Christian Message Boards: What is a Sin?

This is topic What is a Sin? in forum Questions & Answers at Christian Message Boards.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://thechristianbbs.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=38;t=000128

Posted by Crusader (Member # 4035) on :

As I was walking home today, after a certain bad experience... This question kept repeating in my head. Yes, I know it's something that separates us from God and risks our chance to enter an eternal kingdom, but what defines sin?

How can I do something to a certain degree, while someone else may do something to a greater degree and be judged differently? For example, sex is sex, but how about heavy foreplay? If one so much as pleasures another's sexual organ, is that not a form of sex? How can we differentiate between that before marriage and someone who just has premarital sex? Are they both bad? Is there such thing as bad?

I was trying to answer these questions, and came to a block. I could not decide, because I do not know the truth. So, I wondered, if God wanted us to obey Him... Why did He not explain it to us and help us understand why something is bad and something else is good? Eve ate the apple, she heard it was bad, but did God happen to tell her why it was bad? Do we just trust an eternal being that we cannot see and have only heard of? He has given us miracles, even in this century, but as an individual who never witnessed a definite miracle, how can I say that I know God loves me? Because it's His word? What does a word of a man I never met mean to me? Do those who have been adopted trust their real parents? God gave me to my family, but if He is our real Father, our Creator, how does He expect us to believe Him with such abondonement?

I can try to answer these questions, but since God is much greater than I, by what authority can I answer these things? As a human, my speculation may indeed be false. How can I trust Him? How can I trust you? I don't even trust those I love completely.

Posted by LaurieFL (Member # 3794) on :

Okay, you need to read this thread I am linking below, as well as the other one associated with it, linked near the bottom of that thread.

Let me say this to you, my brother. I believe you are genuinely searching to know and be like Christ. I also know you are 17-ish and your hormones are raging. So many young people do themselves a disservice by succombing to those urges.

There are many of us at this board who either succombed in one relationship and lived to regret it, or who let sexual sin eventually take over our lives. Either way, I don't think any one of us here who committed those sins was ever happy over the final result. We were in fact devastated eventually. The consequences are far-reaching and lifelong, frankly. Being forgiven later can relieve some of the pain, and God can heal lives, but many of the consequences of our actions can and do haunt us forever and ever. Also, we are usually not forgiven until that sin has hurt us so much that we are willing to genuinely repent, i.e. - we are willing to do whatever we have to do to flee from that sin.

God does not forbid things because He wants to keep us away from fun. He wants to protect us from harm and also wants to protect the value of something that can be an awesome blessing to us if we wait to do it in the right context (marital relations).

I will also give you my sympathy and empathy in the fact that I believe our society makes this more difficult by bombarding you with sexual imagery everywhere and by postponing marriage usually, when in past most people got married younger, which meant they had to wait less time. However, that does not give you license to hurt yourself or someone's daughter!!!

When you touch a woman that way, even in "just foreplay", you open up emotions in her and feelings of need for you and attachment. Sexual activities are not merely physical. She looks to you for guidance and direction. By leading her down this path, especially when you probably have no intent of marrying her, you lead her to heartbreak and devastation. You also may cause her heart to harden, as she begins to view her body as an object and she may find heyrself diving headlong into sexual sin which can destroy her. This is not trivial!

To answer your question about sin. Jesus was very clear that having lust in your heart for a woman was the same as having sex with her. (Read Matthew chapters 5-7, I believe, for the Sermon on the Mount). Also, He said if you have hate or anger in your heart, you are guilty of murder. He says to have no fear, so if you worry or are fearful, you have sinned.

We are all sinful, and the thing about making Christ your Lord and Savior is that you love Him more than you love your sin, and you will spend your time on your knees begging Him to give you strength to change and to flee your unrighteousness. He will help you if you truly let Him.

Please read this thread as well, for testimonies from people on this board addressing this topic.

http://thechristianbbs.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=11;t=000037

Posted by MentorsRiddle (Member # 2108) on :

If have found that if you have to question if something is a sin or not then it usually is. God didn't hide anything from us.

