1 John 5:16-18

J.B. Phillips New Testament

Help each other to live without sin

^16-17 If any of you should see his brother committing a sin (I don’t mean deliberately turning his back on God and embracing evil), he should pray to God for him and secure fresh life for the sinner. It is possible to commit sin that is a deliberate embracing of evil and that leads to spiritual death—that is not the sort of sin I have in mind when I recommend prayer for the sinner. Every failure to obey God’s laws is sin, of course, but there is sin that does not preclude repentance and forgiveness.

Our certain knowledge

¹⁸ We know that the true child of God does not sin, he is in the charge of God’s own Son and the evil one must keep his distance.