A limitation to intercessory prayer

1 John 5:16b. There is a sin leading to death; I do not say that he should make request for this. Yesterday we were encouraged by the confidence we can have in our intercession for sinners, but we find in this verse that there is a limitation to our confidence in intercessory prayer for unbelievers. He had mentioned in chapter 4 that there were some who once were in their paths in the assembly, but who had gone out. Certainly the believers would be concerned for them and want to pray for them. John apparently thought this church knew people who had committed or were committing a sin that leads to death. Since that sin isn’t specifically stated, we must let Scripture inform us. Do the Scriptures teach that there is a sin that will not be forgiven and thus leads to death? Yes there is. Jesus Himself, stated in Matthew 12:31 “Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven.” Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is the sin of ascribing the works of Jesus to the works of the devil (Matt. 12:28) like the Pharisees did. For such people, the church was not encouraged that they could have confidence in prayer for them. In fact, John said they should not make such requests of life for them. Many commentators believe these hopeless blasphemers were the false teachers, the antichrists, of whom John warned in the beginning of 1 John 4. In John’s view, they weren’t apostates who once had life in Jesus and then forfeited it. They were counterfeits. They were not true brothers in Christ. Since they denied that Jesus was God in the flesh, they not only didn’t have the Son, they didn’t have the Father. These people believed everything in the material world was evil and of the devil. So they believed all the works done in the body were of Satanic origin, including the works done in Jesus’ body. Such rejection of Jesus goes a long step beyond the typical sin of unbelief. It is blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, because Jesus’ works were done in the power of the Holy Spirit. The blaspheming false teachers and their followers were once members of the visible congregation who had at one time passed as “brothers”, but their withdrawal and false teaching about Jesus made it evident that they were not of God. John knew the believers would want to intercede for those who had rejected Jesus, forfeited eternal life, and left them. However, he could not encourage intercession for them. As we live to love with Jesus, God will put the two kinds of people in our paths: some for whom we can pray confidently for God to give them life, and others for whom we cannot pray. Both are dead in sins and abide in death. The difference between the two is that one group may receive life through a believer’s intercession, while the other will die eternally. Let’s be encouraged that most of the sinners who cross our paths, we may have confidence to intercede for them and ask God to give them eternal life. This makes me think that while we live to love with Jesus, most days we will have the privilege to ask God to give life to the sinners He places in our paths.