Christians talk a lot about "sin." What exactly is that? What's the difference between "sin" and "evil?" -Joseph
----------------------
This question has been in the queue for weeks. I have been dodging it but now I feel like if I keep dodging it I'll dodge it forever, so I'll just give it the ol' Seminary try. Thanks for writing in, Joseph. Now, stop complicating my life.
For some, the two words are nearly synonymous, and that's not a completely terrible way to go. In that case, evil is an adjective or noun, while sin is a noun or verb. If you do an evil thing, then you are sinning. It's quick, sweet, and easy, and that's good enough for most people to get along with.
But I don't think it's exactly that simple. And so now I am going to complicate it. Or, more precisely, reveal a possible complication.
I tend to think of evil, at least how we view it as a culture today, as a constant, a baseline, a moral absolute. Evil acts are evil, regardless of context.
Sin, however, I believe to be contextual. I feel that sin is the act of rebelling against the will of God. As God's will can change based on circumstance, an act that is sinful in one context might not be in another.
I know that this infuriates some people, but I do believe it is true to the world we see around us. Step into any college ethics class and watch the debate splinter as people name the thousands of details that might tip the scales in one direction or another. Any set of ethical rules inevitably devolve into guidelines, because hard and fast laws simply do not work in our world.
So here is my bombshell... I don't think Evil, as understood in my description above, really exists. I don't think there is a knowable moral absolute, an easy to describe rubric for actions to describe them as either evil or good. Our world has few true blacks and whites, but is filled near to bursting with shades of grey.
Here is a Biblical example of what I am talking about. In the books of Samuel, King David decides that he wants to build a Temple to God. He is told, however, that he can't, because he has taken so much life.
Now, in those wars David fought, he fought at God's command and with God's help. So surely, David wasn't sinning when he did so. If a moral absolute did exist, and was synonymous with God's will, that wouldn't be a problem. But apparently it was, and so something else was at work.
Maybe there is a moral absolute out there, but if there is, it is clear the human mind isn't capable of fathoming it. Despite all of our attempts to divide the world into Red and Blue, we live in shades of purple.
That said, there are good guidelines out there, rules of thumb that will nearly always apply. I think the ten commandments are good examples of this. Sure, sometimes killing is necessary, to protect others, for example. But in general, don't do it. Same with stealing, or lying, or coveting, etc.
So, to the difference. This will likely rile people up and that's okay. But if you want to know the difference, Evil is the (perhaps illusory) moral absolute of wrongness. The concept of sin, however, recognizes the moral complexity of the world around us, and rather than giving us quick and easy answers in questions of ethics, demands thought and discernment.
----------------------
This question has been in the queue for weeks. I have been dodging it but now I feel like if I keep dodging it I'll dodge it forever, so I'll just give it the ol' Seminary try. Thanks for writing in, Joseph. Now, stop complicating my life.
For some, the two words are nearly synonymous, and that's not a completely terrible way to go. In that case, evil is an adjective or noun, while sin is a noun or verb. If you do an evil thing, then you are sinning. It's quick, sweet, and easy, and that's good enough for most people to get along with.
But I don't think it's exactly that simple. And so now I am going to complicate it. Or, more precisely, reveal a possible complication.
I tend to think of evil, at least how we view it as a culture today, as a constant, a baseline, a moral absolute. Evil acts are evil, regardless of context.
Sin, however, I believe to be contextual. I feel that sin is the act of rebelling against the will of God. As God's will can change based on circumstance, an act that is sinful in one context might not be in another.
I know that this infuriates some people, but I do believe it is true to the world we see around us. Step into any college ethics class and watch the debate splinter as people name the thousands of details that might tip the scales in one direction or another. Any set of ethical rules inevitably devolve into guidelines, because hard and fast laws simply do not work in our world.
So here is my bombshell... I don't think Evil, as understood in my description above, really exists. I don't think there is a knowable moral absolute, an easy to describe rubric for actions to describe them as either evil or good. Our world has few true blacks and whites, but is filled near to bursting with shades of grey.
Here is a Biblical example of what I am talking about. In the books of Samuel, King David decides that he wants to build a Temple to God. He is told, however, that he can't, because he has taken so much life.
Now, in those wars David fought, he fought at God's command and with God's help. So surely, David wasn't sinning when he did so. If a moral absolute did exist, and was synonymous with God's will, that wouldn't be a problem. But apparently it was, and so something else was at work.
Maybe there is a moral absolute out there, but if there is, it is clear the human mind isn't capable of fathoming it. Despite all of our attempts to divide the world into Red and Blue, we live in shades of purple.
That said, there are good guidelines out there, rules of thumb that will nearly always apply. I think the ten commandments are good examples of this. Sure, sometimes killing is necessary, to protect others, for example. But in general, don't do it. Same with stealing, or lying, or coveting, etc.
So, to the difference. This will likely rile people up and that's okay. But if you want to know the difference, Evil is the (perhaps illusory) moral absolute of wrongness. The concept of sin, however, recognizes the moral complexity of the world around us, and rather than giving us quick and easy answers in questions of ethics, demands thought and discernment.
No comments:
Post a Comment