From the Pastor’s Study

Jodie E. Jackson, Sr., Pastor

First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Salisbury, MO

Sin—An Obsolete Word

Words and phrases that were generally unknown until fairly recently (and maybe still are) are regularly added to dictionary revisions. They were included because of the increased usage that included other people who had been excluded from “in the know”. Some words had been shunned previously by the lexicographers because of their connotations of sexuality, drug culture, etc., but now it’s “safe” to use them in polite society.

Some words, like old soldiers, seem to fade away with decreased usage. I think of one, for example, a word that aroused the curiosity of prominent psychiatrist Karl Menninger. He published a book in 1973 entitled “Whatever Happened to Sin?”. He lamented the fact that sin was not considered by many mental health professionals as a significant factor in one’s mental health.

Indeed, how often do you hear, or use, the word “sin”? The first thing that usually pops into one’s mind upon hearing the word is some illicit act, an illegal activity, some grievous wrong done to someone else by a “sinner”. We use labels to visualize “sin”: murder, stealing, assault, and so on. But really, what is this thing called sin? Is it now passé? Is it a medieval relic that is no longer in vogue in this enlightened age?

A commonly-used Old Testament definition is failure to measure up to God’s standard: “Be ye holy, even as I the Lord thy God am holy.” The New Testament defines it as “falling short of the glory of God”. Another definition sees sin as “rebellion against God.” These definitions indicate that sin is a principle, a condition, an attitude. When the Bible deals with the sin question, its primary concern is that it is an inward and invisible condition with which we are all afflicted. We can thank in part First Man Adam’s fall and in part our deliberate choice to give vent to that nature.

Let me put it this way. We have all contracted the usual childhood diseases: mumps, measles, chicken pox! The diseases were caused by invisible viruses that temporarily captivated the body. No one would ever know a child had the measles or chicken pox, if it were not for the skin eruptions, mumps if it were not for the swollen jaws. The physical symptoms are not the diseases themselves; they are only the outward manifestation of an internal and invisible force of nature.

There is then a huge difference between sin and sins, between the inward fallen human nature (sin) and the outward signs of the internal spiritual separation from God (sins). Sometimes we are unable to separate the two. To complicate things further, there are differing definitions of sin(s) that are not specifically confirmed by Scripture.

I am the product of a fundamentalist Baptist church that pronounced certain activities to be sins. I list a few that the Baptist Taliban vigorously denounced. Movie going? Sin! Dancing? Sin! (“The praying knee and the dancing foot don’t grow on the same leg”) Hunting and/or fishing on Sunday? Sin! (“Remember the Lord’s Day to keep it holy!”) Drinking alcoholic beverages, even in moderation? Sin! Smoking tobacco? Sin! (“It won’t send you to hell but you’ll smell like you’ve been there!”)

Jesus’ call for repentance and His insistence that if a man were “right with God”, then his life would be living proof of freedom from the sin principle threw Him into conflict with the Pharisees. The Pharisees, on the other hand, insisted that a man was made right with God by faithfully performing the prescribed rituals they had dreamed up and by abstaining from those acts they deemed to be “sins”, regardless of the sin principle.

Sin is a principle; sins are the result of the principle that drives one.

Whatever happened to sin? Oh, it’s still around! Believe me, the disease is alive and well! I don’t know about you, but I have to deal with it everyday! And, I am a sinner….saved daily by the Grace of a Loving God! Are you?