WHAT IS SIN?
In John 8 is one of the last public sermons of the Messiah before His crucifixion and so it figures He would focus it on the most important aspects of His message. His emphasis about what is sin is on lying and murderous hating. He says these are characteristics of Satan. Then His last message in Revelation after He rose and ascended is in chapter 22 on the main sins that will keep people constantly committing them out of the holy city of God. The words of the Messiah there mirror the words of God the Father in chapter 21:8. The sinfulness of lying appears again with a qualification in 21:8 that “all kinds of liars” are implicated. Murder appears too. Now there are additional sinful ways of life mentioned - looking up the meanings of the Greek terms is interesting. Sorcery means plant uses for drugs and potions and not just incantations and spells. So drug pushing and possibly even medicinally is part of what this means. Then what is translated as idolatry is a matter of renting out your worship-life for wages - paid worship. There is cowardice and doubt - the equivalent of what used to be called FUD “fear, uncertainty, doubt”. There is sexual immorality which is included by the word we translate as porn but the original word means a male prostitute or gigolo. We might sum a lot of this up as vice. Lowlife living. Sleaziness. Ethically unsound behaviour. In a modern world people sanitise it in corporations and hide it from the Law but God sees it for what it is and will destroy one day all who practice it. John 8 says how to be free forever from it in our lives - the Son setting us free if we believe Him and hold to His teachings.
