The Anatomy of Sin

[James_Lai]

Hello.
Can you please share what is sin and what kinds of sins do you see?

It’s such a controversial subject in any religion. What’s sin in one religion, is righteousness in another. Or even different denominations within one religion can have a very different outlook at sin.

Of course, there exists more or less universal understanding of what is sin, like lying or taking another human’s life. However, if you lie to a perceived enemy, it can be considered holiness. A husband killing his wife gets a lethal injection, but politicians pushed by banks and corporations kill millions innocents in wars and the perpetrators are hailed as national heroes. So there’s a huge amount of hypocrisy when it comes to sin.

Also, the idea of sin evolves. A disobedient child was to be stoned to death in the OT, nowadays it’s almost a virtue to be rebellious and have a free spirit. Homosexuality was punishable by death or jail term and strongly condemned by church, today we have gay priests. Etc

Lack of faith or the wrong type of faith is sin. There’s sin of omission such as not doing good you know and are capable to do. There’s sin against yourself or against another human, or against an animal or plant. There’s sin against the society. There’s sin against God or even a bad thought not acted upon is a sin, too. All kinds of sin. Sinning by action and sinning verbally. Serving self is sin, serving another is virtue. I could go on and on.

What are your thoughts?

Thank you! ❤️

 

[Maria Billingsley]

Hello.
Can you please share what is sin and what kinds of sins do you see? It’s such a controversial subject in any religion. What’s sin in one religion, is righteousness in another. Or even different denominations within one religion can have a very different outlook at sin. Of course, there are more or less universal understanding of sin, like lying or taking another human’s life. However, if you lie to a perceived enemy, it can be considered holiness. A husband killing his wife gets a lethal injection, but politicians pushed by banks and corporations kill millions innocents in wars and the perpetrators are hailed as national heroes. So there’s a huge amount of hypocrisy when it comes to sin. Also, the idea of sin evolves. A disobedient child was to be stoned to death in the OT, nowadays it’s almost a virtue to be rebellious and have a free spirit. Homosexuality was punishable by death or jail term and strongly condemned by church, today we have gay priests. Etc There’s sin of omission such as not doing good you know and are capable to do. There’s sin against yourself or against another human, or against an animal or plant. There’s sin against the society. There’s sin against God or even a bad thought not acted upon is a sin, too. All kinds of sin. Sinning by action and sinning verbally.

What are your thoughts?

Thank you! ❤️

For many religions, sins are evil elements that defile the mind. Christianity takes it a step further, it defiles the spirit as well.
Blessings

 

[James_Lai]

For many religions, sins are evil elements that defile the mind. Christianity takes it a step further, it defiles the spirit as well.
Blessings

What’s sin in your understanding and what kinds of sin are there?

 

[HTacianas]

Hello.
Can you please share what is sin and what kinds of sins do you see? It’s such a controversial subject in any religion. What’s sin in one religion, is righteousness in another. Or even different denominations within one religion can have a very different outlook at sin. Of course, there are more or less universal understanding of sin, like lying or taking another human’s life. However, if you lie to a perceived enemy, it can be considered holiness. A husband killing his wife gets a lethal injection, but politicians pushed by banks and corporations kill millions innocents in wars and the perpetrators are hailed as national heroes. So there’s a huge amount of hypocrisy when it comes to sin. Also, the idea of sin evolves. A disobedient child was to be stoned to death in the OT, nowadays it’s almost a virtue to be rebellious and have a free spirit. Homosexuality was punishable by death or jail term and strongly condemned by church, today we have gay priests. Etc There’s sin of omission such as not doing good you know and are capable to do. There’s sin against yourself or against another human, or against an animal or plant. There’s sin against the society. There’s sin against God or even a bad thought not acted upon is a sin, too. All kinds of sin. Sinning by action and sinning verbally.

What are your thoughts?

Thank you! ❤️

Funny that you titled your thread "Anatomy of Sin". The book of James contains what I've referred to before as "the anatomy of sin". He wrote:

Jas 1:15 Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.

