There's been a lot of talk about sin lately in our community and its got me asking myself "what is sin?"  The Greek root of the word implies something that "misses the mark."  Jesus says the commandments can be summed up this way; "Love God.  Love your neighbor."  If that's true then I suppose one way of defining sin is everything we think, say or do that gets in the way of us loving God and/or loving our neighbor.  Sin is everything, in other words, that causes us to "miss the mark."

 

So how does God help us define sin?  Does God have arbitrary do and don't lists just to see if we can obey or does God give us the law so that we might know what is the best way to live?  It seems to me that whenever God invites us into certain behaviors or attitudes, God is doing so for our benefit much more than his.  It seems to me that God's greatest desire is that we would have life and have life abundantly in loving relationship with him and with our neighbor.  Sin then, becomes the way of helping us identify when we're straying from the path and when we're at risk of missing the mark.

 

Thought of this way, sin becomes more complicated than many of us might first imagine.  A behavior that is perfectly fine for one person might cause terrible repercussions in the life of another.  Rather than a do and don't list, we are asked to examine all of our thoughts, patterns and behaviors and ask "does this get in the way of me loving God or loving my neighbor?"  And of course we see that what Paul wrote to the church in Rome is absolutely true "there is no one who is righteous, not even one."

 

So maybe we should throw away our lists of right and wrong and instead turn inward, pulling the log out of our own eye and asking; "how can I be a better lover toward God and toward my neighbor?"  The answers might be different for each one of us, but the result will always be the same - GOD'S KINGDOM WILL COME WHEREVER LOVE IS GIVEN AND RECEIVED!