Lesson 26 Explore 1: What Does the Bible Say About Sin?
The Bible’s answer
Sin is any action, feeling, or thought that goes against God’s standards. It includes breaking God’s laws by doing what is wrong, or unrighteous, in God’s sight.
(1 John 3.4: Everyone who practices sin is also practicing lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.)
(1 John 5.17: All unrighteousness is sin, and yet there is a sin that does not incur death.)
The Bible also describes sins of omission-that is, failing to do what is right.-
(James 4.17: Therefore, if someone knows how to do what is right and yet does not do it, it is a sin for him.)
In the Bible’s original languages, the words for sin mean “to miss a mark,” or a target. For example, a group of soldiers in ancient Israel were so adept at slinging stones that they “would not miss.” That expression, if translated literally, could read “would not sin.”
(Judges 20.16: In this army were 700 chosen men who were left-handed. Every one of these men could sling a stone to within a hairbreadth and would not miss.)
Thus, to sin is to miss the mark of God’s perfect standards.
As the Creator, God has the right to set standards for mankind.
(Revelation 4.11: “You are worthy, Jehovah our God, to receive the glory and the honor and the power, because you created all things, and because of your will they came into existence and were created.”)
We are accountable to him for our actions.-
(Romans 14.12: So, then, each of us will render an account for himself to God.)
Is it possible to avoid sinning completely?
No. The Bible says that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
(Romans 3.23: For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,)
(1 Kings 8.46: “If they sin against you (for there is no man who does not sin), and you are furious with them and you abandon them to an enemy, and their captors carry them off captive to the land of the enemy, far or near;)
(Ecclesiastes 7.20: For there is no righteous man on earth who always does good and never sins.)
(1 John 1.8: If we make the statement, “We have no sin,” we are misleading ourselves and the truth is not in us.)
Why is that so?
The first humans, Adam and Eve, were sinless in the beginning. That is because they were created perfect, in God’s image.
(Genesis 1.27: And God went on to create the man in his image, in God’s image he created him; male and female he created them.)
However, they lost their perfection by disobeying God.
(Genesis 3.5, 6: For God knows that in the very day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and bad.” Consequently, the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was something desirable to the eyes, yes, the tree was pleasing to look at. So she began taking of its fruit and eating it. Afterward, she also gave some to her husband when he was with her, and he began eating it.)
(Genesis 3.17-19: And to Adam he said: “Because you listened to your wife’s voice and ate from the tree concerning which I gave you this command, ‘You must not eat from it,’ cursed is the ground on your account. In pain you will eat its produce all the days of your life. It will grow thorns and thistles for you, and you must eat the vegetation of the field. In the sweat of your face you will eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For dust you are and to dust you will return.”)
When they had children, they passed on sin and imperfection as inherited defects.
(Romans 5.12: That is why, just as through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because they had all sinned—.)
As King David of Israel said, “I was born guilty of error.”-
(Psalm 51.5: Look! I was born guilty of error, And my mother conceived me in sin.)
Are some sins worse than others?
Yes. For example, the Bible says that the men of ancient Sodom were “wicked, gross sinners” whose sin was “very heavy.”
(Genesis 13.13: Now the men of Sodom were wicked, gross sinners against Jehovah.)
(Genesis 18.20: Then Jehovah said: “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great, and their sin is very heavy.)
Consider three factors that determine the gravity, or weight, of sin.
1. Severity. The Bible warns us to avoid such serious sins as sexual immorality, idolatry, stealing, drunkenness, extortion, murder, and spiritism.
(1 Corinthians 6.9-11: Or do you not know that unrighteous people will not inherit God’s Kingdom? Do not be misled. Those who are sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, men who submit to homosexual acts, men who practice homosexuality, thieves, greedy people, drunkards, revilers, and extortioners will not inherit God’s Kingdom. And yet that is what some of you were. But you have been washed clean; you have been sanctified; you have been declared righteous in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and with the spirit of our God.)
(Revelation 21.8: But as for the cowards and those without faith and those who are disgusting in their filth and murderers and the sexually immoral and those practicing spiritism and idolaters and all the liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. This means the second death.”)
The Bible contrasts these with thoughtless, unintentional sins, for example, words or actions that hurt others.
(Proverbs 12.18: Thoughtless speech is like the stabs of a sword, But the tongue of the wise is a healing.)
(Ephesians 4.31, 32: Put away from yourselves every kind of malicious bitterness, anger, wrath, screaming, and abusive speech, as well as everything injurious. But become kind to one another, tenderly compassionate, freely forgiving one another just as God also by Christ freely forgave you.)
Nevertheless, the Bible encourages us not to minimize any sins, since they can lead to more serious violations of God’s laws.-
(Matthew 5.27, 28: “You heard that it was said: ‘You must not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who keeps on looking at a woman so as to have a passion for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.)
2. Motive. Some sins are committed in ignorance of what God requires.
(Acts 17.30: True, God has overlooked the times of such ignorance; but now he is declaring to all people everywhere that they should repent.)
(1 Timothy 1.13: although formerly I was a blasphemer and a persecutor and an insolent man. Nevertheless, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and with a lack of faith.)
While not excusing such sins, the Bible distinguishes them from sins that involve willfully breaking God’s laws.
(Numbers 15.30, 31: “‘But the person who does something deliberately, whether he is native-born or a foreign resident, is blaspheming Jehovah and must be cut off from among his people. Because he has despised Jehovah’s word and broken his commandment, that person should be cut off without fail. His own error is upon him.’”)
Willful sins come from a “wicked heart.”-
(Jeremiah 16.12: And you have behaved far worse than your forefathers, and each one of you follows the stubbornness of his wicked heart instead of obeying me.)
3. Frequency. The Bible also makes a distinction between a single sin and a practice of sin over an extended period.
(1 John 3.4-8: Everyone who practices sin is also practicing lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. You know, too, that he was made manifest to take away our sins, and there is no sin in him. Everyone remaining in union with him does not practice sin; no one who practices sin has either seen him or come to know him. Little children, let no one mislead you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as that one is righteous. The one who practices sin originates with the Devil, because the Devil has been sinning from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was made manifest, to break up the works of the Devil.)
Those who “practice sin willfully,” even after learning how to do what is right, receive God’s adverse judgment.-
(Hebrews 10.26, 27: For if we practice sin willfully after having received the accurate knowledge of the truth, there is no longer any sacrifice for sins left, but there is a certain fearful expectation of judgment and a burning indignation that is going to consume those in opposition.)
Those guilty of serious sin can feel overwhelmed by the weight of their mistakes. For instance, King David wrote: “My errors loom over my head; like a heavy burden, they are too much for me to bear.”
(Psalm 38.4: For my errors loom over my head; Like a heavy burden, they are too much for me to bear.)
Yet the Bible offers this hope: “Let the wicked man leave his way and the evil man his thoughts; let him return to Jehovah, who will have mercy on him, to our God, for he will forgive in a large way.”-
(Isaiah 55.7: Let the wicked man leave his way And the evil man his thoughts; Let him return to Jehovah, who will have mercy on him, To our God, for he will forgive in a large way.)
[End of article.]