Q&A Home > S > Sin What is meant by not all sin lead to death in 1 John 5:16? Do not all sins lead to death? It is known that the wages of sin is death. Yet through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, He gave us repentance. It is through repentance that the sentence of death is removed. As for the sin leading to death, it is the sin with no repentance such as suicide as referred to in 1 John 5:16. Yet sins committed out of ignorance, i.e., unknowingly, do not necessarily lead to death. For these transgressions, the believers pray for God's mercy for the sins they committed out of ignorance and also for the sins which they committed willingly and knowingly if they repented. Unlike in the concept of purgatory, which the Orthodox Church does not sanction, prayers cannot help the soul of the departed who transgressed knowingly and willingly but did not repent.
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