Dealing With Sin

We come this evening to 1 John 5 verses 16 and 17. And my title, which is 'Dealing with Sin'. Now it may be some comfort to you if I say right away that what we are talking about here is dealing with the sin of other people, rather than our own. A question for those of us who are believers: What do you think of your fellow believers? I will not require you turn to those sitting beside you and tell them your answer. It will be best if you keep what you think to yourself. So there is no need for your answer to be tempered by considerations of politeness. You can be ruthlessly honest. What do you think of your fellow believers? Hold that perspective in your mind. Then set alongside that some of the ways that the bible describes them. Here is 1 Peter 2.9:

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

Or here is 1 Corinthians 3.16:

Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple, and that God's Spirit lives in you?

Or 2 Corinthians 3.18:

And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed ino his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

Or 1 Thessalonians 2.19:

For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ when he comes? Is it not you? Indeed, you are our glory and joy.

You can see from those examples how the bible sees your fellow believers as a holy people, belonging to God, indwelt by his Spirit, destined for heaven, and increasingly full of God's glory, shining with the radiance of his light. Is that your view, in the privacy of your own mind, as you think about your fellow believers? Is it not the case that very often we look at one another and there is a great gulf between that perspective and what we actually see. What we see is a bunch of people often riven with disagreements, constantly falling out with one another in small or large ways, trying to keep their heads above water as life swirls around them, knocking them off their feet. We see petty selfishness, incompetence, and thoughtlessness. There are times when we see our fellow believers behaving quite contrary to God's law, inflicting deep wounds on those they claim to love, even treating one another worse than anything you would normally see in the non-Christian world. The fact is, WE SEE THE SINS OF OUR FELLOW BELIEVERS. That is the first of my three headings. In his book 'The Sheep That Got Away', about why people leave churches, Michael Fanstone quotes someone who says:

I haven't met very many people who seem to really live the Christian life. My Christian co-workers don't act any differently to the non-Christians at the office. My wife and I have visited a few churches, and people seem to be there just for show.

And we are asked to believe that Christians are being transformed into the likeness of Christ with ever increasing glory. The whole purpose of John himself, in this letter, is to give us believers a clear and assured confidence that together we are destined for heaven, and that we have a foretaste of the life of heaven now. Let's remind ourselves of what we read last week, in 5.13:

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.

One of the great enemies of that clear confidence is the sin that we see in the lives of our fellow believers. So much of the time we just don't look like a holy people, destined for heaven! If we don't learn how to handle it, there can be a gaping credibility gap, which is likely to destroy our confidence and endanger our very faith. I remember someone, some years ago, who had been a Christian for a while, and had got to know the Christian scene as a student. He left university, got a job, and went to work. After a bit I heard that he was really struggling in his Christian life. His faith had been profoundly shaken. Why? Because he had got to know people at work who as far as he could see were nicer, kinder, people than he had ever encountered amongst his fellow Christians. And these nice, kind people had no time for Christ at all. And he was asking himself, 'Shouldn't it be the Christians who are the kind people? What has gone wrong? Is the Christian life a delusion?' After all, doesn't John say in this letter that Christians should be different? 2.6:

Whoever claims to live in [God] must also walk as Jesus did.

3.6-10:

No one who lives in [God] keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.

4.8:

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

Christians should be different. Christians should not sin. But what do we see as we look around at our fellow believers? We see that they do sin. How do we then handle this credibility gap? That is exactly what John gives us the key to in these verses that we come to this evening, as we work our way through 1 John chapter 5. Take a look at those verses then 16 and 17:

If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that he should pray about that. All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death.

Now the heart of what John is saying here, and therefore of what I want to say, is in that first sentence:

If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life.

There is there both a command and a promise. Then the remainder of those two verses serve to make clear to whom that command and promise apply. If we try and apply one of the bible's promises, which is therefore one of God's promises, to people for whom it was never intended, then we will be lead right up the garden path. We will come to all kinds of wrong conclusions. To whom does this promise apply? John says:

I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death.

