The Nature of Sin

Recently, I attended four hours of baptismal classes at St. Ignatius Martyr. I attended these classes to support my wife in her faith and in anticipation of the Roman Catholic (RC) baptism of our son and our nephew. Lynn’s older brother is expecting a son in June and our son, Gage Woodson, should arrive before the end of May. One of the subjects covered was the RC definition of the four categories of sin: mortal, venial, original, and omission.

This discussion caused me to think of what I believe of sin and I wanted to share my thoughts. I dislike the oppressive guilt-inducing definitions of sin. I don’t view sin as an act that displeases God but as an act that causes us to be separated from the loving perfection that is God.

Let me give an example. Consider the love of a long-term committed relationship with a spouse. I love my wife. I love having sexual relations with my wife (for proof see pending birth mentioned in the first paragraph). One of the great things about the sexual relationship with my wife is the bond and closeness we share. To me, this is a gift – a divine gift if you will. If I were to sin and commit adultery, I would be hurting my loving committed sexual relationship with my wife. Thus, the act of sinning would be separating me from a loving family life.

And that is an example of how I view sin. Sins are those acts (or in the case of sins of omissions – lack of action) that keep me from living the most fulfilled loving life that I can live. With this view of sin I don’t go around “not sinning”. Instead, I try to go about living a “Godly life” and by doing that I avoid sin.

The difference may seem subtle but to me, it’s important. Consider the Greek word “metanoia”. This is the New Testament word that is translated in to English as the word “repentance”. Literally, “metanoia” means, “changing one’s mind”. Thus, to repent is to decide that the actions one had chosen previously are inferior to the actions one has now decided to embrace. In other words, to repent is to turn away from sin and embrace actions that are superior and more in line with the actions of a child of a loving God.