Mortal sins and James

[Gmsod]

So I’m guessing y’all are all aware f the passage in James that is commonly referenced to prove mortal and venial sins. Looking at t again makes me wonder: why would James be commanding us not to pray for forgiveness of such sins because we can never know for certain if someone has committed a mortal sin besides ourselves. So how can this prove mortal sins if we don’t even know when someone else has committed one. But if it’s not about mortal sins than what is James talking about?
Please help.

Thanks and GOD bless!

 

[Pug]

I’m thinking you mean 1 John 5:16. If anyone sees his brother sinning, if the sin is not deadly, he should pray to God and he will give him life. This is only for those whose sin is not deadly. There is such a thing as deadly sin, about which I do not say that you should pray.

I see here that there is an exhortation (a command if you will) to pray for one set of people so that they may receive life, but that he denies giving a command to pray about the other set of people. So there is no forbidding that you pray for them as I read it. Perhaps the reason is in the phrase “and he will give him life”. Perhaps this phrase does not apply to that set of people.

As concerns which sins these are talking about, I can cite a couple of references for you. One is cut from Reconcilliatio et paenitentia, so those little numbers are footnotes to scripture references and such.

In a text of his First Letter, St. John speaks of a sin which leads to death (pros thanaton), as opposed to a sin which does not lead to death (me pros thanaton).(83) Obviously, the concept of death here is a spiritual death. It is a question of the loss of the true life or “eternal life,” which for John is knowledge of the Father and the Son,(84) and communion and intimacy with them. In that passage the sin that leads to death seems to be the denial of the Son(85) or the worship of false gods.(86) At any rate, by this distinction of concepts John seems to wish to emphasize the incalculable seriousness of what constitutes the very essence of sin, namely the rejection of God. This is manifested above all in apostasy and idolatry: repudiating faith in revealed truth and making certain created realities equal to God, raising them to the status of idols or false gods.(87) But in this passage the apostle’s intention is also to underline the certainty that comes to the Christian from the fact of having been “born of God” through the coming of the Son: The Christian possesses a power that preserves him from falling into sin; God protects him, and “the evil one does not touch him.” If he should sin through weakness or ignorance, he has confidence in being forgiven, also because he is supported by the joint prayer of the community.

The other is St Augustine, “that the sin unto death is the sin
of the brother who, after knowing God by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, at-
tacks brotherly union and in a passion of envy reacts against that very grace by
which he was reconciled to God” (“De Sermo Dom. in monte”, l, 22, 73)

 

[Vico]

…

James 2:10-11

10 Now whosoever shall keep the whole law but offend in one point, is become guilty of all.
11 For he that said, Thou shalt not commit adultery, said also, Thou shalt not kill. Now if thou do not commit adultery, but shalt kill: thou art become a transgressor of the law.

Haydock Commentary

Ver. 10. Is become guilty of all. It is certain these words are not to be taken merely according to the letter, nor in the sense which at first they seem to represent, as if a man by transgressing one precept of the law transgressed and broke all the rest: this appears by the very next verse, that a man may commit murder by killing another, and not commit adultery. And it is certain, as St. Augustine observes, that all sins are not equal, as the Stoic philosophers pretended. See St. Augustine, Epist. clxvii, (nov. ed. tom. 2, p. 595) where he consults St. Jerome on this very place out of St. James, and tells us that such a man may be said to be guilty of all, because by one deadly sin he acts against charity,[3] (which is the love of God and of our neighbour) upon which depends the whole law and all its precepts; so that by breaking one precept, he loseth the habit of charity, and maketh the keeping, or not breaking of all the rest, unprofitable to him. Secondly, it may be added, that all the precepts of the law are to be considered as one total and entire law, and as it were a chain of precepts, where by breaking one link of this chain the whole chain is broken, or the integrity of the law, consisting of a collection of precepts. Thirdly, it may be said, that he who breaks any one precept, contemns the authority of the lawgiver, who enjoined them all, and under pain of being for ever excluded from his sight and enjoyment. A sinner, therefore, by a grievous offence against any one precept, forfeits his heavenly inheritance, becomes liable to eternal punishments, as if he had transgressed all the rest: not but that the punishments in hell shall be greater against those who have been greater sinners, as greater shall be the reward in heaven for those who have lived with greater sanctity and perfection. (Witham)

— Guilty, &c. That is, he becomes a transgressor of the law in such a manner, that the observing of all other points will not avail him to salvation; for he despises the lawgiver, and breaks through the great and general commandment of charity, even by one mortal sin. (Challoner)

[3] Ver. 10-11. St. Augustine, Ep. lxvii. num. 16. p. 600. An fortè quia plenitudo legis charitas est, qua Deus, proximusque diligitur, in quibus præceptis charitatis tota lex pendet et prophetæ, meritò fit reus omnium, qui contra illam facit ex qua pendent omnia.