What Is The Biblical Definition Of Sin?

Many religions speak of sin, but they don’t know what it is! What is this thing we must all repent of? Some teach that card-playing, gambling, going to movies and dancing are sins. Some say sin is going contrary to your conscience. Others say sin is whatever harms you or others.

But there is no reason to wonder about it. God plainly tells us what sin is. Here is the Bible definition of sin — the only definition that counts: “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law” (I John 3:4, Authorized Version).

But what law? The apostle James explains: “If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself,’ you do well; but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. For He who said, ‘Do not commit adultery,’ also said, ‘Do not murder.’ Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law” (James 2:8-11).

Yes, that’s the same law so many denominations want to get rid of, and nail to the cross -though they are confused as to what was REALLY nailed to the cross. The law that tells us what sin is has points — and if we break one of those several points, we are guilty of all. Two of the points James mentioned say do not commit adultery and do not kill.

Now do you know of a law in the Bible that has points and that says don’t commit adultery and don’t kill? Of course! The Ten Commandments! The Ten Commandments define what sin is. They tell us what we should and should not do.

Therefore when we repent of sin, we repent of breaking God’s law — we repent of transgressing or breaking the Ten Commandments! The first four commandments tell us how to love God, and the last six show us how to love our neighbor. That’s why James called it a “royal law” that is summed up in the statement, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

When we break one of the Ten Commandments, we commit sin. And Jesus Christ said that unless we all repent of our sin, we are doomed to perish (Luke 13:3, 5). Perhaps it is time you asked yourself if you have really repented in God’s sight of what God defines as sin.