Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary 1 John 5:16

"If any man see his brother sinning a sin not unto death, he shall ask, and [God] will give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: not concerning this do I say that he should make request." — 1 John 5:16 (ASV)

(16a) The author turns from confidence in prayer to the ministry of prayer. Although he does not give the basis for his statement, what he says about intercessory prayer follows logically from what he has been teaching. If love requires the willingness to lay down one’s life for a member of the community (3:16), then certainly it follows that if one sees a brother commit sin, such a person must intercede for him in prayer. Not to pray for him would be as much a betrayal of God’s love as to withhold material aid from him (3:17). Moreover, when we pray for a brother or a sister who commits sin, we can know that such a prayer is “according to his [God’s] will” because Christ is the atoning sacrifice for sins (2:2); and if we confess our sins, he is committed to forgive us (1:9).

But why should a brother need such intercession? Why does he not pray for himself and make his own confession? We can only speculate as to John’s answer. Perhaps again it is a matter of assurance. The brother may need to be forgiven through intercessory prayer as an expression of the community’s forgiveness. Because the sin was presumably committed after entrance into the Christian community, the need to confess the sin to another and to have received assurance of forgiveness may have had special significance. Also, there might be an allusion here to Jesus’ words in Jn 20:23.

(16b) The author comments that intercession is not required if it involves a “sin that leads to death.” This is puzzling. We do not know exactly what the author has in mind. Judaism distinguished between deliberate sins—sins of open rebellion against God that were punishable by death—and inadvertent sins that can be atoned for (Leviticus 4; Numbers 15:22, 29). First-century Judaism retained this pattern. In the Johannine community some such distinction was presumably made, hence the limitation “sin that leads to death.” Why does he make such an exception? Presumably because he is speaking of spiritually efficacious prayer— prayer that will lead to eternal life. Such prayer can be made only for those who are rooted in God’s life and love.

Who specifically is excluded from efficacious prayer? The text offers no clues. The sin mentioned might refer to the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit (Mark 3:29). But the content of the letter may point to the suggestion that John has in mind the sin of false teaching. For life to be given to those who deny Jesus Christ, hate their brothers, and refuse the witness of God would be a contradiction. Since such persons deny the mercy of God, prayer for them would appear to be limited to asking for their repentance and conversion to God’s truth.