All unrighteousness is sin: and there is a sin not unto death.
What does 1 John 5:17 mean?
Upon all this evidence, it is but right that we believe on the name of the Son of God. Believers have eternal life in the covenant of the gospel.
Key themes
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Keep this verse inside 1 John 5:16-17 and alongside a few nearby related passages.
Commentary on 1 John 5:17
All unrighteousness is sin ... - This seems to be thrown in to guard what he had just said, and there is "one" great and enormous sin, a sin which could not be forgiven. But he says also that there are many other forms and degrees of sin, sin for which prayer may be made. Everything, he says, which is unrighteous - αδικια adikia - everything which does not conform to the holy law of God, and which is not right in the view of that law, is to be regarded as sin; but we are not to suppose that all sin of that kind is of such a character that it cannot possibly be forgiven.
Key words
- unrighteousness
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All unrighteousness is sin,.
Context in 1 John 5
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1 John 5 belongs to the closing movement of the book, especially the section often described as assurance and final warning. First John is a profound epistle of light, truth, love, assurance, obedience, and confession of the incarnate Son. Read this chapter with the wider themes of love, truth, and assurance in view so the individual verses keep their proper weight.
Related topics
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A guided collection of passages on God’s love, neighbor-love, steadfast covenant love, and the shape of love in Christian life.
Passages on trusting God, receiving Christ, persevering without sight, and the relation between faith and lived obedience.
Bible verses about eternal life
Core passages on everlasting life, union with Christ, resurrection hope, judgment, and the promise of life beyond death.
Passages on the nature of truth, honesty, deception, the word of God as truth, and Jesus' claim to be the truth.