1 John 5:16-17

16 If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life–to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that.

All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death.

My friends, this is a tough passage!

So many questions that seem to conflict with general Bible teaching, or at least my understanding of what the Bible teaches. Which is good, for we need to be challenged by the Word, and to have our minds renewed by it’s teaching. We should never be content with our current understanding, which so often veers from our original understanding.

Let’s try to answer these question in two posts. Our first post on this tough passage will dwell on the following two questions. (Taking the relatively easy questions first cause I’m a bit of a chicken on the last three!)

1. Does this verse refer only to believers throughout its teaching?
2. What is meant when the apostle speaks of death?

Our second post will consider the final three questions.

1. What is sin not leading to death?
2. What is the specific sin that leads to death?
3. Why are we told not to pray?

So, let us begin with our first two questions.

Does this verse refer only to believers throughout its teaching?

Of the following questions, this one seems the easiest to answer, yet has had the greatest impact on my own Bible understanding when I let the verse speak for itself. It seems obvious that the apostle is instructing the believer to pray (or not to pray) for a brother, in both the act of sinning not unto death and of sinning unto death. No other person (i.e. a non-believer) is brought into the verse to suggest otherwise.

This is alarming, at least from a position of a “once saved always saved” adherent, since the passage states that a believer could enter into sin that leads to death. But I am getting ahead of myself, for we need to understand term “death” before we can try to understand what the apostle is trying to communicate to us.

What is meant when the apostle speaks of death?

When you hear the term death, what comes to mind? A grave? Sorrow? Non-existence?

A quick look into the Greek definition of θάνατος thánatos, reveals that the word typically means separation. The term generally refers to separation in two ways.

• Thánatos may refer to the separation of the soul of a man from his physical body, with the body returning to dust.
• Thánatos may be used in speaking of the spiritual separation of man from God, as a result of the original sin, or our own sinful thoughts and actions.

Generally, I understand this term in relation to either the physical or the spiritual realm. The Word speaks of both, as the following verses illustrate.

Physical death of believers in Corinth

1 Corinthians 11:27-30

Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord.
Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.
That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.

Physical death of Ananias

Acts 5:3-5 But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land?
While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God.”
When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last. And great fear came upon all who heard of it.

Physical death of Sapphira

Acts 5:9 – 10

But Peter said to her, “How is it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.”
Immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last. When the young men came in they found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband.

Spiritual death.

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death…

Ezekiel 18:20 The soul who sins shall die…

James 5: 20 …whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

How is spiritual death to be understood in relation to believers?

The previous verses imply that believers may experience spiritual death, since both verses were addressed to covenant people in a relationship with God. See Conditional Security – Romans 6:11-23 for further information on this particular topic.

I hope to look at Ezekiel 18:20 in an upcoming post.

Regarding James 5, I have written on this passage in an earlier post. (See Conditional Security – James 5:19-20). I do not understand the death this erring brother was close to experiencing to be simply physical death, and if of interest, check out the associated posting provided above.

Where does the unforgivable sin fit into all of our discussion? I tried to understand this topic in an earlier post. (See Book Look – Heaven’s Doors – Unpardonable Sin).

Currently, I am of the opinion that during the Lord’s time on earth, the unforgivable sin could, and was committed, but was directly associated with the generation the Lord was addressing at the time of His sojourn on earth.

Of course, the heart of the unforgivable sin (assigning an unclean spirit to the Spirit of God in Jesus) may be a very real possibility today. I would call it apostacy, but that word may be interpreted in various manners and may communicate different things to different people. Definitely worthy of a study on it’s own, but this particular post is getting a bit long in the tooth!

Ok, so with that review of who the apostle was addressing (believers) and a concept of what the concept of death communicates to us (separation) from the pages of the Word, I suggest we consider the impact of this conclusion. For myself, it raises conflicts in my mind that I truly need to resolve, but that I surely cannot do within this current post.

In our next post we will make an effort to address the difficult questions for this verse. Of course, as we venture through this passage, I look to my readers for thier understanding also.

Please take advantage of the comment box below to provide your thoughts.

No matter your position, the Lord has proven to us that He seeks to give us life and that life is in His Son. Look to Him for your hope and faith, knowing that His love is ever-present and never failing.

Look to Him.

In all your doubts and confusion, disappointments and concerns, look to Him.

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James 1:21-22

21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

With the book of James (as in all of the Scripture) it is imperative to understand who the apostle is writing to. For our passage today, is this passage directed to those outside the church, or to believers? If we look at the passage independently of the context, it may appear to be addressed to non believers, especially when James speaks of receiving…

with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

But let us not be single verse believers and consider the context. James makes sure we are to understand this passage as applying to believers in verse 19.

Jas 1:19 Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger;

Ok – So we know that James intends for his brothers in the faith to be hearing this message, but what does the passage have to say in regards to conditional security?

Receive with Meekness

Believers are to receive with meekness the implanted word. If the Word is implanted (another nod to James speaking to believers), we have received it already, correct? What more do we need?

