English · KJV

1 John 5:16

“Confidence in Prayer”1 John 5:14–17

King James Version
If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it.

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain

KJV (with Strong's)
If G1437 any man G5100 see G1492 his G846 brother G80 sin G264 a sin G266 which is not G3361 unto G4314 death G2288, he shall ask G154, and G2532 he shall give G1325 him G846 life G2222 for them that sin G264 not G3361 unto G4314 death G2288. There is G2076 a sin G266 unto G4314 death G2288: I do not G3756 say G3004 that G2443 he shall pray G2065 for G4012 it G1565.

Bible text: King James Version with Strong's numbers · Public domain

Berean Standard Bible
If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he should ask God, who will give life to those who commit this kind of sin. There is a sin that leads to death; I am not saying he should ask regarding that sin.

Bible text: Berean Standard Bible · Public domain

American Standard Version
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.

Bible text: American Standard Version (1901) · Public domain

World English Bible Messianic
If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life for those who sin not leading to death. There is a sin leading to death. I don’t say that he should make a request concerning this.

Bible text: World English Bible, Messianic edition · Public domain

Geneva Bible (1599)
If any man see his brother sinne a sinne that is not vnto death, let him aske, and he shall giue him life for them that sinne not vnto death. There is a sinne vnto death: I say not that thou shouldest pray for it.

Bible text: Geneva Bible (1599) · Public domain

Young's Literal Translation
If any one may see his brother sinning a sin not unto death, he shall ask, and He shall give to him life to those sinning not unto death; there is sin to death, not concerning it do I speak that he may beseech;

Bible text: Young's Literal Translation · Public domain

King James Version — Interlinear
31 Greek words
  1. ἘάνEanIfG1437CONDConjunction
  2. τιςtisanyoneG5100X-NSMIndefinite pronoun Nominative Singular Masculine
  3. ἴδῃidēshall seeG1492V-2AAS-3SVerb 2nd Aorist Active Subjunctive 3rd Singular
  4. τὸνtontheG3588T-ASMDefinite article Accusative Singular Masculine
  5. ἀδελφὸνadelphonbrotherG80N-ASMNoun Accusative Singular Masculine
  6. αὐτοῦautouof himG846P-GSMPersonal pronoun Genitive Singular Masculine
  7. ἁμαρτάνονταhamartanontasinningG264V-PAP-ASMVerb Present Active Participle Accusative Singular Masculine
  8. ἁμαρτίανhamartiana sinG266N-ASFNoun Accusative Singular Feminine
  9. μὴmēnotG3361PRT-NNegative Particle Negative
  10. πρὸςprosuntoG4314PREPPreposition
  11. θάνατονthanatondeathG2288N-ASMNoun Accusative Singular Masculine
  12. αἰτήσειaitēseihe will askG154V-FAI-3SVerb Future Active Indicative 3rd Singular
  13. καὶkaiandG2532CONJConjunction
  14. δώσειdōseiHe will giveG1325V-FAI-3SVerb Future Active Indicative 3rd Singular
  15. αὐτῷautōto himG846P-DSMPersonal pronoun Dative Singular Masculine
  16. ζωήνzōēnlifeG2222N-ASFNoun Accusative Singular Feminine
  17. τοῖςtoisto thoseG3588T-DPMDefinite article Dative Plural Masculine
  18. ἁμαρτάνουσινhamartanousinsinningG264V-PAP-DPMVerb Present Active Participle Dative Plural Masculine
  19. μὴmēnotG3361PRT-NNegative Particle Negative
  20. πρὸςprosuntoG4314PREPPreposition
  21. θάνατονthanatondeathG2288N-ASMNoun Accusative Singular Masculine
  22. ἜστινEstinThere isG1510V-PAI-3SVerb Present Active Indicative 3rd Singular
  23. ἁμαρτίαhamartiaa sinG266N-NSFNoun Nominative Singular Feminine
  24. πρὸςprosuntoG4314PREPPreposition
  25. θάνατον·thanatondeathG2288N-ASMNoun Accusative Singular Masculine
  26. οὐounotG3756PRT-NNegative Particle Negative
  27. περὶpericoncerningG4012PREPPreposition
  28. ἐκείνηςekeinēsthat [one]G1565D-GSFDemonstrative pronoun Genitive Singular Feminine
  29. λέγωlegōdo I sayG3004V-PAI-1SVerb Present Active Indicative 1st Singular
  30. ἵναinathatG2443CONJConjunction
  31. ἐρωτήσῃerōtēsēhe may imploreG2065V-AAS-3SVerb Aorist Active Subjunctive 3rd Singular
English is a literal word-by-word gloss of the Greek, not the KJV's wording. Why?