'Death' here must mean eternal death. Everyone will undergo physical death except those who are alive when Jesus returns, so he cannot mean that. And what is more, he is talking here about eternal life, and the assurance that he wants believers to have that they do indeed have eternal life. To put the same thing in other words, John is talking about heaven and hell. The promise refers to those whose sin does not lead to eternal death; to hell. But all sin, which is at root rebellion against God, leads to hell, with one exception. And the exception does not lie in any particular kind of sin. It lies in the heart of the sinner. All sin leads to hell, unless the sinner turns away from that sin, and depends on Jesus as the only way to forgiveness; the only way to eternal life; the only way to heaven. Sin that leads to hell is unrepented sin. It is sin that persistently and finally rejects Jesus, who is the only way to life. As 5.11-12 put it:

And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.

In that sense, and in that sense only, there are two different categories of sin. All sin is rebellion against God. But the sin of the unbeliever leads to hell, because it is unrepented of and unforgiven, and it gets what it deserves. The opportunity for repentance is always there for unbelievers. If they take it, then they cease to be unbelievers. They become believers, they find forgiveness, and their sin no longer gets what it deserves. It is dealt with by Jesus. It no longer leads to eternal death. The sin of the believer does not lead to death, not because the sin is any different, or any less deserving of hell, but because it is repented of, and forgiven. This promise applies to sin that is committed by believers. It does not apply to sin that is committed by those who will not accept the offer of forgiveness through trusting in Jesus. So, look again at what John says here. "I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death." That is to say, he is referring to believers. "There is a sin that leads to death". That is, unrepented sin that rejects Jesus the sin of the persistent unbeliever. "I am not saying that he should pray about that." It is not that we should not pray for unbelievers. Far from it. But that is simply not what John is talking about here. And the promise he gives does not apply to unbelievers. Here, John is talking about praying for believers, not for unbelievers. He continues: "All wrongdoing is sin" Whether it is done by believers or unbelievers, sin is sin it is rebellion against God. " and there is sin that does not lead to death." It is a fact that believers, though they have eternal life through Jesus, still do sin. They are headed for eternal life, not eternal death; for heaven not for hell. But they still sin. How does this square with what John says about Christians not sinning? We are back to the credibility gap between the Christians we see around us, and what Christians are meant to be. There is a very helpful book by Don Carson and John Woodbridge called 'Letters Along The Way'. It comprises a fictional correspondence between a young Christian, Timothy Journeyman, and his mentor Dr Paul Woodson. Tim finds himself struggling with the fact that he is, if anything, becoming more aware of sin in his life as time goes on. Let me quote from Dr Woodson's reply:

1 John is of enormous help. Writing to Christians, John says that, on the one hand, if anyone claims he does not sin or has not sinned, he is a liar, self-deceived On the other hand, John insists that Christians do not go on sinning, that they obey Christ and love the brothers How can both emphases be true? In fact, unless you hold both emphases strongly and simultaneously, you will go seriously astray. Stress the former, and you will become lackadaisical about sin; stress the latter, and you may gravitate toward some version of Christian perfectionism where you hold you have already attained perfection when all your colleagues (and especially your family!) can see you are deluded. The fact is that until Jesus' return, we will sin. As we grow in holiness, we will become aware of inconsistencies and taints we had not even spotted before. Most of us will stumble and drift, at times rather seriously. There will be different rates of progress, different degrees of spiritual maturity; all of us will have to return to Jesus for renewed cleansing and forgiveness. But at the same time, if we are Christians, we will insist that there is never any excuse for sin. In no case do we have to sin.

There is no excuse for Christians sinning, but they do. We do. And without question, we see the sin of our fellow believers. Generally we are a good deal better at spotting it than we are at spotting our own. We cannot get away from the fact that the church is riddled with sin. The individuals who make up the church are, without exception, riddled with sin. No doubt some situations are worse than others. Here is an account of life in a Scottish parish in the eighteenth century. It is fictional but apparently reflects real situations. The new minister, Mr Balwhidder, arrives at the church to be inducted and to meet the congregation. He describes what happened:

The people were really mad and vicious, and flung dirt upon us as we passed, and reviled us all, and held out the finger of scorn at me; but I endured it with a resigned spirit, compassionating their wilfulness and blindness. Poor Mr Kilfuddy of the Braehill got such a clash of glar on the side of his face, and his eye was almost extinguished. When we got to the kirk door, it was found to be nailed up, so as by no possibility to be opened. The sergeant of the soldiers wanted to break it, but I was afraid that the heritors would grudge and complain of the expense of a new door, and I supplicated him to let it be as it was: we were, therefore, obligated to go in by a window, and the crowd followed us in the most unreverent manner, making the Lord's house like an inn on a fair day, with their grievous yellyhooing And I thought I would have a hard and sore time of it with such an outstrapolous people.