Let’s consider the term “recieve”. As I have mentioned in this blog previously, I am no Greek geek, but depend on desktop studies of others to try to understand the implications of the original language for our studies.

For the word “receive” I refer to BLB (Blue Letter Bible) as a resource for our study. Under the tools button for each verse, a tab shows up allowing for an interlinear data base to come up. Using the reverse tab, the following data comes up for our word “receive”

At this point, since receive is a verb, I click on the right hand button (V-XXX-XX) to find the “parsing” of the verb.

One more step to understand what all this means. Each of the underlined terms are hot links to help us understand the verb we are looking at.

An easy one for myself is the mood of the verb in this instance. Our verb has the imperative mood. This is a command. Believers are to actively take part in receiving the Word.

Voice speaks of who is performing the action. A middle voice notes that the subject (the beloved brethren in this case) is the agent of the action. The believer is performing the action of receiving. All of this is simply stating what seems obvious from the English translation.

The aorist tense is what helps me to understand that this action as not limited to a past decision or act of faith. The aorist tense has no regard to the past present or future. It defines a point in time, sometimes referring to the past, and yet this is too limiting.

If I understand the passage correctly, James is telling the believers to receive (at some point in time) the Word of God, which is already implanted in our souls as believers. To receive the Word, we must remove filthiness and wickedness, (another action of the believer).

I have previously seen this passage as a call to sanctification, a passage that speaks of our responsibility to understand and obey God’s will for our lives. Without the next phrase, I would be certain it is a sanctification passage. It’s just that I kinda struggle with what James is telling believers about saving their souls.

Able to Save your Souls

Saving your soul. What in tarnation is that? I thought our souls were saved at the point of conversion, when we first believed.

Maybe other translations translate this term differently? All of the popular English translations use the phrase “save your souls” in this verse, except for the NIV, which translates it as “save your life”. So what is James trying to tell us?

Notice that the implanted word is “able” to save our souls. Ability is an interesting word when it comes to reading the Word. Some that I have interacted with on other blogs interpret the ability to perform an act as synonymous with the completion of the same act.

When I think of the ability to save, I think of the boys in the furnace back in the book of Daniel.

Daniel 3:17-18
If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king.
But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”

Notice that the boys confessed God’s ability, but not the outcome (in relation to the furnace). The young Hebrew men spoke of God’s ability to save His children, but allowed for God to choose how to save his children.

To be able to do a task is to have sufficient power to accomplish that task. In relation to our passage today, I understand James is telling believers that the Word has sufficient power to save our souls. I am not convinced James is speaking of the final result, that is the saving of our soul, but of a potential result.

So is this a sanctification verse or a security passage?

But let us not end with simply a question but an affirmation that comes shining through this passage. God is able and has supplied all the needs of the saint. He is the provider of everything the believer requires to save our souls. He is the Savior and we are the ones who need Him so.

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Hebrews 13:7

Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.

We find our passage today in the midst of the final chapter of the book of Hebrews, where the apostolic author (whomever it may be!) is guiding the Hebrew believers in the exercising of their faith. Granted, in this passage I will not go so far as to state the intent of the author is to communicate a conditional security message, yet I will request your consideration of the passage in light of our topic.

For the readers information, I have provided my understanding of this passage in a series of five posts under the title Christian Accountability A review may help in understanding my general perspective on this passage.

Some of the questions that arise in my mind are as follows.

Why remember our leaders?

Is not our faith a “personal faith in our personal Savior”? What bearing or influence should those who have went before us have on our lives?

Why imitate the leader?

It is often stated amongst the enlightened believers of the 21st century, that we have a “personal” faith with the Messiah, and that He leads us in our own “personal” path. This has an element of truth to it, yet I fear this thinking allows for too much personal interpretation.

As a believer, I may be able to justify many types of behavior, feeling it is a leading of the Spirit of God. As an example, I may feel I need to lie about this one itty bitty thing in order to relieve a temptation. Surely God loves me, and this is His leading. This may reside under the “personal” leading of God justification for some believers, yet when compared with Scripture and the working out of our salvation, allows too much freedom, leading to slavery.

We need to personally witness a faithful example of walking with the Lord. A leader who speaks the Word of God is the choice of the apostle for the believer to come alongside. Time with this type of believer allowing for the witness of the working out of the glory of God in a sinful earthling, is of great benefit.

Now I would caution you, that when I speak of a leader who speaks the Word of God, this does not, in my mind at least, require a paid professional church employee. If you have a close relationship with a pastor, reverend, deacon or such, good on you. But this may be a condition many of us may not have available.

Why does the author remind us of the type of leader to imitate?

He speaks of the leader who spoke the Word of God. As mentioned above, the leader needs to be one who relies on the Word of God for direction in his own life and speaks of the Word of God to others.

A teacher who speaks of his opinion as if from God, but without the foundation of the written Word of God, is to be avoided. Run away from this one.

Why is the believer exhorted to consider the outcome of this leader?

This is where the rubber meets the road, my friends.