This is the original text the KJV's translators worked from — each Greek word with its own literal English meaning in this verse, prepared by scholars at Tyndale House, Cambridge. The KJV translates whole sentences, not word by word, so its wording differs: one Greek word can become several English words, and the KJV may choose “charity” where the gloss reads “love”. Both are faithful — they answer different questions. For the KJV's own rendering, switch to the KJV text.

Words in [ ] are added by the English.

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Study this verse

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This verse

When we see a fellow believer sin a sin that is not unto death, we are to pray and God will give him life, though John gives no command to pray about the sin unto death.

“If any man see his brother sin”

A fellow believer, seen by those around him in the church. The verb is hamartánō, to miss the mark.

“a sin which is not unto death,”

The ordinary failings of believers, for which repentance and forgiveness are expected.

“he shall ask, and he shall give him life”

The one who sees prays, and God answers by giving life (dídōmi, “to give”), which means restoration and renewed fellowship.

“for them that sin not unto death.”

John repeats the limit, so the promise is clear about whom it covers.

“There is a sin unto death:”

hamartia pros thanaton. The word for death, thánatos, can mean bodily death or death in a figurative sense, and believers differ on which is meant here.

“I do not say that he shall pray for it.”

John withholds a command here, and his indirect wording carries the seriousness of the case.

Passage study1 John 5:14–17

Confidence in Prayer and the Sin unto Death

14And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: 15And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him. 16If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it. 17All unrighteousness is sin: and there is a sin not unto death.

Summary

John closes his first letter on a note of confidence. He has just written so that we may know we have eternal life (1 John 5:13), and now he turns that same certainty toward prayer. When we ask anything according to God’s will, he hears us, and when he hears us, we know we have what we asked. John then puts this confidence to work in one of the most loving things a believer can do, which is to pray for a brother or sister who sins, and he promises that God gives that person life. He mentions a “sin unto death” for which he stops short of telling us to pray, and he ends by saying that all unrighteousness is sin, while “there is a sin not unto death.”

Why we can come to God with confidence

The word John uses for confidence is parrēsía. At its root it means speaking out freely: frankness, plainness, openness, and by implication assurance. In prayer it means boldness and open access, the freedom to come to God directly and without fear. The confidence is “in him”, and the Greek, pros auton, means “toward him”. It is confidence directed to God and drawn from our relationship with him, a gift that comes by faith through Christ.

That is why verse 14 follows verse 13 so naturally. John wrote “that ye may know that ye have eternal life”, and the people who are sure of their life in the Son are the people who can be sure their Father listens. The assurance of salvation carries straight on into the assurance of answered prayer.

Christ opened this access for us. Hebrews says that we have “boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus” and calls us to “draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith” (Hebrews 10:19–22). It also says, “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).

John was writing, probably late in the first century and likely to churches around Ephesus, to believers troubled by false teachers. These are usually identified with an early form of Gnosticism. They denied that Christ truly came in the flesh, made light of obedience, and claimed a special knowledge that left some of them proud and others careless about sin. Against that background, John’s word for confidence speaks of open access for every believer. We come to God through our relationship with Christ, and that freedom belongs to everyone who is in fellowship with him.

What it means to ask according to his will

The verb for ask, aitéō, is the ordinary word for making a request: to ask, beg, call for or desire. It is often said to be the word for one who asks a superior, as a child asks a parent, where erōtaō can be used of asking as an equal, and that fits a believer coming to God. The scope John gives is wide, “any thing”, and the one condition is “according to his will” (kata to thelēma autou). That condition guides our asking. God’s will is good, and when we pray in line with it we are asking for what he purposes to do.

Jesus taught us to pray, “Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10), and he prayed that way himself in Gethsemane: “nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done” (Luke 22:42). Beside this condition stands his open invitation to ask, seek and knock (Matthew 7:7–8), and James’s explanation of prayers that go unanswered: “Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts” (James 4:3). Prayer according to God’s will is the opposite of trying to bend God to our will. It brings our desires into line with his, and so it becomes an act of fellowship and trust as well as a request.

Must I be sure of God’s will before I pray?

