Saturday, March 26, 2022

Francis J. Moloney on 1 John 5:16-17 and the “Sin Unto Death”

  

Sin unto Death

 

But there is sin the author describes as “mortal,” oriented toward death. The author tells his audience that some of their fellow believers will fall into sin and errors from which they can be summoned back into the faith community through prayer (v. 16a). But there are others, who have not joined the believers in crossing from death to life (see 3:14). Indeed, some have never really belonged to this community of life. They have “gone out” (see 2:19). They are described as “children of the devil” (see 3:10). No prayer will draw these people back into life, as they are caught up in sin that is “unto death.”

 

This may sound harsh to modern-day Christians, but the author thus regards those who do not confess that Jesus, the one who came in the flesh (see 1 John 4:2), is the Christ, the Son of God (see 2:22; 3:23), as cut off from the life which such faith produces (v. 16b. See 5:11-13). Everyone commits sin (see 1:8-10), but some make decisions regarding Jesus (see v. 16b) which lead into death (v. 17). The author drew lines separating those who belonged to his community from those who did not. (Francis J. Moloney, “The Letters of John,” in The Jerome Biblical Commentary for the Twenty-First Century, ed. John J. Collins, Gina Hens-Piazza, Barbara Reid, and Donald Senior [3d ed.; London: T&T Clark, 2022], 1845)