“How do I know whether something is a sin?”

Author: Lisa Groen

Within Christianity, the believer is one who is given a new, born-again nature and a life that is united with Christ. As we learn about God in our faith and what it means to follow Him, we learn from the truths we hear from the word of God. We may discover a love for the word of God as it brings us hope and assurance and spiritual delight with the graces of glimpses of God. We discover also that God warns us about sin, and the Biblical warnings are real, and sometimes harrowing.

If you have come to know the Lord, you may have already asked a pressing question at some point: “How do I know if something is regarded as a sin in God’s eyes?” Or as a follower of God you may have said something like “I know the Bible teaches there is a cost to sin, and thank God Jesus paid that cost, but I know we are not to live in the sin that Jesus died to free us from. How do I know for sure if what I am doing is right?” How should we then navigate these questions? The Bible was written as a book to help us in our faith, to give us understanding about how to live for the Lord. As we come to know the Lord, we can know and believe the God we serve does not want confusion for us. He may allow some grey areas to come at times, perhaps for the purpose of prompting us to seek His light and guidance. Confusion is not meant to be the diet God provides for the believer, although He may allow us to question at times.

Many times, the Bible will explicitly say something is a sin. Sometimes it will not clearly state certain things are sins. Sometimes likewise it may say something is God’s will, and other times not. So, it is important to become familiar with the Bible so we can glean from what it does say. God often makes His will known to us through His word. At times when the word of God does not spell out things as sin, or either spell out his will, these grey areas are times to use what we do know about God and his plan for us. This may be how God plans we must trust Him in order to grow our faith. In these times keeping our eyes on the nature of the Lord that we can see in His word will bring assurance to our walk with God and we will become fruitful. Consequently, we will see the unfolding of His will for our lives.

For many of us, we would like a map of every day written for us from heaven for God’s plan for us, if it were possible. A Christ follower wants to stay close to God, and a Christ follower desires to be pleasing to God. However, in the infinite intelligence of God, He has foreseen that for the believer it is more fruitful for their faith if he or she does not have everything spelled out for them. What we do have is the sure promise that The God of salvation has already provided everything we need for life and godliness in following the Lord through faith in Him.

If you are a Christ follower and walking with Him, the need will arise when the Lord would like us to examine our relationship with Christ, and what He has done for us provisionally for the things we may need for following him effectively. We could fill entire libraries of books on what God has provided for us. We would then have to keep adding libraries.

But the point I am making is about how God will arrange events in our lives when we will need to lean on his Spirit and word and his eternal being for our help to move along safely in life. Our dependency on God will grow. If we do sin, we have an advocate with the Father to pray for us. To prepare us for times like this, the Lord admonishes his followers in Deuteronomy to “remember My word. For it is your life….”. Other benefits we see in going to the word are in the gospel of John, are where Jesus says, “My words are Spirit and My words are Life”.  In addition, throughout many Bible passages in scripture is the picture that God’s word is our spiritual food—our living bread. So, we know that leaning on Him and His word is meant to give us spiritual life and nourishment–spiritual daily strength. We know the Lord intends this bread to be eaten by his followers.

To tie together all of these points we see that if we regularly unpack what is in the word of God it will be daily nourishment, it will help us steer away from sin, it will be life for us, and it will help us follow His will. Reading God’s word and seeking to apply it day by day, should safeguard us from sin because it is life from our Life-Giver. These elements will safeguard us as we go to Him for guidance daily along the pathways we must take. 

Keep growing in the Word! LG