What is Sin?

³⁷ He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. ³⁸ This is the greatest and most important command. ³⁹ The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. ⁴⁰ All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.”
-Matthew 22:36-39 (HCSB)


Yesterday, the post was about getting rid of sin in our lives. Today, I want us to take a few minutes and look at what sin is. Over the course of the rest of this week, I think we're going to look at various examples of Scripture that teach us what sin really is. I did a search on biblegateway.com to find out what sin is, and there are many Bible verses that have the word "sin" in them, but the context doesn't really teach what it is. I've been studying in the Gospel of Matthew for a few days now, so I thought about these verses while I was trying to define sin. 


Many people would define sin as "breaking the law of God." While I believe that is true, people who are not in the church, not yet Christians don't really understand what that will mean. Jesus said in Matthew 22:40 "All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands." Instead of taking years to look at the Law in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, Jesus teaches that the entire (that's what all means) Law is fulfilled in just two commandments. Let's look at them.


Verse 37 & 38 says, "He said to him, 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command.'" If we are going to truly define sin, then sin is a failure to love God with all of yourself. You must be totally committed to God. Jesus says we must love God with all your heart, soul and mind. That is total commitment to God. Anything less than this is sin. You can't totally love God with your mind and not your heart. You can't totally love God with your heart and not your soul. You must love God with every part and fiber of your being. Jesus says in verse 38 that this is the most important command. Why? Well, first, look at verse 39, "The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself." If you can't truly love God, you will not truly love your neighbor either. You must, first, love God. You must be totally committed to Him. Secondly, as a result of your love for God, you'll love your neighbor as much as you love yourself. None of us hate ourselves. There may be things you don't like about yourself, but you don't hate yourself, right?


The entire Law of God is summed up in these two verses. Can you keep these two verses? Can you love God with all your heart, soul and mind? Can you love your neighbor as yourself? To put sin simply, it is to not fully love God, and not love your neighbor. Tomorrow, we'll start looking at real life examples. Think about it.