Sin Unto Death

November 7
I'm sitting at my computer with no bible near me to which to refer. I am contemplating the things God has spoken to me today. In doing so, I recall having gone to a funeral this week for a student I taught five years ago in my government class. I have written on this topic many times, but it is especially poignant when a situation like this occurs. Apparently, and I don't have the details or know it to be true, but it appears he had been out partying late one night and, on his way home drove off the road and was ejected from his car and killed. We have had several young boys and girls killed thusly in the past few years. It especially grieves me that, though it is clear our children are out of control on drugs and alcohol, no one is doing anything to try rectifying the problem.

I John speaks of the sin unto death. He indicates we should not even pray for those who have committed this sin unto death. Many have speculated on what that means over the past 2000 years. I would like to humbly suggest what happened to that dear young man this past week is the sin unto death. He drank too much and got behind the wheel of an automobile. His ability to handle an automobile at 60 or 70 or 80 miles per hour ended in his death. It is a complete waste of time to pray God will forgive him for his sin. He has gone to his eternal resting place, wherever that is, and there is no use for us to pray for him anymore for that sin. When our sin leads to the death that leads us to our eternal resting place, there is no use praying God will forgive us for that sin. Though it has indeed been covered under the blood of Christ, there will be eternal consequence for it.

At best, this is a subject for which we have no absolutely clear answer. I do, however, think God has given us scriptual insight that will help us better understand this difficult question. The sin unto death is, quite simply, any sin that leads to our immediate death. In those situations, there is no reason whatsoever to pray for the one who commited that sin. If you haven't been enlightened by this devotional, I thank God. If you have been better prepared to spend eternity with our maker, I thank God. If you have any serious questions, I invite you to submit them in the comments section below. I'll be pleased to prayerfully answer them for you. And that's God's word for us today.