John asks us to pray with hearts that seek God’s glory and purposes above our own wishes, trusting that his will is always good, and that leaves room to bring him anything. Often we are unsure what God wants in a particular case, and Paul says so plainly: “the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered” (Romans 8:26). The Spirit “maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God” (Romans 8:27). As we grow in knowing God and his word, our desires come to match his more and more. So we pray boldly for “any thing”, with an open hand, trusting his wisdom to grant or withhold.

How do we learn to pray according to his will?

We learn God’s will above all from his word. Scripture is given “that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Timothy 3:16–17), and as we read it we learn who God is, what he has revealed and what pleases him. We learn it in steady prayer and fellowship with him, as the Holy Spirit shapes our thoughts and desires. The counsel of mature believers helps, and so does a settled trust that accepts God’s yes, his no or his wait as the best answer: “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5–6).

Jesus promised that whatever we ask in his name he will do (John 14:13–14). Asking in his name is far more than adding a phrase at the end of a prayer. It means asking in line with his character, his authority and his saving purposes. Jesus himself always did the Father’s will, for he said, “I do always those things that please him” (John 8:29), so praying in his name and praying according to God’s will come to the same thing.

He hears us, and we have what we asked

To hear, akoúō, is a broad word that covers hearing, giving audience and understanding. When John says “he heareth us”, he means God’s attentive hearing, the hearing of a Father who welcomes his children’s requests and is ready to answer them. Verse 15 takes this one step further: “if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.”

The little word “if”, eán, means “if” or “when”. John is building on what verse 14 has just said, so here it introduces something his readers already hold as true. The verb “know” is eídō, which properly means to see, and so to know. John uses it twice in this one verse. We know that he hears, and we know that we have, and the repetition underlines how certain this is.

The word for petitions, aítēma, comes from the verb to ask and means the particular things asked for. The verb “we have”, échō, means to have, hold or possess, and it is in the present tense. When we ask according to God’s will, the answer is so sure that John can speak of it as already ours, and it comes from God himself, for these are petitions “desired of him”. We may need patience and persistence before we see the answer, and it may come at a time or in a way we did not expect, yet in God’s purpose the request is already granted. So we can pray for great things, to the God “that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20).

Does God give us everything we ask for?

God gives what we ask according to his will, and that is the promise of these two verses taken together. Verse 15 rests on the condition of verse 14, so its promise covers every prayer made “according to his will”. God always acts according to his own wise and loving purposes, for our good and for his glory. When our desires line up with his, we can be sure that he hears us and grants our petitions, even when the timing or the manner of the answer is different from what we pictured.

Praying for a brother who sins

John now applies all of this to one kind of prayer in particular. A “brother” is a fellow believer, so the setting is the church, where we see one another stumble. The verb for sin, hamartánō, means to miss the mark, to err, to fall short of God’s righteous standard, and it covers deliberate disobedience as well as failures we hardly notice. Even within the family of God, sin is real and calls for help. When we see a brother sin “a sin which is not unto death”, John’s instruction is simple: “he shall ask.”

The promise is that “he shall give him life”. The verb is dídōmi, “to give”. God is the giver here, answering the prayer by giving the sinning brother life: restoration, forgiveness, renewed fellowship with him, and preservation from the full consequences of his sin. This is the confident prayer of verses 14 and 15 put to work for someone else, because it is God’s will to restore his children who stumble.

James says something close to this about the one who brings back a brother who has wandered from the truth: “he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins” (James 5:19–20). John has already told us, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9), and “if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1–2).

The life God gives comes from Christ, who said, “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live” (John 11:25). Our prayers for one another follow the pattern of his own, for “he ever liveth to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25). Praying for each other is both a responsibility and a privilege, and it is one of the plainest forms the love John has urged throughout his letter can take.

What is the sin unto death?

John speaks of a sin, hamartia pros thanaton, that leads to death, and he sets it beside the ordinary failings of believers, which are the sins he tells us to pray about. He leaves it unnamed, and believers differ on what it is. The word for death, thánatos, can mean death of the body or death in a figurative sense, and the two main views follow those two senses.

  • A final turning away from Christ. Many believers understand the sin unto death as apostasy, a deliberate, settled and unrepentant rejection of Christ and the Holy Spirit after a person has known the truth. On this view it is a hardened state of rebellion more than a single act. It is compared with Jesus’ words about blasphemy against the Holy Ghost (Matthew 12:31–32), the warning in Hebrews about those who fall away (Hebrews 6:4–6), and the warning about sinning wilfully “after that we have received the knowledge of the truth” (Hebrews 10:26–27). John has already written about those who deny the Father and the Son (1 John 2:22–23) and about those who go on committing sin as a way of life (1 John 3:4–10), and Jesus said that “he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:18).
  • A sin judged with bodily death. Others hold that John means a sin within the church that God judges with physical death, as he judged Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1–11), and as Paul says happened when the Corinthians abused the Lord’s Supper: “For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep” (1 Corinthians 11:30). On this view, prayer for that person is set aside because God’s judgment has already been decided or carried out.

