7 Deadly Sins: What is Sin?

In this series, we will look at the Seven Deadly Sins. We’ll unpack what they are, look into each one and then examine them through our modern Western worldview.

I will finish up by discussing the 7 Virtues and talk about what the modern secular version of 7 Deadly Sins could be.

What is Sin?

Before we look at these Deadly Sins, we first need to define sin. This is a complex topic and would be a series of its own. But I will try and be brief.

Missing the Mark

In the Bible, it describes sin by using an archery term. To sin, in archery, means the archer misses the target. Equally, when we fail to meet God’s standards we miss His target and sin.

In the Garden of Eden, Adam sinned because he failed to keep God’s commandment regarding the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. He missed the mark and consequently the World fell into disorder and humanity into death.

Cain and the Little Demon

The Bible first uses the word ‘sin’ in the story of Cain and Abel.

Gen 4 v 6-7

Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”

God says, ‘sin is crouching at your door’. This is a strange way of describing sin, especially compared to our common understanding.

Some theologians think the story is relating this ‘crouching’ action to a demon found in Akkadian literature.

The Hebrew word for crouching is ‘rabose or rabats’ and sounds similar to the Akkadian demon, ‘Rabisu’.

The Rabisu were known to crouch in doorways and would spring unsuspectingly upon their victims.

When we are tempted, it can feel like sin is waiting to leap up at us. It is a like a demon, hiding and lurking as we move through the different events in our lives.

Failure to Love

Another way of looking at sin is to understand its not just the failure to love God and do as He says, but also to love all those around you. As others are made in the Image of God, if we do not treat them correctly, then we sin. Just as if we sinned against God.

As we can see, sinning appears inevitable for humans. It seems like it is everywhere, hiding at the fringes of our every decision and it appears impossible for anyone to be sinless.

Categories of Sin

Denominations have varying frameworks on how they categorise sin. I have put together 5 broad categories. Though I need to point out, not all denominations accept them.

• Deliberate

• Omission

• Unintentional

• Corporate

• General

Deliberate: The first category is deliberate and intentional sin. This is where we purposely break God’s commands.

Omission: The 2nd category is where we sin by omission. We don’t do something we know we should do. Like we have a chance to show love to a neighbour, but choose not to.

Unintentional: The third category is unintentional sin. This is where we sin, but don’t realise it. Maybe we said something to someone which hurt them deeply, but we didn’t realise the impact of our careless words. Unintentional sin is addressed in Leviticus 4.

Corporate: The fourth category is collective sin. These are sins committed by the community and even ancestral sins. This is a difficult category for individualistic Westerners to accept, but a community can sin. And all those in the community are liable, even though they may not have committed the act themselves.

General: The 5th category is ‘sin is inherent to the World’. Wherever we go, sin stains us. This is due to the failures of our culture, our communities and our worldview. It doesn’t matter whatever we do, we will be tainted by sin. This category also covers Original Sin, which is a controversial topic and I will not go into it here.

The Problem of Sin

As God is eternal, holy and perfect, he cannot tolerate sin. Where people have ‘missed the mark’, they fall short of the required perfection to be in communion with God.

Romans 3 v 22-24

This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

The only sure way of salvation is through being faithful to and trusting in Jesus Christ and in His death and resurrection, relying wholly on the grace of God.

In the next instalment of this series, I will begin to address what are the 7 Deadly Sins.