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)