I was taught as a child that sin was doing something wrong. Of course, I soon learned that not everyone saw the same actions as wrong. It became increasingly difficult to have a consistent definition of what constituted as a “sin.” Yet, it is vital to know what sin is. Would we be lost based on some vague, ever-changing concept of wrongdoing? Amid so many conflicting ideas, can we know the biblical definition of sin?
One summer I happened to hear a preacher speaking on this topic. His purely biblical presentation challenged my understanding. I decided to be like the Berean’s (Acts 17:11) and check out the scriptural accuracy of his teaching. This is what I found:
BIBLICAL DEFINITION OF SIN
Any Biblical definition of sin will, at some point, find its way to 1 John 3:4—“sin is lawlessness.” Other translations may say it is the “transgression of the law.” Typically, this definition is interpreted as bad behavior and implies that keeping the law is good behavior. However, is this how Jesus viewed the law?
The most precise summation of the law Jesus gave is found in Matthew 22:37–40. Jesus was responding to the question “what is the greatest commandment?” In His answer, He summarized the law as love: loving God and loving our neighbor. In fact, He said that all of the Law and the Prophets hang on this principle of love. This reveals a relational definition rather than behavioral.
BEHAVIORAL OR RELATIONAL?
Notice, also, what Paul said about the law: “Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law” (Romans 13:10). Again, this points to relationship. Of course, the kind of love Jesus and Paul are talking about is not a love that is natural to us. This love is one of the fruit of the Holy Spirit in our life (Galatians 5:22). Even more to the point, it is the result of being in a relationship with God: “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love” (1 John 4:8). God is love and you will love if you know Him—a relationship.
If love fulfills the law, and we can only have this love through a relationship with God, then it makes sense that the lack of this relationship will result in breaking God’s law. Which brings us back to the definition of sin. It is, at its most basic definition, life outside a relationship with God. Don’t get me wrong, our actions can be good or bad, but these passages focus more on our relationship with God than on our actions. In fact, we find this relationship theme in other passages as well. Here are a few examples:
A FOCUS ON RELATIONSHIP
1 John 3:6—“No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.” The word “abide” implies a relationship; it is living in Christ. So, whoever lives in Christ is not in sin. It also suggests that sin is not living in Christ.
1 John 3:9—This passage says that those “born of God”—or His children—do not sin. Being a child of someone, or born to them, represents a relationship. Sin is presented as being in or out of a relationship with God rather than simply “good” actions.
Romans 6:23—“The wages of sin is death.” Acts 17:28 says that God is the giver of life. If we choose to separate ourselves from Him we give up this life. Thus, it makes sense that any work (wages) done outside of a relationship with God (sin) results in death—they cannot save us. Death, then, is not necessarily a punishment for bad actions, but a result of life outside of God.
Jesus brings this idea home in John 17:3 when He said, “And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” The Greek word translated “know” has the concept of experiential knowing rather than informational knowing. In other words, Jesus says eternal life is experiencing God—it is relational. If eternal life is relational, how could sin be behavioral? The opposite of Jesus’ statement would be that eternal death (the result) is not knowing God or Himself (sin).
THE RELATIONSHIP MATTERS
There are more passages we could look at, but I want to offer one more: “And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:11–13)
John makes it entirely clear: eternal life is a free gift from God in Jesus Christ. If you “have” him (literally “hold onto”—again, relational) you have life; if you do not “have” Him you do not have life. Therefore, according to John, sin would be not having, or not holding onto, Jesus. This is why he says you can know you have eternal life—you can know if you have a personal relationship with God.
The Bible speaks clearly about God’s desire to have a relationship with us. Our study into the definition of sin has been no different. Scriptures reveal that it is not simply a bad action that will keep us out of heaven, but rather, it is the lack of a relationship with God that will. This is not to say that it does not matter what you do—we should desire to do what God asks (John 14:15). Instead, the Bible reveals that the most important thing toward salvation is our relationship with God. Amazingly, everything else we need for salvation comes as a result of this relationship.
