Some of the other things that hinder us in seeing the truth God reveals about sin is our prejudices and assumptions around sin.

Part of this begins with our prejudices around the very word “sin”. This word carries certain ideas within our minds, and often we fail to realize that the things in life that we hate: injustice, cruelty, selfishness, and so on, are the very things God is pointing to under the name of sin. Sin is everything in this world that is harmful and wrong. We fail to appreciate God’s judgment on our behalf, just how much He is on our side, standing against all that evil and wrong in this world. The issue for us is that in order for us to truly stand with God, we have to be willing to do the full work of godliness and righteousness.

Another prejudice that blinds us is in our limited understanding of what we think sin to be. We often think of sin only in extremes, such as murder or abuse, greed, etc, and do not see the far greater depths of what sin really is. Additionally, we think virtue is “cheap”, and as stated before, we are content in our minimal virtues and philosophies.

In thinking of sins only as extremes we miss the great variety and nature to sin, and often do not connect the miseries we see and experience as being the very evils God is talking about.

It has become greater and greater knowledge that much of the abuse that goes on in this world is often far more than physical, but is also psychological, mental, and emotional, as well as spiritual abuse. And this is a good wisdom we can follow into a broader view of sin. Sin is not just “the physical” or the extreme, but it is in the spirit, attitudes, and intentions of our hearts.

Some examples of this:

• The sin of pride. We might not think much of this sin, yet there’s no greater hatred of our neighbor nor selfishness in such a sin. Pride is rooted in elevating ourselves at the cost of our neighbor. It depends upon the “inferiority” of others to elevate its false “worth”. Not only that, but it is not a real worth (which is found in living righteously before God), but serves a false worth.
• The sin of unreality. How much harm is done to others through this sin. Where people twist things in order to present a false “reality” that suits them. All of this is driven entirely from self-seeking ends. Where people present false narratives that completely erase the reality around them, and the legitimate needs/pain of others.
• The sin of easy answers. How small we think this sin to be, yet those who have been on the receiving end of this sin know just how bitter and harmful it is. It is the sin of serving a narrow “understanding” in ourselves whereby we paint the work in oversimplifications, half truths, and easy answers to feel we understand and are “above the masses”. There’s no greater lovelessness towards our neighbor than this. And no greater neglect of the real work of understanding truth rightly!

What have we tasted of the pride, selfishness, betrayal, contempt, neglect, unreality, and misuse of others? These are some of the examples of what sin is really like.

And this is exactly what the Lord would have us to see, that sin does far more harm than we imagine, and is far more than mere extremes. Our sins have far greater costs than we want to be true, yet it is true. And if we don’t really deal with these sins, then we insist upon poisoning the world around us and expecting others to pay the cost of tolerating our corruption, rather than expecting ourselves to pay the cost for righteousness.