The setting of the letter fits the first view well. False teachers were drawing some away from the faith, and John writes of those who “went out from us, but they were not of us” (1 John 2:19). Whichever view we hold, the contrast between life and death in this verse shows how much is at stake, and the sin unto death is a rare and extreme condition.

Why does John stop short of telling us to pray for it?

John gives a clear command about the first kind of sin, and about the sin unto death he simply withholds that command. His words, “I do not say that he shall pray for it”, are indirect, and the restraint carries the seriousness of the case. If a person has hardened his heart against God and rejected his truth for good, then prayer for his restoration lies outside what God has said he will do, because his will is set against God. The confident prayer of verse 14 is prayer “according to his will”, and John promises an answer where he knows what that will is.

Can a believer commit a sin God will not forgive?

Every sin a believer confesses is forgiven through Christ’s atoning work, as 1 John 1:9 promises. The sin unto death describes a state of unrepentant rebellion, in which a person has definitively rejected God’s grace and hardened his heart until he is unwilling or unable to repent. Believers differ on how to describe such a person. Some understand, from 1 John 2:19, that he has shown he was never truly part of the believing community, and others that he has turned away from a faith he once held. Both agree that the barrier lies in the hardened heart, and that God’s readiness to forgive stands. This warning should lead each of us to keep a soft heart toward God and to be quick to confess.

All unrighteousness is sin

Verse 17 holds two truths side by side. The first is “All unrighteousness is sin”. The word for unrighteousness, adikía, comes from adikos, “unjust”, and means injustice, wrong or wickedness, anything contrary to God’s righteousness, whether it shows in a single act or in a person’s character. The word for sin, hamartía, means “a sin”, and it is properly an abstract word that takes in sin of every kind: thought, word, deed or omission, anything that breaks God’s law or falls short of his character.

So every wrong counts. God is light, “and in him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5), and “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). This line answers any teaching that treats sin lightly, as the false teachers of John’s day did when they set the spiritual apart from the bodily and concluded that how a person lived hardly mattered.

The second truth is the comfort: “there is a sin not unto death”. John has just said that every wrong is sin, and now he says that the daily failings of God’s children leave their eternal life secure in Christ, though those failings are real and must be confessed. The verse reaches back to 1 John 1:9, where God promises “to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”. The same “all unrighteousness” that verse 17 calls sin is what God cleanses when we confess. “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23), and that is why it is such good news that for those in Christ there is sin that does not end in death.

Are all sins equally bad?

Every sin offends God’s holy character, and in that sense all unrighteousness alike falls short of his glory. Scripture also recognises degrees of guilt and of consequence. Jesus said that the servant “which knew his lord’s will” and disobeyed “shall be beaten with many stripes”, while “he that knew not” shall be beaten “with few stripes” (Luke 12:47–48), and John’s own distinction in these verses marks a difference in final outcome. The main point of verse 17 is that every unrighteous thing is unacceptable to God, and its comfort is that the believer who stumbles is kept in Christ.

Christ, our access and our life

Everything in these verses rests on Christ. Our confidence in prayer was secured by his death, which opened the way into the holiest (Hebrews 10:19), and he intercedes for us at the right hand of God (Romans 8:34), so that our prayers come before the Father through him. He is “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29) and “the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 2:2). He “knew no sin”, and God made him to be sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21), so that the wages of sin were paid in full for all who believe. Faith is counted for righteousness (Romans 4:5), and his intercession continues for his people’s daily failings (Hebrews 7:25).

That is why there is “a sin not unto death”. In Christ, sin has lost its power to condemn, and Paul can say, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” (1 Corinthians 15:54–57). The warning about the sin unto death points the same way, because it concerns a persistent rejection of the very One who gives this life.

The prophets show how seriously God takes wilful, persistent rebellion. Jeremiah asks whether Israel has brought her troubles on herself by forsaking the LORD “when he led thee by the way” (Jeremiah 2:17), and he condemns the burning of children as offerings, “which I commanded not, nor spake it” (Jeremiah 19:5). Through Isaiah, God tells a people offering worship from unrepentant hearts, “Bring no more vain oblations” (Isaiah 1:13). Yet the same God has carried his people from the womb and will carry them to old age (Isaiah 46:3–4). He is “a merciful God” who will keep his covenant with them (Deuteronomy 4:31), and in the new covenant he says, “their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more” (Hebrews 8:12). With Paul we can only marvel, “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!” (Romans 11:33).

