1 John 3:4
4 Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.
Reflection: Question #12
Written By: Pastor Jesse Caro
Question: What is sin
Answer: Sin is transgression of the Law of God
“Sin” is a word that many of us find rather uncomfortable to say. We find other clever descriptors for the word… like: failure, error, mistake. We say, I “messed up” or, more crudely, I “screwed up!” Often, after the politician gets caught in an adulterous affair, we hear something like, “I had an inappropriate relationship.” That kind of language hardly captures the gravity of the situation. And then we even minimize sin with our kids. We can call major disobedience “oopsies” and “no, nos.” And while I am not a fan of this kind of language, I suppose it is better than “inappropriate relationship!!!!!!!”
God does not mince words. He calls any transgression against his Law, sin! He does not re-title it. He does not worry about how we may feel about it. He is not concerned about making it as palatable as he can make it. He affirms sin for what it is… a violation of His holy Law… the commands of God. There are some things here that we should understand. 1) God is not interested in us reframing sin. He is holy and we should not minimize sin. To do so is to minimize his holiness. 2) We should try not to sin (obviously). 3) We should repent when we sin. That is, we should turn away from it. 4) Since we are sinners by nature, we should not throw stones at other sinners. We are no better than they are. 5) We should rest in the wonderful fact that God loves us and is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins! We should all be so grateful for that!
Prayer
Lord, thank you for forgiving us. Though we are sinners, and you are holy, you forgive us as we repent. We are grateful that you died for us to pay for our sin. Praise be to God!