Not just in Scotland, or two hundred years ago, but in every place, in every time indeed in this place, at this time believers are quite capable of being 'outstrapolous' people. What do we do when we see it? We are to pray. WE SHOULD PRAY ABOUT THE SINS OF OUR FELLOW BELIEVERS. That is the second of my headings.

If anyone sees his brother [note the inclusive use there or sister] commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life.

That may be a fairly new thought. If it is, that just goes to show how much we need to hear this. We should be praying about one another's sins. Let's just think for a moment what might be the alternatives to prayer. We could get resentful about one another's sins. We could feel superior. We could gossip about them, either by way of entertaining titilation, or by way of poisonous character assassination. We could dismiss them as of no consequence. We could resign ourselves to them with world-weary cynicism. All of these responses are destructive, and sinful in themselves. We could decide to tackle the sinner directly, and in some way confront them about their sin. In some circumstances that may be right. John does not speak of that here, but elsewhere the bible does. So in Matthew 18.15 Jesus speaks of how the victim of serious sin within the church should respond:

If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault

At first this should be done privately, and then, step by step, increasingly publically if he refuses to listen. Confrontation may be right. But even if it is, let me suggest that it should never be our first response to the sins of others. Our first response should be to pray. We should pray for them. The first effect of such prayer no doubt will be on the one who is praying. It is a pretty sobering business, talking to God about someone else's sin. You quickly realise that the only basis on which you can possibly approach God to deal with it is as a fellow sinner yourself. There can be no room for pride. If we begin to pray for one another's sins, instead of using one of the destructive alternatives that I mentioned, then there will be an increase in genuine humility amongst us. Each one of us is utterly dependent on the grace and mercy of God. That kind of increase in humility would also lead to an increase in patience or forbearance, to use an old word. This is the domino effect that Paul speaks of in Colossians 3.12-13:

Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

When we see clearly our own need of forgiveness, then we are ready to forgive others, and we learn patience. Acts 7:59-8:1 records how, while they were stoning Stephen, he prayed:

"Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Then he fell on his knees and cried out, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." When he had said this, he fell asleep. And Saul was there, giving approval to his death.

Who knows how God used that prayer in the conversion of Saul, who became the apostle Paul. If it is right for us to confront and correct someone, then we must begin with the right attitude, and the right attitude is learned in prayer. We are not to seek to remove the speck of sawdust from our brother's eye until we have first removed the plank from our own eye. Maybe pride; maybe contempt. If we are going to talk to someone about their sin, then it must be out of love and genuine concern for their welfare. Praying about the sin of others will first of all affect us. But secondly, it will affect the one for whom we pray. That is the promise that the bible gives here. GOD WILL DEAL WITH THE SINS OF OUR FELLOW BELIEVERS. That is the third of my headings, as we draw to a close. If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life. As always with prayer, exactly what the mechanism is here we are not told and we cannot see. But we know that as believers we can approach God boldly. We know that he promises to give us what we ask, when it is in accordance with his will. Verses 14 and 15 say that, and Jonathan was talking about that last Sunday. We know too that when we pray for a fellow believer to be delivered from his sin and forgiven and brought safely through the struggle with temptation to eternal life, then that is a request which is right down the middle of the fairway of God's will, if I can put it like that. It will be granted. How, is up to God. But our heavenly Father will use our prayers as a part of the whole process of purging sin, purifying our lives and fitting us for heaven. Believers are to pray for one another. We are to ask God to grant victory over sin to our brothers and sisters who are stumbling and falling, as we do ourselves. And we can be confident that he will do so. He has promised. So that is how we are to bridge the credibility gap between what our fellow believers are really like, and what they should be like if they are truly redeemed children of God. Does the ugly sight of the sins of other Christians threaten to strip away any confidence you had that you and they really do have eternal life? If so, then here is the antidote. If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life.