Asking boldly, for ourselves and for one another

You can bring any request to God with the freedom of a child, because Christ has opened the way and the Father hears. Let his will shape your asking, through his word and the help of his Spirit, and then rest in what John says: when God hears, the petition is already yours, even while you wait to see it.

When a brother or sister stumbles, the first thing John asks of you is prayer, and God promises to give life in answer. And when your own sin weighs on you, hold on to both halves of verse 17. All unrighteousness is sin, so confess it honestly. There is “a sin not unto death”, so confess it with confidence, because God is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Last revised

Public-domain commentary

Matthew Henry

From his Commentary on the Whole Bible. Henry wrote on whole passages, and this entry covers 1 John 5:14–17. He set out his notes in a four-level outline, kept here as he numbered it.

1662–1714 · 4 verses
Passage under comment1 John 5:14–17
I. II. Main points1. 2. Sub-points(1.) (2.) Details[1.] [2.] Fine details

Here we have,

I.A privilege belonging to faith in Christ, namely, audience in prayer:

This is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us, 1 John 5:14. The Lord Christ emboldens us to come to God in all circumstances, with all our supplications and requests. Through him our petitions are admitted and accepted of God. The matter of our prayer must be agreeable to the declared will of God. It is not fit that we should ask what is contrary either to his majesty and glory or to our own good, who are his and dependent on him. And then we may have confidence that the prayer of faith shall be heard in heaven.

II.The advantage accruing to us by such privilege:

If we know that he heareth us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him, 1 John 5:15. Great are the deliverances, mercies, and blessings, which the holy petitioner needs. To know that his petitions are heard or accepted is as good as to know that they are answered; and therefore that he is so pitied, pardoned, or counselled, sanctified, assisted, and saved (or shall be so) as he is allowed to ask of God.

III.Direction in prayer in reference to the sins of others:

If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for those that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it, 1 John 5:16. Here we may observe,

1.We ought to pray for others as well as for ourselves; for our brethren of mankind, that they may be enlightened, converted, and saved; for our brethren in the Christian profession, that they may be sincere, that their sins may be pardoned, and that they may be delivered from evils and the chastisements of God, and preserved in Christ Jesus.

2.There is a great distinction in the heinousness and guilt of sin: There is a sin unto death (1 John 5:16), and there is a sin not unto death, 1 John 5:17.

(1.)There is a sin unto death. All sin, as to the merit and legal sentence of it, is unto death. The wages of sin is death; and cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law, to do them, Galatians 3:10. But there is a sin unto death in opposition to such sin as is here said not to be unto death. There is therefore,

(2.)A sin not unto death. This surely must include all such sin as by divine or human constitution may consist with life; in the human constitution with temporal or corporal life, in the divine constitution with corporal or with spiritual evangelical life.

[1.]There are sins which, by human righteous constitution, are not unto death; as divers pieces of injustice, which may be compensated without the death of the delinquent. In opposition to this there are sins which, by righteous constitution, are to death, or to a legal forfeiture of life; such as we call capital crimes.

[2.]Then there are sins which, by divine constitution, are unto death; and that either death corporal or spiritual and evangelical. First, Such as are, or may be, to death corporal. Such may the sins be either of gross hypocrites, as Ananias and Sapphira, or, for aught we know, of sincere Christian brethren, as when the apostle says of the offending members of the church of Corinth, For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep, 1 Corinthians 11:30. There may be sin unto corporal death among those who may not be condemned with the world. Such sin, I said, is, or may be, to corporal death. The divine penal constitution in the gospel does not positively and peremptorily threaten death to the more visible sins of the members of Christ, but only some gospel-chastisement; for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth, Hebrews 12:6. There is room left for divine wisdom or goodness, or even gospel severity, to determine how far the chastisement or the scourge shall proceed. And we cannot say but that sometimes it may (in terrorem - for warning to others) proceed even to death. Then, Secondly, There are sins which, by divine constitution, are unto death spiritual and evangelical, that is, are inconsistent with spiritual and evangelical life, with spiritual life in the soul and with an evangelical right to life above. Such are total impenitence and unbelief for the present. Final impenitence and unbelief are infallibly to death eternal, as also a blaspheming of the Spirit of God in the testimony that he has given to Christ and his gospel, and a total apostasy from the light and convictive evidence of the truth of the Christian religion. These are sins involving the guilt of everlasting death. Then comes,

IV.The application of the direction for prayer according to the different sorts of sin thus distinguished.

