Reflections with Andy - 1 John 5: 13-21 – Levels of Sin?

John talks today about “mortal” sin. What is that about? What does this mean?

In this Tuesday reflection that closes out First John, three threads from the final passage come together. The promise that God grants what we ask according to his will is clarified: it’s not that God gives us whatever we want, but that he aligns our desires with his own — so that a heart truly surrendered to him begins to want what he wants. The closing command to keep away from idols gets personal: an idol is anything that fills in the blank after “I believe in God, but...” — whatever we trust more than we trust him. And the theologically rich distinction between mortal and venial sin is unpacked carefully: the key is not conflating the equality of sinfulness (we are all equally fallen and in need of Jesus) with the idea that every individual sin is identical in weight. Scripture doesn’t teach that, and neither does the best of Christian tradition. The Eastern Orthodox framing rings truest — any sin is a mortal sin if it is not repented of. What matters ultimately is the posture of the heart, and the willingness to keep giving the Spirit room to convict, cleanse, and draw us closer to God.

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Good morning! Great to be with you on this Tuesday as we wrap up First John together. It’s been a good run through this little letter — there’s just so much packed into it. Tomorrow we’ll move into Second John, Thursday Third John, and then Jude. Second and Third John are so short — 13 and 15 verses respectively — that I almost forgot they have different sections to them. Jude is a little longer, and honestly it’s a lot of fun. We’ve still got some good time together in these smaller epistles. But today, let’s finish First John — chapter 5, verses 13 through 21:

“I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. And this is the boldness we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have obtained the requests made of him. If you see a brother or sister committing what is not a mortal sin, you will ask, and God will give life to such a one — to those whose sin is not mortal. There is sin that is mortal; I do not say that you should pray for that. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that is not mortal. We know that those who are born of God do not sin, but the one who was born of God protects them, and the evil one does not touch them. We know that we are God’s children and that the whole world lies under the power of the evil one. And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols.”

A few things worth unpacking here.

First — if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. This connects to that verse in Psalms about God giving us the desires of our heart, and I think it’s important to understand what that actually means. It doesn’t mean God is a vending machine who gives us whatever we want. What it means is that God is going to change the desires of our heart. When our will is aligned with God’s will, our heart naturally begins to desire what God’s heart desires — and then of course God grants those desires, because they’re already his. The question isn’t whether God will give me the convertible I’ve always wanted. The question is whether my heart is lined up with his. When it is, everything else follows.

Second — little children, keep yourselves from idols. I love that this is how John ends the letter. An idol isn’t necessarily a golden calf. An idol is anything you put your hope in besides God — anything you trust more than you trust him. I read a book a few years back that put it perfectly: your idol is whatever comes after the phrase “I believe in God, but...” For me, honestly, it’s often money. I grew up in a financially conservative household, and somewhere along the way I internalized that you can never have enough in savings. And so I can find myself trusting my savings account more than I trust God with my future. That’s an idol. Whatever it is for you — security, approval, control, status — if it’s getting more of your trust than God is, that’s an idol. Only God is worthy of our complete trust and worship.

Now — the part of this passage I really want to sit with, because it’s theologically meaty and worth slowing down for. Verses 16 and 17: there is sin that is mortal, and there is sin that is not mortal. Some translations say sin that leads to death. And this raises a question that I think a lot of us have quietly wondered about: are all sins really equal?

Here’s where I want to be careful, because I think we’ve conflated two different things. There is an equality of sinfulness— meaning we are all equally sinful, all equally sons and daughters of Adam and Eve, all equally in need of Jesus. That part is absolutely true. But that is not the same as saying every individual sin is identical in weight and consequence. And Scripture doesn’t actually teach that. The Old Testament legal codes prescribed different sacrifices for different offenses. Jesus said that whoever causes a little one to stumble would be better off with a millstone around their neck at the bottom of the ocean — that’s not the same category as running a stop sign.

Our Catholic and Lutheran brothers and sisters have a long tradition of distinguishing between mortal sins and venial sins — mortal sins being those that put your soul at eternal risk if unrepented of, venial sins being those that pull you from God but don’t carry that ultimate weight. I have some reservations about how specifically that gets categorized, because it can feel a bit arbitrary. But the Eastern Orthodox tradition — the Greek and Russian Orthodox churches — frame it in a way I find really compelling: any sin is a mortal sin if it is not repented of. I love that. It doesn’t rank sins on a chart, but it takes seriously the danger of any unrepented sin left to fester in a heart.

Because here’s the thing — speeding and murder are not the same. Murder takes a sacred life, and Scripture is always adamant that life is precious. But a speeding ticket that flows from a rebellious, unrepentant heart? That rebellious heart, left unchecked, can lead somewhere destructive too. Both sins can pull us from God if we’re not careful. The danger isn’t just in the severity of the act — it’s in the posture of the heart.

And that’s why I don’t want to get in the business of ranking sins. What matters is where your heart is. The Holy Spirit’s job is to convict us, and here’s the interesting thing — the closer we get to God, the more the Spirit shows us. That’s why Paul called himself the chief of sinners. Not because Paul was the worst human being who ever lived, but because the Spirit was convicting him of more and more, showing him deeper and deeper layers of his own unrighteousness. That’s what sanctification looks like.

So let’s give the Spirit room today. Let him search us, convict us, pull us closer. Let him sanctify us and draw us nearer to Jesus — so that we can love God fully and love our neighbor fully.

That’s First John, friends. What a letter. Tomorrow we start Second John. Have a great rest of your day — see you in the morning!