1 John 5:16

16. If A specific example of a prayer heard, with its possibility of apparent failure. Yet it is not only a specific instance, but it lies within the category of life, illustrating how the life may be conservative of life.

Sin… not unto death And so the prayer accords with the divine will, 1 John 5:14, as it would not in the case of a sin unto death.

But the much mooted question here encounters us, What is this sin unto death? The phrase was familiar to the Jews. Upon Numbers 18:22 the rabbies based a distinction of sins unto death and not unto death. But when the phrase is transferred to the New Testament it does not necessarily retain precisely the same import. Whitby assumes that the case supposed is that of a sick brother, smitten with a penal disease. The prayer of the faithful can raise him, unless the sin has been an irrevocably mortal one. To this Huther objects that the death must be the antithesis to the eternal life of this entire chapter, and therefore cannot be a bodily but an eternal death. To this objection it seems a fair reply to say, that death by divine penalty is truly a part of, and truly is, eternal death. The true refutation of Whitby, we think, is: 1. That the brother is not seen suffering the penalty of the sin, but actually committing it, or sinning a sin, as the Greek literally Isaiah , , 2. We can hardly imagine that so important a part of the condition of the brother as sickness would be left unmentioned: Huther (followed by Alford) maintains, that the sin unto death is such an apostasy that the brother passes from the condition of life eternal to that of the eternal death, which is its opposite, on earth. It would then seem to follow, that if we see one once a Christian actually denying Christ’s mission, he is not to be prayed for.

But before giving our own conclusion let us raise the query: Does our apostle assume that it is really known whether the sin of the brother is a sin unto death? We think clearly not. For John goes on to reaffirm, as a thing they need to fully learn, that there is such a distinction as unto death, and not. And he gives it as an explanation why in the case the prayer is not (according to 1 John 5:15) granted; namely, because (according to 1 John 5:14) it was not according to his will. We, therefore, hold that the sin unto death is the “unpardonable sin,” the sin against the Holy Ghost of Matthew 12:31-32, where see our notes. He shall, if he pleases, ask; it shall be his divine privilege.

And he shall give him life Grammatically this he, like the former, means the praying man, who gives by the power of prayer. But let him not charge God with unfaithfulness if the prayer fail of fulfilment, and the sinning brother prove hard and obdurate. His was then a sin unto death; and life for him was not according to his will, 1 John 5:14.

There is A deliberate reaffirmation of the actuality of such a sin. It is reaffirmed both as a most solemn fact and as a solution of ungranted prayer. Huther correctly says that I do not say is no absolute prohibition. It is only a declining to advise prayer if the deadly nature were known. Let him leave that to God, pray in hope, but be not disappointed, or discontented with God, if it prove the unpardonable sin.