The prayer is supposed to be for life: He shall ask, and he (God) shall give them life. Life is to be asked of God. He is the God of life; he gives it when and to whom he pleases, and takes it away either by his constitution or providence, or both, as he thinks meet. In the case of a brother's sin, which is not (in the manner already mentioned) unto death, we may in faith and hope pray for him; and particularly for the life of soul and body. But, in case of the sin unto death in the forementioned ways, we have no allowance to pray. Perhaps the apostle's expression, I do not say, He shall pray for it, may intend no more than, "I have no promise for you in that case; no foundation for the prayer of faith." 1. The laws of punitive justice must be executed, for the common safety and benefit of mankind: and even an offending brother in such a case must be resigned to public justice (which in the foundation of it is divine), and at the same time also to the mercy of God. 2. The removal of evangelical penalties (as they may be called), or the prevention of death (which may seem to be so consequential upon, or inflicted for, some particular sin), can be prayed for only conditionally or provisionally, that is, with proviso that it consist with the wisdom, will, and glory of God that they should be removed, and particularly such death prevented. 3. We cannot pray that the sins of the impenitent and unbelieving should, while they are such, be forgiven them, or that any mercy of life or soul, that suppose the forgiveness of sin, should be granted to them, while they continue such. But we may pray for their repentance (supposing them but in the common case of the impenitent world), for their being enriched with faith in Christ, and thereupon for all other saving mercies. 4. In case it should appear that any have committed the irremissible blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, and the total apostasy from the illuminating convictive powers of the Christian religion, it should seem that they are not to be prayed for at all. For what remains but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, to consume such adversaries? Hebrews 10:27. And these last seem to be the sins chiefly intended by the apostle by the name of sins unto death. Then, 5. The apostle seems to argue that there is sin that is not unto death; thus, All unrighteousness is sin (1 John 5:17); but, were all unrighteousness unto death (since we have all some unrighteousness towards God or man, or both, in omitting and neglecting something that is their due), then we were all peremptorily bound over to death, and, since it is not so (the Christian brethren, generally speaking, having right to life), there must be sin that is not to death. Though there is no venial sin (in the common acceptation), there is pardoned sin, sin that does not involve a plenary obligation to eternal death. If it were not so, there could be no justification nor continuance of the justified state. The gospel constitution or covenant abbreviates, abridges, or rescinds the guilt of sin.

Historical interpretation

Eight Centuries of Reception

17 surviving comments on this verse. Each one is dated, so this reads as a timeline rather than a list.

17 quotes · AD 215–990
Ante-NicenePost-NiceneEarly Medieval
2003004005006007008009001000

Select a marker to jump to its quote. Markers stagger vertically where authors wrote within a few decades of each other.