It describes a desire to do some thing you know you aren't supposed to do. It can come from lust, greed, desire, or whatever. Entertaining the thought of having it or doing it is the beginning of sin. After entertaining the thought one consents to it. After consenting to it the act is then committed. And those acts have always been known: Murder, immoral sexual acts, thefts, etc. Some of the problems you're seeing today is that society in general has accepted many of those acts as normal. In time the conscience is seared and sin ceases to be recognized as sin.

 

[Maria Billingsley]

What’s sin in your understanding and what kinds of sin are there?

I think my post covers your questions. I have nothing more to offer.

 

[James_Lai]

Funny that you titled your thread "Anatomy of Sin". The book of James contains what I've referred to before as "the anatomy of sin". He wrote:

Jas 1:15 Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.

It describes a desire to do some thing you know you aren't supposed to do. It can come from lust, greed, desire, or whatever. Entertaining the thought of having it or doing it is the beginning of sin. After entertaining the thought one consents to it. After consenting to it the act is then committed. And those acts have always been known: Murder, immoral sexual acts, thefts, etc. Some of the problems you're seeing today is that society in general has accepted many of those acts as normal. In time the conscience is seared and sin ceases to be recognized as sin.

Yes anatomy or “cutting up” - to define and classify for better understanding… Otherwise it’s vague and confusing.

What you talk about is the way psychological mechanism I think. Very interesting. Or even spiritual as @Maria Billingsley noted above. Super interesting to me.

This question of motivation. Desire basically is setting a goal. There are irrational and rational desires, but irrational can turn out to be rational if we understand the underlying causes. So it’s such an intriguing subject. There’s conscious, which is more or less understood, and huge and foggy subconscious. For example, if we take the subconscious, how much genetics (so called Karma) plays a role? For example, my son has interests and abilities very closely and strongly resembling my dad, his granddad. He also looks and acts like him a lot. So some of his desires were actually passed down biologically or spiritually or both depending on what the nature of heredity is??

Desires have been studied (anatomically dissected) by many scholars mainly of the psychological and psychiatrical field. Theological as well of course. The famed classical three Austrian schools of psychology, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, etc ect there have been attempts at understanding and explaining desires

And the whole process how desires (motivational thoughts or ideas) become decisions and decisions become actions. Or do not.

 

[James_Lai]

I think my post covers your questions. I have nothing more to offer.

But I just threw in random ideas

I love you mentioning the spiritual aspect!! Then there are spiritual actors impacting humans. Such a huge subject, but of course very difficult and complex and hard to understand because it requires a different kind of wisdom, and being finely attuned to the world around and probably special exercise and experience.

So interesting

 

[ViaCrucis]

Hello.
Can you please share what is sin and what kinds of sins do you see?

It’s such a controversial subject in any religion. What’s sin in one religion, is righteousness in another. Or even different denominations within one religion can have a very different outlook at sin.

Of course, there exists more or less universal understanding of sin, like lying or taking another human’s life. However, if you lie to a perceived enemy, it can be considered holiness. A husband killing his wife gets a lethal injection, but politicians pushed by banks and corporations kill millions innocents in wars and the perpetrators are hailed as national heroes. So there’s a huge amount of hypocrisy when it comes to sin.

Also, the idea of sin evolves. A disobedient child was to be stoned to death in the OT, nowadays it’s almost a virtue to be rebellious and have a free spirit. Homosexuality was punishable by death or jail term and strongly condemned by church, today we have gay priests. Etc

Lack of faith or thin wrong type of faith is sin. There’s sin of omission such as not doing good you know and are capable to do. There’s sin against yourself or against another human, or against an animal or plant. There’s sin against the society. There’s sin against God or even a bad thought not acted upon is a sin, too. All kinds of sin. Sinning by action and sinning verbally. Serving self is sin, serving another is virtue. I could go on and on.

What are your thoughts?

