There is a sin unto death the Bible says. This is a sin worthy of death that God alone has determined must happen and no praying will change it.The sin unto death belongs to the believer and not to the non believer. John says that we who see such a thing happening should not even pray about it. It has to happen.We as believers when we read this scripture and meditate upon it should get sick to our stomachs to a degree…not for the sake of hopelessness because hopelessness has no place in the believer’s heart. But we should feel the tinge of sorrow that is brought on by the fact that sin has been so grievous in a certain believer that God has no choice but to end that believer’s life on earth and take them home.John is the apostle given this message to give to the church as a warning. He has said that the one who has the seed of Christ in him cannot sin.The actual rendering is this: The one who has the seed of Christ in him (a true believer) cannot continually walk in opposition to God’s will.If he does, he will commit the sin unto death.”A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23 “describes it so brilliantly. He says that a shepherd who has a sheep that just keeps wondering off will give her many, many chances to obey his instruction and stay with the flock. If she continues to wander off, he will first break her leg and bind it up then carry her on his shoulder until the broken leg is healed and she has a chance to change her wandering ways. If, after her leg is healed and she is allowed to walk on her own again, she still wanders off, and is now leading other sheep to follow her in her wanderings, he will take out his knife and kill her. He loves her and she was his sheep, but she would not stop wandering and was now risking the life of others and the walk of others.It is exactly the same within the church.If a believer continually chooses the wrong path, ignoring the small voice of God warning them not to… they will be taken home. They lead other sheep watching to do the same thing. They corrupt their testimony. They lose rewards. They exhaust God with continual disobedience. They remain willfully immature. God says that the branch that has no fruit is cut off and tossed into the fire. This is not damnation. We can’t over analyze a parable. We have to taste it to get the gist of it. A branch is a believer and believer’s cannot lose their salvation so they cannot be damned. That’s our first truth. But the pruner, God, only prunes His children. If a branch is producing no fruit but putting a drag on the rest of the tree He has to cut it off. This is the sin unto death. If a believer won’t abide in Christ, he will be cut off.
How many times I’ve seen it.Why does God say that this should no be prayed for?It is because He knows the end of it. He sees that it must happen because repentance of the willful sin will not happen. So a prayer for repentance and renewal in certain cases is useless. The wayward believer won’t respond.
Sin unto death: 1 John 5
Cut off branch: John 15:6