IT IS ALL ABOUT THE HEART
And, since most religious people have it drilled into them that committing sin has eternal consequences, they are especially aware of behaviors that the Bible identifies as sin — especially the Ten Commandments.
Jews focus on 613 commandments for their definitions of sin, and hold that people are not born sinful. Christians focus on the Ten Commandments and add Jesus’ teachings and letters of the apostles to frame their own concepts of what sin is, and believe that everyone is condemned to sin because of the influence of original sin. Thus, sin is always somewhere in view in religion, but there is no universal agreement about what it really is.
Despite conscious and acute awareness of sin in ourselves and in others, the nature of sin remains a mystery, even to theologians, as we see in the following articles:
We conclude from all the writing about sin that, if it was easy to understand, there would not be so much need to write about it and there would be no confusion about it. And yet, most Christians and Jews talk about sin like they know exactly what it is.
Perhaps we should not be surprised that there is so much misunderstanding about sin when we stop to consider how many different words there are in the Bible that relate to sin:
| Old Testament | New Testament | ||
| Hebrew Word | KJV Word Usage | Greek Word | KJV Word Usage |
| Ra` | evil 442, wickedness 59, wicked 25, mischief 21, hurt 20, bad 13, trouble 10, sore 9, affliction 6, ill 5, adversity 4, favoured 3, harm 3, naught 3, noisome 2, grievous 2, sad 2, miscellaneous 34 | Agnoeo | be ignorant 7, ignorant 4, know not 4, understand not 3, ignorantly 2, unknown 2 |
| Rasha` | wicked 249, ungodly 8, wicked man 3, miscellaneous 3 | Kakos | evil 40, evil things 3, harm 2, that which is evil, wicked 1, ill 1, bad 1, noisome 1 |
| ‘asham | guilty 14, desolate 6, offend 6, trespass 4, certainly 1, destroy 1, faulty 1, greatly 1, offense 1 | Poneros | evil 51, wicked 10, wicked one 6, evil things 2, miscellaneous 7 |
| Chata’ | sin 188, purify 11, cleanse 8, sinner 8, committed 6, offended 4, blame 2, done 2, fault 1, harm 1, loss 1, miss 1, offender 1, purge 1, reconciliation 1, sinful 1, trespass 1 | Asebeia | ungodliness 4, ungodly 2
ungodly 8, ungodly men 1 |
| `avon | iniquity 220, punishment 5, fault 2, Iniquities 1, mischief 1, sin 1 | Enochos | in danger of (judgment) 5, guilty of (breaking all laws) 4, subject to (judgment) 1 |
| Shagah | err 11, ravished 2, wander 3, deceiver 1, cause to go astray 1, sin through ignorance 1, go astray 1, deceived 1 | Hamartano | sin 38, trespass 3, offend 1, for your faults 1 |
| Pesha` | transgression 84, trespass 5, sin 3, rebellion 1 | Hamartolos | sinner 43, sinful 4 |
| Ta`ah | err 17, astray 12, wander 10, seduced 3, stagger 2, out of the way 2, away 1, deceived 1, miscellaneous 2 | Hamartema | sin 4 |
| Adikos | unjust 8, unrighteous 4 | ||
| Anomos | without law 4, transgressor 2, wicked 2, lawless 1, unlawful 1 | ||
| Anosios | unholy 2 | ||
| Anupotaktos | unruly 2, disobedient 1, that is not put under 1 | ||
| Parabasis | transgression 6, breaking 1 | ||
| Paraptoma | trespass 9, offense 7, sin 3, fall 2, fault 2 | ||
When we consider these many words which are all translated as sin, we are inclined to ask if they refer to many different types of sin, or if they all refer to one singular concept of sin? To this question God would say NO and Yes, because, for God, there is only one kind of sin that really matters: Sin in the heart.
This attitude of sinning in the heart is very different from the attitudes of religious people. The main differences are these:
| ISSUE | MAN’S IDEA | GOD’S IDEA |
| Lawbreaking | With respect to religious, civil and cultural laws. | With respect to spiritual laws |
| Sin | Always focuses on physical activities and mental attitudes (morals and ethics) which can be observed with natural senses. | Always focuses on the condition of the heart. |
| Who we listen to for instruction about God | Religious leaders (i.e. False Prophets, Kings, Queens and Princes, Pharisees and Scribes, Serpent, Devil, Satan, Adversary, Demons, Evil Spirits and Anti-Christs). |
God’s word spoken through by himself directly or through and/or through true prophets, angels, messiahs, high priests, witnesses, and warriors. |
| Breaking Covenant | Obedience to religious laws based on literal interpretations of the Bible (i.e. Old/First Covenant). | Obedience to spiritual laws written on the heart (i.e. New Covenant). |
| Consequences of Sin | Eternity in a physical place called hell. | Exile from the God (i.e. the Tree of Life) |
| Blessings of Not Sinning | Eternal life in a place called heaven. | Eternal access to the Tree of Life. |
If God’s idea about sin was that it is only about physical and mental activities which can be observed, his remedy would have been to change their observable behaviors. He would not have found it necessary to give people new hearts by writing his laws on their hearts. His approach to change applies the following principles:
The fact that God focuses on the heart does not mean that he is unconcerned about what people do with their physical bodies. But he begins by changing the heart because he understands that what the body does flows out of what is in the heart.
When we understand these spiritual principles, we see that the reason that there is so much trouble in the world (i.e. sin and evil) is that people’s hearts are not right. Or, in God’s terms, they do not have his laws written on their hearts. Or, to put it another way, the world is full of Old/First Covenant religious people following religious laws created by men and not enough New Covenant disciples following spiritual laws created by God.
STUDY TIP: See THE HEART IS THE PLACE for understanding of why God puts so much emphasis on the heart.