EG: Who so ever looks upon a woman with lust in their heart is commiting adultry.

Also he instilled in us the knowledge of right and wrong. You may question it but your sould tells you the truth.

Posted by HisGrace (Member # 3438) on :

I have been learning lately that these bodies of ours are empty shells made of dust and are only temporal. The flesh belongs to the prince of this world, and it can lead us into all sorts of behaviour which is not of the Holy Spirit.

The soul is in between the body and the Spirit battling for its rightful place with the Spirit. We have to daily die to the flesh, and instead seek to be controlled more and more by the Holy Spirit if we are going to be free from any bondage to sin.

Sex out of wedlock is clearly a sin. The proper decisions as to where to draw the lines must be extremely difficult for the younger generation, when they are told that fornication is very acceptable and normal, and there are stimulating images at every turn.

Bottom line, the Holy Spirit has to take total control of our lives if we are to win such battles, and He will give you strength and wisdom in order to make the proper decisions.

Col.3:10 In in its place you have clothed yourselves with a brand-new nature that is continually being renewed as you learn more and more about Christ, who created this new nature within you.

Posted by WhiteEagle (Member # 3728) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Crusader:
As I was walking home today, after a certain bad experience... This question kept repeating in my head. Yes, I know it's something that separates us from God and risks our chance to enter an eternal kingdom, but what defines sin?

I too used to wonder about "what is really sin". I used to think "everything" I did was sin. Then I realized that I was trying to be a "people pleaser" and not a God "pleaser". The Ten Commandments are our instructor as to "what is sin".

quote:
How can I do something to a certain degree, while someone else may do something to a greater degree and be judged differently? For example, sex is sex, but how about heavy foreplay? If one so much as pleasures another's sexual organ, is that not a form of sex? How can we differentiate between that before marriage and someone who just has premarital sex? Are they both bad? Is there such thing as bad?

Sex seems to be an all or nothing concept to God.
Sex is holy in marriage only. We are to "flee" sexual temptations at all other times. I know from experience, that just holding hands, when you are a teenager, can lead to "all the way".
Sexual feelings start in the mind, and that's why Jesus said: "If a man lusts in his heart after a woman, he is guilty of adultry."

When we share our bodies with another person, we also share our souls and develop "soul ties" with that person. If one engages in heavy petting, this can also increase the temptation to consummate the relationship later, and is almost impossible to resist. One puts themselves in a position of "point of no return" to this temptation.

quote:
I was trying to answer these questions, and came to a block. I could not decide, because I do not know the truth. So, I wondered, if God wanted us to obey Him... Why did He not explain it to us and help us understand why something is bad and something else is good? Eve ate the apple, she heard it was bad, but did God happen to tell her why it was bad? Do we just trust an eternal being that we cannot see and have only heard of? He has given us miracles, even in this century, but as an individual who never witnessed a definite miracle, how can I say that I know God loves me? Because it's His word? What does a word of a man I never met mean to me? Do those who have been adopted trust their real parents? God gave me to my family, but if He is our real Father, our Creator, how does He expect us to believe Him with such abondonement?

I can try to answer these questions, but since God is much greater than I, by what authority can I answer these things? As a human, my speculation may indeed be false. How can I trust Him? How can I trust you? I don't even trust those I love completely.

I had the desire to try to understand God better as the Creator, and read volumes of books about Creation.

The more I read testimonies from Christians who are scientists also, the blessed I was in KNOWING that God is truly God.

It started for me when I studied the human body in nursing school, and how intricate and perfectly all the body systems interact with each other for homeostasis. The cells of our bodies and the genetic information and how awesomely things fit together.

If one studies any aspect of science, whether it be nature or the cosmos, one can't help but be overwhelmed at God's Greatness and Power and Wisdom.

The God who created the Universe and Resurrected Jesus Christ from the dead, is the same God that we can Trust.

God bless.

Posted by on :