Thank you! ❤️

The Hebrew word we translate as "sin" חטא (khata) has a fairly literal meaning of "missing the mark", as in archery when the arrow fails to hit its target. In Greek we have the word ἁμαρτία (hamartia), with a roughly similar meaning of "to miss" or "to err". Sin is also frequently described as transgression, specifically a transgression against God's law, His commandments.

In this, sin is essentially the failure on our part to do what we ought to do, and our doing what we ought not to do.

God says "Love your neighbor", I don't love my neighbor, or love my neighbor as I ought, and in fact frequently sow injury to my neighbor through words, actions, and even in my thoughts--as such my failure to love my neighbor as myself is sin.

There can be a danger in trying to create lists of sins, or create lists of moralistic rules; because these do nothing to actually curb sin or address our sin; instead these are frequently to our own detriment. The person who who relies on man-made lists and moralistic rules is, rather than seeking to live justly and faithfully, will instead seek to abide by mere rule-keeping. Such a person can say, "Well, I haven't done these things, so I am doing pretty good" or "Well, I have done these things, so I am doing pretty good". From this pours forth pride, vanity, self-righteousness, and all manner of wickedness. Such was the hypocrisy of the Pharisees Jesus spoke of.

There's no list of sins, instead there is the commandment: Love the Lord your God with all your soul, strength, and mind; and love your neighbor as yourself. And what does such love look like? We have the example set forth in Christ, and the teachings of the Apostles pointing us and aiding us in following the way of Christ. In our failure to be righteous--in our sin--we have the Gospel, the grace of God in Christ which forgives us and heals us and unites us with God in holy friendship. Such the Christian life consists in taking up our cross and following Jesus, the cross of discipleship including our struggle with the old Adam in us, our disordered passions clawing at us in destructive and harmful ways.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[James_Lai]

The Hebrew word we translate as "sin" חטא (khata) has a fairly literal meaning of "missing the mark", as in archery when the arrow fails to hit its target. In Greek we have the word ἁμαρτία (hamartia), with a roughly similar meaning of "to miss" or "to err". Sin is also frequently described as transgression, specifically a transgression against God's law, His commandments.

In this, sin is essentially the failure on our part to do what we ought to do, and our doing what we ought not to do.

God says "Love your neighbor", I don't love my neighbor, or love my neighbor as I ought, and in fact frequently sow injury to my neighbor through words, actions, and even in my thoughts--as such my failure to love my neighbor as myself is sin.

There can be a danger in trying to create lists of sins, or create lists of moralistic rules; because these do nothing to actually curb sin or address our sin; instead these are frequently to our own detriment. The person who who relies on man-made lists and moralistic rules is, rather than seeking to live justly and faithfully, will instead seek to abide by mere rule-keeping. Such a person can say, "Well, I haven't done these things, so I am doing pretty good" or "Well, I have done these things, so I am doing pretty good". From this pours forth pride, vanity, self-righteousness, and all manner of wickedness. Such was the hypocrisy of the Pharisees Jesus spoke of.

There's no list of sins, instead there is the commandment: Love the Lord your God with all your soul, strength, and mind; and love your neighbor as yourself. And what does such love look like? We have the example set forth in Christ, and the teachings of the Apostles pointing us and aiding us in following the way of Christ. In our failure to be righteous--in our sin--we have the Gospel, the grace of God in Christ which forgives us and heals us and unites us with God in holy friendship. Such the Christian life consists in taking up our cross and following Jesus, the cross of discipleship including our struggle with the old Adam in us, our disordered passions clawing at us in destructive and harmful ways.

-CryptoLutheran

I understand. Sin is deviation from a standard of thinking and behaviour.

To define this standard, you don’t make a detailed Code but lay out certain general principles.

Yes this is more sensible than a list, because it’s more flexible and adaptable to variable situations.

However, if we leave too few principles make them sound too generic we run the risk of leaving so much to free interpretation and basically defeating the purpose. “Yes I tortured and killed my child for disobedience because I love them. Would I allow them to go on the path of rebellion and destroy themselves and many other people?” Almost anything can be justified as satisfying the principles.

