What Is Sin?

In 1964, as the US Supreme Court was deliberating an obscenity case, the question came up: what is the definition of pornography? Justice Potter Stewart answered by saying, "I know it when I see it.” That’s how we Christians often respond when it comes to sin: we recognize it when we see it. And, like the old comic movie star Groucho Marx said, “Whatever it is, I’m against it.”

But maybe we don’t always recognize sin, especially in ourselves. Most people have a remarkable ability to ignore the obvious or justify the inexcusable. So if we want to

seek God’s grace to remove sin from our lives and our society, it’s worth taking some time to think about exactly what it is.

Here are six different ways to answer the question “what is sin?” Some may sound familiar to you, and others may make you scratch your head and think. If they do, good! Sin is a dangerous enough thing that we need to be able to recognize it in its many forms, so that we can bring it to God.

1. SIN IS DISOBEDIENCE OF GOD: This tends to be our most familiar understanding of sin. Sin is like breaking the rules. If God tells us not to do something, and we do it anyway, then we’ve sinned.

2. SIN IS ANYTHING THAT HURTS YOURSELF, OTHERS, OR GOD: According to this definition, a sin is something that causes damage. It’s the “common sense” definition. If it hurts you, if it affects other people, or if it offends God, then it’s sin.

3. SIN IS ANYTHING THAT DESTROYS RELATIONSHIPS: Sin is more than what hurts other people; it also hurts the connections between people. According to this definition, sin isn’t just the stuff we do or don’t do. It is also our attitudes that affect how we relate with each other

4. SIN IS THE “TRAGIC DESTRUCTION OF ONESELF:” This fourth definition is a bit like the second: sin is when you destroy or hurt yourself. But this self-destruction means more than causing physical damage to yourself. Sin is whatever prevents you from being the complete person that God wants you to be.

5. SIN IS THE ABUSE AND WASTE OF GIFTS: When we fail to use the gifts and resources that God provides responsibly and faithfully, we sin.

6. SIN IS THE FALLEN HUMAN CONDITION: Sin is more than what we do or don’t do. It’s an unfortunate characteristic of being human.

It’s good to understand what sin is, so that we can recognize it in ourselves. It’s even better to know that we can be freed from it through the work of Jesus Christ.