division of sins, much less for a list of mortal sins. In the Bible s view, every sin is mortal, since every sin pays the wage of eternal death, that

Transcription

1 1 John 5:16-21 It s hard to believe, but today is our last study in 1 John, and it s number 23. We re exploring the remaining few verses in chapter 5 which take us from verse 16 down to verse 21. It s a fascinating section for John covers a fair bit of ground as he draws the various strands of his teaching together. It divides up into four distinctive parts: number one, in verses 16 and 17, we have a new angle to prayer; number two, in verse 18, we have a new antipathy towards sin; number three, in verse 19, we have a new attitude to the world; and number four, in verses 20 and 21, we have a new awareness of God. I think verses 16 and 17 have proven to be some of the most contentious in scripture, a fair few gallons of ink has been spilled over them and they have generated a lot more heat than light over the years. It has to be said, they are incredibly difficult to interpret, no-one is denying that; but that exercise is made a million times worse if they are lifted out of context and left to stand alone. Sad to say, that s what so many well-meaning folks have done, and in some ways they have ended up making a rod for their own back! John puts it like this: If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him 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 he should pray about that. All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death. I think the key to understanding these verses is to try to ascertain what the inspired John means when he talks about a sin that does not lead to death and a sin that leads to death. In the first instance, we are encouraged to pray for a believer whom we see sinning; in the second example, we are told not to pray. The question is: what is the difference between the two experiences? The traditional view of one major world religion is that there are two categories of sin. According to them, there is venial sin which can be pardoned, and there is mortal sin that leads to death. But when you look at the Johannine text, it offers no support for such a

2 division of sins, much less for a list of mortal sins. In the Bible s view, every sin is mortal, since every sin pays the wage of eternal death, that is expressly stated in Romans 6:23. Others have come along and they have taught that the only way sin that leads to death can be explained is by its consequences in a literal physical sense. They cite the example of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5:1-11 to back up their case. They also point to the references in 1 Corinthians 5:5 and 11:30 to an immoral man being handed over to Satan so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and to those who have fallen asleep because of their dreadful abuses of the Lord s Supper. If that is the correct interpretation, then there is apparent support for it in scripture. Personally, I don t think it holds too much water, in fact, it s a bit like the proverbial sieve. We need to remember, when John s words are seen in context, the contrast is with eternal life, so that spiritual death, rather than physical death, is the most natural reading of the text. As an aside, if their view is right, John is discouraging prayer for such people since it would mean praying for the dead! A fairly common view in some sectors of the evangelical church is to identify the sin that leads to death with the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, referred to in Matthew 12:31, 32. People often speak of this as the unforgivable sin! I suppose the connection depends on the distinction that is drawn between this and all other sins, in that this sin, being unpardonable, results in death. It s helpful to note, that John says nothing about the Holy Spirit in this context, he is silent on this matter, he doesn t bring him into the equation at all. I have met many dear Christian people over the years who have given themselves sleepless nights over this issue, it has caused them immense pain and anxiety, they have wrestled with the idea that somewhere down the line they may have committed the unpardonable sin! The glorious truth is that in the redemptive work of Jesus, we have one whose blood can effectively deal with each and every sin; we have a gracious God who finds enormous delight in pardoning a lost sinner and restoring a Christian who has fallen on hard times. It seems to me, as I said at

3 the very outset, we need to keep this whole matter in context. The punchline in John s teaching in this final section is on knowing God, he makes it clear that it is only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God who have eternal life. The inference is, the sin that leads to death, the sin that ultimately excludes the sinner from the life of God, must surely be the blatant denial of that saving truth. If this is right, then the sin that leads to death does so because, by its intrinsic nature, it rejects the only means by which sin may be forgiven, it says a defiant no to the atoning death of the incarnate Son of God. It spurns God s offer of love and mercy in the gospel of Christ. It walks away from an opportunity to be reconciled to God. David Jackman wraps up the idea succinctly when he writes: This underlines the important truth that it is not that this sin is unpardonable, but that it remains unpardoned. You see, the sin that automatically leads to death is unforgiven sin; the sole reason why it remains unforgiven is because it refuses to bend the knee in repentance before the Christ of the cross at Calvary. When we turn back to the text, the example which is given is of a Christian brother committing a sin that does not lead to death. There is nothing, absolutely nothing, about a believer committing the sin that leads to death; there is simply the reminder that such a sin does exist. I have no doubts that the first part of verse 16 is most relevant to church life in the third millennium, it applies to every congregation of God s people in every generation, for it puts a new angle on prayer. We have all come across the problem at one time or another, a Christian falls into sin and everyone else in the assembly is aware of it. What should we do in a situation like that? What should our response be? How should we handle it? Well, there are many guidelines set down in scripture for such events, and John here provides us with one that is basic and fundamental. He says, we should pray for them! We should lift them up before the Lord in earnest prayer that they might be restored to fellowship with him and to an enjoyment of his blessing upon their lives. When we fervently intercede for our backslidden brothers and sisters, God will bring them back into a

