Praying For The Fallen

I John 5:16-17

Chances are, if I were to ask you to name a time Jesus was praying, you would say in the garden before His crucifixion. That tends to be most of our go to answer. There are actually several examples of Jesus praying in scripture. Sometimes we know the content of those prayers, but other times we do not. There was one time Jesus told us specifically what He prayed for. In Luke 22:31-32 Jesus told Peter that He had prayed for Him because he (Peter) was going to fall. Peter was going to deny Jesus, but Jesus prayed that when Peter returned to Him, that Peter would strengthen his brothers. This is a bitter sweet passage. On the one hand Jesus is telling Peter that he was going to fail Him. On the other hand there was an assurance that Peter would return to Jesus and that he would be used by Jesus again.

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If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death. There is sin leading to death. I do not say that he should pray about that. All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to death.

I Jn 5:16–17

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One of the reasons we like passages like this so much is because they give us hope. We all fail Jesus. We all struggle with sin. As much as we with that we didn't, the fact is, we do. John was present with Peter when Jesus told him these words. John had been on the receiving end of Jesus's rebukes as well. So, when he speaks of sin in Christians, he understands both mercy and justice from a holy and righteous God.

Sin in the body of Christ is no little matter. So many people think that once a person is saved they can do whatever they want and then just ask God to forgive them. That is the exact opposite of what a child of God should do. Our new nature causes us to desire not to sin. This does not mean that we will never sin, but sin should break our hearts. It was our sins that nailed Jesus to the cross. Knowing this should cause us to want to live as best as we can sinlessly. Then, when we do sin, we should indeed repent, and with that have a greater desire to not commit that sin again.

Knowing that we struggle with sin, when we see a brother or sister who has fallen into sin, we should desire to see them restored to a right relationship with both God and the church. We should not want to exclude them from fellowship. Yes, there is a time for that, but Biblical church discipline is about restoration if at all possible, while maintaining righteousness in the body of Christ. We restore the repentant, and only after having followed the steps recorded in scripture do we withdraw fellowship from the unrepentant.

There are some sins that Christians commit that God takes them out of this world. That is a sin unto death. It is not any one specific sin. Then there are sins that are not unto death. That is the majority of the sins we commit as children of God. They are serious, but God does not determine that we need to be removed from this life for them. When this happens, we have the opportunity to do as Jesus did. We can pray for that brother or sister to be repentant, restored, and recommitted.

Repentant - to turn away from their sin and back to Jesus

Restored - to be in close fellowship with Jesus again

Recommitted - to do the work that they were called to in service to Jesus

Father, thank You for not writing us off when we sin. Holiness in the body of Christ is important and you grow us in holiness. Help us to remember what You have done for us, what Jesus prayed for Peter, and remind us to do the same for our brothers and sisters who sin.