d. AD 215Clement of AlexandriaAnte-NiceneSourceThe Stromata Book 2
John, too, manifestly teaches the differences of sins, in his larger Epistle, in these words: "If any man see his brother sin a sin that is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life: for these that sin not unto death," he says. For "there is a sin unto death: I do not say that one is to pray for it. All unrighteousness is sin; and there is a sin not unto death."
d. AD 220TertullianAnte-NiceneSourceOn Modesty
For (in making these assertions) he was looking forward to the final clause of his letter, and for that (final clause) he was laying his preliminary bases; intending to say, in the end, more manifestly: "If any knoweth his brother to be sinning a sin not unto death, he shall make request, and the Lord shall give life to him who sinneth not unto death. For there is a sin unto death: not concerning that do I say that one should make request." He, too, (as I have been), was mindful that Jeremiah had been prohibited by God to deprecate (Him) on behalf of a people which was committing mortal sins.
d. AD 220TertullianAnte-NiceneSourceOn Modesty
Touching this difference, we have not only already premised certain antithetical passages of the Scriptures, on one hand retaining, on the other remitting, sins; but John, too, will teach us: "If any knoweth his brother to be sinning a sin not unto death, he shall request, and life shall be given to him; "because he is not "sinning unto death," this will be remissible. "(There) is a sin unto death; not for this do I say that any is to request" -this will be irremissible.
d. AD 253Origen of AlexandriaAnte-NiceneSourceSERMONS ON LEVITICUS 11.2.6
Since there are sins “unto death,” it follows that anyone who commits one of them will die as a result.
d. AD 430Augustine of HippoPost-NiceneSourceTen Homilies on 1 John 10
By this grace such is the liberty they receive, that although as long as they live here they have to fight against the lusts of sins, and are overtaken by some sins for which they must daily pray, "Forgive us our debts," yet they no longer serve the sin which is unto death, of which the apostle John saith, "There is a sin unto death, I do not say that he shall ask for that." Concerning which sin (since it is not expressed) many different opinions may be formed: but I affirm that sin to be the forsaking until death the "faith which worketh by love."
d. AD 430Augustine of HippoPost-NiceneSourceRETRACTATIONS 1.18.7
In another place I defined the sin of a brother unto death [see above], but I should have added: "if he ends this life in a perversity of mind as wicked as this." For surely we must not despair of anyone, no matter how wicked he is, while he lives, and we should pray with confidence for him of whom we should not despair.
d. AD 430Augustine of HippoPost-NiceneSourceTen Homilies on 1 John 10
This difference of sins it is that distinguishes Judas with his treason from Peter with his denial. Not that to him who repenteth there is to be no forgiveness: lest we go against that sentence of the Lord, in which He commands always to forgive the brother who asks his brother's forgiveness: but that the mischief of that sin is, that the man cannot submit to the humiliation of begging for pardon, even when he is forced by his evil conscience both to acknowledge and to publish his sin. For when Judas had said, "I have sinned, in that I have betrayed the innocent blood," he went and hanged himself in desperation, rather than pray for forgiveness in humiliation. Wherefore it makes a great difference, what sort of repentance God forgives. For many are much quicker than others to confess that they have sinned, and are angry with themselves in such sort that they vehemently wish they had not sinned, while yet they cannot lay down their pride, and submit to have the heart humbled and broken so as to implore pardon: a state of mind which one may well believe to be, for the greatness of their sin, a part of their already begun damnation.
d. AD 430Augustine of HippoPost-NiceneSourceCOMMENTARY ON THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT 1.22.73
Even though the Lord commands us to pray for our very persecutors, this passage clearly shows that there are some brothers for whom we are not commanded to pray. We therefore must acknowledge that there are some sins among the brothers which are worse than persecution by enemies. I think that the sin of a brother is unto death when anyone who has attained a knowledge of God through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ opposes the brotherhood and is aroused by the fires of envy against that very grace by which he was reconciled to God.
d. AD 430Augustine of HippoPost-NiceneSourceTen Homilies on 1 John 10
But what presses harder upon the present question is that saying of the apostle John, "If any man know that his brother sinneth a sin not unto death, he shall ask, and the Lord will give life to that man who sinneth not unto death: but there is a sin unto death: not for that do I say that he should ask." For it manifestly shows that there are some "brethren" whom we are not commanded to pray for, whereas the Lord bids us pray even for our persecutors. Nor can this question be solved except we acknowledge, that there are some sins in brethren that are worse than the sin of enemies in persecuting.
d. AD 430Augustine of HippoPost-NiceneSourceTen Homilies on 1 John 10
And this, perhaps, it is "to sin against the Holy Ghost:" i.e. through malice and envy to fight against brotherly charity after receiving the grace of the Holy Spirit: that sin which the Lord saith hath no forgiveness, either here or in the world to come. For the Lord in saying to the Pharisees, "Whosoever shall speak an evil word against the Son of Man," may have meant to warn them to come to the grace of God, and having received it, not to sin as they have now sinned. For now they have spoken an evil word against the Son of Man, and it may be forgiven them, if they be converted and believe and receive the Holy Spirit: which when they have received, if they will then have ill-will against the brotherhood and oppose the grace they have received, there is no forgiveness for them, either in this world or in the world to come.
d. AD 430Augustine of HippoPost-NiceneSourceTen Homilies on 1 John 10
