Sin & Forgiveness

[Crossless2.0]

Hi Drich ,

what I mean by sin is not one person to another. You can sin with your actions, your mouth and your mind.only took murder as an example. Something out of gods context would still be a sin right. Not just things like murder which he  Even if one thinks "Oh I wish she would not pass her exams" I consider that as a sin, bad deed or misdeed. I mentions in the bible. Example I consider slaughtering animals as a sin.

Even so the examples you list are ALL of 'Immoral acts commited against someone' even your example of wishing ill. That means your defination of sin is morality based. meaning you believe that certain acts have a good value and certain acts have a bad value.

With God all your examples: killing, sex with another woman, wishing someone's failure, even killing animals, these acts, all of them. have no 'moral' value before God on their own. What makes them good or bad is what God has to say about them. Therefore to violate what he says/His law is a sin to and against Him.

That is what the word sin means in english. To literally break devine law. That means Sin is only sin to God. You in your examples are defining the term sin to mean the same as morality. When in fact sin and morality have nothing to do with one another except on occasion when the words sin and immoral can be used to describe the same act.

So again, To forgive sin only means one does not owe a debt to God. It however does not release one from any soceitial/moral obligations.

The etymology doesn't quit bear you out on such a narrow meaning for "sin", at least according to the Online Etymology Dictionary:

sin (n.) Old English synn "moral wrongdoing, injury, mischief, enmity, feud, guilt, crime, offense against God, misdeed," from Proto-Germanic *sun(d)jo- "sin" (cognates: Old Saxon sundia, Old Frisian sende, Middle Dutch sonde, Dutch zonde, German Sünde "sin, transgression, trespass, offense," extended forms), probably ultimately "it is true," i.e. "the sin is real" (compare Gothic sonjis, Old Norse sannr "true"), from PIE *snt-ya-, a collective form from *es-ont- "becoming," present participle of root *es- "to be" (see is).

The semantic development is via notion of "to be truly the one (who is guilty)," as in Old Norse phrase verð sannr at "be found guilty of," and the use of the phrase "it is being" in Hittite confessional formula. The same process probably yielded the Latin word sons (genitive sontis) "guilty, criminal" from present participle of sum, esse "to be, that which is." Some etymologists believe the Germanic word was an early borrowing directly from the Latin genitive. Also see sooth.

Sin-eater is attested from 1680s. To live in sin "cohabit without marriage" is from 1838; used earlier in a more general sense. Ice hockey slang sin bin "penalty box" is attested from 1950.sin (v.) Old English syngian "to commit sin, transgress, err," from synn (see sin (n.)); the form influenced by the noun. Compare Old Saxon sundion, Old Frisian sendigia, Middle Dutch sondighen, Dutch zondigen, Old High German sunteon, German sündigen "to sin." Form altered from Middle English sunigen by influence of the noun.

Leaving that aside, I tend to agree with you about the proper use of the word "sin" since I think that using it as synonymous with "moral wrongdoing", for instance, just muddies the discussion. I prefer to use it only in a religious context as "offense against God" to keep usage clear and on point, as well as to avoid misunderstanding when I say that I don't believe in sin.