Why You Sin

WHY YOU SIN

Quotable Quote: “Like so many bible characters, Noah was both a saint and a jackass.”

I wrestled with the title of this post. For a while I was going to call it, “Why I Sin.” However, though I certainly sin, I thought it wiser to include you in the topic, because all of us sin, no matter how saintly we think we are.

In my estimation, there is generally very little understanding in the church regarding sin. When most pastors are pressed to explain why humans sin, they will either mumble something about free will or quote a bible verse about human sinfulness. That is about it. This, in my opinion, is very unsatisfactory.

So, why do you sin?

I believe the answer to this question is stated succinctly by Thomas Aquinas, in that all human willful choices are made “under the aspect of the good.” So, with this explanation in hand, a sin must be a willful choice and not an inadvertent or forced action. Secondly, it is some action that is deemed by you (or whomever) as a good thing, but it is not really good. And, that is the key.

As I have mentioned before, no one decides to do something they consider evil. No, they always and only do what they consider–at that moment–to be good. Please understand, this may mean that an individual has to do a lot of rationalization, but when it is all said and done, people only make choices “under the aspect of the good.” If you want to see a classic example of this, read the story of Adam and Eve’s fall in Genesis 3. Eve saw the forbidden fruit, and after listening to suggestions from the devil, decided that the fruit was “good.” The devil knew that Eve needed to stop believing the fruit was “forbidden” and start seeing it as “good.” This is how sin works.

In short, when we sin we willfully do mental gymnastics to turn something we know to be wrong into an act that–for us–is a good thing.

The ironic thing is that, when we sin, we often continue to believe the sinful act is wrong for everyone else, but we just give ourselves a “free pass” to engage in it as “good” for us. We may justify it for reasons like: 1) I am angry at God; 2) life is unfair; 3) I deserve it; 4) they hurt me; 5) it doesn’t make much difference; 6) everyone else is doing it; etc. Whatever the case, we first justify (make it right) in our minds.

One implication of this is that we all sin. Yup, all of us. In other words, all of us are really good at justifying. We can expertly turn a wrong into a “good” through our well-practiced strategies of self-deception. So, if you don’t think you do this, my friend, you have a massive case of denial.

One of the advantages of being an admitted moral failure is that I see more clearly how often Christians engage in self-deception and hypocrisy. But, the “flip-side” is that I am less judgmental. Admission of sinfulness is very humbling.

There is a fascinating story in the bible about one of the heroes of faith listed prominently in Hebrews 11. This guy was so heroic that he saved the human race. Not a bad resume. I am talking about Noah. The bible records (Genesis 9) that right after “righteous” Noah saved the world with the ark, he planted a vineyard, made wine, and got so drunk that he passed out in his tent naked. Woe! Like so many bible characters, Noah was both a saint and a jackass. Wait, though, there is more to the story. When Noah was passed out naked in his tent, his son Ham saw him and made fun of Noah to his brothers. He probably made some disparaging comments about the “old fool.” Ham’s brothers, though, refused to engage in the derogatory fun. Rather, they discreetly covered their father without looking at his nakedness. They covered over his sin in his hour of nakedness.

So what happened? Well, interestingly, God did not punish Noah for his foolish behavior. God did, though, curse Ham and his progeny for making fun of a fallen saint, exposed in his weakness. This is a powerful lesson for Christians who easily “dog-pile” on when someone is exposed as a sinner.

A Scripture comes to mind:

1 Peter 4:8 Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.

I think Peter’s point is that whenever you have humans gathered together (even Christians), you’ve got problems. You are going to have a “multitude of sins.” This can be hugely problematic. Actually, it can be volatile, even explosive. So, what is Peter’s antidote to the human toxin of sin? Well, it is not judgmentalism or witch hunts. It is love–deep love. Instead of “rooting out” sin, Peter’s goal is to overwhelm human fallen-ness with love. That’s different.

What I am saying is that we sin because we have the ability to justify our bad behavior as good behavior. The social solution to this is love. Tina Turner sang, “What’s Love Got to Do With It?” The answer is, everything.