Sin

I do not talk a lot about sin. Those who study such things say that the Hebrew word we translate as sin literally means 'to miss the mark.' Thus, there is no implication of evil. It just means you have made a mistake.

That is not to say that there is never evil intent involved in a mistake, sometimes there is, and, at that point, the sin becomes something very serious. But, sometimes, we simply do not get things right.

For example, an alcoholic borrows your car. He/she is completely sober and has no intention of having a drink until he/ she returns that car. Now, suppose, they, while sober, overlook a stop sign and wreck your car. That is a mistake, and thus a sin, but no evil intent is there.

Second scenario. That same person borrows your car. It's a hot day, they finish their errand early and stop to have a quick beer, fully intending to have just one. They run into a friend, wind up having four beers and are buzzed, but not drunk. They think, 'oh I'm fine,' and, on the way back, their attention wavers and they wreck your car. This is a far more serious mistake, a more serious sin, but, there still was no evil intent.

Third scenario. Same person borrows your car, fully intending to head to the nearest bar and get hammered. They do so, and wreck your car. Here, there is evil intent. True, they did not intend to wreck your car, but they knew that driving drunk greatly increased the risk. This is an even more serious mistake, a worse sin.

Fourth scenario. This may seem unlikely, but such things do happen/ Same person borrows your car, fully intending to get drunk and, after doing so, they fully intend to wreck that car because they are mad at you. Here there is definitely an evil intent, and the sin is very serious.

Fifth scenario. The same as the last one except, in wrecking your car, they hit a nearby pedestrian and kill them, accidently. Obviously, the sin is worse, but wait.

Sixth scenario. As they are about to wreck your car, they see someone they hate standing nearby and deliberately hit them and kill them. Now, you are into deep evil.

Still, everything listed above is a sin, a mistake. Even deliberately killing the person in the last scenario is, at the most basic level, a mistake. The Buddhists quite rightly point out that all  evil is the result of ignorance, saying that if you saw the world properly and knew your right relationship to everything and everyone else, you would not do these stupid things.

The Churches have, over the years, distorted things to the point where some believe that if they fall the least bit outside the Biblical guidelines, they have sinned and that, thus, they have committed a great evil.  No, you have just made a mistake, do better.

What of the mistakes that encompass great evil. Jesus teaches that you may not judge them, that is up to God and that God is quite forgiving(remember, the word translated as 'judge, from the Greek text, would be better translated as 'to separate and cast aside,' or 'to shun,' this is what we are told not to do. If you look at what was done and say, 'wow, that was stupid' or 'that was bad,' that's different from shunning the person.). The Buddhists would say that if you are judging them, you do so because you are not seeing your relationship to that person and everything else clearly, and that you judge out of ignorance. Or, back to Christian ethics, 'judge not lest you be judged, for as you judge, so will you be judged.'

We are human, we make mistakes, sometimes terrible mistakes. Try not to waste time thinking about how evil and sinful everyone, including yourself, is. Look at the mistakes, the sins, and figure a way to avoid them in the future.