What is Sin?

The definition of "sin" comes from a Greek archery term meaning to miss the mark of perfection. From that standpoint, we see a key difference between Christianity and every other religion and worldview, with the possible exception of Hinduism. Christianity has as its goal to be perfect, as your heavenly father is perfect (Matthew 5:48). Other religions will strive to have our good outweigh our bad, with no real idea how much a good or bad deed weighs.

Who sins? Who falls short of perfection? Everyone, the Bible makes clear throughout. Notably, 1 John 1:8 reads, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” This is affirmed by modern sayings like “nobody is perfect”. Even the kindest person is prone to selfishness and gets temperamental especially when tired or anxious. Usually it is the people we are closest to, that we spend the most time around, that we end up hurting.

The Bible uses several other words that are subsets of sin, most notably “trespass” and “debt”. A trespass is when I infringe on someone else’s person or property. I could use it to describe the times I have stolen property or robbed someone of their trust. A debt is something I owe to someone. I owe my parents honor and respect. I owe my children love and patience. I owe my neighbor compassion. I owe God thanks and praise for all he has done for me. I fall short of perfection in too many ways to count. I sin against my neighbors, but I also sin against God.

CS Lewis was memorably quoted by Keyser Soze, who said, “The greatest trick the Devil did was to convince the world he didn’t exist.” Today, we explain away sin with circumstance or genetics, or we simply move the bar down a bit further and say “Gambling, prostitution, pornography, drugs, abortion, these things are not really sins. It is fine to be selfish. If it feels good, do it. No one else is getting hurt here.” Or worse, “I’m OK, you’re OK. Be true to yourself.”

The problem with being true to myself is that I am a flawed, imperfect, sinful man. My true self has tendencies to selfishness, pride, lust and laziness that Genesis 4:7 depicts as “crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”

Again, Matthew 7:12, “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the prophets.” But perhaps recognizing human frailty, Jesus gave one and only one new commandment. John 13:34 reads, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” As Jesus has loved me. That raises the bar just a bit over how I know how to love. And isn't that what the world needs now?

We always hurt both ourselves and our relationship with God when we sin, even if there were truly a sin that does not hurt someone else. Tomorrow, I'll look at what different responses are to offenses.