What Exactly is Sin?
As Christians, we are to keep away from sin. However, how would we be able to avoid sin if we don’t completely understand what it is? The Bible defines sin in numerous sacred texts, every one of them giving us more understanding of what sin is, but before we look at these scriptures that interpret sin, we should first understand what the word sin means.
Two Major Concepts
The Greek and Hebrew words translated “sin” throughout the Bible revolve largely around two major concepts. Most of the other words translated “sin” in the Bible involve a second concept, “to miss the mark.” This view of sin includes the concept of our going in one direction but straying off course to the side and not continuing in the direction we intended to go, with the result that we don’t reach the goal we intended. This concept also encompasses the idea of failing to measure up to a standard. Both of these concepts, transgressing and missing the mark, involve a basic requirement. This is where the biblical definitions of sin become important because these scriptures define the boundaries and standards God set for us. They show us the way God lives. They show the spiritual principles by which He lives, the same standard of conduct He expects His human creations to live by.
Sin: Violation of the Law of God
What, then, are the boundaries and standards God has set for us that define sin? When we look at 1 John 3:4, we see another important perspective. God gave humanity His laws to show us His way of love. Those laws define how we demonstrate love to God and our fellowman (Deuteronomy 30:15-16; Matthew 22:35-40; 1 John 5:3). Sin is a violation of the law of God. God showed us a way to live in peace and harmony with Him and with mankind and defined this way of life by His law. When we sin, we violate or transgress that boundary and break God’s law.
Broader Definition of Sin
We have seen one standard God has set for mankind: He expects obedience to His laws. God’s law defines acceptable behaviour and actions, and, when we break the standard of God’s law, we step across the bounds He has set. But has God set other boundaries for us, other ways in which He defines sin? What about actions and behaviour that aren’t covered by specific laws? In 1 John 5:17 we find a much broader definition of sin: “All unrighteousness is sin.
Christ Reveals an Underlying Principle
Jesus Christ once said, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment,” – Matthew 5:21-22. One commonly understood standard of behaviour was to refrain from murdering another human. We should realise that sin starts in the mind. Humanly speaking, we don’t see anything wrong with allowing wrong thoughts into our minds. Often they are quite entertaining. Eventually, those sinful thoughts lead us into sin. The result is the trampling of God’s law. Jesus Christ instructs us to disrupt that process before it gets started, by not even allowing wrong thoughts into our minds.
Changing Who We Are
We should learn an important lesson from this: Strict obedience to God’s laws alone doesn’t change what we are. It’s a start, certainly. As we have seen, obedience to His laws is a standard God expects us to meet. Sometimes we make the same mistake the Pharisees made. We can concentrate so much on avoiding breaking God’s law that we lose sight of the purpose of that law: to change our focus from thinking about ourselves to being concerned for and showing love for others. We may think that never breaking God’s law is good enough. But what did Jesus Christ say? Only a few days before His execution, Jesus made clear an obligation for those who would follow Him: “When the Son of Man comes in His glory… all the nations will be gathered before Him . . . Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’
“Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’ “Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’ . . . And these [those who did none of these things] will go to everlasting punishment, but the righteous [those who did these things] into eternal life” (Matthew 25:31-43, 46).
Jesus illustrated this point through other examples. The parable of Lazarus and the rich man (Luke 16:19-31) provides a prime example of a sin of omission. The rich man took no notice of a poor beggar, a man who had absolutely no significance in the wealthy man’s busy life but who was greatly valued by God. Another wealthy man filled his barns with impressive provisions while neglecting to extend a helping hand to those in need (Luke 12:16-21). This man stored up treasures for himself, filling his storehouses to overflowing with far more than he could possibly use while at the same time showing no regard for others—another sin of omission.
Sin: Our will before His will
Christ’s teachings help us understand why it is sin not to do what we know we should do. Not doing what we know is right is putting our will ahead of God’s. It demonstrates to God that we don’t have the desire or character to put His will ahead of our own. It shows we are unwilling to completely surrender ourselves to Him. This is why it is sin: We put ourselves before God, our will before His will.
James elaborated on the requirement that we do good deeds. He asked several basic questions about our faith: “What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,’ but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? What good is it? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (James 2:14-17).
James says such faith—faith without godly works—is useless, worthless. Such faith is of no lasting value because it doesn’t change the person, nor does it help others just to hear the words “Be warm and filled” when they’re cold and hungry. It is through action—through works, through doing the good that we know we ought to be doing—that God builds His nature and character within us. If we want to get rid of our selfish, sinful nature, we have to replace it with something else. We don’t just magically, instantly get rid of it; we have to replace it with God’s nature, with His thoughts and ways.
Paul tells us in Galatians 5:16, “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.” God’s Spirit working within us will help us recognise sin and avoid it so we no longer will “fulfil the lust of the flesh.” His Spirit will likewise help us recognise, understand and grow in His ways, enabling us to strengthen and demonstrate our faith through the works that James pointed out are necessary. Opportunities abound for us to do the good that we know we ought to be doing. We can start right in our own families by working to make them strong, by making our families a warm, affectionate, supporting, encouraging place for all family members. We have plenty of opportunities in our spiritual family as well. God’s Word tells us in James 1:27 that pure religion is to “look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world”.
The Ultimate Definition of Sin
God sets high standards for us in finding and overcoming the sins. Ultimately, these definitions tell us that sin is anything that is contrary to the will of God or doesn’t express the holy character of God. That is the standard He has set for us, as seen by these definitions.
Our efforts to identify and remove sin can be compared to the story of a sculptor chipping away at an enormous block of stone. Another man asks him what he’s sculpting, and the sculptor replies, “An elephant.” The other man then asks, “How do you sculpt an elephant?” The sculptor says: “It’s very simple. You just chip away anything that doesn’t look like an elephant.” We are doing the same thing when we start chipping away sins from our lives. Our goal is, with God’s help, to chip away everything that isn’t like God. We are removing sin—everything that is contrary to or doesn’t express the holy character of God—with the purpose of more fully and maturely reflecting God’s mind and way of life.