Matthew 22:36-40 (NIV)
36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
The New Testament Greek word translated as “Sin” is an archery term meaning “to miss the target”. Jesus tells us plainly that the “target” we are to aim for is ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’
When we fail to love God in this way, we “SIN”. How do we know when we miss this target? One way is when we do not “love our neighbor as ourselves”. These things done out of self-centeredness are the things and attitudes which we usually label as “sins”.
Discussions (arguments) over what is a sin and the relative weight of that sin occupy far too much of church time, energy and effort.
“SIN” is missing the target of loving God.
“sins” are where our thoughts, attitudes and actions hit when we miss the target. Some of the consequences of these misses (sins) are far more serious than others, i.e. murder, adultery, theft. Various groups award higher penalty points for different sins. Some groups see “hypocracy”, “intolerance” and “greed” as the big bad three, while ignoring or even promoting abortion, homosexuality and theft-by-government. Others see drinking, dancing and “hanging out with the wrong crowd” as the major problems.
Each of these subsets of sins are only symptoms of the main SIN; not loving God with everything within me. I am a sinner not because I commit various acts. I am a sinner because I do not love God.
The result of my SIN (not loving God) is that I do things (sins) that are not loving toward my neighbors. My problem is NOT that “I need to clean up my act.” My problem is that I do not love God.
If I concentrate on loving God, the result is that I begin to love my neighbor as myself.
We all have failed to love God. We all have done wrong or even evil to others. We are all sinners. The Bible says “there is none righteous, no, not one”. We all are in need of a Savior.
This is why God became a man, Jesus Christ, and died to pay the penalty for my SIN (and my sins) by dying on the cross. The resurrection proved that the penalty was paid, death & Hell defeated. In effect, I have won the eternal, celestial lottery. However, if I do not accept that wonderful gift by personally yielding command & control of my life to Jesus as both Savior (rescuer from the penalty of SIN) and Lord (Master, Boss,Commanding Officer) of my life then it as if I had the winning Powerball Lottery ticket for $500 million and I left it in my top drawer under the socks rather than redeem it.
BIG TIME LOOSER!
This salvation & forgiveness is why we are Giving Thanks and why we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, the ‘reason for the season’.
Discussions (arguments) over what is a sin and the relative weight of that sin occupy far too much of church time, energy and effort.
That was a very meaningful post for me. Thanks for taking the time to write that one. I am sure I will read it many times again.
Thanks.