MISSING THE MARK
The page GOD’S WRITTEN WORD AND HIS VOICE ARE NOT THE SAME, reports that sin is defined as eating the spoken or written words of anyone other than God or his anointed spokespersons. This tells us that the mark that we shoot for is the ability to listen to God’s spoken voice. When we listen to and obey (i.e. eat) God’s spoken voice, we hit the mark. We eat good spiritual  food. When we listen to God’s voice, we obey his spiritual laws written on our hearts. Hearing and obeying God’s voice is the mark.

However, when we listen to and obey (i.e. eat) the words of false prophets, we miss the mark and sin. We eat evil, soulish food. We eat from Trees of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

This definition of sin, of course, does not agree with the generally accepted concepts of sin in either Judaism or Christianity. It also appears to contradict Biblical representations of sin usually defined in terms of deeds of the flesh and observance of ceremonial laws specified or implied in the Bible. The way to reconcile these contradictions is to evaluate the differences between religious laws and spiritual laws, where we see that the main difference is who makes the laws: Men or God.

Religious people find no problem with religious laws made by men as long as those laws are based on the literal words of the Bible. Thus they readily conclude that morality (e.g. sex, greed, honesty, murder, etc.) and ethics are the standards by which God judges sin. Temptation, therefore, is framed by religionists with respect to these standards. God, however, does not see these issues the way man sees them.

In God’s way of thinking, if man is involved in the creation and enforcement of moral and ethical laws, he considers that those who follow those laws have “eaten” the words and writings of men. And for God, there is a very big difference between eating the words of men and eating his words. This difference is first presented in the Bible in the parable of the two trees in the Garden of Eden.

God said Adam and Eve could eat from either of the two trees (i.e. Tree of Life or the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil), but warned that if they ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil they would die. What we need to understand here is that God and his true prophets are trees of life and that false prophets are trees of knowledge of good and evil.

STUDY TIP: See Wood (trees), and Bread, Food and Wine for understanding of the two kinds of trees.

When we begin to understand the differences between the two kinds of trees, we can also begin to understand why God gives so much attention to discerning the difference between clean and unclean food. And when we understand this difference, we can begin to appreciate how eating the words of anyone other than God or his true prophets that speak for him can be considered to be sin.

Putting this in the context of religion, we see that religious laws are sin because religious laws are nothing more than doctrines made by and enforced by men. Religious people sincerely believe  that obedience to religious laws based on the literal words of the Bible is the mark that God has set for them. This makes sense to man, but this is not God’s way. God’s way, and God’s target (i.e. mark) is obedience to spiritual laws written on the heart. This is the ultimate example of God’s ways not being the same as man’s ways.