It doesn't matter what acts I may have committed or not committed, nor does it matter the reasons I may or may not have committed them. It only matters that there are intentional sins and sins of ignorance.
1Jo 5:16 - If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin
which does not
lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not
leading to death. There is sin
leading to death. I do not say that he should pray about that.
In this we have to look at what sin leads to death.
When we examine scripture, we see Jesus saying much the same thing, that there is a sin one can commit that cannot be forgiven, that of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.
Now, this appears contextually and comparatively not to be a particular sin, or even of not knowing it's a sin in advance of committing it because in the old testament David committed adultery and premeditated murder yet was forgiven of his sin.
In the New Testament we see Peter denying Jesus through curses yet was forgiven for his sin... and it was a sin he knew was a sin or he wouldn't have known to ask forgiveness in the first place.
We see Paul having murdered Christians and committing blasphemy, by his own admission, and declaring he had to counsel two Christians who were likewise committing blasphemy in order they may stop.
Therefore we can conclude it's neither knowledge of, nor premeditated sin or any particular sins (like stealing an item) that are unforgivable.
So it comes down to determining what is done that cannot be forgiven. Many of the Jewish priests ended up being saved believers in Christ, and those were the ones Christ warned against blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.
A deeper look then is necessary.
We know from John there are people who call themselves Christian who are in the saved group who sin, and others who are in the professed Christian group yet are beyond forgiveness.
So we know it's in the professing Christian group that we are to look..
According to Johns letters sin is something we all do, will do, and the remedy for that is to confess your sin and ask forgiveness for it, thereby being forgiven.
But there is something else that is too much. I think in examination of all the passages of similar nature we can conclude certain things:
1.) It's a rejection of Christ's work in salvation since John was earlier in this chapter speaking of salvation through Jesus Christ alone: he who has the Son has life, and he who does not have the Son of God, does not have life.
2.) It is not simply denying the truth of what was revealed to them through the Holy Spirit, (or those Jewish priests wouldn't have been saved) but blatantly calling the witness of the Spirit false or a lie.
John has spoken of the witness which the Holy Spirit bears to the fact that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the only source of salvation; all of this in verses 6-12. Here, clearly, is the identification of John's sin which leads to death with the sin or blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. The Spirit testifies about Jesus, and though he is the Spirit of truth, his witness is represented as false, a lie, by the one who sins in this way. Calling the Holy Spirit a liar for what he has said is true about Jesus Christ - that is what John is speaking of in verse 10 of chapter 5, and that is the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, or the sin which leads to death.
And it is still more clearly the case that this rejection of Jesus Christ is what is involved in this sin which leads to death, if we compare John with the two passages in Hebrews. In Hebrews 6:4-6 the author is discussing the case of those who 'fall away from Jesus Christ' and who, in so rejecting him, 'crucify him all over again and subject him to public disgrace.' And, again in Hebrews 10:26-31, the discussion is of those who trample the Son of God under foot, which is, we read there, the same thing as 'insulting the Spirit of grace'...that is the Spirit of God who has born witness to Jesus Christ as the Son of God and Savior.
The same idea is in the forefront in the gospels when Jesus warns the Pharisees of the sin against the Holy Spirit, precisely in the context of their rejecting him and the salvation he was bringing.
It seems there are many ways we can call the testimony of the Holy Spirit a lie, the 1.) by denying the existence of sin and therefore sinning all you like without remorse or care. Let's use your example of your thief in this.
Guy was some kind of cleptomaniac prior to being "saved" and joining the church, and now that he's a professed Christian he doesn't work to change this behavior, despite the Holy Spirits leading and teaching in this area, and going so far as to teach others it doesn't matter if they steal now that they are a Christian. And thus without remorse continues his life just like before, stealing anytime he finds opportunity without remorse and without asking forgiveness because he's decided in his own mind he's in the right.
Now, in recognizing the person who acts in this manner there may be one of two issues, 1.)The person is not really led by the Holy Spirit and simply not understanding the Truth of Christian life and thereby able to be counseled to the point of understanding.
Or 2.) permanently outside of Grace..
Knowing exactly what point someone is, whether ignorance or simply outside of Grace is tricky. This is why Paul spoke of removing people from church "in the hopes they may come to salvation".. sometimes people have to be removed from congregation so they don't spoil the flock, and in order God deals with them in other ways if counselling doesn't produce the desired result.
And there are other times God
has dealt with this individual, and they have simply rejected the truth of God for their own idea of right behavior.
make sense?
In all cases it includes a denial of Jesus's redemptive work of salvation a
nd calling the Truth of salvation revealed to them by the Holy Spirit a lie.