Bible Dictionary: Define Sin, Definition of Sin

Everything that doesn't originate from God is sin.

Sin is a lack of God.  God is love. 

Sin is a lack of love.

Sin is the transgression of the law.  The Law is spiritual.  Love fulfills the Law.  The Law can be summed up as follows: The most important commandment is this: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind."  Failure to fulfill the most important commandment is the worst sin, and it is the very thing that makes it impossible to fulfill the second most important commandment: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."  God is Love.  There is no Love without God.  Love is God.  No one can have Love without God. God is the Law.  Every part of the Law, Thou shalt not covet, thou shalt not commit adultery, and every other command is the expression of Love.  Every transgression of the Law is a transgression of Love.  God's commandment is to love.  Adultery, Fornication, Stealing, Lying, Cheating, Envying, Killing; these are all examples of a lack of love.

Sin is the lack of righteousness.  Only God can do righteousness, and humanity can only do righteousness when humanity is reconciled to God. In fact, Jesus Christ is our righteousness.

Sin Is Falling Short Of The Glory Of God, The Glory That God Planned For You.    

Ignoring God's good plan for you, to attain to  His glory is sin.   You and I were created to be filled with the glory of God.  Our minds only work correctly when the Holy Spirit is flowing through them and we willingly submit.  Andthis flow is what creates a clean heart in us.  In this way God's purpose is that we go from light to greater light, from faith to deeper faith, and from glory to ever increasing glory until we all come to total unity with Christ.  Christ divided Himself among the members of His Body so that no member would be complete in himself or herself.  Then, He ordered the Body (in Scripture) and asked us to follow that pattern.  Since we could not, He works through each member to restore the Body of Christ to the pattern that is found in Scripture.  This is why he restored apostles to the Church in 1948, and it is also why Satan raised up false apostles right after God set the genuine apostles.  This Church is not only the method by which the Manifestation of the Sons of God will take place, but it also will be that Manifestation when God finishes His work.  He will then present the Church to Christ as a glorious Bride without spot or wrinkle.  All of the details are recorded in Scripture, and God is now performing these things in those who are walking in obedience to this truth.    

To miss God's glory is sin.  God’s glory is very high.  The glory that God has planned for us is beyond our ability to imagine or reach for.  God is Love, and the world has rebelled against Love.  God's glory is true love.  We aren't talking about the counterfeit love, the snake oil that cannot satisfy, which Hollywood and hedonism is selling.  God's glory is full of real love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, humility, strength, and faith, and some people are missing out on purpose.  They are purposefully missing out, and that is sin.  God has a good plan for you, to attain to God’s glory.  In your current condition, you have not received all that God has for you.  To miss all of this glory is sin.  Sin brings you out of the glory of God, step by step.  Righteousness brings you into the glory of God, step by step.

Sin is missing the mark.  Sin is failure.  This is the sin that Jesus came to overcome.  Jesus came to set us free from sin, from continually missing the mark.  Jesus removes the stain and guilt.  Jesus forgives.  Jesus gives the Holy Spirit so we can begin to be led by the Spirit.  Jesus gives power to walk in the Spirit and do what is right and good--to overcome SIN. 

If we disobey the laws of God, this is sin--it is either slipping across a line or stepping across a line.  The Spirit of God will never lead you to slip or step across the line.  God's Spirit cannot be tempted with sin and cannot sin.  Missing the mark can happen in any part of the sequence of the righteousness of God that is apart from the works of the law.    

Sin is failing to walk into the glory that God has planned for us.  All disobedience is rebellion.  Rebellion separates us from God.  When we are separated from God, we cannot be godly--how would it be possible to be godly?  When we are separated from God, we miss out on His leading and His power.  When we are joined to God, we have His leading and power.  His leading always leads us into righteousness.  His power is power to do righteousness.

The lack of love is also known as sin.   Jesus said that if you love Him, you will keep His commandments.  His commandment is to love.  Adultery, Fornication, Stealing, Lying, Cheating, Envying, Killing; these are all examples of a lack of love.

