What You NEED To Know About Sin

What You NEED To Know About Sin

 Christian Morality

Some people claim that awareness of sin is disappearing from society today. People are overlooking sins as unimportant and not serious. This is the exact opposite of what a sin is. "One key idea about sin, especially in the Old Testament, is that sin is rebelling against God." Think about it. God gave us Ten Commandments to follow and the Beatitudes as guidelines. He set down the laws that we should follow. Disobeying God's law is like disobeying a king's law. You are rebelling against Him. 

The Old Testament, and more the New Testament, speaks several passages about God's forgiveness. "Jesus' work of salvation does not mean that Heaven is guaranteed for all people." As humans, we make mistakes. But what we do after is the crucial part. We must repent our sins to God and pray for his forgiveness. If we don't, Hell is our ultimate consequence.

So how do we know just what a sin is in order to avoid them? "Three elements determine the morality of any human act: (1) the object, that is, the specific thing the person is choosing to do, (2) the intention of the person doing the action, and (3) the circumstances surrounding the act. In determining whether a human act is morally good or morally bad, we must consider all three elements together.

As if that weren't confusing enough, there are also different types of sin. The two categories of sin are sins of commission and sins of omission. Sins of commission are sins that you physically commit, such as stealing. Sins of omission are sins that occur when we fail to do something required by God, such as attending weekly Mass. Within these categories are then mortal and venial sins. A venial sin is less serious than a mortal sin, but still damages our relationship with God. An example would be lying. A mortal sin is a very serious sin that destroys within us the virtue of charity. An example of this would be murdering another human. These sins are linked with vices and virtues that we have. Vices are bad habits, and virtues are good ones. They are part of our character. "Christian morality, then, is being the person God created you to be- a person who chooses to be good."

If we, ourselves, do not stop our sinning, it will spread out into the community. A consequence of not stopping our sinning is that it will turn into social sin. "Social sin happens when a sinful attitude or action becomes so commonly accepted that it goes unchallenged by most people." Many "-isms" are great examples of social sin. Sexism, ageism, and, most prominent, racism. In fact, there was a time in this country where racism was intertwined within our legal system. Segregation. All of this started from one man's attitude. He didn't stop sinning, and his attitude spread out to an entire country.

God gave us free will, but he also created us to be good. Sure, we make mistakes, but we should move on from them. God gave us the Sacrament of Reconciliation to confess our sins and be forgiven. We should then learn our lesson and not commit that sin again. In a perfect world there would be no sin, but as we all know, the world is not perfect.