7 January
1 John 5:14-21 | Psalm 149:1-6,9 | John 2:1-11
If anybody sees his brother commit a sin
that is not a deadly sin,
he has only to pray, and God will give life to the sinner
– not those who commit a deadly sin;
for there is a sin that is death,
and I will not say that you must pray about that. (1 John 5:16)
My understanding is that the “sin that is death” refers to apostasy, the explicit rejection of the Truth that we have received as Christians. To turn our backs on the revelation of God’s plan for our salvation, to replace “You and me, team God” with “me, myself and I”, is to literally proclaim that we want no share in the life to come, so what alternative do we face but eternal death?
I came close to apostasy during my college days, drunk on the freedom of life away from my family, surrounded by a culture that promoted self above all, eventually just going through the motions of Sunday worship. It took an atheist friend, of all people, to knock some sense into me. Through his incessant prodding about what I was doing, I was forced to come to terms with my actions, and dig deeper into my faith to justify them.
And through this digging, I finally came to know God as something more than an invisible being whom everyone around me believed in just enough to curse quite colorfully in His name.
And because I came to know Him, I also came to love Him. That last bit was a foregone conclusion, but getting to that point took a lot of effort…and a lot of trust that the effort would bear fruit.
✞ ✞ ✞ ✞ ✞
The last line in the above passage is phrased very delicately: “I will not say that you must pray about that”. It doesn’t say that I should not pray for apostates, just that I’m not obliged to.
On the surface, it seems logical enough. These folks have already made their unfortunate choice, so what good would praying for them do?
But God deals in Love, not cold hard logic. We think God won’t suffer those who reject Him, but even if we are right, God can break His own rules any time He wishes because…well, he’s God, so nothing is impossible for Him once He wills it.
So let us truly trust in the Lord, as Mother Mary did in today’s Gospel, when she bore Jesus’ mild rebuke with good grace, and told the servants at the wedding in Cana: “I don’t care if the Son of God’s commands sound completely wacky, just do whatever He tells you!”
Let us fully open our hearts and minds to Him, letting Him instruct us each day on how we should treat the people and situations we encounter, asking only that He melt, mold, fill and use us to His glory.
After all, if He could get an atheist to pull a believer back from the brink of apostasy, what could He possibly not do?
Amen.