There are many hindrances to prayer. For instance, there are cases in which a person might be sick unto death, and yet in which his recovery could not be prayed for. The Apostle John says. "If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it. All unrighteousness is sin: and there is a sin not unto death." 1 John 5:16, 17. What is that awful sin which cannot be prayed for? Well, in the text it is indefinite. The very same act may be a thousand times more culpable in one person than another, and under one set of circumstances than in circumstances of a different character. Ananias and Sapphira told a lie, but they did so in the face of such vivid presence of the Holy Ghost, such light and power and grace, that their lie became a sin unto death. It acquired a peculiar enormity from the special circumstances in which the sin was committed. So Scripture does not define what may or may not be a sin unto death.
There is, however, an underlying principle which requires to be seen, in order to understand this and several similar passages in Scripture. That principle is that the Lord is now judging in the midst of His saints, and in pursuance of that judgment He inflicts chastisement-a chief form of which is sickness, and even death. Scripture furnishes a clear illustration of this in the case of the Corinthians. Not only were gross social vice and sin amongst them, but they were profaning the Supper of the Lord, treating it as a secular feast: some were even drunken at it. The Apostle tells them that those so doing were eating and drinking judgment to themselves, adding, "For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep... But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world." 1 Cor. 11:30.32. This shows that sickness amongst God's people stands upon special ground. It may be on account of sin, and is thus invested with peculiar significance.
The deep, moral import of sickness in the Church is, it is to be feared, but little seen, and less thought of. Thus illness happens to a Christian, and it is at once assumed to be a mere natural event; or, a Christian dies cut off in the midst of his days, in the full tide of his work, which is left unfinished around him.
Now it is a most solemn reflection that both of these events may be the direct hand of the Lord in judgment. If, however, Christians are not spiritual, they do not take a spiritual view of such happenings. Such events were occurring every day at Corinth, and their spiritual meaning was probably quite unperceived, for the saints there were far from spiritual, as Paul says. "I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal.”
1 Cor. 3:1. But when God is thus moving in solemn judgment, it would be lack of communion to pray that such souls might live. One led by the Spirit would surely be with God, in the necessary, though solemn, assertion of His holiness amongst His people. The language of John, however, is not absolute; he does not altogether forbid prayer, but albeit significantly says. "I do not say that he shall pray for it.”
The Epistle of James also treats sickness as connected with sin, but, in cases where there is faith to ask for it, says, “The prayer of faith shall save the sick." "Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church 'assembly': and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him." James 5:14, 15. The anointing with oil here, is, of course, Jewish, consistent with the general scope of the Epistle, which is addressed not to the Church, but to the twelve tribes of Israel (James 1:1).
Now these three scriptures (1 John 5; 1 Cor. 11; James 5) distinctly teach that sickness amongst Christians may be an infliction because of sin. If this were more recognized, there would be more soul-exercise as to the purpose of God's dealings with us, and increased blessing would result.
One point should be cleared up before leaving the text in 1 John 5. When the Apostle says, "There is a sin unto death," the death he refers to is not eternal separation from God, but that temporal death of the body, which the Lord inflicts on His own as chastisement. This is made clear from 1 Cor. 11:32,
where Paul says. "When we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world." God's people are judged now; the world will be judged by and by. Contrast the case of Ananias and Sapphira already referred to, with that of Simon in the 8th of Acts. In both cases the parties sinned, and sinned deeply. Ananias and Sapphira were judged with death. But Simon was perceived to be "in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity." He was really an unchanged man, notwithstanding his nominal belief and his baptism. He is left to be judged with the world, while in the case of Ananias and his wife, awful as was their judgment, it was only temporal judgment, and there is no reason to infer that their spirits will not be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. (1 Cor. 5:50).
It ought not to be supposed, however, that illness, or indeed, other afflictions, are always chastisements. The branch that bears fruit is purged that it may bring forth more fruit (John 15). And in the case of Job, the grand mistake of Job's friends was to suppose that because of his terrible affliction, he must have committed some grievous sins. God allowed Job to be afflicted with painful and humiliating ills for his ultimate blessing, and so He does with many a saint today. He may send sickness, bereavements, reverses, to break down the flesh, to wean us from the world, to produce brokenness of our wills, and spirituality, or to give warning to the believer where there is lack of carefulness in walk, or incipient departure from the Lord. E. Thomas