My Belief's

What Is Sin?

 

I'm sure there are many opinions concerning this. What's wrong to me could be OK to you and visa versa. I think abortion is murder and at one time my government thought so too, but now my government says abortion is good?

 

Even Christians will disagree what is sin or not sin. Too often I have heard people say, "I have no problem with that?".

 

Since God is the final judge and since sin is what separates us from God, then we should look to what God defines as sin.

 

Way back in time God gave Moses ten commandments that said things like; do not murder, do not steal, do not lie, do not commit adultery, do not covet, do not use God's name carelessly, obey parents, worship only the true God, set a day aside to worship God.

 

Is that it? Of course not. Many more laws were given like obey your government, love your enemies, do not lust in heart or mind, do not hate in your heart, pay what you owe, do not cheat others, etc. etc. Each society has their own laws that may be different in other countries.

 

Sometimes breaking of what is considered a law is not a sin in God's sight. Jesus was accused to not following Jewish laws, traditions or customs. Jesus pointed out that he did obey God's laws but their laws or customs or traditions were not God's.

 

So what is SIN in God's eyes?

 

A simple answer would be SIN is anything that "falls short" of God's glory. Anything that separates us from God.

 

When I was young there was an expression, "Let your conscious be your guide". Seems God had put something in us that would trigger feelings of guilt or shame. Too often this feeling faded away as we suppressed the feeling. We did not always get this feeling depending on circumstances.

 

The Bible speaks of sins of commission, sins that we do such as murder, lie, steal, swear,  cheat, lust, disobey, etc. 

 

The Bible also speaks of sins of omission, not doing good when we could have. "He that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin." The sin of not helping, not protecting, not becoming involved, being indifferent.

 

The Bible speaks of another kind of sin and this is related to what is called the "higher law of love". God warns us not to do something that may be OK to us but another person sees as sin. God warns that if we do that  which offends the conscience of another, then we are not showing the "higher law of love" and are sinning.

 

The Bible speaks of another kind of sin. The sin of offending the Holy Spirit. Christians believe that we possess the Holy Spirit, the spirit of God and Jesus.  We believe the Holy Spirit will convict us when we do things displeasing to God or fail to do this that God wants us to do. For example the Holy Spirit convicts me that it would be wrong to betray your trust in me and speak to your children about my beliefs without your approval and presence, while at the same time convicts me to create these pages that might never be read.

 

Perhaps the issue of sin or sinning is perceived differently, but it is a SERIOUS ISSUE WITH GOD.

 

Notice that to God, SIN IS SIN. There is no distinquishing between little or big sins. A lie versus murder or rape. Stealing a candy bar versus stealing millions of dollars. God has ordained governments to deal with serious sins. God simply states that WE ALL HAVE SINNED and our SIN separates us from God and each of us must do what God commands to rectify the problem.