Ok, the last couple of posts we went through a very condensed history of God as related to sin. We stopped with Jesus telling us personally what sin is. That was I believe the last time God told us very directly just what sin is but of course he does tell us everyday in our hearts when we sin. But it was not the last time that people would try to give their own definitions. Those we will cover now.

Somewhere between six and seven hundred years after Christ’s resurrection the Catholic church, which was for the most part the only Christian church at the time, came up with a list called the Seven Deadly Sins. This list was also know as cardinal sins or capital vices. The neat graphics above shows that list. Of course you could say that these have a foundation in Jesus’ two commands. Maybe they thought that Jesus’ words were just too general and needed some explanations.

Ghandi who I talked about in a previous post https://redletterliving.net/2009/11/02/deadly-sins/ put out his list of Seven Deadly Social Sins. And then the Catholic Church adds to the list of lists again a few years ago called the Seven Social Sins. I discussed those at https://redletterliving.net/2009/11/05/seven-social-sins-the-catholic-version/ .

So there is no shortage of lists of sins. Everyone wants to tell us just what sin is and how bad we are at doing them. One thing that has been central to my life has been the philosophy of KISS. That is Keep It Simple Stupid. In that vain and my concentration on the words of Jesus I prefer His words as to what sin is. “Love the Lord with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the greatest commandment. And second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself'”. (Matthew 22:37-38). Not following these commands is sin.
 

Now that I have pretty much said what I want to say about sin. Next time I will give you my personal testimony of what I think of sin.