Transcription
Sin just means not following God's law. God's law is summarized in the Ten Commandments, which are all either about loving God or loving your neighbor.
The first commandment says to worship God and have no other gods before God. So obviously unbelief is a sin because you can't worship God if you don't believe in him. Existential fear is also a sin because it means you're not trusting God, which is a form of not worshiping God because faith means trust. But we need to clarify that this is existential fear we're talking about. Obviously, if a bear is chasing you, there's a good kind of fear that can help preserve you. But if you're worried about how your life is going to go, that means you're not trusting God's plan for you. That's why Jesus says not to worry about your life because God cares about you.
Also, if we're only supposed to worship God, then self-worship is a sin, which covers a lot of other things like pride, selfishness, and narcissism. The reason we're not supposed to worship ourselves is because we are sinners, but God is perfect.
The second commandment says to not make any idols or false gods. Of course, this means don't literally make a golden calf and worship it. But idolatry extends to more than just that because not all idols are made with human hands. Many of them are made inside our hearts. For example, if we love money, social status, and sex to the point where we get our meaning in life from those things, that's idolatry too. It's not bad to want those things in general, but as the Christian Pastor Tim Keller said, idolatry is turning good things into ultimate things.
Another form of idolatry is worshiping God in the wrong way. It would still be wrong to worship a golden calf even if we said we were worshiping God through it because God decides how he wants to be worshiped. We don't get to worship God however we want. Also, since the second commandment says to not worship any graven image, many Christians think we're not supposed to make any images of God at all because we might be tempted to worship them.
The third commandment is to not misuse God's name because doing so is blasphemy. The reason blasphemy is so bad is because God's name is holy and must be seen as worthy of respect. That's why it's wrong to use God's name as a curse word or a casual expression because it's not using God's name in a sacred and holy manner. However, it's also wrong to make jokes about God, and here's why: according to any culture, the one thing you're not allowed to joke about is that which is sacred. According to our culture, one of the worst things is to make a racist or sexist joke. The reason our culture is so sensitive about that is our culture sees equality as something sacred, which is why you're not allowed to joke about anything that offends that. So if we see God's name as sacred, we shouldn't joke about God's name either because in any given culture, you cannot joke about things that are sacred.
There are several other ways to misuse God's name. Doing evil in God's name is one of the worst sins because it causes the name of God to be associated with evil rather than good. It's also a big sin to use God for selfish gain, like a lot of those prosperity gospel preachers whose churches are just a big money scam. And I personally think stupidity in God's name, like using the Bible to defend silly things like a flat Earth conspiracy theory, is also a form of blasphemy because it causes Christianity to be associated with stupid things.
The fourth commandment is to remember the Sabbath, and the Sabbath is one day out of every seven days that is set apart and dedicated to the Lord. The most basic way to observe the Sabbath is to go to church on Sunday, so skipping church without a good excuse is a violation of the fourth commandment. We're also told to rest on the Sabbath, and interestingly, laziness is a version of breaking the command to rest. How does that make any sense? Well, a wise person once said, "No one is ever really too busy. If they care, they will make time." So if we care about making time for God and resting on Sunday, we will get our work done on all the other days of the week.
The fifth commandment is to honor and respect your parents. "Bro, what if my parents have problems?" Doesn't matter. Everyone's a sinner. You still have to respect them because God has ordained earthly authorities such as parents and the government, and therefore it's a sin to disobey either of those things. Yes, both of these authorities are imperfect in many ways and often sin themselves, but God knows that without them, society would collapse. So God ordains these authorities in order to restrain human evil.
The sixth commandment is don't murder. "Yay, I haven't done that!" Not so fast. According to Jesus, anytime you hate someone or you're really angry with someone, that technically counts as murder because those feelings, taken to their extremes and without a legal deterrent, would lead to murder. Also, abortion is something that counts as murder, so that should be treated as murder.
The seventh commandment is don't cheat on your husband or wife. "Yay, I haven't done that either!" Again, not so fast. According to Jesus, if you have ever looked at someone with lust in your heart, that counts as committing adultery. So lust is a seventh commandment violation. Jesus also said that divorce is a seventh commandment violation because it violates the covenant of marriage. So really, adultery could be any form of sexuality that violates the marriage covenant between one man and one woman. So that would mean pornography is a form of adultery. It would also mean that fornication, or sex outside of marriage, is a seventh commandment violation. It would also mean that same-sex relations are a seventh commandment violation.
The eighth commandment is don't steal. So, of course, this applies to actual thievery where you're stealing real physical or monetary property. But it also would apply to things that are technically legal but still result in stealing people's stuff, like unethical business conduct or scams. Traditionally, the church has been opposed to usury or money lending because the church has seen that as falling under the category of unethical business conduct. Now, stealing applies to money and property, but gossip has also been traditionally seen as a form of stealing because in gossip, you're stealing someone's good name for your own benefit and also stealing some of their social status. So that's why gossip also definitely counts as an eighth commandment violation.
The ninth commandment is don't bear false witness, in other words, don't lie about what someone did. If you accuse someone of something they didn't actually do, that's just as bad as if you had actually done the thing yourself because the blame is going somewhere, and it's going to them instead of you. Now, it's also just bad to lie in general because Jesus said at the end of time, we'll have to give account for every word we have ever spoken. Now, of course, someone's going to say, "What if you have to lie to save someone's life? Like, what if you live during the Holocaust and you're hiding people in your attic and then the SS people show up at your door?" Well, first of all, that's probably never going to happen to you in real life. And second, Jesus spoke more of following the spirit of the law than the letter of the law. For example, Jesus was willing to work on the Sabbath if it was for the sake of helping people, even when the religious Pharisees got mad at him for doing so. So yes, maybe there are some cases where one good trumps another good, but in most cases, the law is pretty clear on what to do.
The tenth commandment is don't covet, or don't want something that someone else has. So this means envy is a sin, whether you're envious of someone's house, someone's car, or someone's marriage. But there's also a deeper meaning to the 10th commandment. The real meaning of the tenth commandment is don't want to sin because at the root of every sinful action is sinful desire. That shows the truth that Christianity is a religion of the heart. If you don't do sinful actions but you still have sinful desires, that's not really solving the problem. That just means you have good self-control; it doesn't actually mean you have a good heart. So that's why the tenth commandment applies to all the first nine commandments because it says don't want to break any of these other commandments.
Feeling guilty? If so, good. That's what the law is for. It's meant to expose our sins so that we'll trust more in Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins. Luckily, Christianity is not a religion about following a bunch of rules. It's about recognizing that we'll never be good enough, we'll always fail, but that's why we need to have faith in Jesus Christ. So it doesn't matter how much sin you've done. If you come to faith in Jesus, the God who died for your sins, it will all be forgiven, and all the evil you did will be undone.