mention that 1 John 5:18 has the exact meaning as 1 John 3:9 and does NOT refer to believers being in or out of fellowship with Christ (that would be 1 John 3:6 which has fellowship as its primary emphasis). It is true that unbelievers are out of fellowship with God but verse eighteen indicates that those who practice sin cannot be believers (struggling with sin is not the same as practicing it without worry or care). We may compare both of our passages side by side below to observe that they do in fact mean the exact same thing. Those who go on practicing sin without concern are children of the Devil (unbelievers in contrast to the children of God, believers), as 1 John 3:10 confirms.

Those born again in the true lasting sense will fight the good fight all the way into eternity. 1 John 5:4 (same chapter as our two verses under discussion) confirms this when it says “for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.” Those born again in the ultimate and meaningful sense are those who endure in their faith. So although a person can believe for a time and be born again positionally for a while before falling away, they will no longer be born again if they come to reject Christ later on so that verse eighteen can no longer apply to them. Regarding verse eighteen, Dr. Luginbill says the following below (quotes taken from a private email between Dr. Luginbill and myself)…

And finally, he writes for the second half of the verse…

Our spiritual rebirth (justification) begins at salvation and ends (is completed) once we see Christ face to face (glorification). Positionally, we believers are saved (and born again in one sense). But those of us alive are not currently experiencing our eternal life yet. We are in the refining process of sanctification meant to test and prove the quality of our faith. That is why we are to make our calling and election sure 2 Peter 1:10 so that we who profess Christ will be counted worthy of eternal life. A person who commits apostasy cannot be said to have been born of God since they will never spend eternity with Him (they believed in vain because they fell away 1 Corinthians 15:2). The second half of verse eighteen looks back in retrospect and gives us the results of the person who has endured in their faith. No one who ends up in heaven could have gotten there as unbelievers serving sin. Although he was still in the flesh when he wrote these words (words he could speak with confidence), Paul says in 2 Timothy 4:7-8 “ I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

The passage above (albeit indirectly) describes exactly what John means in verse eighteen.” Neither John or Paul are saying that believers can’t fall away (those who shrink back are apostates). Verses thirty-five and thirty six give their warnings and exhortations for a reason when they say, “Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. 36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.” Instead, this is what truly committed believers do—they keep believing! Paul knew some within his audience well enough that he could say with confidence that their faith and commitment were strong enough to keep them on the right path. In other words, he is saying something along the lines of, “I don’t believe you guys would do that.” No, he wasn’t suggesting they couldn’t. But he believed they were truly committed and would not continue sinning in any manner as those not truly committed and weaker in the faith (eventual apostates Matthew 13:20).

To summarize, verse eighteen (albeit indirectly) tells us what sin leading to death and sin not leading to death are. John placed it literally right after verse sixteen and seventeen because all three verses are related and should not be interpreted in isolation from one another as if verse eighteen began some new topic (it would have been totally random for John to insert this verse here if he had actually intended to begin a new subject). Sin not leading to death refers to believers who temporarily deviate from the right course into sin but later repent of it. They don’t go on sinning but guard themselves from apostasy (they keep themselves and the evil one doesn’t touch them). On the other hand, sin leading to death is to “continue in sin” because unbelievers will suffer eternal death (a person who lives in sin can’t be born of God because of their rejection of Jesus Christ). Again, it makes no difference whether the unbeliever in question was an apostate or always an unbeliever from the beginning. Unbelieving, continuous sin is idolatry and does not allow faith to blossom, live, or survive. No faith equals no salvation so that continuous sin leads to eternal death (sin leading to death) if no repentance is forthcoming.

The passages below (not meant to form a comprehensive list) indicate this well. Why would Paul need to warn his believing audience (and us today) of the danger of such conduct if there was no possibility for them to turn away from the faith without coming back? This is something the teaching of the “perseverance of the saints” fails to take into serious consideration. Sin, if continued in left unchecked will damage and eventually kill a person’s faith (salvation is by faith through grace only Ephesians 2:8-9) by hardening their heart and forcing them to have to make a choice to either repent or to stop following (and, thus, believing in) Christ altogether.

We notice in this passage right above how Paul says, “Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.” All these statements were, of course, true. But they did not eliminate the danger that some of these Corinthian believers had been putting themselves in. Paul is motivating them by way of reminder to help them remember that they were not acting according to the new status they had in Christ. Believers are not supposed to act that way, so why were they behaving to the contrary? They had a new spiritual identity they received when they accepted Christ, but their conduct wasn’t matching it. In other words, they needed to remember their calling by recalling who they really were. Paul used this reminder to help keep them treading the right path so that they would not turn back entirely to old one they once walked (the broad way that leads to destruction Matthew 7:13-14). Doing so would be exactly what 2 Peter 2:20-22 warns against; someone who was once washed (the same word used in 1 Corinthians 6:11) returning to the mud and filth of the world.