Thoughts From 1John 5 - Part 5

 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. 1John 5:16,17

         Now this is a confusing passage. First of all, it talks about intercessory prayer that seems to be effectual on forgiving or taking away the consequences of a sin from another person. Second it talks about two types of sin. One that leads to death (don't pray for that one), and one that doesn't lead to death (pray for that one).

      I recently looked into Catholicism because we have a friend of the family who is a believer but decided Catholicism is the right approach to God. I could see them taking an obscure passage like this and developing a whole doctrine of categories of sin - mortal and venial. Then I could see them endorsing the payment of indulgences or acts of Catholic worship such as penance, mass, baptism, rosaries, praying to saints as acts on behalf of people to lessen their purgatory time - interceding on behalf of others. The Mormons probably justify their baptism of the dead from an obscure passage in 1Corinthians 15 while Mennonites justify head covering and their dress from one passage in 1Corinthians 11. The Church of Christ takes a passage like 1Corinthians 6:19 and says no musical instruments are to be used in Church. The point is, don't take one passage that no one is sure what it means and make it a central doctrine of your church.

      Let's look at the first point I addressed, the intercessory prayer that seems to have power over another's sins and consequences. My thoughts go to 2 passages, one in James 5 on healing where the elders are called and their prayer has an effect on the sick person who may be sick because of some sin, and in 1Corinthians 5 where an unrepentant sinner in the body is excommunicated to let sin run its course and when it has and the person is repentant they are prayed for and restored. With this in mind, I see this intercessory prayer mentioned by John as a person or persons commissioned by the Church to pray over a repentant person suffering the physical and spiritual consequences of sin to be effectual in a supernatural way.

      In a like manor, if the person (probably an ex church member i.e. "they went out from us") is unrepentant and suffering the consequences of that sin a commissioned group from the Church should not go out and intercede for them because from the instance of 1Cor.5, they have not reached the point of repentance and may never. This could in context also have to do with those who were among them but are now preaching a false gospel that blasphemes the Holy Spirit. Don't pray a blessing on them.

      Anyway, the takeaway is that there is power in prayer!