Sin is rebellion against God. Rebellion, wanting to be autonomous from God, separates us from God.  When we are separated from God, we cannot be godly--how would it be possible to be godly?  When we are separated from God, we miss out on His glory, His leading, and His power for righteousness.

Sin is a desire to NOT commune with God. 

Sin is a desire to NOT glorify and respect God and NOT hold Him in holy reverence.

Sin is a desire to add to and take away from God's Word and to follow one's own mind and will, which leads to spiritual death and is the cause of physical misery, sickness, and death.   

Pride is a lack of humility, and that is sin.  Proverbs 21:4 says, "An high look, and a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked, is sin."  Note that even the work that the wicked person does is sin.  The natural mind or every person, including the Christian, is a wicked person.  Whatever is not of faith is sin.

Sin and death are the two things from which Jesus came to set us free.      

Sin is the reason for death and suffering.  Had Adam never sinned, there would be no death and no suffering.  The Bible tells us that the last enemy to be defeated will be death.  Sin brings you into death and out of life, step by step.  Righteousness brings you into life and out of death, step by step.

Sin falls into three categories:  1. Slipping across the line.  2. Stepping across the line.  3. Missing the target.  Slipping across the line is simply the fruit springing as a result of the evil seeds that we have planted in the past, or they may even be the fruit of original sin we were born with because of the fall and what we inherited from Adam and Eve.  We reap what we sow.  The line is the law of God, which is more than the ten commandments.  It includes the ten commandments and is summed up in one word, love.  Stepping across the line usually follows slipping across the line.  Some emotion, passion, anger, fear, feeling, or lust causes us to slip across the line, then we make a bad situation worse by stepping across the line.  Perhaps someone whom God has set into authority makes a mistake, and the result is not fair to you.  So you slip across the line and feel anger and disrespect for the person set by God (a parent, boss, elder, etc.).  Then, you step across the line and say something you should not have said.  That would be one of many possible examples.  Missing the target accounts for much of sin.  Missing the target is simply not listening to the voice of God or somehow in God's process of doing His righteousness through you, short-circuiting the process and missing the target.  Here are a couple examples: God tells you, tell your spouse that you are sorry, and you don't do it.  God shows you, by the Spirit, a higher level of order (the one in Scripture) for the church, but you have a lot to lose as a salaried pastor, so you choose to ignore the leading of God.  This also is likely to include stepping across the line as you try to change Scripture to fit what you want to do.  Sin "may be regarded as the missing of a mark or aim: it is then αμαρτια or αμαρτημα; the overpassing or transgressing of a line: it is then παραβασις; the disobedience to a voice: in which case it is παρακοη; the falling where one should have stood upright: this will be παραπτωμα; ignorance of what one ought to have known: this will be αγνοημα; diminishing of that which should have been rendered in full measure, which is ηττημα; non-observance of a law, which is ανομια or παρανομια." 

Satan does not care how far you are off or in what direction you are off.  He just wants you to miss the target.    You will miss the target with anything that you do by your own will and power.  You will miss the target with anything that God did not ask you to think, say, or do--God must lead.  You will miss the target with anything that God did not think, say, or do within you--God must do the work.  That is very a very narrow way.

See also: What Is Sin?

Below are some some literal translations of the words that are used in the Bible for sin:

Hamartia: Missing the target.    
Parabasis: Stepping across    
Paraptoma: Slipping across    
Anomia: Lawlessness, disregarding God's law    
Opheilema: Debt

Below are Strong's translations for various Greek and Hebrew words for sin:

51 αγνοημα agnoema ag-no’-ay-mah    
1) a sin committed through ignorance or thoughtlessness {#Heb 9:7}

http://www.SeekFind.net/Bible_Dictionary_Define_agnoema__Definition_of_agnoema.html    

