Pray for Believers Who Sin

“If you see a Christian brother or sister sinning in a way that does not lead to death, you should pray, and God will give that person life.” 1 John 5:16 (NLT)

I had a friend at church whose life seemed to reflect Christ. She paid attention to my needs and shared her challenges—that is until intentionally unkept promises led to the end of our friendship. We hurt one another with unkind words. The inability to talk through our issues intensified my pain. I sought reconciliation with her, but the friendship was never restored.

Sin has a way of surfacing and causing pain, the gnawing, aching kind. Yet God still works where sin lurks. When others sin, God calls us to forgive and seek peace. In addition, God tells us to pray for one another. After examining ourselves and asking forgiveness from God and others for our own sin, we can pray for a believer who sins. In doing so, we can ask that God would forgive their sin, that Christ would reveal Himself in them, and that they would receive newness of life.

These prayer points come from John’s teaching in his first epistle. John writes about spiritual matters, including prayer. He begins this final section by telling readers that God will hear and grant their requests if they ask according to God’s will (vv. 5:13–15). As believers, we have the assurance God answers prayers aligned with His will. We can pray for forgiveness and newness of life in Christ for a fellow believer who sins and ask others to pray for us too.

Although believers do sin, we maintain assurance of eternal life. John writes about eternal life and eternal death in his letter. He is referring to eternal death when he writes about “sinning in a way that does not lead to death” (v. 16) and he refers to the sins of a righteous believer. Praying for a believer who sins is one way we bear one another’s burdens (Gal 6:1–2).

We must bear the burdens of other believers by praying about their sins. We can ask God to forgive them, restore them to a right relationship with God, and bring peace to their relationships. We can pray for God to replace their sin with Christ’s love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (5:22–23). And we can love them by praying on their behalf, and for the sake of the church because sin resides with us until Christ returns.

Practice For Today

Pray for a believer in your life who has sinned against you and/or who is choosing to live a life of sin. Ask God to help you forgive if you have been wronged. Also ask God—the one who forgave you—to forgive their sin, help you forget, and make them more like Christ.

Photo by Ruben Hutabarat on Unsplash.