What Is The Meaning For The Verses In 1 John 5:16-17?
Question: Good morning, Brother! I would like to get the meaning for the verses: 1 John 5:16,17.
Answer: Greetings in Jesus wonderful name.
Here we go...
"16 If you see a Christian brother or sister sinning in a way that does not lead to death, you should pray, and God will give that person life. But there is a sin that leads to death, and I am not saying you should pray for those who commit it. 17 All wicked actions are sin, but not every sin leads to death." (1 John 5:16-18, NLT).
This is a clearest proof that when God saves a person, He saves them for eternity. Today there are a lot of denomination that confuses the disciples of Jesus Christ saying, if you sin, you will lose your salvation. They say this without thinking that God cannot be taken by surprise, and that when a believer sins after salvation, he does it not willingly but because of walking in the sin nature which He needs to train himself to overcome by depending on God over a period of time.
Salvation is an event when it comes to a human being as a gift from God when they believe Jesus the Christ as the Son of God and repents of his sins (Eph 2:8; John 3:16). But once salvation is received, that person becomes a believer, the same salvation will have the effect and expectation from God to live a overcoming life for the Glory of God, which was actually prepared by God for the believers to walk in it, which is a process called sanctification that takes a lifetime on earth to get perfected (Eph 2:10; 1 Cor 13:10; 1 John 3:2).
According to Jesus when a person is saved, He becomes saved for life and that no one has the power to revoke it or make the believer against get lost of it, this includes the believer himself who did not earn salvation but only received salvation as a gift from God (John 10:27-30). So there is a need for the Pastors and leaders and the Para-Church ministries of the Church to make a differentiation between the one who is saved and one who is not saved.
As a leader of the Church when they see a Christian brother or sister sinning by giving in to the sin nature which does not lead to eternal death, they must pray to God for them to get strengthened by the grace of God to overcome sins that pull them down and keep them from growing spiritually (Eph 3:14-21). God has promised that when they pray with burden for the believing sheep like that (Matt 7:7-8), God will restore and give that person the abundant life again just as He has promised in His Word (John 10:10; Jam 5:15).
When apostle John says, "But there is a sin that leads to death, and I am not saying you should pray for those who commit it" of which the Scripture points out and explains clearly that the one and only sin that leads to death is the sin of unbelief which was clearly told by Jesus Himself as that which cannot be forgiven now and also forever in the time to come because it is indeed a chief insult to the Holy Spirit himself who lovingly convicts a sinner of his sins to repent and get saved (Matt 12:31-32; 1 Thess 1:5; 1 Cor 2:4; Gen 6:3; Heb 3:12). When someone is convicted by the Holy Spirit of God, they will be cut to the heart, but they can positively accept the gospel to get saved or negatively reject it and speak blasphemy against the Spirit which will keep them blind in their unsaved state, and therefore cannot have another chance to get saved by the grace and mercies of God unless and until they repent of it before they die and have done the former things out of ignorance (Acts 2:37; 7:51-54; 1 Tim 1:13). The conviction of the Holy Spirit should never be taken lightly by any human, because when He draws near to them, it is the time of salvation to get saved for eternity or else lose the chance forever to get saved.
When we see people reject the Gospel to keep on sinning willfully and not in ignorance, apostle John says this as "a sin that leads to death". As these people are rebels and enemies of God who have rejected Him and the Holy Spirit's conviction and advances in to their heart and life (Rev 3:20), he further adds saying that we need not pray for these rebels who remain unsaved because they cannot become saved as they remain willfully rejecting the Gospel sent to them by the Lord Jesus through the leaders and disciples of Him like us who are part of the Church of Jesus Christ.
John the apostle further says that, "All wicked actions are sin, but not every sin leads to death" through which he explains that he has written the above matter to the believers who have got saved and who believe themselves to be sinners who know all sin is a sin, and therefore no sin can be categorized by them as acceptable to God and therefore the need for them to confess the daily sins as soon as possible and get back in to fellowship with God. At the same time he again continues saying "not every sin leads to death" in order to make the believers understand that once they get saved, they are saved by God forever from all sins and therefore they can remain free from the condemnation that comes through their daily sins by confessing it to the Lord (Heb 5:9; Rom 6:14; 8:1-2; 1 John 1:7, 9). Sin leads to condemnation from the evil one and break of fellowship with God, continuing in sin without confessing it with God brings only self-condemnation which leads to further death of fellowship with God and even physical death many times (Matt 27:3-5; Gen 3:10; Rev 12:10-11, 12; Zech 3:1-5).
Thanks be to God who gives us who are His children the victory over sin, sickness and death through Jesus Christ our Lord (1 Cor 15:57). We must be thankful and joyful and rejoice always for the freedom in Christ Jesus that we have received for the Glory of God through eternal salvation which He has given to us to enjoy fellowship with God the Father and our Lord Jesus the Christ once and for all time and even for eternity ahead (Php 4:4; 1 Thess 5:16-18; Heb 5:9; 1 John 1:2, 3-4). Hallelujah!
Much Blessings...
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