Question:
I don’t understand the last part of 1 John 5:16: “There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it.”
Answer:
Don Johnson (Sr.) answered: “I don’t either. But I knew a man who realized he was going to die and he told some who came to see him not to pray for his recovery because the Lord was taking him home because of his sin. The sin unto death would be like when a mother says to her child: ‘You, will have to come into the house now because you will not obey me outside.'”
Four ways God answers prayer:1. No, not yet.2. No, I love you too much.3. Yes, I thought you’d never ask.4. Yes, and here’s more.
Some use Matthew 8:17 to justify faith-healing of a Christian today, saying that Christ “took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses” on the cross. But the verse does not say He bore them on the cross. Looking at the context (verses 14-18) we see that He bore their sicknesses as a burden during His lifetime on earth when he healed the people. Christ did bear our “sins” on the cross. “Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24). But the Spirit of God uses a different Greek word translated “bare” in 1 Peter 2:24 than in Matthew 8:17. The word “bare” in 1 Peter 2:24 means to “take away,” but in Matthew 8:17 “bare” means “to have sympathy with.”
The man was blind in John 9:2, 3: “that the works of God should be made manifest in him.” Had he not been blind God’s power could not have been seen, in giving him eyesight.
Trials we go through are so we can realize the Lord’s comfort (2 Corinthians 1:3-5), and so the Lord can use us to comfort others “by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.”A good verse to memorize is 1 John 5:20. “AND WE KNOW THAT THE SON OF GOD IS COME, AND HATH GIVEN US AN UNDERSTANDING, THAT WE MAY KNOW HIM THAT IS TRUE, AND WE ARE IN HIM THAT IS TRUE, EVEN IN HIS SON JESUS CHRIST. THIS IS THE TRUE GOD, AND ETERNAL LIFE.”