93 αδικια adikia ad-ee-kee’-ah    
1) injustice, of a judge    
2) unrighteousness of heart and life    
3) a deed violating law and justice, act of unrighteousness 

http://www.SeekFind.net/Bible_Dictionary_Define_adikia_Definition_of_adikia.html    

264 αμαρτανω hamartano ham-ar-tan’-o    
1) to be without a share in    
2) to miss the mark    
3) to err, be mistaken    
4) to miss or wander from the path of uprightness and honour, to do or go wrong    
5)  to wander from the law of God, violate God's law, sin

http://www.SeekFind.net/Bible_Dictionary_Define_hamartano_Definition_of_hamartano.html    

266 αμαρτια hamartia ham-ar-tee’-ah    
1a) to be without a share in    
1b) to miss the mark    
1c) to err, be mistaken    
1d) to miss or wander from the path of uprightness and honour, to do or go wrong    
  1e) to wander from the law of God, violate God's law, sin    
2) that which is done wrong, sin, an offence, a violation of the divine law in thought or in act    
3) collectively, the complex or aggregate of sins committed either by a single person or by many

http://www.SeekFind.net/Bible_Dictionary_Define_hamartia_Definition_of_hamartia.html    

265 αμαρτημα hamartema ham-ar’-tay-mah    
1) sin, evil deed 

http://www.SeekFind.net/Bible_Dictionary_Define_hamartema_Definition_of_hamartema.html    

458 ανομια anomia an-om-ee’-ah    
1) the condition of without law    
1a) because ignorant of it    
1b) because of violating it    
2) contempt and violation of law, iniquity, wickedness

http://www.SeekFind.net/Bible_Dictionary_Define_anomia_Definition_of_anomia.html    

677 απροσκοπος aproskopos ap-ros’-kop-os    
1) having nothing to strike against, not causing to stumble    
1a) of a smooth road    
1b) metaph. of not leading others to sin by one’s mode of life

http://www.SeekFind.net/Bible_Dictionary_Define_aproskopos_Definition_of_aproskopos.html    

763 ασεβια asebeia as-eb’-i-ah    
1) want of reverence towards God, impiety, ungodliness

http://www.SeekFind.net/Bible_Dictionary_Define_asebeia_Definition_of_asebeia.html    

2275 ηττημα hettema hayt’-tay-mah    
from 2274; ; n n    
AV-diminishing 1, fault 1; 2    
1) a diminution, decrease: i.e. defeat    
2) loss, as respects to salvation

http://www.SeekFind.net/Bible_Dictionary_Define_hettema_Definition_of_hettema.html    

3845 παραβαινω parabaino par-ab-ah’-ee-no    
1) to go by the side of    
2) to go past or pass over without touching a thing    
3) to overstep, neglect, violate, transgress    
4) so to go past as to turn aside from

http://www.SeekFind.net/Bible_Dictionary_Define_parabaino_Definition_of_parabaino.html    

3847 παραβασις parabasis par-ab’-as-is    
1) a going over    
2) metaph. a disregarding, violating    
2a) of the Mosaic law    
2b) the breach of a definite, promulgated, ratified law    
2c) to create transgressions, i.e. that sins might take on the character of transgressions, and thereby the consciousness of sin be intensified

http://www.SeekFind.net/Bible_Dictionary_Define_parabasis_Definition_of_parabasis.html    

3876 παρακοη parakoe par-ak-o-ay’    
1) a hearing amiss    
2) disobedience

http://www.SeekFind.net/Bible_Dictionary_Define_parakoe_Definition_of_parakoe.html    

3892 παρανομια paranomia par-an-om-ee’-ah    
1) breach of law, transgression, wickedness

http://www.SeekFind.net/Bible_Dictionary_Define_paranomia_Definition_of_paranomia.html    

3900 παραπτωμα paraptoma par-ap’-to-mah    
1) to fall beside or near something (to fall or slip aside)    
2) a lapse or deviation from truth and uprightness    
2a) a sin, misdeed

http://www.SeekFind.net/Bible_Dictionary_Define_paraptoma_Definition_of_paraptoma.html    

4348 προσκομμα proskomma pros’-kom-mah    
1) a stumbling block    
1a) an obstacle in the way which if one strikes his foot against he stumbles or falls    
1b) that over which a soul stumbles i.e. by which is caused to sin

http://www.SeekFind.net/Bible_Dictionary_Define_proskomma_Definition_of_proskomma.html    

