Our Sins and Offenses are Many

Not long ago, an acquaintance of mine, a seasoned gentleman, asked me, "What is sin?" It was an honest question, not a trick one, and without any sarcasm or ulterior motive. He was completely sincere and open-minded to hear my answer. It stunned me for a moment because I was genuinely surprised that someone so mature did not have clarity about such a foundational spiritual idea. And that was the hangup, exactly. It's a spiritual matter, and he had a general idea, but felt that his understanding was not on the proper level, exactly. On the surface, people see sin as some evil deed, something quite physical and tangible, but it goes deeper than that. It is a truly intricate and deep concept that gets encapsulated into such a short English word that people use in so many diverse ways today. Having thought about it some, I can see how one can be unclear about what sin is.

I heard his question. I paused for two seconds. Thoughts raced through my head, ideas on how sin can be explained in the most succinct and profound way to someone who is earnestly seeking answers. So I said, "Sin is the opposite of what God desires us to do." He nodded because that made sense to him. I saw in his eyes that my answer did not fully satisfy him, so I added, "This is why we study what God revealed about himself to us, read the ancient scrolls, listen to the words of the prophets. That is how we can know what God wants us to live like, what qualities and values to embody, what his expectations of us are." He smiled because he knew that next, I was certainly going to invite him to come along and study the ancient words together with me each week. And as predictable as I can be, I did. The conversation ended because someone else came up to speak to us.

I tell you this story because I wish to explain that on the surface, sin is a simple idea, but it can also be complicated because not all sins are the same. We all act and behave in ways that God would not approve of from time to time, so the key is that with sin, repentance is something that we all need to thrive spiritually. These are tightly interconnected topics, a problem and a solution. I will save you the conversation about the solution this time, as I wish to show you something more profound about the problem.

Sin seems simple, but oversimplifying it will often lead us away from true and proper repentance. So please consider what I share next as spiritual health advice, key information that could lead to greater harmony with our Creator, if used properly. As I hinted already, there is more than one type of sin. In English, all the terms I will mention are often conflated and treated as mere synonyms, so I will lean on Hebrew concepts to help me explain the difference between them.