4 close walk with himself, and as John says, he will give them life! The sinning Christian whose spiritual life is on the wane, and whose relationship with Christ is wilting, even though he is not dead nor sinning unto death, he will be restored by the grace of God through the prayers of the church family. That should thrill us and it should also give us the stimulus we need to engage our hearts in believing prayer for all those who have strayed into bypath meadow. Our Father in heaven wants it to happen, and coupled with our prayers on their behalf, he will ensure that it takes place. That s why we watch after we pray, we keep an eye open for the answer to our prayers! With regard to the sin that leads to death, John says, I am not saying that he should pray about that. This is serious, it s an extreme case, even when things are pushed beyond the limit, John is not forbidding prayer, he simply does not command it or encourage it. To all intents and purposes, prayer in such a circumstance will make little or no difference; it s what I would choose to call the Pharaoh syndrome it s where a hardening of the heart takes place and such folks have gone past the point of no return, you can read about it in Exodus 10:27. The unambiguous reference here by John is to those who have become apostates, those who have walked out on the community of God s people and openly denied the doctrines of salvation; no matter what they may once have professed to believe, they have put themselves beyond the reach of the church s prayers. A similar line of approach is adopted by the writer of Hebrews 6:4-6 where he highlights the sheer impossibility of their current situation. They have turned their backs on God, and God is left with no alternative, but to turn his face away from them! That s why John does not encourage prayer or solicit prayer for such people! There are those for whom we should pray, there are those for whom we must pray, such folk need our prayers and they deserve our prayers; it s equally true to say, there are some people whose names should be deleted from our prayer list, they may need our prayers, but they certainly don t deserve them; according to John, there s no point in targeting them

5 for they have removed themselves outside the orbit of prayer, they re very much on their own and they have only themselves to blame, that s their fault, it s not ours, and it s certainly not God s! We know, we know, we know! Those are the opening words in the next three verses, it s a terrific shout of confidence! We re told in verse 18, We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the one who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him. We ve been down this road before in our studies in 1 John, and it means, the Christian is a new man in Christ Jesus and because of that he does not go on sinning as he did before he turned to Christ. The true believer is someone who has a deep aversion of sin, he has a strong dislike of sin, he can t stand the sight of it and it s the last thing he wants to do. You will have noticed the repetition of the phrase born of God in this verse, that has caused a fair bit of uncertainty over the years because in the English translation it reads the same in both instances. However, when you read it in the Greek, it is different! The first is the perfect participle which John regularly uses to describe the people of God. It indicates a relationship begun at a given point in the past with a continuing effect in the present. Because I was born, I am alive now! That was true in the natural realm, it is equally relevant in the spiritual world. The second time John uses it, the word is the aorist participle which expresses a once-for-all fact. It refers to the one who was always born of God, outside of time, and who is therefore the eternal Son. One translation actually puts it like this: it is the Son of God who keeps him safe. Why do I not keep on sinning? Here s the answer: it has nothing to do with me for I could never achieve it under my own steam, but it has everything to do with the Lord Jesus, he is the one who is actively working away on my behalf. There s a marvellous truth tucked away at the end of the verse, and we don t want to miss it! It is Christ who keeps us safe, so that the devil cannot, literally, fasten himself upon them like a limpet. Oh, he will attack us alright, there s no question about that, but thank God, he

