Chapters 8 to 9 - Christ’s Teachings and Today’s Christianity

- 35 - 8. 7 The Concept of Sin 5. Just as you have established a f a l s e d o c t r i n e a s t o o r i g i n a l s i n, your conception of sin as a whole is erroneous. The Bible draws a distinction between the sin of ‘separation from God’ and the sins of the faithful committed by reason of human error. In the first Epistle of John there is a passage whose explanation causes all of you great difficulty. It reads: I John 5: 16- 17: ‘If any one sees his brother commit a sin, and it is not a sin unto death, he shall pray for him and so give him spiritual strength, that is, for those who sin not unto death. There is also sin unto death; in these cases, I do not say that one should pray for them. Every wrongdoing is a sin, yet not every sin is unto death.’ John thus draws a distinction here between sin unto death and sin not unto death and – and this strikes you as most incomprehensible in the Apostle’s words – he tells you that you need not even pray for those who have committed a sin unto death. The sense of these words is best explained by means of an example. Soldiers, on joining the armed forces, are required to take an oath of allegiance. This makes them soldiers of their native land. Now it often happens that soldiers commit offenses for which they are punished by disciplinary measures, without therefore ceasing to be soldiers of their native countries. There is, however, one sin through which a man ceases to be a soldier of his country and the punishment for which is death: desertion by going over to the enemy. This makes him dead for his homeland. From a military point of view, he has ‘sinned unto death’.. It would be useless for the mother of such a deserter to appeal to the government of her country for mercy for her deserter son, seeing that he is no longer under the jurisdiction of his own government but has subjected himself to that of a hostile state, whose laws henceforth are binding for him. That state will not surrender him, even should the deserter want to return. Of course, he has no desire to go back to his old homeland. Hence, any appeals for mercy addressed to the home government by his mother are useless. Apply this example to your relationship with God. As mortals who believe in Him, you are subjects of the kingdom of God. Even if, erring pilgrims that you are on earth, not a day passes on which you do not commit some trespass great or small for which you are duly punished by God, you do not on that account cease to be His subjects. If, however, you turn your back on God by abandoning your belief in Him, by denying Him or by living as though there were no God, you are guilty of desertion. This is the sin by which you sever yourselves from the kingdom of God and go over into the kingdom of the evil powers, who are hostile to God. You abandon your allegiance to God completely, just as a deserter abandons his allegiance to his own sovereign. You are dead to the kingdom of God, having committed the ‘sin unto death’. Of what avail, then, would someone’s prayer on behalf of such a turncoat be?

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