Where Sin Leads
John distinguishes between different degrees and sorts of sins (1 John 5): There is a sin that leads to death and another sin that does not lead to death.
The substance of this distinction doesn’t concern me here, but rather the form. John’s distinction is not a pragmatic one. Sins are not distinguished according to the number of people they affect, whether they are public or private. He doesn’t distinguish, like Dante, between sins of incontinence and sins of malice. Both are useful distinctions, but they are not the distinctions that John makes.
Rather, he distinguishes sins by their ends, by the end point of the story that sin initiates. Some set out on a path that ends in death, others begin a story that takes a plot twist away from death before it reaches the destination. Some sins are tragic; some are miraculously aborted and end in comedy.
Peter Leithart
Peter J. Leithart is President of Theopolis Institute. He is the author of numerous books on theology, literature, and culture, including Theopolitan, Defending Constantine, and Baptized Body.
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