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?
This is very difficult question to answer with a simple working mans definition for "what is Sin". The reason is that Biblical text uses something like 22 separate words for our English translation of "Sin". In the OT there are 6 nouns and 3 verbs each with their own separate and descriptive definitions. In the new Testament (Greek), we see "Sin" using 13 separate words, 5 nouns, 5 adjectives and 3 verbs. This is truly one of those situations that without looking to the original language you can get "lost in translation" fairly easily. I think this is why sometimes scripture can seem confusing because our English word for "Sin" has to encompass all 22 of these separate word definitions. This is why pastors for the most part have taken classes in Hebrew and Greek so they can look this up when necessary. It can enlighten the difficult sections and bring clarity when teaching by looking up the correct word and the use in the original text in the original language. That said, I think we can still work on and come up with a kid friendly Sunday School description of what "Sin" really is. The most commonly word used for Sin in the bible in OT and NT simply means "miss the mark". It was a term that was also used when shooting an arrow at a target. It is failure to achieve a goal both morally and ethically and it's really anything that is inferior to the righteousness and holy character of God. It can be something we commit by our actions, or it can be our failure to do what God wanted us to do (sin of Omission). I do think you are on the right track though with the concept of Sin being selfish. The very first Sin in the bible was before Man ever existed. Satan and his Angels were still in Heaven, but they desired to be like God, their sin was their PRIDE, and for that they were thrown out of Heaven (Ez 28 and Is 14). Satan knows firsthand our weakness in this area - because it is also his weakness as well - it is what caused him to be tempted. He knows all too well exactly how to exploit and tempt us and more often than not we succumb to the temptation of Pride. How many times has our pride (selfishness) caused us to fall or "Miss the mark" (Proverbs 16:8)? I think for most of us Pride is the biggest part of the problem. The lesson though is to keep shooting for the bullseye, we will miss the mark, sometimes we will miss worse than others and the further we miss the mark - the more severe the consequences of that "miss" or sin, but keep taking aim, keep on pressing on for the goal which is to be Christ like in all we say and do. (Phil 3:14)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Pete. I think though that the problem with the "22 words for 'sin'" is that it makes the whole topic daunting and overwhelming. This is why I used the metaphor of the spinning plates. I don't think it needs to be that complicated, and I don't think that I am oversimplifying.
ReplyDeleteI have a theory about things being complex vs. things being complicated. Something that is complicated when you have to understand all of the ins and outs, subcategories, add-ons, and doodads of the theory for it to make any sense. As a rule for me, if something is too complicated it is because the theorist doesn't have firm grasp of the topic. He sees a bunch of disparate truths (or apparent truths) that he has yet to pull into coherence.
However, complexity is different (and these are my particular definitions of the two words to express a truth I see). Complexity sees how the topic coalesces into a truth that can be expressed very simply (and by that I do not mean simplistic). All of the other truths fall into place in a way that may be very complex, but one can see the matrix in which all of the truths fit together in a hierarchy.
Just because a truth can be expressed simply does not make it false or inferior. The "gospel" can be expressed in a few sentences, or it can take 66 books to express it fully. It is the same truth; the only question is to what depth you want to understand it.
I am arguing with "sin" that it can be expressed simply as selfishness, but I don't think that I am being simplistic. I think that the other terms for "sin" in the Bible can be useful, but even more useful when understood in terms of selfishness.
For instance, I would not boil sinfulness down to pride, but see pride as a manifestation of selfishness.
I am concerned with concluding that the definition of "missing the mark" necessarily means that we should keep trying to hit the mark. In one sense, that ship has sailed. You missed, it's done. The only path is to accept the remedy: the cross.
ReplyDeleteTo "keep trying," to me goes counter to the key concept of bearing fruit. Trees don't bear fruit because they try; they bear fruit because they are healthy. If you want to "do" something to bear fruit, feed your spirit. (This, by the way, is a crucial understanding that I feel most Christians dismiss with a, "Yeah, I know, but I'm still going to keep trying to be good.")
The other problem I have with trying to be good (and maybe this comes down to a definition of what "good" is) is that your focus should be outward. If your goal is to be a better person, isn't that self-centered? Shouldn't your focus be on what you can do for God and others?
The concept of miss the mark starts before you act, it starts with your aim, if we aim for the goal which is to be Christlike in all we say and do and that God's will be done, that is the start, but after we miss the mark, we can look and see how far we fell short and then correct our "aim" before taking the next "shot". As you continue to live and take "shots" you learn from your misses and correct your aim and hopefully achieve a shot that is on Target - where we hit the bullseye - where there is no sin in the act, we have a pure motive & God's perfect will is being done in and through us.
ReplyDelete