Sin Problem?

Oops.

A couple of months ago I commented on another Stack using the term “sin problem”. I try to adjust my language according to the audience, but sometimes I forget where I am in cyberspace, as was the case here. The sin problem runs beneath much of what I write and comment about, and through much if not all of world events, but many are not familiar with the term. Here is my take on it.

Defining Sin

Everybody knows what “sin” is, but everybody understands it differently. Well, maybe there aren’t as many meanings for it as there are people but I don’t know, there might be more. If you search the Web even just for “sin problem” (never mind searching for “sin”), many results come back, some of them pertaining to trigonometry. “Sin” certainly does mean different things to different people.

I looked in my dictionary for meanings of “sin”, but it doesn’t help much.¹ Personally, I only know of one thing that will help with it, but it is not simple to explain. In my understanding it’s not so much about knowing as it is about living life in a way that is antithetical to culture and pleasing to God. Your views may vary. But let’s not go there just yet. That sounds more like a sequel, although I’ll offer a taste of it at the conclusion of this post. The sin problem has to do with going about life in a way that is inconsistent with the design of life.

Current Flow

If you take a typical battery-powered clock or watch and insert a fresh battery — actually it’s usually a cell, not a battery² — it should start working if it’s not damaged, right? Well yes, if you insert the, uh, cell correctly. But quite possibly no, if there is a way to insert it backwards and you do that. Respect the design and put it in right if you want it to work. Simple.

We could call what happens when the current tries to flow the wrong way the “reverse polarity problem”. The clock is being used/powered in a way that is out of touch with its design, and it stops working. Lacking protective circuitry, it might even fry. The same could be said of modern flashlights.³ The sin problem is not that different.

Desire Flow

If human-designed inventions can quit working or even be destroyed so easily through misuse or abuse, what about we ourselves, being as we are so much more complex? But in life it is not a question of current flow. It does, however, have to do with the direction in which our desires flow. They often flow inward, toward us, rather than positively outward toward others. And when dominant, that’s not the direction that works well. It is the direction that, unchecked, leads to the kind of crumbling, self-obsessed world that we have, and the effect is more or less universal. But have you ever heard this…

Matthew 7:12—So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.⁴⁵

The “Golden Rule”. Like the markings in a battery compartment, it points in the right direction, desire for the well-being of others. The emphasis is on what we ought to do, not on what we desire for ourselves. The “ought to do” arises from our design. The fact that some courses of action result in building up while others lead to tearing down is indicative of design being present. Doing according to what we desire in a manner contrary to our design is disruptive.

The Sin Problem

The Sin Problem, then, is a repeating form of human behavior that disrupts and destroys, over time if not right away. Desiring and acquiring, for the betterment of self. The opposite direction of this:

Philippians 2:3-4—Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

There is much more that could be said. I haven’t mentioned “the fall”, or what sin is not — holiness — or many other things. I will close, however, with two more quotations.

Cause and effect:

James 4:1—What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?

Solution:

James 4:6-10…

…“God opposes the proud
but shows favor to the humble.”

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

If this sounds a bit extreme, there’s more but I left part of it out. Look it up if you wish, the whole of James chapter 4, or the whole book of James (it’s only five chapters). But first consider the circumstances in which we are living. They too are extreme—potentially terminal for all—and if we were to be honest about it, we have no effective solutions of our own devising. No matter what we do, over time things get worse and worse. The sin problem ensures that.

So is humility really such a terrible thing? Would it hurt that much to be honest about our situation and try something different for a change, while there is still time to do that? The choices are before us— self concern and self reliance, or concern for others and seeking to repent and obey. Two very different causes, producing very different effects, one leading to death, the other to life.

1. I have the English Dictionary - Offline here on my PC. Choosing just the relevant definitions, it says:

Noun

1. sin; sinfulness; wickedness
   estrangement from God

2. sin; sinning
   an act that is regarded by theologians as a transgression of God's will

3. sin; hell
   violent and excited activity
   ▪ they began to fight like sin

Verb

1. sin; transgress; trespass
   commit a sin; violate a law of God or a moral law

2. drop the ball; sin; blunder; boob; goof
   commit a faux pas or a fault or make a serious mistake
   ▪ I blundered during the job interview

Well now that clarified everything, didn’t it? “Estrangement from God“ is actually pretty good. It is the result of the sin problem. I also checked Mounce’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, and the “Little Kittle” abridged Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, but neither one helped.

2. See, for example, Difference Between Cell and Battery.

3. See How does installing battery backwards damage a torch? (“torch” = “flashlight”)

4. You can read the words “the Law and the Prophets” as meaning “scripture”. I’ll be quoting scripture, and you can think what you will of it. Believing it is not a prerequisite for readers here.

5. This is one verse, taken out of context but relevant to the point being made. The immediate context is Matthew 7:1-11, with Matthew 5:17-7:11 as a possible larger one.