What is sin?

         Let's explore a difficult subject. Let's look at what Jesus said, and then let's try to apply it to what we live.

         The Bible says of sin: Sin is mentioned hundreds of times in the Bible, starting with the "original" sin when Adam and Eve ate of the tree of knowledge. Often it seems as if sin is simply the violation of any of God's laws, including the Ten Commandments. 

         Paul, however, puts this in perspective in Romans 3:20, when he says, "Therefore no one will be declared righteous in His sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin." 

         God wanted us to recognize our sins. Even those who have not murdered or committed adultery will find themselves convicted of lying, or of worshipping false idols like wealth or power ahead of God. 

         Tragically, sin in any amount will distance us from God. 

         "Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor His ear too dull to hear," says Isaiah 59: 1-2 "But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear." 

         The easiest and clearest biblical definition of sin is four in 1 John 3:4 – “Sin is the transgression of the law.”

         We could spend, oh, a day or two on what is transgression, but let’s look deeper into what Jesus said.

         Jesus said the greatest commandment in the law was to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

         Jesus reduced the Ten Commandments into two.

         If, and I stress if, we can do those two things, I believe we’ve reached a state of perfections. The problem is, we can’t or at least we don’t.

         If we can look at everything we’re concerned about in culture today through the spiritual microscope that looks at the two commandments Jesus gave us, I suspect we will live different lives and think differently of what sin truly is.

         I suspect ultimately that sin will come down to those things that keep us from loving others.