What exactly constitutes as a sin?

Introduction

As a continuation from my last post, I will try to discuss what constitutes as a sin. In this day and age, it has become pretty difficult to discern what exactly constitutes as a sin/sinful activity. For example, in the television show,The Good Place, one of the problems that the show highlighted was how incredibly difficult it is to get into the ‘good place’ or their version of heaven. This is because, due to advancements in technology and other reasons, it has become incredibly difficult to perform any action without it resulting in some form of sin. This brings us to the question: what exactly qualifies as a sin?

Biblical Perspective

In order to first tackle this subject, lets first look to the Biblical perspective on sin. In Romans, Paul states,

They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.”

Romans 1:29-32

From this excerpt, Paul attributes certain qualities to sinners, and therefore lists examples of different sins. The main thing to highlight here though is that these sinners here not only commit these sins, but are also well aware that the actions that they are partaking in are sinful, yet they still do it anyway. This is especially important because it relays the important concept of self-awareness and how the intentions behind each action can be as sinful as the action itself. Paul also brings to attention the significance of laws and how they can help make people become more aware of what sinful actions consist of. Paul states,

“ All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.”

Romans 2:12-13

Therefore, Paul is implying that there are sinful actions apart from disobeying the law (and therefore the law of the land cannot necessarily cover all sins) and so simply just being aware of the law will not equate to righteousness, rather following the law and not committing any sinful actions apart from the law. However, it is not the law who governs total authority; rather God’s will. Paul states,

“Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.”

Romans 3:19-20

Thus, the law serves mainly as a rough guideline of rules to follow, but there are still other rules that should be followed that fall outside the jurisdiction of the ‘law’ but are still governed by the supreme authority; God.

Aurelius’ Thoughts

Now that we’ve covered what the Bible’s perspective of sin is and who the main/final authority is, let’s now discuss what Marcus Aurelius’s thoughts are. Following the discussion from my previous post on justice, Aurelius expands this discussion to include the topic of sin. Aurelius states at the beginning of Book 9,

“Injustice is sin. When universal Nature has constituted rational creatures for the sake of each other–to benefit one another as deserved, but never to harm — anyone contravening her will is clearly guilty of sin against the oldest of the gods; because universal Nature is the nature of ultimate reality, to which all present existence is related.”

Aurelius 83

In this excerpt, Aurelius, in a different way from the Bible, establishes sin as the human behavior which divulges from the main constitution of universal Nature–being to live for the sake of each other and to help and not harm each other. In this way, it is similar to the Christian concept of ‘loving your neighbor’ but is still different from the Christian perspective of sin. This is because for one, the final authority in this case is characterized as the ‘universal Nature’ however, despite being personified slightly, is more of a framework of the human existence. In this way, by following the natural framework of human existence, a person by this definition is not committing any sins and is living a righteous life. Therefore, in contrast to the typical Christian belief of human nature of being ‘bad’, Aurelius posits the idea that human nature, or the rational being, is inherently good. Aurelius also adds,

“Moreover, the pursuit of pleasure as a good and the avoidance of pain as an evil constitutes sin. Someone like that must inevitably and frequently blame universal Nature for unfair distribution between bad men and good, since bad men are often deep in pleasures and possessions which make for pleasure, while the good often meet with pain and the other circumstances which cause pain.”

Aurelius 83

Essentially, Aurelius is arguing that the act of deliberately pursuing only pleasure and avoiding any form of suffering constitutes a sin. This is very similar to the Christian concept of suffering in which Romans states

“Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

Romans 5:3-5

Therefore, suffering and pain is a virtue and the avoidance of this would be a sin.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I think that it can be difficult to discern what constitutes a sin from a virtue when it comes down to the minor details of every action, but according to the Bible and Aurelius, following the law (as well as the laws of nature) and being aware of your actions (and it’s effects–therefore being aware if you are committing a sin and choosing not to commit it) as well as not avoiding suffering are all the guidelines to living a righteous life. In this way, although we did not clearly classify all the different types of sin, as long as you follow these guidelines, you will not be committing sin.