\u201cSin must be against someone. It is not primarily a matter of being against a rule\u2014for a rule does not exist without a rule-giver, or the specified persons that the rule concerns . . . whenever the law is broken, that means that someone<\/em> has been wronged, grieved, or hurt.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\nI\u2019ve thought a lot about sin in the last few years. Namely, I\u2019ve thought about how little sense the concept makes. Certainly, people can be unkind. People can do bad things. But sin<\/em> denotes something different. Sin is transgression of God\u2019s law\u2014divine law. Sin\u00a0is disobeying God.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\nMost people today tend to think that an action is wrong if it hurts someone.<\/em>\u00a0Wilson, on first read, seems to affirm that understanding\u2014sin\u00a0must be\u00a0against <\/i>someone,\u00a0<\/i>he writes. When a person commits a sin, Wilson says, someone is \u201cwronged, grieved, or hurt.\u201d But wait. How does this make sense?<\/p>\nThere are many, many sins that don\u2019t harm anyone. Besides, that\u2019s not the standard\u2014sin is disobeying God. The Old Testament genocides definitely harmed people, but according to individuals like Wilson, they\u2019re not sin, because they were commanded by God. Sin isn\u2019t defined nearly as narrowly\u2014or widely\u2014as anything that wrong, grieve, or hurt someone. What, then, does Wilson mean by suggesting as much?<\/p>\n
Without having access to his full book\u2014which I don\u2019t\u2014I suspect Wilson is including in his equation the harm done to God<\/em> when people sin. Sin, I was taught,\u00a0grieves God.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sin\u00a0harms God.\u00a0<\/em>So whether sin harms humans, if you think about it, is irrelevant.<\/p>\nNow, certainly, there are likely those who would argue that all<\/em> sin does harm humans, on the grounds that God\u2019s commands were based on what is actually best for humans\u2014or not good for them. So, then, even if a sin doesn\u2019t seem<\/em> like it\u2019s harming anyone\u2014say, reading erotica\u2014it is.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\nI\u2019m curious, though. If that is the case, why does God\u2019s involvement really matter? If sin really is what harms humans,\u00a0<\/em>can\u2019t we just say that humans shouldn\u2019t do things that harm humans? Why insert God at all?<\/p>\nCan you see why I find this fascinating?<\/p>\n
I have a <\/b>Patreon<\/b><\/a>! Please support my writing!\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I’ve thought a lot about sin in the last few years. Namely, I’ve thought about how little sense the concept makes. Certainly, people can be unkind. People can do bad things. But sin denotes something different. Sin is transgression of God’s law—divine law. Sin\u00a0is disobeying God.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Click through to read more!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":845,"featured_media":42929,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[60],"class_list":["post-42923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-evangelicalism-fundamentalism","tag-sin"],"yoast_head":"\n
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