My Brother's Keeper

So, just how responsible for other people are we? IJohn 5:16 says, "If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask and God will for him give life..." (NAS) The Greek translation says," If anyone should see his brother sinning a sin not to death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for those that sin not to death."

So, this is interesting. When we see a brother sin, we know he is saved, but if we ask God, God will give that person life because we asked. Now, if the person is saved, and the sin is not unto death, what life is God giving them?

I think it's freedom from the bondage of sin. That bondage, even if doesn't mean hellfire punishment, is a type of spiritual death. Being released from that bondage is life.

Notice that the scripture doesn't say, If anyone sees his brother committing a sin, he could ask and God would give him life. No, it says he shall ask. We need to do this. We need to support each other. I wonder if there won't be an accounting for all the times that we should have asked for life for our church family and didn't. We were too busy or we were just too self-absorbed to notice that they needed help.

I would like it if people who knew me prayed life for me. What kind of decisions would I make if my spirit were being refreshed with life? How would that effect what I do and what I say? I want to pray life for people even if I didn't know what sins they might have. That's just got to be good. And I don't want to find out that they lost the potential they had in their destiny because I let them down. "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." John 13:35