1 John 5

Eternal life is God. Jesus doesn't just lead us to salvation, but He is salvation. Obtaining salvation is obtaining God.

John explains it this way, "And we are in Him who is true by being in His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life." -1 John 5:20

That is why worshiping idols is so utterly devastating to us. Whenever we seek to worship idols, whatever they may be (money, sex, popularity, comfort...etc.) we are actually seeking to be united to that idol more than God. Whenever we seek whatever it is that we think we are gaining from idols, we are actually seeking to reject God's nearness to us and the life that is given to us as God frees us.

No wonder John ends the letter with, "Dear children, keep yourselves from idols." This is serious stuff.

With all of that said, I think that we can now make sense of a passage that is quite confusing and intriguing; 1 John 5:16-17:

"¹⁶ If you see any brother or sister commit a sin that does not lead to death, you should pray and God will give them 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 you should pray about that. ¹⁷ All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death"

A lot of people come to that passage, including myself, and ask, "what on earth does this mean?"

I think, in short, becoming fixated on idols is what leads us to death. I am talking about more than just the occasional slip up here and there, but about someone allowing an idol to become his/her lord. That, they enslave themselves to an idol.

This seems to be what has happened with the Ephesian church that John is writing to. Throughout the entire letter, John has been making arguments about how Jesus truly has come in the flesh, that God has really stepped into our world. John spends a lot of time in this letter reminding the people of who Jesus is as if there are some out there who are contesting the fact that Jesus is God.

He talks about people in chapter 2 who were once a part of the church, but have now left. He calls them the "antichrists." Furthermore, Paul in the book of Acts tells the Ephesian pastors to guard themselves and the church because people will come seeking to confuse and deceive those in the church. He also goes onto say that he knows that some people will rise up from within the church and lead people astray.

There is also a place in the Gospels where Jesus tells the Pharisees that the only unforgivable sin is blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. I believe that this is one and the same thing...that blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is the other side of the idolatry coin that John is talking about.

Putting it all together: Why is blasphemy of the Spirit unforgivable? And, why do idols lead us to death? The 2 go together because we reject the Spirit in order to worship idols and if we worship idols, it means that we are rejecting the Spirit. Furthermore, people blaspheme the Spirit whenever they recognize that the Spirit is at work, but they reject Him thinking that he is bad, evil, or inadequate....therefore they turn to idols.

In other words, the sin that leads to death is this: Understanding that the Holy Spirit is at work but choosing to consciously reject Him anyways in order to make some other idol the Lord of your life.

To finish up, John wrote this letter to the Ephesians because there are people who once were a part of the church that have now left and are trying to pull others away from the church and away from Christ as well. John spends the majority of the letter reminding the Ephesians that Jesus is truly the Messiah, that he has come in a physical way, and that Jesus truly is God. Furthermore, he tells them what it means to be true Christians, that those who are children of God love one another. He tells them this so that they can guard themselves against those who are trying to tell them to live differently. Lastly, he reminds them that there is a sin that leads to death, which is the option that those who have left the church have chosen. He concludes the letter by both warning and encouraging them.

To paraphrase, "Keep yourselves from idols so that you to may not be led astray. However, I am writing these things to you to remind you that you are in Christ, that you have eternal life, and if you see a brother or sister committing a sin that does not lead them to abandon the church, don't freak out about it....but pray for them so that they can be restored."