These verses may seem like doubletalk. This presents more questions than answers as we read the Scripture. Mentioned is a phrase, “sin unto death.” Also, mentioned is the phrase, “sin not unto death.” The important phrase is, “All unrighteousness is sin.” What do you think all of this means?
This is one of those passages that must never be taken out of context. The danger is for too many opinions from various people. Also, it is one of the examples that can best be understood in conjunction with at least one other Bible verse.
Let’s start in the beginning. What is the effect of sin? In what way does it affect the spiritual state of a person? This is the point of the subject. We all sin which leads directly to death without Christ is our Savior. We are told that we could observe another person committing sin, but the question is would it lead to death.
This verse is a companion to Matthew 12: 31, 32 when Jesus spoke about sinning against the Holy Spirit which is unforgivable. John in our text sets the groundwork for us to realize that if there is a lack of faith, a resistance to God, a bold obstinance from any efforts from God, but it results in death. We are herein speaking about spiritual death. In these two verses of Matthew Jesus explained the involvement of the Holy Spirit in a person’s life for salvation.
God does not override the free will of a person. Therefore, if a person persistently puts himself in opposition to the Divine will, it prevents any prayer for salvation from another person. It is useless to think of them having God in their lives. The obstinate rejection of a person sets him on the road of death for all eternity.
We have a situation in which we all sin, but it is not unto death. These are various and many types of sin that we can commit. They may even be intentional. This type of sinning is one that harms our fellowship with God. The ideal would be first for us to consistently and persistently serve God without sinning. Because of our human nature or carnality, we do sin.
There is one major difference between this idea of sinning and sinning into death. That is difference is faith and or the recognition of Jesus as Savior. A person who sins unto death has condemned himself already because he has rejected all efforts from the Son of God.(John 3: 17,18). That belittling boldness against God becomes a condemnation. It is what a person could bring on himself which eventually would cause him to spend eternity in hell.
Before a person becomes a Christian, he would already have been living a life of sin and without repentance that would send him to hell. By not repenting, the person is casting aside any influence for faith from the Holy Spirit. That is unforgivable as long as the sinner does not seek Jesus as Savior.
Our text in first John takes the matter further to warn us that a person who persists in being a sinner and tosses aside the influence of the Holy Spirit denying the intercession of Jesus on the cross is someone that has committed a sin unto death. The obstinate resistance to God, the intentional rejection of God’s offering for salvation, the disbelief or even mocking of what Christ did on the cross, is certainly a sin unto death.
John proposes a situation in which we see a man behaving sinfully in conjunction with the absence of faith and total rejection of Christ as already described. Any prayer for him maybe useless if he has committed a sin unto death. This does not prevent us from witnessing to those who have not accepted Christ. It is our hope that the Holy Spirit will use us to help some person see the error of his ways so that he might accept Christ.
Consider the spiritual condition of mankind. We are all sinners. We all need the Savior. Some of that group of sinners accepts Christ and become saved sinners. There are others who do not accept Christ and have condemned themselves but still have the possibility sometime in the future to become Christians. Then there are others deep in their sin who adamantly rejects Christ as the Son of God because of their attitude of mind. That person is the center of our topic today. He has guaranteed himself to be classified as someone who sins unto death throughout all eternity.
Christian Writer 