So some clarifications are still required I think, even as an addition to general guidelines.

 

[angelsaroundme]

Let's say you bought food for the people you work with, your college class, whatever, the setting isn't the main thing. You thought there would be nine people and you bought ten sandwiches, including one for yourself. It turns out someone came that you didn't think would. Would it be a sin not to give them your sandwich?

I don't think I'd go that far. But it would certainly be better to let them have yours, more so for them to feel included. Also, knowing you made a sacrifice could make a lasting impression on them that is worth a lot more than you eating the sandwich yourself.

 

[HTacianas]

Yes anatomy or “cutting up” - to define and classify for better understanding… Otherwise it’s vague and confusing.

What you talk about is the way psychological mechanism I think. Very interesting. Or even spiritual as @Maria Billingsley noted above. Super interesting to me.

This question of motivation. Desire basically is setting a goal. There are irrational and rational desires, but irrational can turn out to be rational if we understand the underlying causes. So it’s such an intriguing subject. There’s conscious, which is more or less understood, and huge and foggy subconscious. For example, if we take the subconscious, how much genetics (so called Karma) plays a role? For example, my son has interests and abilities very closely and strongly resembling my dad, his granddad. He also looks and acts like him a lot. So some of his desires were actually passed down biologically or spiritually or both depending on what the nature of heredity is??

Desires have been studied (anatomically dissected) by many scholars mainly of the psychological and psychiatrical field. Theological as well of course. The famed classical three Austrian schools of psychology, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, etc ect there have been attempts at understanding and explaining desires

And the whole process how desires (motivational thoughts or ideas) become decisions and decisions become actions. Or do not.

Monks have a long history of examining their consciences to more or less determine what causes desires and then what causes men to act on them. It was generally resolved that desire itself was not sin, or even entertaining the idea the desire brought. It only became sin once one consented to giving into the desire. If I remember right it was St. John Climacus who also wrote about drinking wine to cause tears to flow during prayer. He stated that he did not know how it worked, and even asked if anyone else had the answer to that question. Nowadays alcohol is known to be a depressant and can in fact cause people to become emotional. There is a lot of early wisdom in the writings of the Church Fathers that can be seen as an early foundation of modern psychology.

 

[timothyu]

Sin? It need not be made to sound complicated. Right from the beginning in the Garden and all through the Bible from front to back sin is described as putting our will ahead of the will of God (self interest). It started with Eve (the original sin) and ends with us.

All the little this and thats which we call sin such as theft, murder, adultery etc is the result of self interest, That is to say, putting our will ahead of the will of God, His will being we care for each other as we would hope to be cared for by others. All the labels we call sin are born of not caring for others but ourselves, gain at the expense of others. It's that simple.

 

[BobRyan]

Hello.
Can you please share what is sin and what kinds of sins do you see?

In the Bible - 1 John 3:4 says "sin IS transgression of the Law"
In the Bible Ephesians 6:2 says "'honor your father and mother' is the first commandment with a promise" in that still-valid unit of TEN (Ten Commandments) - included in the moral Law of God applicable to all mankind.

For a full list of the TEN Commandments - read Exodus 20 in the Old Testament.

And there are other commands as well that define what sin is -- because it is a sin to disregard them.

For example

Deuteronomy 6:5 "Love God with all your heart"
Leviticus 19:18 "Love your neighbor as yourself"

 

[timothyu]

I don't think I'd go that far. But it would certainly be better to let them have yours, more so for them to feel included. Also, knowing you made a sacrifice could make a lasting impression on them that is worth a lot more than you eating the sandwich yourself.

So some clarifications are still required I think, even as an addition to general guidelines.