4625 σκανδαλον skandalon skan’-dal-on ("scandal")    
1) the movable stick or trigger of a trap, a trap stick    
1a) a trap, snare    
1b) any impediment placed in the way and causing one to stumble or fall, (a stumbling block, occasion of stumbling) i.e. a rock which is a cause of stumbling    
1c) fig. applied to Jesus Christ, whose person and career were so contrary to the expectations of the Jews concerning the Messiah, that they rejected him and by their obstinacy made shipwreck of their salvation    
2) any person or thing by which one is (entrapped) drawn into error or sin    

http://www.SeekFind.net/Bible_Dictionary_Define_skandalon_Definition_of_skandalon.html    

0205 ןוא ‘aven aw-ven’    
1) trouble, wickedness, sorrow    
1a) trouble, sorrow    
1b) idolatry    
1c) trouble of iniquity, wickedness 

http://www.SeekFind.net/Bible_Dictionary_Define_aven_Definition_of_aven.html    

0819 המשׁא ‘ashmah ash-maw’    
1) guiltiness, guilt, offense, sin, wrong-doing    
1a) doing wrong, committing a trespass or offense    
1b) becoming guilty, guilt    
1c) bringing a guilt-offering

http://www.SeekFind.net/Bible_Dictionary_Define_ashmah_Definition_of_ashmah.html    

0817 םשׁא ‘asham aw-shawm’    
1) guilt, offense, sin, guiltiness    
1a) offense, sin, trespass, fault    
1b) guilt, guiltiness    
1c) compensation (for offense)    
1d) trespass or sin offering

http://www.SeekFind.net/Bible_Dictionary_Define_asham_Definition_of_asham.html    

01942 הוה havvah hav-vaw’    
1) desire    
1a) desire (in bad sense)    
2) chasm (fig. of destruction)    
2a) engulfing ruin, destruction, calamity 

http://www.SeekFind.net/Bible_Dictionary_Define_havvah_Definition_of_havvah.html    

02401 האטח chata’ah khat-aw-aw’    
1) sin, sin offering    
1a) sin    
1b) sin offering

http://www.SeekFind.net/Bible_Dictionary_Define_chataah_Definition_of_chataah.html    

02403 האטח chatta’ah khat-taw-aw’ or תאטח chatta’th khat-tawth’    
1) sin, sinful    
2) sin, sin offering    
2a) sin    
2b) condition of sin, guilt of sin    
2c) punishment for sin    
2d) sin-offering    
2e) purification from sins of ceremonial uncleanness

http://www.SeekFind.net/Bible_Dictionary_Define_chattaah_Definition_of_chattaah.html    

02398 אטח chata’ khaw-taw’    
1) to sin, miss, miss the way, go wrong, incur guilt, forfeit, purify from uncleanness    
1a) (Qal)    
1a1) to miss    
1a2) to sin, miss the goal or path of right and duty    
1a3) to incur guilt, incur penalty by sin, forfeit    
1b) (Piel)    
1b1) to bear loss    
1b2) to make a sin-offering    
1b3) to purify from sin    
1b4) to purify from uncleanness    
1c) (Hiphil)    
1c1) to miss the mark    
1c2) to induce to sin, cause to sin    
1c3) to bring into guilt or condemnation or punishment    
1d) (Hithpael)    
1d1) to miss oneself, lose oneself, wander from the way

http://www.SeekFind.net/Bible_Dictionary_Define_chata_Definition_of_chata.html    

02399 ajx chet' khate    
1) sin    
1a) sin    
1b) guilt for sin    
1c) punishment for sin

04383 לושׁכמ mikshowl mik-shole’ or לשׁכמ mikshol mik-shole’    
1) a stumbling, means or occasion of stumbling, stumbling block    
1a) stumbling, fall    
1b) means or occasion of stumbling, stumbling block 

http://www.SeekFind.net/Bible_Dictionary_Define_mikshowl_Definition_of_mikshowl.html    