The "sin," therefore, of a brother, "unto death," I suppose to be when, after the acknowledging of God through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, one fights against the brotherhood, and is set on by the fire-brands of hatred against the very grace through which he was reconciled to God. But "a sin not unto death" is when a person, not having alienated his love from his brother, yet through some infirmity of mind may have failed to exhibit the due offices of brotherhood. Wherefore, on the one hand, the Lord on the cross said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do," since they had not yet, by being made partakers of the grace of the Holy Spirit, entered into the fellowship of holy brotherhood; and blessed Stephen in the Acts of the Apostles prays for them who are stoning him; because they had not yet believed Christ, and were not fighting against that grace of communion. On the other hand, the apostle Paul does not pray for Alexander, and the reason I suppose, is, that this man was a brother, and had sinned "unto death," i.e. by opposing the brotherhood in a spirit of hatred.
d. AD 614Andreas of CaesareaEarly MedievalSourceCATENA
It is the sin of heresy, or of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, which leads to death. If one man sins against another, pray for him. But if he sins against God, who is there who can pray on his behalf?
d. AD 735BedeEarly MedievalSourceCommentary on the Catholic Epistles
Who knows his brother to sin a sin not unto death, etc. These and such things are asked according to the will of the Lord, which pertain to the duty of brotherly love. He speaks, however, of daily and light sins, which as they are difficult to avoid, so also are easily cured. But regarding the manner in which this mutual request should be carried out for sins, James more clearly indicates, saying: Confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another that you may be saved (James V). If, therefore, by speaking, or thinking, or forgetfulness, or ignorance you have perhaps erred, go to your brother, confess to him, ask for intervention. If he purely confesses to you, making you aware of his own frailty, and you piously intercede for his errors, correct him. But these things are said about lighter sins. Moreover, if you have committed something more serious, bring in the elders of the Church, and at their examination, punish yourself.
d. AD 735BedeEarly MedievalSourceHomilies on the Gospels 2.5
Just as Christ washes us from our sins by interceding with the Father on our behalf, so also should we, if we know that our brother is committing a sin which is “not unto death.”
d. AD 735BedeEarly MedievalSourceCommentary on the Catholic Epistles
There is a sin unto death, etc. A great question arises here, because blessed John clearly shows that there are certain brothers for whom we are not instructed to pray, whereas the Lord even commands us to pray for our persecutors. This can only be resolved by admitting that there are some sins among the brothers which are more grievous than the persecution by enemies. Therefore, the sin of a brother unto death occurs when, after the knowledge of God, which is given through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, someone attacks the brotherhood and is inflamed with envy against the very grace by which they were reconciled to God. However, a sin not unto death is if someone has not withdrawn love from their brother but has not shown the duties owed to brotherhood due to some weakness of mind. Therefore, the Lord on the cross says: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing (Luke 23). For they had not yet become participants in the grace of the Holy Spirit, nor had they entered the communion of holy brotherhood. And blessed Stephen prays for those by whom he was being stoned because they did not yet believe in Christ, nor did they fight against that common grace. And the apostle Paul, for this reason, I believe, does not pray for Alexander because he was already a brother; and he had sinned unto death, that is, by attacking brotherhood with envy. But he prays that those who had not severed love but had succumbed to fear be forgiven. For he thus says: Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil; the Lord will repay him according to his works; whom do you also avoid, for he has greatly resisted our words (2 Tim. 4). Then he adds for whom he prays, saying: At my first defense, no one stood with me, but all forsook me; may it not be charged against them (Ibid.). However, a sin unto death can be understood as one for which someone is forbidden to pray, because a sin that is not corrected in this life, its forgiveness is sought in vain after death. But if we carefully inspect the following, the previous sense of this reading seems to align more with its tenor. For it continues:
AD 990Pseudo-OecumeniusEarly MedievalSourceCommentary on 1 John
If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin not leading to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death. There is sin leading to death; I do not say that he should pray about that. All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to death.
"If anyone sees his brother sinning." This is one will. For it is righteous to feel compassion for the brother who has sinned and to be of help for salvation.
"There is a sin leading to death." Let this be the order: There is a sin that leads to death, and there is a sin that does not lead to death. I do not say that one should pray for the one that leads to death, but for the one that does not lead to death. Then he explains the distinction making between the sin that leads to death and the one that does not lead to death. For John simply divides it as a kind of sin and says: All unrighteousness is sin: whether it leads to death or does not lead to death.
But because it is unto death, let him not pray or ask, for he will not be heard because he asks with wrong motives (James 4:3), especially when he shows no sign of conversion. For this alone is the sin that leads death, which does not regard repentance: when Judas fell ill with this, he was taken to eternal death. And those also sin that leads death who are mindful of injuries. For the paths of those who remember injuries lead to death (Prov. 12:28 LXX.), says Solomon. Nor do they convert by remembering, retaining the memory of injuries, and keeping anger against their neighbor, but they sin without repentance.
Source: Quotations drawn from early Church Fathers and historical Christian theologians (AD 100–1500). Some quotes address the surrounding passage context rather than this verse alone.

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