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What is Sin? The Word Just Drips With Shame.

What is Sin? The Word Just Drips With Shame.

Last updated on: December 8, 2015 at 11:11 pm by Susan Cottrell

What is Sin? The Word Just Drips With Shame. 2015-12-08T23:11:41-05:00 Susan Cottrell

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Sin. Just the word is heavy. Like a brick. Especially when someone throws it at your head.

Have you been told you’re a sinner going to hell (by self-appointed sin police)? If you are in the LGBTQ community, I hardly even have to ask.

Just the word sin can trigger fear and shame.

People who use sin as a trump card—to tell people they are in trouble with God—are downright abusive.

Yet we lob that word around as if we even know what we’re talking about. It’s like children telling each other, “Dad is going to be SO MAD at you!”

Sooo… WHAT IS SIN? Is it prostitution? Drunkenness? Extra-marital sex? Is it sin to be rude? Harsh? Judgmental? Is it all of the above?

A quick skip through history shows us that the church is quite fond of defining particular sins.

Divorce, dancing, interracial marriage, miniskirts, cussing, alcohol, tattoos, slave ownership, women leaders, and literally countless other items have comprised a moving target as hard to agree upon as it is to hit.

All claim the Bible as their source, yet they use the Bible inconsistently and out of context. The results vary widely depending on the century and who writes the list.

People love to define sin by particular actions. Divorce, disobeying your parents, or wearing a head covering, may or may not be heinous sins, depending on when they occur in history… and depending on who’s deciding… and by what measure we keep track. Who decided we’re even supposed to keep track of sins?

If people are going to talk about sin, they at least need to find out what the word means.

Sin comes from an archery term that literally means “to miss the mark”—as in shooting an arrow and missing the bullseye.

That’s all.

By that definition, we sin a lot. I mean, how long would we have to practice archery before we could count on a bullseye every time, without “sinning”? 🙂

But the word “sin” has long since been corrupted. It drips with shame and condemnation.

Jesus does NOT drip with shame and condemnation. Jesus beams with abundant life and overflowing love. Jesus basically says, “Hey, follow me! I’ll give you life you never imagined!”

We love to make lists of sin. But to make a list of sins misses the point. It necessarily pulls out certain behaviors and labels them sin while other behaviors slip by. It defines some sins as worse than others, and so defines some people worse than others (even if we “love them but hate their sin”). Good grief, the arrogance embedded in that!

Jesus never lets us get away with hating others or their sin.

He said, “You’ve defined sin this way, by not murdering, but if you call someone a fool you’ve murdered them in your heart and are liable to judgment!” He’s saying, “Don’t you dare parse the law with me and think you’re better than these people. You break the law with a stray thought. You are all in need of the abundant life I offer, and don’t even begin to pull rank on each other!!”

He is pointing to the intent behind the law, which is a heart that seeks life lived fully, as Jesus offers it.

Also, Jesus was never obsessed with sin. When people came to him in sin, he simply said, “Follow me!” (“Go and sin no more?” Read this.)

Sin, simply put, is not turning toward life lived fully.

Bible readers should know that the purpose of the law is to show us we can’t keep the law! It’s saying, hey, we are all in the same boat—and we need some help!

Remember, religious leaders who did the BEST at following the rules got the WORST reactions from Jesus! He called them spiritually abusive—because they were full of arrogance, pride, self-righteousness.

All of these things are the very definition of sin… not homosexuality.

Come on, people.

This very clear and simple concept has been available to us for 200o years. What is tripping us up?

The job of those who claim to be Christians is to engender compassion in each other, to love so fully and freely that people know we follow Jesus.

Now we’ve got an entire generation that sees Christians as not that, and who have little interest in following the Jesus we are displaying.

How about this: stop focusing on sin, which Jesus never told us to worry about (especially in each other), and do focus on love: loving God and loving others—which is the entirely of a follower of Christ.

Love well. Everything else will take care of itself.

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