Christians often make me feel like Inigo Montoya. We keep using Bible words in ways that make me want to say, “I do not think it means what you think it means.”
In my mind, this will be the first in a series, but we’ll see. It has been rolling around in my head long enough that I think I need to put it in print. But one step at a time. In a response to a response to my last post, I asked for a definition of “sin.” Since I haven’t gotten it, I figured it is time to get it out there.
I see this as perhaps the biggest problem for believers. How you combat it (or if you even should) depends entirely on what IT is. I believe a more useful definition of “sin” will revolutionize your world and free you to become what you were intended to be.
I’ll be blunt: Sin IS selfishness.
What I see around me seems to be the least useful definition of sin: “Doing wrong,” “doing bad stuff,” “being naughty.” I would argue that the problem with this definition is that you don’t REALLY know what “bad” is. You think you do, but you are relying on a culturally determined, vaguely defined, normalized sense of right and wrong that is probably a long way away from a truly good.
There is a lot to be said about this, but let me leave it at this: Things are not sinful. Neither is sinfulness is not located in actions. If that’s what you were thinking, that is where your problem begins.
I propose three ways of defining/looking at “sin” that I think are more useful:
- Sin is selfishness, when YOU are your goal, that’s sin.
- Sin IS turning away from God; anything you do on your own and not THROUGH him is by definition sin.
- Sin is anything good done in the wrong context, or for the wrong reason. For instance, consider that sex in itself is good, but it all depends on when, where, why and with whom.
Ultimately, I’d like to argue that these and any other good definition of sin comes back to the same thing: the Self in control.
First, consider this: Is there any “sin” you can think of that isn’t ultimately putting yourself ahead of God and others?
I think this revelation for me started with considering Jesus’s own words that there was only one commandment: Love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength (and love your neighbor as yourself - more on that later). Even more important is that Jesus goes on to say, “on these hang all the law and the prophets.” This began a thinking on this topic that changed everything for me. What I realized is that he was saying that rather than try to know all of the “law and the prophets,” he was giving us a simple straight forward approach to the question of behavior.
We tend to see behavior as a list of dos and don’ts, and probably an exhaustive list. I remember fearing that I had missed one, or didn’t know, and God would be mad. It always makes me think of the performer with the spinning plates. How many plates can you keep in the spinning air before it all comes crashing down? If this is your approach, it will come crashing down.
Or maybe for you it is Whack-a-Mole. You stand there with your sin mallet, waiting for temptations to pop up so you can knock them back down.
Can you see that Jesus is giving you a completely different approach? A principle. If you take everything you do, how you spend you time, how you treat others, and ask yourself, “Am I doing this out of love for God? Am I treating the needs of those around me as being at least equal to my own? (Paul actually says to put others ahead of you.) Do I care for them the same as myself?” How can anything sinful come from anything that passes that test?
Anything that doesn’t pass that test is sin.
I feel compelled to point out that any other approach is an attempt to maintain control over your own life. The person who wants a list to follow, the person who wants to try to live up to a standard is really trying to negotiate. You are really saying, “If I do this much, then the rest of my life is my own.” You are trying to avoid truly making him God. You are doing what you must do to get the benefit you want (heaven), and no more. In other words, you are acting in your own self-interest. But no matter how much you do for God, if the goal is your own benefit, you are being selfish, and THAT IS SIN.
Understand, then, that the principle is that everything is done out of a love for God. That is the one rule. To me, “love your neighbor as yourself,” is really just the expression of loving God. If you love him, you will love whom he loves. So if he loves your neighbor, you should too. Also, since God doesn’t need anything from you, how can you return his love? By paying it forward: loving others. So it all comes down to the one rule: love God.
Can you see how simple and elegant this is? What sin can you commit out of a love for God?
But wait, there’s more!
This is why the Bible says: “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” Matthew 16:25.
“...but in humility count others more significant than yourselves” Philippians 2:3.
“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” (Romans 12:1).
“Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor” 1 Corinthians 10:24.
“For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice” James 3:16.
And the list goes on. A search on Google shows sites like “100 verses about selfishness,” or “41 Bible verse about selfishness,” and more.
What else can one understand from the first one? Death to self. Eternal life is found in losing one’s self. Not only that but a better life now is found in letting go of self.
Rather than trying to deal with your “sins” - those actions that you think are wrong. The better question is to ask what your goal is. Is it selfish? Is it out of love for God? What are your motives?
Think about who really benefits from your actions. A lot of people do a lot of “good” things for selfish reasons. It is ultimately meant to benefit them in some way. That’s the problem with the people who will say, “Lord, Lord,” but to whom Jesus will say, “I never knew you” (Matthew 7:21-23). That’s the problem with the way the Pharisees prayed (Matthew 6:5). It was really about getting acknowledgement, not about God.
I have found this approach to be life changing.
If you can truly grasp that putting God and others first is the life that he wants for you, then you must believe that in the long run that will be a better life. You will be happier. It is what you were meant to be. It is - believe it or not - a lot less work. No more defending yourself, no more fighting for yourself, no more holding on to hurt, no more offense or revenge.
You don’t have to worry about things not going your way, because you have no “way” for them to go. Your way is his way, and things always ultimately go his way.
Why do you do what you do? Who are you doing it for?