The other day I was watching the show “Everybody Loves Raymond” and I saw/heard something that cut deeply and exposed a major problem in America. Ray's brother and his girlfriend are getting married, but he frequently spends the night at her house. As this is being discussed with the young woman's parents, who are displayed as being overly religious and self-righteous (as if to say all churchgoers are like this), the young woman made the proclamation that “Yes, Robert sleeps over, and I've decided it's not a sin!”
This broke my heart, but so aptly describes a major problem in our culture: we believe that we can decide what is sin and what is not on our own, by our own knowledge and wisdom, and through our own experiences. This woman decided that sleeping with her boyfriend/fiancé outside of a marriage was not a sin (although the Bible tells us this is unchastity), and in our “if it feels good do it” society, this behavior is the basic principle. We change our values to match our actions, rather than changing our behavior to match our values (that should be Biblically based).
We no longer see sin for what it is (rebellion against God) and turn from it in repentance, turning back to God, but rather say that sin is “immoral action” or “unethical behavior,” which is partly true, except for our lowered standards of immorality and ethics. Sin encompasses more than our actions, it includes our whole being, our bodies, our minds, and our souls. We have reduced sin to something only “bad people” do, and “good people” although they may do some bad things, are forgiven on the basis of their “goodness.” This, however, overlooks the fact that there is no such thing as a “good” person, for “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” and we were all born dead in our transgressions.
So, what is sin? Sin, a complex subject, is basically rebellion against God. When Eve took the fruit from the tree of knowledge and ate, she broke God's commandment. If you break a law, or rule, you are rebelling against the authority that made the rule. When we break any of God's commandments, we are rebelling against Him, and even when we think of things God has commanded us not to, we are rebelling against Him. When Adam and Eve sinned, they turned from God, and no longer sought Him, but sought their own desires, and in doing so, caused all of mankind to be born with a sinful nature, meaning that we all seek our own desires, run from God, and live in sin. Deuteronomy 29:18 tells us to “beware lest there be among you a man or woman or clan or tribe whose heart is turning away from the Lord our God to go and serve the gods of those nations.” So our first sin is that we have turned away from the Lord, and did not seek Him, for 2 Chronicles says that “[King Rehoboam] did evil, for he did not set his heart to seek the Lord.”
Sin is, therefore, turning away from God, and not seeking Him. But sin is more than this, it is also disobeying His commands, such as the Ten Commandments, the Law. James tells us “whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. For he who said, `Do not commit adultery,' also said, `Do not murder.' If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty” (James 2:10). So we cannot pick and chose what we want to obey. We cannot obey one or two commands, disobey the others, and think we are ok because we obeyed some of God's commands. If we break one command, we are just as responsible as if we had broken them all. And 1 John 3:4, says, “Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.” And, “all wrong doing is sin” (1 John 5:17) Sin is lawlessness, the absence of law, a disregard for the commands of God.
Sin can also be a sin of “omission,” where it's not that we are doing something we aren't supposed to do, but are not doing something we are supposed to do. As James 4:17 says, “Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.” Sin is more than doing what we shouldn't, and more than not doing what we should, for Paul said that “whatever isn't by faith, is sin,” (Rom 14:23). Sin is a mindset, it's our nature. Since we were born dead in our transgressions, because of the fall, when Adam and Eve first sinned, we are all inclined to sin, we desire nothing more than to rebel against God. We must ask God to change our desires, so that we can turn back towards Him, and seek Him. This is how we repent, not just of our sin, but of being a sinner.
We cannot be like the world, and we cannot conform to their ways of defining sin on our own terms. We as believers in Christ must look to God's holy Word to define sin, and to know how to turn from it, and repent. We cannot be like the girl in that TV show, and just decide that something is not a sin, just because we think it's right or because we enjoy it. 1 John 1:8-10 says, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.” If we say we don't have sin, we are lying to ourselves, and saying that God is a liar (for He says we are sinful). But if we see that we are sinners, repent from that sin, and ask for forgiveness, He will forgive us.
We must know what sin is, so we can try our best to not commit it, and to repent of it when we fail. We must “hide [His] word in our hearts, that we might not sin against [Him].”