They Are To Be watchful For One Another And continue Instant In Prayer For One Another (1 John 5:16-17).
‘If any man see his brother sinning a sin not unto death, he shall ask, and God will give him life for those who do not sin unto death. There is a sin unto death. Not concerning this do I say that he should make request. All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not unto death.'
As John had made clear at the beginning he knew that Christians would still continue to sin. Indeed he insisted that all Christians recognise that this failing in them would continue (1 John 1:8-10). But they were not ‘sins unto death', for they could come to Him in the light and be cleansed (1 John 1:7). Thus, he says, we should be observant for our brother's failings as well as our own. Not in order to gloat, or to be self-satisfied, but in order to pray for their restoration. We may see a fellow-Christian burdened down by sin, entrapped by it, finding release difficult. For such a brother we are to pray to God, and God will grant us his restoration. His promise is that He will accordingly restore such. God will give him life for those who do not ‘sin unto death', rather than the death that without Christ they would have deserved.
What John is stressing here is our repsonsibility to pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ, especially in the church of which we are members. The early church had a deep sense of their responsibility for one another.
In a sense, of course, all sin is ‘unto death'. 'The soul that sins will die.' But for such there is forgiveness available in Christ. However there is a ‘sin unto death' for which there is no forgiveness because those involved have so hardened their hearts that they are permanently closed to Christ. They refuse to believe. They see what should convince of them of the truth and still refuse to believe. They invent false arguments in order to avoid believing. Finally such becomes an attitude of heart that nothing can change. Their arguments have solidified in their hearts so that they cannot change. They have put themselves beyond repentance. They have 'sinned unto death.'
John is here concerned that we direct our prayers wisely. Our brothers and sisters who are in fellowship need our prayers, and our prayers will be effective for them because their ears are open to God's voice. But there are those who have hardened themslves and for whom our prayers will probably not be effective. In the end we cannot carry the whole weight of the world on our shoulders.
Consider for example,
1) The Pharisees who accosted Jesus who were in danger of committing it (Mark 3:28-30). They saw incontrovertible evidence of Whom Jesus was. But they continually closed their minds to it and shielded their minds by inventing false evidence. One day their minds would be closed to any reasoning. Then they would have no hope.
2) The false prophets and false brothers, were in danger of committing it. The writer to the Hebrews warned of the danger for those who had outwardly professed to be Christians over a long period but who had refused to let Christ truly work in their hearts. They still had chance to repent even though they had become ‘Gospel hardened'. But if they were so hard that they could turn away from Christ to another religion, thus declaring Him an impostor, they would have finally rendered themselves incapable of true repentance (Hebrews 6:4-8; Hebrews 10:29).
3) Peter describes those who who have seen something of the truth of Christ, and, impressed by the morality of the Christian church in contrast with paganism, have begun to build up a 'true knowledge' (epignosis) of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ (it took some time for pure polytheistic pagans to begin fully to appreciate Christian truth), only to turn away to the defilements of false religion (2 Peter 2:20-22). These too were in danger of committing it.
All these are those who have deliberately and persistently closed their minds to what in their hearts they knew to be true. The idea is that there is no binding commitment on Christians to pray for such (as there is for those who are 'in the faith'). They have taken themselves beyond the reach of mercy. They are, as it were, outside the sphere of those for whom we should be constantly praying because they have demonstrated that they are not our brothers and sisters in Christ. Prayer for them is not forbidden, only not required, for they are not true brothers, while prayer for true brothers is required.
It should be noted that we have said 'in danger of'. We can never ourselves know whather a person has passed the point of no return. And some may feel that they should pray for such, especially if they are well known to them. But John is looking at our basic responsibilty of prayer for all true believers, and at who should enjoy the main burden of our prayers. He is not, however, forbidding prayer for them.
In the end, of course, all unrighteousness is sin, and thus Christians still sin, and we must bear one another's burdens and so fulfil the law of Christ (Galatians 6:2). But there the sin is not ‘unto death', because while the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23), their sins have been borne by Another (2 Corinthians 5:21). It is only the sin unto death that puts a person outside the necessity for our prayers.