6 cannot gain a foothold; Satan can never succeed in getting us back into his grip. That is where the world is, it s in the tentacles of the evil one, he has it where he wants it to be, it s in his clutch. Even though we may struggle against sin in our daily lives, even though we face many an onslaught from the enemy, even though he does all in the power he has at his disposal to touch us and harm us, praise God, he can never take us; the reality is, the Lord is with us, God is for us, we have total security because we are abiding in Christ. The baseline is: the new birth results in new behaviour, the new life necessitates a new lifestyle! We have another affirmation in verse 19 where John says: We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. This is great stuff for it again reminds us of the assurance we have because we are the Lord s own people. Furthermore, we are born and brought into the global family of God at the precise moment of our conversion. We have many brothers and sisters all over the place, and together we share a common salvation. We not only share a relationship with one another on a horizontal level, we also share a vertical relationship with our Father in heaven. We enjoy sweet and happy fellowship with each other because we have, first of all, experienced the delights of fellowship with the Lord. So far as the children of God are concerned, there is no question of an identity crisis, we know who we are! In the next breath, John reminds us of the status of the world in which we live, he implies that it is under the domination of the devil. He is the one who controls it, it s under his sway, he s the one who calls the tune, he s the mastermind behind all the evil in our sin sick society, he s the one who is running the show and he has an abundance of fallen stars who are more than happy to help him; no matter what he puts his hand to, it s a vain attempt to outdo the God of heaven. What we need to keep to the front of our minds is this: the devil may see himself as the controller of the universe, and that s fine; the plain truth is, God is still in the driving seat, he s the divine supremo, the Lord reigns, heaven rules! My friend, in a crazy, devil inspired,

7 topsy-turvy world, we can rejoice that our God is still on the throne and He will remember His own! John s third and final assertion takes us to the penultimate verse in his first epistle, it s verse 20, where he says: We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. This last great conviction echoed by John is of course the ground and substance of the preceding two. Your faith and mine is rooted in what God has done in history, we are followers of the historical Jesus and we are worshippers of the ascended, exalted and glorified Lord. I think the understanding which John speaks of here is both a spiritual and intellectual capacity to receive truth. Someone has observed: God s truth is addressed to the mind, through which it penetrates the heart, to activate the will. That s not only true on an intellectual level, it is also true on a moral and spiritual level. Knowing truth is all about knowing God, and knowing God is all about fellowship with God. Paul expressed similar aspirations in the prayer recorded for us in Philippians 3:10. Graham Kendrick puts it like this: Knowing You, Jesus, knowing You, there is no greater thing. You re my all, You re the best, You re my joy, my righteousness, and I love You, Lord. The intimacy of our communion with God is stressed by John in this verse, as is the unique position we occupy! We can t be any nearer, we couldn t be any closer, we are in him and he is in us, he shares with us his own indestructible life, a life which is eternal. This is fellowship at its highest level and that is what John introduced us to at the start of his letter in 1:2,3. So, in that sense, we have come full circle. We have reached the top of the spiral staircase and found God himself, and in him a life without end and a life without equal! John s parting shot keeps our feet firmly on the ground, for he issues a strong warning in verse 21, Dear children, keep yourselves from idols. On the face of it, that may seem a strange way to end a letter of love and light, but the more you think about it, the more relevant it all becomes. Anything that squeezed

8 God out of number one position in my life is an idol, anything that relegates him to a lower rung on the ladder is an idol, anything that moves him out to the fringes and the periphery of my life is an idol. Says John, look out, be ultra careful, be on your guard, exercise extreme caution, don t let it happen to you! It s a real threat in a real world, it s a subtle danger we constantly face, it s a problem we all have to grapple with, it s a high hurdle we need to overcome; basically, John warns us not to prostitute our faith on unworthy objects of human speculation and opinion. I think we need a high view of scripture, we need a proper view of God, we need to understand who Jesus is, we need a fuller appreciation of his redemptive work on the cross at Calvary, if we are going to stand firm against the enemy of our souls. The focus of our faith is Jesus Christ, the source of our faith is the testimony of the Holy Spirit in our heart, and the fruit of our faith is victory over the world. The ultimate challenge from John s pen is: don t live your life on substitutes, don t feed your faith on additives; live a real life, live it in the real world, live it with a real faith in the Lord, in a God who is real!