1 Corinthians 11:30

For this cause many among you are weak and sickly, and not a few sleep.

This has usually been interpreted to mean that physical sickness and death had been visited upon the sinful Corinthians, due to their shameful perversion and abuse of the Lord's Supper; and while it must be allowed that in that age of the church, God did send visitations of divine wrath against wrongdoers, as in the case of Ananias and Sapphira, and perhaps also the incestuous man mentioned earlier in this epistle; nevertheless, the conviction here is that, if that had been in Paul's mind, he could hardly have said that "some sleep," sleep being too mild a word to use with reference to victims of divine wrath.

The meaning which appears to be most likely is that Paul was speaking of those who had become spiritually weak and sickly, some no doubt having perished spiritually. If that was meant, then the condition of those asleep was terminal and irrevocable, being the same as that evident in Mark 3:29; Hebrews 6:6; 1 Timothy 5:6; 2 Peter 2:20; 1 John 5:16; 1 Thessalonians 5:19. For a dissertation on the unpardonable sin, see my Commentary on Mark, pp. 65-67. The condition of those asleep was no different from that of Ananias and Sapphira; and therefore Paul's gentle word "sleep" would appear to have been spoken in tenderness and regret.

Johnson noted that wherever "sleep" is used of death in the New Testament, it refers to the death of Christians, inferring from this that these "had not lost their salvation, but the privilege of service on earth."[53] Such a conclusion seems precarious to this writer. There is an echo of Calvinism in such a viewpoint.