Responsibility

DEVOTION 1 JOHN RESPONSIBILITY 1 John 5:16-17 16 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. 17 All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death. NIV A passage which so many have offered so much and yet have decided nothing for sure because of the great debate of the meaning of unto death and not unto death. Yet within this great debate there seems to be a lack of comments regarding our responsibility to one another. Although mentioned it is not the main focus of the discussion. This may be just as important then all the rest. Sure we could try to determine which sin leads to death and which doesn’t, but would that not only be looking for ways to offend God and not die? Would that not only lead to putting some value or level on one sin over another? Surely within the civil law, murder may lead to the death penalty, but hatred goes unpunished, yet to God hatred is an awful offense because if we hate our brothers, we do not love God. This type of conversation could go on indefinitely and we might never get to the root of it. If we focus on the fact that all sin is wrongdoing, we could agree living in a manner which offends God as a lifestyle would certainly led to death, both the physical and the spiritual, the second death, of a person. Refusing to accept his Son as Lord and Savior would lead to death without question. Now once we have accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of our lives, we still fail to live one hundred percent without any sin, we still fail God, we still do things which we should not do or don’t do things we should do, but we are aware and we seek forgiveness and are forgiven and live. Now we have to ask, what about this responsibility to one another that is spoken of here? If anyone sees his brother commit a sin than what should we do? Is God saying that we should not pray for those who live a lifestyle of sin, refusing to accept Jesus Christ? Is he saying that our prayers for those unbelievers who are doomed to death are worthless? We already know that God desires none should perish and all should come to salvation. We already know that he has sent the Holy Spirit to convict all men of their sin and need for repentance. Would this mean that if the power of God is already at work in the life of every unbeliever, and they have ignored or refused his power at work in them, why would any prayer of ours matter? But as far as our brothers in Christ who are failing in some area of their walk with him, we should pray that God would forgive them. This certainly would prohibit us from judging them and having a sense of superiority. Who knows, they could and should be praying for us for the failure in our lives in our walk with God. This is the common bond that should exist among the body of Christ, reciprocal prayer or intercession. Now we should not go around looking and seeking to find every offense in our brother, but if we become aware of a failure, than we should pray for them. This is our responsibility.