The Prayer not to Pray
David W Palmer
(1 John 5:16–17 NKJV) If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death. There is sin leading to death. I do not say that he should pray about that. All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to death.
The amazing apostle John—the apostle of love—speaks here of two categories of sin; one leads to death, but the other does not. He says that we pray for the person whose sin does not lead to death, but that we should not pray for those whose sin does.
We need to know exactly what this means, so we don’t run into the problem of praying against what God wants. This would not only be a waste of time, but it could affect our relationship with Father and sadden the Holy Spirit. What’s more, we could end up thinking we are praying in the name of Jesus—and even saying, “In the name of Jesus” at the end of our prayer—when in fact we are not. So, what are these two categories of sin, and how do we identify them? And, importantly, how do we know who we should be praying for and for whom we should stop praying and when?
As this is such an important issue, let’s read this passage again from a different translation:
(1 John 5:16–17 TPT) If anyone observes a fellow believer habitually sinning in a way that doesn’t lead to death, you should keep interceding in prayer that God will give that person life. Now, there is a sin that leads to death, and I’m not encouraging you to pray for those who commit it. {17} All unrighteousness is sin, but there is sin that does not result in death.
Throughout his epistle, John spells out the truth about sin and the life or death connected with it:
(1 John 2:22–23 NKJV) Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. {23} Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also.
(1 John 5:12 NKJV) He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
So, the person whose sin leads to death has to be the person who either has not known Jesus, or the one who has renounced him out of their lives.
It may seem harsh to write-off someone—especially when it’s someone we know and have loved—and to stop praying for them. I know that the Holy Spirit has led me along this line a couple of times over the past 40 years. It seemed like giving up on the person, or somehow judging them, but it was definitely the Holy Spirit. Thankfully, we have some examples in Scripture of people whose sin led to death and of people for whom Paul stopped interceding:
(Acts 5:1–5 NLT) But there was a certain man named Ananias who, with his wife, Sapphira, sold some property. {2} He brought part of the money to the apostles, claiming it was the full amount. With his wife’s consent, he kept the rest. {3} Then Peter said, “Ananias, why have you let Satan fill your heart? You lied to the Holy Spirit, and you kept some of the money for yourself. {4} The property was yours to sell or not sell, as you wished. And after selling it, the money was also yours to give away. How could you do a thing like this? You weren’t lying to us but to God!” {5} As soon as Ananias heard these words, he fell to the floor and died. Everyone who heard about it was terrified.
(NOTE: God is not mentioned in this passage as killing this man. Ananias allowed Satan to fill his heart; Satan is a killer. It seems obvious that allowing a deceptive, thieving killer to fill your heart and control your life would lead to death.)
This man’s sin clearly led to his death. He lied to the Holy Spirit. This meant that he wasn’t living by the truth in his heart. In other words, he wasn’t following Jesus as his King:
(John 18:37 NKJV)
