“Obviously, God has something to say about the relationship between sin and righteousness. That is another discussion. For now we need to realize that sin is a function of behavior. It is not a quantity that must be removed or a substance that I am born with. It is all about what I do – each and every day. God says He will never alter His willingness to bring me into right relationship with Him. He will always accept my decision to turn to Him. But I have to choose what I am going to do about His invitation. What I choose to do either encourages the relationship or frustrates it. Even James assumes this dynamic when he says that sin is knowing what is the right thing to do and not doing it.”
I thought on the commercial about the banana peel and its status as a banana peel; it was still a banana peel when I thought it through. Imagine thousands and millions of people who are continually fed the lie that the banana peel is really not a banana peel ("people get hurt"). “Are you sure it is a peel? Is it possible that you do not have it right? Are you sure the information is valid? Can you be sure it is not a pomegranate instead of what you think you see?” These types of questions are legion.
I thought on the commercial about the banana peel and its status as a banana peel; it was still a banana peel when I thought it through. Imagine thousands and millions of people who are continually fed the lie that the banana peel is really not a banana peel ("people get hurt"). “Are you sure it is a peel? Is it possible that you do not have it right? Are you sure the information is valid? Can you be sure it is not a pomegranate instead of what you think you see?” These types of questions are legion.
Imagine if this scenario is continually fed into the psyche of certain types of personalities or souls if you will. Imagine how propaganda can defunct some people’s ability to “rightly divide the word of truth” (2Tim 2:15) if they ever had the ability in the first place. The latter would be very sad indeed. That would mean that the right way was known yet forsaken for the sake of mammon of some sort, mammon or love or admiration – these are also mammon if I, for example, see them as self-preservation or serving the personal self selfishly with no thought of the well-being of others. That is the pity. To know what is right and refuse to do it, is sinful. What is sin theologically or philosophically? I found a deep thought in the above quote about sin.
I suggest this article by Skip Moen (September 2010) shows sin as what humans do for or against the better angel nature, which we are born with; the other side of this coin is that of being “altogether born in sin” and “iniquity.” I suggest here that this appeals to knowing what the right thing to do is yet refusing to do it, is sin – as the verb; on the other hand, I fully understand what it means and its application as a noun. That is what inspired me about this commercial. In all things, life is a progression or regression – from light (right thought) to darkness (error, confusion, deceit, etc.). It is a choice to progress – or regress, but it is still a choice until we make the ultimate choice; then it is “Not my will…” when choice becomes internalized when we no longer struggle in the war between the right and wrong thing to do, sometimes called the “Will to Good.” By personal experience, I know this to be true in my continual progress toward the light.