Yes, we can only truly give if we give of ourselves (pertaining to His second commandment of loving/caring for all as self). God is pretty big on personal sacrifice. It seems to be the golden ticket to the Kingdom in the most extreme cases. Of course humans take advantage of that for purposes of self interest and claim it as a reason to fight wars as just one example, but war has already established itself as a sin (again - personal interest/gain at the expense of others) so it hardly fits the mold of a righteous deed. Discernment is needed in deciding whether it serves man or God.

 

[Josheb]

Scripture defines sin at least three ways:

• Sin is any and all unrighteousness (1 John 5:17).
• Sin is anything not done in faith (Romans 4:23.
• Sin is lawlessness (1 John 3:4).

However, sin should NOT be construed ONLY to be a behavioral concern. The classic position is we sin because we're sinful and we're sinful because we sin. We necessarily understand sin is dispositional AND behavioral. The word "sin" literally means "miss the target." Our English word sin comes from the sport of archery: a "sinn" is the score received when the arrow completely misses the target. This definition is true of the Hebrew and Greek terms used in the Bible as well. So what then is the target we are not supposed to miss? Scripture asserts several answers but they can all be unbrella'd under the single standard: Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect (Matthew 5:48). See also those verses about being holy, righteous, blameless, etc.

It is a mistake to measure sin ONLY by 1 John 3:4. It is a very common standard but inserting the word "only" into that verse is wrong. Forming a doctrine of sin (hamartiology) based solely on one verse is called proof-texting, and proof-texting is always wrong. Scripture defines its own terms and it defines "sin" in several ways, not just one.

 

[James_Lai]

Monks have a long history of examining their consciences to more or less determine what causes desires and then what causes men to act on them. It was generally resolved that desire itself was not sin, or even entertaining the idea the desire brought. It only became sin once one consented to giving into the desire. If I remember right it was St. John Climacus who also wrote about drinking wine to cause tears to flow during prayer. He stated that he did not know how it worked, and even asked if anyone else had the answer to that question. Nowadays alcohol is known to be a depressant and can in fact cause people to become emotional. There is a lot of early wisdom in the writings of the Church Fathers that can be seen as an early foundation of modern psychology.

Yes monks and yogis and dervishes etc are all great experimenters of the human nature with a vast wealth of wisdom on the subject.

Though sometimes I think their conditions are artificial and so their results could be somewhat skewed…

 

[Soyeong]

Hello.
Can you please share what is sin and what kinds of sins do you see?

It’s such a controversial subject in any religion. What’s sin in one religion, is righteousness in another. Or even different denominations within one religion can have a very different outlook at sin.

Of course, there exists more or less universal understanding of what is sin, like lying or taking another human’s life. However, if you lie to a perceived enemy, it can be considered holiness. A husband killing his wife gets a lethal injection, but politicians pushed by banks and corporations kill millions innocents in wars and the perpetrators are hailed as national heroes. So there’s a huge amount of hypocrisy when it comes to sin.

Also, the idea of sin evolves. A disobedient child was to be stoned to death in the OT, nowadays it’s almost a virtue to be rebellious and have a free spirit. Homosexuality was punishable by death or jail term and strongly condemned by church, today we have gay priests. Etc

Lack of faith or the wrong type of faith is sin. There’s sin of omission such as not doing good you know and are capable to do. There’s sin against yourself or against another human, or against an animal or plant. There’s sin against the society. There’s sin against God or even a bad thought not acted upon is a sin, too. All kinds of sin. Sinning by action and sinning verbally. Serving self is sin, serving another is virtue. I could go on and on.

What are your thoughts?

Thank you! ❤️

The Bible often uses the same terms to describe the eternal nature of God as it does to describe the nature of God's eternal law, which is because it is God's instructions for how to express, experience, love, believe in, and testify about His eternal nature, while sin what is against God's eternal nature in transgression of His eternal law. If a religion is false, then their concept of sin is wrong. Someone's understanding of what sin is can change over time, but if their understanding of what sin is changes away from what God has revealed to be sin through His eternal law, then that just means that they have adopted a false understanding of what sin is, not that sin has changed.