The leaders who spoke the Word of God, revealing the Lord Jesus to an apostate nation, came under persecution from their own countrymen. The Hebrew believers were being tempted to fall back into a dead religion, destined for extinction, and to abandon the Lord Jesus for a sacrificial religion that became blasphemous before God.

This departure from the true God has been addressed throughout the book. Even within this passage, although not directly, the author continues to seek every opportunity to guide the believer into experiencing true faith. A faith that is not simply internal, but also an objective experience that may be measured by others witness, and therefore gauge his own growth and maturity.

Fellow believers provide this challenge! Don’t refuse it, but take advantage of this opportunity to learn of real life faith from those who are a bit further down the road than yourself.

As a caution, do not hear me in saying that we are in competition with one another in our experience with the Master, as we do have various callings, yet the moral temperature of our walk requires challenging, especially when pressure bears upon us to “look the other way”.

Look unto Jesus for leading, and as His apostle has exhorted us in this passage, to those who have went before us. He is good, in giving us so many opportunities to experience His life with others.

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As a young believer, I spent an unbalanced amount of time in the book of Romans, trying to follow Paul’s logic, and the message he was presenting to the church in Rome. Some passages seemed to be fairly simple to grasp, with others still beyond me. Don’t even ask me about Romans 5 – the more I read that passage, the less I know!

Given the strong message Paul supplies in Romans 3 concerning the requirement of faith and not works for salvation, how can we understand our topic verse today?

First off, lets read it.

to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; – Romans 2:7 ESV

First, some background.

I am of the opinion that Paul was crouching his remarks in these early chapters of Romans, providing theological teaching with an intent to address a practical problem within this church.

Now before we go any further, if I were to ask you of the problem resident in the Roman church, what would you say? Was there heresy floating about? Some type of false doctrine infecting this body of believers?

Maybe.

But as we travel through the book of Romans, we find Paul gives his “pièce de résistance”, his crowning jewel setting forth a theological masterpiece, to a church at Rome.

Out of sixteen chapters, three quarters of the book is positional teaching. Chapters 12 through 16 are practical teaching with the following topics

• Chapter 12 – rapid fire list of Christian commands,
• Chapter 13 – the believers relationship with government (fitting for believers in the capital!)
• Chapter 14 – a discussion on strength and weakness in faith
• Chapter 15 – a continuation of the discussion on strength and weakness in faith
• Chapter 16 – personal greetings to the saints in the church.

Given the amount of space Paul uses for a discussion on strength and weakness in faith, it appears there is an element of disunity fueled by pride within the body. I would suggest that those of the Jewish faith may be holding their religious heritage over their gentile brothers, and causing strife in the body.

As long an introduction to this post is, it is important to consider a possible context we find Romans 2:7. I understand Romans 1 & 2 to be Paul’s mimicking of Nathan’s methods of when he dealt with a sinning King David. (For a fuller discussion on this topic, I recommend Judge Judge Judge – δικαιοκρισία –Study 7)

If my thinking is correct about what Paul has in mind in Romans 2, he is aiming to get a mental agreement of the Jewish believers regarding the wickedness of the subjects of chapter 1, all the while setting the Jewish believers up for self identification as the sinners. (The Nathan method! – See link to earlier post for explanation.)

Given this background, how does Romans 2:7 relate to conditional security? Is Paul simply baiting the Jewish believer, teaching the sinfulness of those described in chapter 1 and then identifying the sinners as Jewish? When Paul speaks of those who “knew no law” being able to attain salvation, how would this have impacted the Jewish believer who has “obeyed the law” their entire life? (And to add a wrinkle to this convoluted thinking, if the Jewish believer had obeyed the law, why did they repent and run to Jesus for salvation! But I digress.)

Context is king here and the previous verse to our text may provide some guidance.

He will render to each one according to his works: – Romans 2:6
to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; – Romans 2:7
but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. – Romans 2:8

Paul is speaking of God rendering judgement according to each ones works. The outcome of judgement, based on the well-doing of the subject, is that God will provide eternal life. What? It seems so strange to think of any judgement as resulting in eternal life. When I hear the word “judgement”, I automatically think of fire and brimstone! But that is a different topic for another day.

Granted, the link between works and eternal life is difficult to deal with. I think the reason this linkage between eternal life and works is difficult to deal with is that it impacts our daily decisions to live for Him. Some may say that it is at odds with the salvation by grace through faith teaching that permeates the Word, but I believe there is a solution.

Let me summarize my questions about this passage, with a challenge for my reader.

When we come to judgement for the believer, it is common to have works associated with judgement. As this post is getting a bit long, and if it has peaked my readers interest, I will recommend a study in the Word on the relationship between works and judgement for the believer. I did a search in Blue Letter Bible for “works” and considered the verses that came up. It may be surprising to the reader of their findings!

But kindly note that the suggested topic of study is “works and judgement”, not “works and justification”. Two different studies! (A bit of a hint there, my friends!)

In all of this discussion, it is of primary importance to remember the main thing, that as believers, we are to be patient in well doing, not giving up and to be faithful in what He has called us to.

May God bless you and keep you in serving Him.

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