Everyone practicing sin also practices lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.
1 John 3:4
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the English word “sin” means:
-
- transgression of the law of God
- a vitiated state of human nature in which the self is estranged from God
More on the Meaning of Sin
The word sin has been in use for well over a thousand years. Our current form of the word comes from the Middle English sinne, which is itself from the Old English syn. The original meanings of sin were largely concerned with religious matters (“an offense against religious or moral law“; “a transgression of the law of God“; “a vitiated state of human nature in which the self is estranged from God”), as they still are today.
Sin does, however, have weakened, non-religious meanings. In its “an action that is or is felt to be highly reprehensible” meaning it is still a weighty word; it refers to actions of a kind that are likely to be strongly condemned. Far weaker is its “an often serious shortcoming” meaning, which can jokingly apply to a harmless act like eating one dessert too many, or can be paired with another word to refer to a failing of one kind or another, as in “literary/grammatical sins.”
What we’ve learned from the dictionary definition is that the meaning of the word sin, in religious context, is disobedience to the Law of YHWH. Now let’s do some research to see if this is a scripturally sound definition.
Romans 3:19-20 Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those within the Law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world be under judgment to God. Because by works of law no flesh will be justified before Him—for through law is full knowledge of sin.
How is it that the Law gives us full knowledge of sin? Because, the Law describes the behaviour that YHWH calls loving Him, which He considers perfection, and which is the target we are to be aiming at. Therefore, the opposite behaviour—disobeying the Law of YHWH—is not loving YHWH, which means missing the target we are aiming at—in a word, sin.
1 John 3:4 Everyone practicing sin also practices lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.
John makes it clear: sin is disobeying the Law of YHWH.
James 4:17 Therefore, to anyone knowing to do good, and not doing it, it is sin to him.
Not doing good when you know better is sin, according to James; and doing good means obeying YHWH’s commandments, according to Yeshua.
Matthew 19:16-17 And behold, a man came up to Him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” And He said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only One who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.”
The One who is good is Yeshua (YHWH), who is also the Word. The Word is the Law and the Prophets, so doing good means obeying the Law and the Prophets, which is exactly what Yeshua tells the man!
Why would Yeshua tell this man that he needs to obey YHWH’s commandments to enter into eternal life? Because disobeying YHWH’s Law is sin, and if we willfully sin, there is no sacrifice for our sins.
After this verse, Yeshua goes on to list some of YHWH’s commandments. He does not need to list all of the Law for the man to know that He meant all of the Law, because the Law is a package deal—it’s all or nothing. The man says that he has obeyed them all his whole life. However, he seems to have realized that the Law will not save him, because he asks Yeshua what else he must do. Then Yeshua gives the man the way to salvation, He tells him to give up all of his possessions and follow Him.
Following Yeshua Messiah means living as He lived, in obedience to the Law of YHWH. See our studies in WWYD for more on how Yeshua lived. Having faith in Yeshua also means obeying Him, and He said to obey YHWH’s commandments. This is what those who have faith in Him will do.
YHWH says that on the word of two or three witnesses we are to decide a matter. Here we have four witnesses all saying that sin is disobedience to the Law of YHWH: Paul, John, James, and Yeshua. However, that’s not all, in the book of Daniel we find sin means disobeying YHWH’s commandments as well:
Daniel 9:4-5 And I prayed unto YHWH my Elohim, and made my confession, and said, O YHWH, the great and dreadful El, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love Him, and to them that keep His commandments; we have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from Thy precepts and from Thy judgments.
In this passage, Daniel is saying that YHWH is faithful to keep the covenant that He made with the Israelites, but that the Israelites sinned by disobeying His commandments and that is why YHWH removed them from the Holy Land.
The Hebrew word translated “sin” is Strong’s h2398 חָטָא khaw-taw’: a primitive root; properly, to miss; hence (figuratively and generally) to sin; by inference, to forfeit, lack, expiate, repent, (causatively) lead astray, condemn:—bear the blame, cleanse, commit (sin), by fault, harm he hath done, loss, miss, (make) offend(-er), offer for sin, purge, purify (self), make reconciliation, (cause, make) sin(-ful, -ness), trespass. From Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon: miss (a goal or way), go wrong, sin, do wrong, commit a mistake or an error, make to miss the mark, miss the mark, miss the way.
So, in Hebrew, the word is related to missing a target that you’re aiming at, i.e. “missing the mark”.
The Greek word translated “sin” is Strong’s g264 ἁμαρτάνω ham-ar-tan’-o: properly, to miss the mark (and so not share in the prize), i.e. (figuratively) to err, especially (morally) to sin:—for your faults, offend, sin, trespass.
Therefore, in Greek also, the word sin means to “miss the mark”.
What is the “mark” that a sinning person is missing? That would be the target that we are supposed to be aiming at, the one most important target for us as believers. What is the most important thing that we do according to Yeshua Messiah?
Matthew 22:36-40 Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law? And Jesus said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” On these two commandments all the Law and the Prophets hang.
So we know from the words of Yeshua himself that the most important thing for us to do is love YHWH Elohim. How do we love Him? Yeshua tells us how:
John 14:21 He that has My commandments and keeps them, it is that one who loves Me; and the one that loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I shall love him and will reveal Myself to him.
Yeshua and YHWH Elohim are One; therefore, Yeshua’s commandments are the same as YHWH’s commandments.
And John also tells us what it means to love YHWH Elohim:
1 John 5:2-3 By this we know that we love the children of God: when we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not heavy.
1 John 2:3-6 And by this we know that we have known Him, if we keep His commands. The one saying, I have known Him, and not keeping His commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that one. But whoever keeps His Word, truly in this one the love of God has been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him. The one saying to rest in Him ought so to walk himself as that One walked.
As we explain in detail in our studies in the Torah:
- Obeying all of YHWH’s commandments is how He wants us to love Him.
- All of YHWH’s commandments are repeated in the New Testament, so there is no excuse for not obeying them.
- Yeshua is the Law made flesh, obeying Yeshua means obeying the Law.
- We obey YHWH’s Law because we are saved, not to be saved!
As we can see, the mark or target that we are aiming at is loving YHWH Elohim, and loving YHWH means obeying His Law. Therefore, missing the mark (sinning) means disobeying the Law of YHWH (the Torah).
No matter which way you look at it, the conclusion is the same. Sin is disobeying the Torah!
May you be blessed by this study. Shalom.