Love, prayer, witness, and eternal life

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/011120.cfm
1 John 5:14-21
John 3:22-30

Followers of Christ rightly worry over the difficult logic in 1 John, Chapter 5, the first reading for this week’s reflection. I say, “rightly,” because the audience for this reading is not who we think.

John writes about those among us, our own brothers and sisters in faith, who have purposely chosen to stop following Christ. He is both delicate and blunt. Rather than call out to those who have decided that Christ, the Holy Spirit, and the Father are no longer their brother, their counselor, and their authority, John speaks to us about them. He exhorts us not to follow their path by leaving out any hope for their salvation. It’s quite frightening. He is not talking to the abject sinner. He is talking to us.

The subject matter in this scripture warns us of the dangers of knowing God and choosing evil instead. Those choices, in small steps, are not yet deadly. John urges our focus upon Jesus as the “begotten” one who does not sin. In essence, we can move away from sin by choosing to follow the begotten one of God.

John knows the obvious choice, Jesus. He also knows we cannot escape sin. Yet, “the Son of God has come and has given us discernment to know the one who is true.” We, then, become the inescapable deciders of our own fate. No one else can choose for us.

And we are in the one who is true,
in his Son Jesus Christ.
He is the true God and eternal life.
Children, be on your guard against idols.
(1 John: 5:20-21)

The difficult logic in John’s letter, the thing that throws us off, is that John identifies the truly lost as those whom we cannot pray for. They have been subsumed by idols. They are no longer “in” Jesus. He then intimates that our prayers for those who have abandoned God will not be successful.

John begins by explaining that Jesus confirms that while we can “ask anything according to [God’s] will,” and God will hear us, that the condition of all sin remains within us. Sin still affects the believer. Consequently, there are those among us who will permanently choose their own will over God. Various idols will replace God entirely. We will all sin. God does not, and will not. Some of us, though, will seal sin as our willful and final path, because we can.

Within the finality of John's words on this subject sits an outspoken tenderness. John’s careful albeit dramatic discussion on the subject of abandoning God points out the difference between weakness and abandonment. The truly lost soul has abandoned God. If, however, in reading John we hear the good news of Jesus, the heartening words of eternal life, and know we belong to God, then we can be certain of our sins as sins of weakness, not abandonment.

Believers are all frustrated with the ongoing, frustrating, and disturbing presence of sin in the world which we cannot escape. Fear can overwhelm our faith if we do not concentrate on the penetrating power of Jesus’ sinless presence.

Consider that John does not plea, in this letter, with the willful sinner who has chosen abandonment of God. There is a keen respect, of sorts, for the one who no longer listens to God. If one of us chooses to leave everything of the faith behind, then what else is there to discuss with us? That is wisdom. A truly apostate person would not care about being left out because that is their decision. Someone on the edge, though, angry perhaps with some infraction within their faith life, disgusted with the sin they see in their fellow believers, this person’s sin is not deadly. Their answer is prayer. They can still turn to God because even in their distance from a community of faith, and maybe mired in sin, they probably want to return to God.

John, then, logically speaks only to the hope-in-faith believers — including the ones who have just the smallest spark of hope in a loving God. The discussion John has with us who hold onto that spark is that we must let the apostate, the abject sinner, to experience their fate. In fact, those left behind by brothers and sisters who no longer want to hear about the faith are not the abandoned ones. The one abandoned is God. Only God will be able to deal with that person. We, in awful truth, have nothing to offer such a person.

What could be more horrifying than to imagine we can be left to our own devices? We, of course, pray for those who struggle with their faith. We often, if not always, ask for our brothers and sisters to pray for us! Do not, we plead with each other, leave us to our own devised plans, especially those that might urge us to abandon God’s will.

That is, until we do. And then, we want to be left alone.

At what point does our sinfulness take us to full separation from God? I believe scriptures tell us that only a person who knows God, and has experienced God’s love, can deny God. If someone has never felt God’s love, and lives in sin, they cannot fully abandon what they do not know. These are people to whom we can and must witness. If we fail in that, surely God will not abandon them.

What a frightening truth this can be for wavering believers. Once we have received the gift of faith we are charged with following God and witnessing. If we don’t, the many temptations of this life affect both us and others. John says do not be afraid, for we know that we belong to God. Reject that truth, then we believers can go so far as to reject God and forgo eternal life with him.

Just to be clear. If a person seems to be in such a place, but asks us to pray for them, then they have not abandoned God. Our correct response is to pray for this person, but also to encourage them to pray.

If anyone sees his brother sinning, if the sin is not deadly,
he should pray to God and he will give him life.
(1 John: 5:16)

The reference of “he” in this verse is almost purposely confusing in English. The “he” can refer both to us, and to the one who is sinning. He (we and the sinner) should pray to God and he (God) will give him (we and the sinner) life. In Hebrew, I believe the “he” who should pray is clearly the sinning brother. I like the double entendre of the eliptical English translation, however, which notes that as believers we see each other sinning so often as to assure each of us that our sins are just as visible to everyone else.

Some may struggle with the notion that God cannot save everyone. John, though, confirms that deadly sin exists because he calls some sins “not deadly.” A deadly sin, unnamed by John here, is anything that fully rejects God.

This is only for those whose sin is not deadly.
There is such a thing as deadly sin,
about which I do not say that you should pray.
All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that is not deadly.
(1 John: 5:16-17)

Oh my. “… about which I do not say that you should pray.” A deadly sin is not something we can pray for. This is why we should pray ardently for each other, that this never happens for those we love.

Such a deadly sin resides in the decision to be formally and completely cut off from God. John does not name the deadliness as a specific sin because the unforgivable sin is not an act, a behavior, or a weakness. We all experience sinful tendencies, sinful behavior, and sinful habits. These are the typical bane of our desire to be holy. The unforgivable sin is to abandon God and vow to no longer listen to him. You need to know him in order to tell him to go away.

Even though we have chosen God, and we have eternal life, we are still free to tell God to take a hike and leave us alone. While incredibly loving for God to be so open to our freedom, there is no question that the decision to follow God’s will rather than evil cannot be taken lightly.