What is Sin?

Here is an interesting link:

http://www.general-anaesthesia.com/objections.html

Some believed that the administration of anesthetic to birthing mothers was “a sin”, citing biblical references to “in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children”.

How different this is from Christ’s own words, “Behold, I God have suffered these things for all that they might not suffer”.

Ray, that was a great explanation. I think that teaching would help many not “fear” sin day to day, but instead be focused on how one is trying to be more like God, and how to develop qualities instead of worrying about specific acts.

So much of understanding sin is also tied to punishment. Being damned from progression, being cut off from God, being denied blessings, or being assigned to a lower kingdom.

I wonder how aweful and fearful God is to those willingly in sin, and how merciful and loving God is to those trying to repent regularly and trying to change their hearts, despite ongoing mistakes.

Thanks to those of you who have replied.

I have often pondered and prayed on this issue. I think to understand what is righteousness, we have to understand what is sin?

I reflect upon the left of Christ. He stood accused of the greatest sin that a Jewish Man could commit, that of blasphemy for He claimed, “before Abraham was, I Am”. Christ not only attested to His very eternal existence, He identified Himself as the very God of the Old Testament. He was charged and crucified.

The problem was, Christ was God. Had he NOT attested to His own divinity and eternal nature, He would have been lying.

Another innocent man, stood charged with adultery, the sin next to murder. To all those who did not understand polygamy, JS was an adulterer. He lamented that many had cried that he had sinned when he had not sinned.

To “cry that another has sinned” is a bold act. How do we know that what appears to us to be sin is not sin? So many innocent people have been put to death. Satan is known as the, “accuser of his brothern” for a reason.

JS wrote extensively on sin. He claimed that all little children were innocent before God whilst most other faiths claimed that children were born with original sin upon their souls.

How beautiful are the BOM teachings that “little children are alive in Christ”. JS also taught that persons must be “capable and accountable” which may have given mercy to those born with feeble minds or severe mental illness. How blessed is the Grace of God. Smith goes on to describe redemption of the dead and “all those who died without the law”. The process of repentance would provide for those who had broken the law.

I see the salvation as taught by JS was all-encompassing as contrasted to the ideologies of his day such as Calvinism which taught that only a select or chosen few could be saved.

I feel that it is a very serious thing to accuse someone of having sinned. I am not taking about charging someone with breaking a law, I am talking about accusing someone of sinning. There will be times, when we must confront a child, a spouse or a friend and admonish them of their errors. I believe that this is best done by someone very close to the individual, who knows the person very well and understands the facts and circumstances behind events. For example, a husband who knows that his wife is drinking too much. He may also know that his wife has been arrested for drunk driving etc. The person who confronts the “sinner” should be someone who loves and cherishes that person and can help her to repent.

My biggest concern for this Church is that some of us have started to cry “sinner” and “shame on you” to those we have never even met. We may have no vested interest in that person’s salvation or well-being. If I, for example, have a close friend who is gay, I want to talk to him privately about the dangers that he may be exposing himself to. I want to bake him a chocolate cake then take him to the gym to work off all of the calories. I want to hug him and then teach him how to stay HIV negative. He, in turn, can tell me kindly that I’m getting too fat, monitor me for 90 minutes on the elliptical and confiscate my brownies that are hidden under the front seat of my car. He can also inform me that my “spicy salsa” hair dye makes me look like Shawn White, the “Flying Tomato”.

If I haven’t known you, told you that I love you, cared for you, I don’t have the right to call you a sinner. Christ can call us to repentance because He knows us, He loves us and He cares for us. Calling someone to repentance is just a first step. We then must be willing to stand by that person and help them adjust, cope and repent. Shouting, “sinner” and then just running away isn’t what the gospel was supposed to be about.

I think sin (since the word exists and needs a definition) is doing something you don’t really want to do. Something that creates a reality the real, deep, inner you doesn’t want.

I see evil as laziness and sin, therefore, are all the results of laziness.

I don’t pretend to be that insightful…I borrowed the idea from Scott Peck (the Road Less Traveled)

Any intentional sin that I can think of is a result of an unwillingness to do the right thing or acquire something in the proper manner (laziness)

Unintentional sins or sins of omission are a result of the same thing.

It’s a bit of a different concept that is sure to put a guilt trip on us couch potatoes .

(and don’t let me even start on the implications this has on kids playing video games instead of doing something constructive…..but then again…..I’m sitting here blogging…)

That is a great quote, dash. I’d forgotten about it.

That is a much more eloquent way to say what I would say if I only had one sentence to do so: acting out of harmony with one’s own internal understanding of good. (“knoweth to do good and doeth it not” from James.)

Great quote! and even more profound in some ways because Plato was not working within what we think of as organized religion. He still came up with the same transcendent notion.

This is my definition of sin: causing harm or suffering. That to me is the essence of “sin.”

Moral sin = causing harm or suffering.

Religious sin = not complying with ritual rules or cultural norms (like violating Kosher, not praying 5 times a day, or not wearing garments, etc.). None of these cause you or anyone else harm per se, they just violate religious rules. I see these as far less significant than moral sin.