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.

1 John 5:16

Not All Sins Are Equal

As a Protestant, this verse was always troubling to me. Protestantism rejects the Catholic view that there are two types of sins – mortal and venial. Protestantism teaches that a sin is a sin. All sin makes us equally culpable in the sight of God

But this does not make any sense at all. Think about it. If all sin is equally bad in the sight of God, then a serial killer is no worse than someone who has a problem with his temper. A man who molests children is no more evil that a person who has problem over-eating. Committing adultery is no more grave that telling a white lie. If our prison system was like this, we would treat a jay-walker the same way as we treat a murderer.

And that Protestant view does not make sense in view of the Bible. The Bible teaches in many places that not all sin is equal. Jesus said that the one who betrayed him committed the greater sin (John 19:11). Jesus accused the Pharisees of straining the gnat and swallowing the camel (Matthew 23:24), inferring that they concentrated more on the venial sins than on the grave ones. Jesus said God would be more lenient upon Sodom than on the religious leaders at His time(Luke 10:12), meaning that their sins were more grave . And Jesus said that he who sins ignorantly will receive a few whippings, but he who sins whippings.

 

All this shows that the Bible does teach that not all sins are equally bad to God. But this verse here makes that even more explicit. Here John writes that there are sins that lead to death, and there are other sins that do not.  He also writes that a brother, obviously meaning a fellow brother in Christ, can commit a sin  that leads to death. This is what we Catholics call mortal sin. It is mortal, because it leads to death.

 

My Protestant friends would argue that this sin that leads to death is not referring to spiritual death, but to physical death. They would point to 1 Corinthians, where Paul said that some became sick and died because of their sins. I have three responses: This does not fit what happens in real life, it does not fit the immediate context of John’s letter, and it does not fit the immediate context of this verse.

 

This does not fit real life. As the son goes, “Only the Good Die Young”. Many godly people get sick and die young, and many ungodly people stay healthy and live a long life. The Protestant interpretation falls right in the trap of the health and wealth gospel. If sin leads to physical death, then that must mean that anyone who dies young died as a punishment from God for his sin. But this goes against the teachings of Christ, who said that God gives the sun and rain on the just and the unjust. In reality, we all know Christians who have lived in sin and lived very long lives, and we have known some very godly Christians who have lived short lives.

 

This also does not fit the context of John’s letter or even his gospel. He rarely used the words “death” or “life” in terms of physical death or physical life. In his gospel, he wrote that God sent His Son so that we may have eternal life (John 3:16).  He who believes in Christ has passed out of death and into life (John  5:24). If a man keeps Jesus’ word he shall not see death (John 5:22).  John did write of the physical death of Jesus (John 21:19), but John overall concern for us is not with physical death spiritual and death. Christ died physically so that we may not die spiritually and eternally. He who eats His flesh and drink His blood shall never die, obviously meaning not that he will ever experience physical death, but that he will not be eternally separated from God. When Jesus talked about the physical death of Lazarus, He only called it sleeping (John 11:11).  This is also shown his letter. We know we have passed from death to life, if we love the brethren (1John 3:14). This is obviously not referring to physical death.

 

It does not fit the immediate context of this verse. It says “If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life”. God giving someone life cannot be referring to physical life. It must mean that God has given him life spiritually. So if life is referring to spiritual life, then death must be referring to spiritual death.

 

For these three above reasons, I think that this passage is not saying that there certain sins that lead to an early physical death to a Christian, but that there are certain sin that lead to spiritual death, eternal separation from God.

 

In My Humble Opinion

 

There is one phrase in this passage I still find troubling. It says “There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that he should pray about that.” This seems troubling for both a Protestant and a Catholic. It just does not sound right that there are conditions where it would be pointless to pray for someone – that we do not have to pray for someone who committed a sin leading to death. This does not sit well with me. We should always pray for everyone. The more grave a sin a person commits, the more that person needs our prayers. As we pray in the Rosary, we say “Lead all souls into heaven, especially those who are most need of Thy mercy”. So how can John write this?

 

I am now giving my own private interpretation. Now, this may come as a shock to some Protestants, because I am using my own private interpretation of scripture. But this reaction would be a misunderstanding of the Catholic view. Catholics are encouraged to read the Bible for themselves. The Church does not tell us how to read each verse in the Bible. It is more like a huge fenced-in playground. We are free to romp and play, to use our own imaginations and reasoning, to experience the freedom in Christ, and read the Bible with the guidance of the Holy Spirit – as long as we stay within the boundaries of the fence constructed by the Church. So my interpretation of this verse is within the boundaries of the Church, but is not specifically taught by the Church. So what I present here is not Catholic teaching. It is only my opinion. If you disagree with me, that is fine. I admit that my interpretation could be wrong.

 

There is one thing that computer programming has taught me – never to assume anything. There are many times I assumed that a bug was because of certain problem, only to find out after many painstaking hours that the problem was somewhere else that I assumed was okay. From this experience, I learned to analyze what were my basic assumptions were. In this passage, I started to analyze that my assumption was that this sinner John is writing about is still alive. But what if that assumption was false? What if this sinner had already passed away? So let me paraphrase this passage assuming that John is writing about someone who passed away:

 

If anyone saw his brother was committing a sin that does not lead to death and that brother passed away, he should pray and God will give him heavenly 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.

 

 

So if that is what John is writing, then that would mean that we can pray for a brother in Christ  who is in purgatory that God would bring him into heaven. But it is pointless to pray for a brother who committed mortal sin, because he is condemned for all eternity.

 

This fits with the teachings of the Church. For instance, Pope Benedict XIV wrote of those who had committed mortal sin:

 

The sanctions and penalties provided for by your Albanian council and by Our letter mentioned above must be fully applied in their case: that is, they must be declared unfit to receive the Sacraments in their lifetime, and if they die unrepentant, to benefit from prayers after death.

On Christians using Mohhommaden Names

 

The Pope declared that those who die unrepentant of mortal sin are unfit to benefit from prayers after death. That coincides with John writing that he is not commanding us to pray for those die in mortal sin.

 

I admit that this interpretation is somewhat strained. After all, nowhere in the text does it say that this brother in Christ has passed away. But no matter how one interprets this passage, I think it would be strained. There is just not an easy way to interpret how in certain conditions we do not have pray for someone. Also, we do not know if John is responding to a question sent to him. For all we know, someone could have asked him “John, should we continue to pray for people after they die that they may enter the heavenly life no matter how sinful they may have lived?” If such a question was asked, then John may have not seen the need to explain this in fuller detail.

 

This of course is the problem with private interpretation of scripture. None
of us knows what was going on behind the scenes that prompted the Biblical writers to write what they wrote. This is why we need to be humble about our own interpretation of Holy Scripture, and humble ourselves to the teachings of Christ’s Church, of which Christ promised that the Holy Spirit would guide into all truth.

 

If my private interpretation seems nonsensical to you, you will find no argument from me. It is just my humble opinion on dealing with a difficult phrase in this passage.

 

Conclusion

 

One thing this passage definitely teaches. It teaches that there are sins that lead to death and sins that do not lead to death. Not all sins are equal.

 

Also, it is possible that this passage also hints at the existence purgatory. This passage could be saying that we should pray for others who have died unless we know they have committed sin that leads to death.