Summary:
At its root, sin is rejecting that God is smarter and wiser than you and loves you more than you understand. It is rejecting God and doing something different than what He says is good for you because you know better than Him. It is like the 6-year-old telling their parent that they really don’t know what is right or don’t want the best for them. But it is deeper than that.
A little more:
We look at the stuff we do wrong and try to put it in perspective of our overall self-evaluation that we are basically a good person. We look at our own value system and think we’re doing pretty good by our self-measurement. But if we look at the whole world, we realize everyone is doing that and it leads to a big mess. God is our designer and knows what is best for us just like a wise and loving parent knows what is better for the 6-year-old than the child does. Many don’t have a good example of a loving and wise parent. They give counsel, but allow the child to make their own decisions which sometimes are very wrong. The wise and loving parent never tells the child experiencing a resulting life lesson that what they are doing is OK in order to make them “feel good”. Instead, they affirm their love for the child while being consistent in their counsel.
Going a layer deeper – attitudes, not just actions:
Sin starts in the heart and manifests itself in actions. Our actions either build-up or corrupt relationships. Jesus gave some examples in Matthew 5 such as:
- Jesus said, “You say you have not committed adultery. But I say that if you lust after someone, you have already committed adultery in your heart.” Think about that. If you are lusting after someone, are you primarily thinking about their good or yours. Will you project the care and concern for them that builds the relationship or will they figure out that you are more interested in what you can get from them rather than how you care about their needs and desires. Also, if you have a spouse and start focusing on things someone else does better, that will weaken your relationship with your spouse rather than strengthen it. What you think manifests itself in your behavior towards others.
- Similarly, Jesus said, “You say you have not committed murder. But I say that if you hate someone, you have murdered them in your heart.” Think about that. There is much division and strife in our world today. That is because we have lost the desire and ability to build bridges across our differences. Each of us begins gathering evidence why others are wrong rather than finding ways to talk about our differences. As we accumulate evidence against the others, we condemn them in our heart and that destroys relationships.
The “Why?”:
The most common reason people say sin is bad is because it is an affront to God. But God is bigger than that. If you look at what Jesus said about the Two Greatest Commandments, He did not say anything about them being an affront to God. He said they summarize all of “The Law and the Prophets” which was the term used for their entire scripture which is also known as the Old Testament or Tanakh. The key to the Two Greatest Commandments is that they are both “Love…” statements rather than “Do…” and “Do not…” statements. When a loving and wise parent sets up rules for their child, they are not primarily about avoiding bad things. They are part of parenting framework that is designed to help the child mature into an adult. That provides the best chance for the child to have a purposeful and rewarding life full of wholesome relationships with God and with others. So, when the child “breaks the rules”, it is not primarily about committing an affront to the parents as much as it is about risking the child’s future. Little cracks in foundations accumulate and fester into bigger problems later. The parent will often explain “why” breaking the rule was a bad thing. And, over time, the child should learn to trust the loving and wise parent because they see it is for their good. Of course that can take a long time for the child to realize and the same is true for us trusting God.
Put simply, sin is rejecting that God is wiser than you and deciding to choose your ways over His ways — just as the 6-year-old does. This time on earth has a purpose – to show us the difference between “being good” with a primary focus on “self”, which includes family, and truly loving our neighbors as ourselves. John 13:35 says “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” We need to understand that because otherwise Heaven would just become like the mess we have here. It would have all the same strife and that ends here. Instead, God is building a Heaven that will be full of wholesome relationships with everyone for all of eternity. Only trusting our loving and wise Heavenly Father can bring that.
Read FAQ “Can I know that I am going to Heaven?”
Read FAQ “Why Glorify God”
Read FAQ “6-year-old picture story”
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