What Does The Bible Say?

Question – What Does the Bible Say about how to determine what is a sin and what is not?

Answer – The Bible is clear in defining what sin is 1 John 3: 4 – “whoever commits sin transgresses also the law, for sin is the transgression of the law.” Sin would be any violation of God’s law or lack of conformity to God’s perfect moral standards. James 4:17 says further – “anyone who knows the right thing to do and does not do it commits sin.” Sin as defined by the Bible is literally missing the mark. The Hebrew word doe sin is ‘khata’ which means to fail or to miss the mark or goal.

God has revealed in His word, the Bible, how we ought to live in order to please Him and go to Heaven. God has put up danger signs throughout the Bible to instruct us as to how to stay away from sin. In 1 John 2:15, 16 we read, “love not the world neither the things in the world, if any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him, for all that is in the world- the lust of the flesh, the lusts of the eyes and the pride of life- is not from the Father but is of the world.” So according to this passage if we stay away from these three avenues of temptation (that are the only ways Satan can tempt us) we will be able to abide in Christ. In 1 Peter 5:8 it says, “beware of your adversary, the devil who goes about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.” We are warned of Satan and are not to be ignorant of his devices (2 Cor. 2:11). Satan seeks to get us to depart from God’s word and in doing so to sin. He is intent on destroying godly people and everything that is good. But we do not need to take this bait. We are well able to “resist the devil and he will flee from you” (James 4:7 – “submit to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you”). Satan can only enter where he is invited. He seeks to trap us in sin and to discourage us from coming out of sin.

Christ came to save us from sin (Lk. 19:10 – “the Son of Man has come to seek and save that which is lost”). He demonstrated to us in Matthew 4:1-11, how to get the devil to leave us alone. When he was tempted in all avenues (lust of flesh, eyes and pride of life). He answered each temptation of Satan with ‘It is written’. We have the Word of God, the sword of the spirit (Eph. 6: 19) to use against Satan and when we abide in what God’s word says, we can be successful in resisting the devil and chasing him out of our lives. He is however relentless and stubborn and will keep trying to lead us away from Christ and His word. Sin cannot take root in the life of anyone who abides in the Lord’s word. When we do fall (Rom. 3:23 – all sin and fall short of glory of God), the Lord has a remedy, the blood of His Son (1 Jn. 1:7). We initially come in contact with that blood through hearing God’s Word (Rom. 10:17) and that hearing produces faith in the honest heart (Heb. 11:6 – without faith it is impossible to please Him), that faith will produce a desire to humbly submit to Christ and turn from our past sins- this is called repentance (Lk. 13: 3- except you repent you will all perish). We then are called on to confess the name and authority of Jesus in our lives with our mouth (Rom. 10:10). All of these acts of obedience lead us “unto” salvation, but one action, baptism, puts us into Christ (Gal. 3:27). It is in the waters of baptism that we receive the blood of Christ that washes away our sins (Acts 22:16). After we are now God’s children and, in His family, we are able to call on God through true repentance and prayer for Him to forgive us of our sins, and He is faithful and just to do so (1 Jn. 1:9). The wages of sin is death eternally (Rom. 6:23) but we can escape the grasp of sin in our lives through obedience to what God has told us in the New Testament. If you are overcome with sin in your life, consult God’s word and let us help you find the way to pleasing the Lord. God has the answers to life’s problems in His word (2 Tim. 3:16). We stand ready to help you find the way out of sin and into Christ.

Please address all questions and correspondence to What the Bible Says c/o Maple St. Church of Christ PO Box 3086, Liberty, Tx 77575 PO Box 3068, Liberty, Tx 7757.