When trying to understand 1 John 5:16-17, imagine someone coming to their pastor for assurance of salvation. Hopefully, that’s a conversation we will treat with seriousness and care, lest we grant assurance of salvation to someone who is unconverted. Praying for someone who has committed “sin that leads to death” would be giving them a false assurance of salvation.

“What if I sin so badly that I lose my salvation?” 

Variations of this question are far more common than some might expect. One of the more common questions is whether or not there’s one specific sin that’s simply unforgivable. Others wonder if they can out-sin God’s grace by piling up so much guilt that God won’t forgive them.  

One of the passages that stokes this fear is 1 John 5:16-17, where John says: 

“If anyone sees a fellow believer committing a sin that doesn’t lead to death, he should ask, and God will give life to him—to those who commit sin that doesn’t lead to death. There is sin that leads to death. I am not saying he should pray about that. All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin that doesn’t lead to death.” (1 John 5:16–17 CSB)

These verses sound as if there’s a category of sins that God won’t forgive, and that Christians should judge what types of sin people have committed before we discern whether or not to pray for them. And this sounds contrary to the overall message of grace throughout the New Testament. How do we make sense of it? 

As always, the best way to interpret Scripture is to understand its context.

General Context: Faithfulness in the Life of the Believer

The entire book of 1 John strongly emphasizes sin, confession, and the faithfulness of believers. Christians are repeatedly described as those who do not sin. It’s important to realize these verses use a grammatical structure that clearly implies a continual, ongoing habit of sinning. Some of those passages emphasizing the faithful Christian life are listed below.

“If we say, ‘We have fellowship with him,’ and yet we walk in darkness, we are lying and are not practicing the truth.” (1 John 1:6)

“Everyone who commits sin practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness…. Everyone who remains in him does not sin; everyone who sins has not seen him or known him.” (1 John 3:4, 6)

“If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and yet hates his brother or sister, he is a liar. For the person who does not love his brother or sister whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.” (1 John 4:20)

“We know that everyone who has been born of God does not sin, but the one who is born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him.” (1 John 5:18)

Upon reading through 1 John, it should be clear that it was written to a church enduring serious conflict and division. The members are wandering away from godliness and are sinfully fighting with one another. Their fellowship is broken. John is encouraging the believers to walk in the truth by loving each other as an expression of their love for God. True Christians endure – they don’t walk in habitual sinfulness, and they don’t abandon the family of God. This is a clear and consistent emphasis throughout 1 John, and it sets the context for 1 John 5:16-17.

Specific Context: Prayer

The question of “sin that leads to death” and “sin that does not lead to death” is all within the context of who deserves our prayers. It may sound odd to hear Scripture encourage us to withhold prayer from anyone, but we need to realize that these prayers are a specific kind of prayer that offers a word of grace and forgiveness to our “brothers” in faith. 

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