What is sin??

Originally posted by kingcaboose
what is the definition of sin? We all know the commandments and fullfillment of those commandments in Christ, but what is the bare bones of sin? When we are faced with new issues today how do we determine whether it is right or wrong?

Click to expand...

Read 1 John 3:4-8 "Sin is the transgression of the law". vs.4

 

1 John 5:17 All wrong doing is sin; and there is sin that does not lead to death.

I think of it this way if Jesus were standing before me is it something I would still do?
If not then it is probably something I shouldnt be doing.

Originally posted by The Bible is Right
Read 1 John 3:4-8 "Sin is the transgression of the law". vs.4

Click to expand...

I fully agree with the definition given here as long as you mean God's Law.  I would also add the following:

James 4:17
Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.

God bless

Listen to your conscience. It is usually a good determinate as to whether what you are doing (or plan to do) is either good, or bad (sin).
I'm sure there are exceptions in some cases.

Tallyn

Originally posted by kingcaboose
what is the definition of sin? We all know the commandments and fullfillment of those commandments in Christ, but what is the bare bones of sin? When we are faced with new issues today how do we determine whether it is right or wrong?

Click to expand...

Determining what is right or wrong is done according to the Bible. God's moral laws are the standard to use. If you go by man's standards, no one is right or wrong, that's the big problem.

What amazes me is when "New Covenant Christians" in word and deed proclaim that God's law was nailed to the cross and no longer is a standard of behavior.

I wish this would be a reality for them:

"I will put my laws in their minds
and write them on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people." - Heb 8:10

"that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." - Rom 8:4

Sin is anything that displeases God.

How do you know what displeases God? Sure, asking "What would Jesus do" is fine, but how do you know what Jesus would do?

You have to know the character of God to know that...

Always seems to go back to God's Word....

Jesus said the two greatest commandments are to love God and love others. All law is based on this foundation. If you want to know if something is a sin, ask yourself if the behavior will result in hurting someone.

Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Matthew 22:35-40

Originally posted by Auntie_Belle_Um
If you want to know if something is a sin, ask yourself if the behavior will result in hurting someone.

Click to expand...

Auntie, what do you mean "hurting someone?"

God bless.

Originally posted by Reformationist
Auntie, what do you mean "hurting someone?"

God bless.

Click to expand...

"hurting someone", as in deliberately causing someone some form of damage. The damage could be physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, financial, etc.

For example, if I am angry at my brother, that anger can lead to my causing harm to my brother. The harm I cause to my brother is sin, if I have determined in my heart to hurt him, and then if I deliberately set out to hurt him. I might have a right to be angry at him, but I certainly don't have a right to intentionally hurt him.

Does that make sense?

Originally posted by Auntie_Belle_Um
"hurting someone", as in deliberately causing someone some form of damage. The damage could be physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, financial, etc.

Click to expand...

Do you believe this applies to cases of self-defense as well? 

For example, if I am angry at my brother, that anger can lead to my causing harm to my brother.

Click to expand...

I'd say your first sin was to be angry at your brother.  I don't mean to imply that anger is a sin.  However, anger is rarely a tool that we use in a biblically righteous way.  Our anger should never be directed at the sinner, but rather, the sin.  Additionally, righteous anger looks different than what most people portray when they get angry.  Anger is an emotion given to us by God that is to be used for the purpose of attacking the sin.  As I said, it looks different than sinful anger.  It's compassionate understanding of our brother who may be caught up in a sin.  It is a soft word that turns aside their wrath.  I don't know about you but that isn't the picture of me when I get angry.

Does that make sense?

Click to expand...

I definitely agree that the scenario you mention is rife with sin.

God bless

Originally posted by Reformationist
Do you believe this applies to cases of self-defense as well?

Click to expand...

No. Motivation is everything. Self-defense is not motivated by a desire to hurt. Self-defense is the natural reaction to being attacked by evil. We are supposed to fight against attacks by evil. And I believe that thought includes fighting for our country, to protect our citizens against the evil that would destroy us.

I'd say your first sin was to be angry at your brother. I don't mean to imply that anger is a sin. However, anger is rarely a tool that we use in a biblically righteous way. Our anger should never be directed at the sinner, but rather, the sin. Additionally, righteous anger looks different than what most people portray when they get angry. Anger is an emotion given to us by God that is to be used for the purpose of attacking the sin. As I said, it looks different than sinful anger. It's compassionate understanding of our brother who may be caught up in a sin. It is a soft word that turns aside their wrath. I don't know about you but that isn't the picture of me when I get angry.

Click to expand...

Well, I agree with you. But I must say, I often get angry at the person AND the sin. I try to never ACT out of my anger. I think sometimes it's impossible to NOT be angry, but that doesn't give us a right to act out of anger. The Biblical reaction to feeling anger at someone should be to determine in your heart to forgive the person.

Originally posted by Auntie_Belle_Um
Jesus said the two greatest commandments are to love God and love others. All law is based on this foundation. If you want to know if something is a sin, ask yourself if the behavior will result in hurting someone.

Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Matthew 22:35-40

Click to expand...

Great post.  I like the other definitions also.  I think what sin is can be stated in many ways based on where one is coming from.   My working definition is based on the verses you quoted Auntie_Belle_Um that if something is not loving then it is sin.  Of course love is defined by what the Bible calls love and not what the world thinks about it.  Basically I believe that anything less than Agape love is sin. 

Thanks, Blackhawk. I think it helps if people understand that we worship a loving God. God doesn't call something a sin just to keep people in some kind of bondage to an endless list of meaningless rules. The commandments are designed to keep us from doing something that would bring sorrow to ourselves and cause harm to others. I think God wants to protect us from the painful consequences that sin brings into our lives.

Originally posted by Auntie_Belle_Um
No. Motivation is everything. Self-defense is not motivated by a desire to hurt. Self-defense is the natural reaction to being attacked by evil. We are supposed to fight against attacks by evil. And I believe that thought includes fighting for our country, to protect our citizens against the evil that would destroy us.




Well, I agree with you. But I must say, I often get angry at the person AND the sin. I try to never ACT out of my anger. I think sometimes it's impossible to NOT be angry, but that doesn't give us a right to act out of anger. The Biblical reaction to feeling anger at someone should be to determine in your heart to forgive the person.

Click to expand...

Auntie, outstanding points on both accounts.  I fully agree.

God bless

I have had a thought on this topic. This topic of course is "what is sin" but sometimes I think too much about "what is sin" and not about what is righteousness. I am not coming down on the starter of this thread it was just a thought.

But anyways I was thinking what is righteousness and what would make something righteouss. And what I can think of is Love.

First as I look at 1 Cor. 13 I see that love pretty much is all things good and that without it nothing is good or worth anything.


1 Cor 13:1-13
CHAPTER 13

1 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
2 If I have {the gift of} prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
3 And if I give all my possessions to feed {the poor} and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind {and} is not jealous; love does not brag {and} is not arrogant,
5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong {suffered}
6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;
7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never fails; but if {there are gifts of} prophecy, they will be done away; if {there are} tongues, they will cease; if {there is} knowledge, it will be done away.
9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part;
10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away.
11 When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.
12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.
13 But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.
(NAU)

It is also the greatest of virtues and it is the measure of true Christian maturity.

And how do we really know what love is? Who is the perfect repersentation of love? Why should we love? and Who loved first so that we should also?


I Jn 4:7-21
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
9 By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.
10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son {to be} the propitiation for our sins.
11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
12 No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.
13 By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.
14 We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son {to be} the Savior of the world.
15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
16 We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
17 By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world.
18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.
19 We love, because He first loved us.
20 If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.
21 And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.
(NAU)


And lastly I think of what Jesus said were the greatest of commandments and the whole summed up.


Matt 22:35-40
35 One of them, a lawyer, asked Him {a question} testing Him,
36 "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?"
37 And He said to him, "YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.'
38 "This is the great and foremost commandment.
39 "The second is like it, "YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.'
40 "On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets."
(NAU)

So I exhort all who read this to love all. Especially to love God who is the basis for all love and is the only reason to love. Bu remember Biblical love is not like worldly love. So how should we love? Well I think ther are atlest two principle ways are


John 14:15-21
15 "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
16 "I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever;
17 {that is} the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, {but} you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.
18 "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
19 "After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you {will} see Me; because I live, you will live also.
20 "In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.
21 "He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him."
(NAU)


and


Matt 25:34-40
34 "Then the King will say to those on His right, "Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
35 "For I was hungry, and you gave Me {something} to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me {something} to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in;
36 naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.'
37 "Then the righteous will answer Him, "Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You {something} to drink?
38 "And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You?
39 "When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?'
40 "The King will answer and say to them, "Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, {even} the least {of them} you did it to Me.'
(NAU)

Anyone else have any other ways in which we can love?

Sin----
Anything not in harmony with, hence contrary to, God's personality, standards, ways, and will; anything marring one's relationship with God. It may be in word (Job 2:10; Ps 39:1), in deed (doing wrong acts [Le 20:20; 2Co 12:21] or failing to do what should be done [Nu 9:13; Jas 4:17]), or in mind or heart attitude (Pr 21:4; compare also Ro 3:9-18; 2Pe 2:12-15). Lack of faith in God is a major sin, showing, as it does, distrust of him or lack of confidence in his ability to perform. (Heb 3:12, 13, 18, 19)

Originally posted by Blackhawk

Anyone else have any other ways in which we can love?

Click to expand...

Great post, Blackhawk, great verses. A good way of showing love is thru forgiveness. I am so thankful that God forgives me of my sins, my heart is filled with joy to know that He remembers my sins no more. If we forgive others when they sin against us, and not hold bitterness in our hearts toward them, then we have shown them Agape Love.

The thread should be discussed here and has been moved from Soteriology.