04604 לעמ ma‘al mah’- al    
1) unfaithful or treacherous act, trespass    
1a) against man    
1b) against God 

http://www.SeekFind.net/Bible_Dictionary_Define_maal_Definition_of_maal.html    

05512 ןיס Ciyn seen    
Sin =" thorn" or "clay"    
1) a town in eastern Egypt    
2) the tract of wilderness between Elim and Sinai 

http://www.SeekFind.net/Bible_Dictionary_Define_Ciyn_Definition_of_Ciyn.html    

05753 הוע ‘avah aw-vaw’    
1) to bend, twist, distort    
1a) (Niphal) to be bent, be bowed down, be twisted, be perverted    
1b) (Piel) to twist, distort    
1c) (Hiphil) to do perversely    
2) to commit iniquity, do wrong, pervert    
2a) (Qal) to do wrong, commit iniquity    
2b) (Hiphil) to commit iniquity 

http://www.SeekFind.net/Bible_Dictionary_Define_avah_Definition_of_avah.html    

05766 לוע ‘evel eh’- vel or לוע ‘avel aw’- vel and (fem.) הלוע ‘avlah av-law’ or הלוע ‘owlah o-law’ or הלע ‘olah o-law’    
1) injustice, unrighteousness, wrong    
1a) violent deeds of injustice    
1b) injustice (of speech)    
1c) injustice (generally)

http://www.SeekFind.net/Bible_Dictionary_Define_evel_Definition_of_evel.html    

05771 ןוע ‘avon aw-vone’ or ןווע ‘avown (#2Ki 7:9; Ps 51:5) aw-vone’    
1) perversity, depravity, iniquity, guilt or punishment of iniquity    
1a) iniquity    
1b) guilt of iniquity, guilt (as great), guilt (of condition)    
1c) consequence of or punishment for iniquity

http://www.SeekFind.net/Bible_Dictionary_Define_avon_Definition_of_avon.html    
   
06586 עשׁפ pasha‘ paw-shah’    
1) to rebel, transgress, revolt    
1a) (Qal)    
1a1) to rebel, revolt    
1a2) to transgress    
1b) (Niphal) to be rebelled against

http://www.SeekFind.net/Bible_Dictionary_Define_pasha_Definition_of_pasha.html    

06588 עשׁפ pesha‘ peh’- shah    
1) transgression, rebellion    
1a1) transgression (against individuals)    
1a2) transgression (nation against nation)    
1a3) transgression (against God)    
1a3a) in general    
1a3b) as recognised by sinner    
1a3c) as God deals with it    
1a3d) as God forgives    
1a4) guilt of transgression    
1a5) punishment for transgression    
1a6) offering for transgression

http://www.SeekFind.net/Bible_Dictionary_Define_pesha_Definition_of_pesha.html    

05932 הולע ‘alvah al-vaw’    
1) injustice, unrighteousness, iniquity

http://www.SeekFind.net/Bible_Dictionary_Define_alvah_Definition_of_alvah.html    

05999 למע ‘amal aw-mawl’    
1) toil, trouble, labour    
1a) trouble    
1b) trouble, mischief    
1c) toil, labour 

http://www.SeekFind.net/Bible_Dictionary_Define_amal_Definition_of_amal.html    

07562 עשׁר resha‘ reh’- shah    
1) wrong, wickedness, guilt    
1a) wickedness (as violence and crime against civil law)    
1b) wickedness (of enemies)    
1c) wickedness (in ethical relations)

07686 הגשׁ shagah shaw-gaw’    
1) to go astray, stray, err    
1a) (Qal)    
1a1) to err, stray    
1a2) to swerve, meander, reel, roll, be intoxicated, err (in drunkenness)    
1a3) to go astray (morally)    
1a4) to commit sin of ignorance or inadvertence, err (ignorantly)    
1b) (Hiphil)    
1b1) to lead astray    
1b2) to lead astray, mislead (mentally)    
1b3) to lead astray (morally)

http://www.SeekFind.net/Bible_Dictionary_Define_shagah_Definition_of_shagah.html    

Sin

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