Sin Vs Fear and Love
The old testament required God’s people to follow the 10 commandments to not sin, however, the New testament required that all love God and their neighbors as themselves. This law of love expects more than the base rules set forth in the 10 commandments. Love requires more restraint but become easier to obey because our attitude changes toward others and God. Grace is also available for those who repent and ask for forgiveness for sinful mistakes. Love is therefore better than law.
Now, let’s look at what God defines as sin. How the Old Testament Law of fear and the New Testament love through Christ wars against sin.
1Sa 15:23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idol‑worship.
Rebellion against God and stubbornness is sin.
Deu 23:21 When you shall vow a vow to Jehovah your God, you shall not wait to pay it, for Jehovah your God will surely require it of you, and it would be sin in you.
Deu 23:22 But if you shall cease to vow, it shall be no sin in you.
We sin if we break a promise we make to God
Deu 5:11 You shall not take the name of Jehovah your God in vain, for Jehovah will not acquit the one who takes His name in vain.
We sin if we swear against God.
The commandments given Moses
Exo 20:3 You shall have no other gods before Me.
Exo 20:4 You shall not make to yourselves any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
Exo 20:5 You shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them. For I Jehovah your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the sons to the third and fourth generation of those that hate me,
Exo 20:6 and showing mercy to thousands of those that love Me and keep My commandments.
Exo 20:7 You shall not take the name of Jehovah your God in vain. For Jehovah will not hold him guiltless that takes His name in vain.
Exo 20:8 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Exo 20:9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work.
Exo 20:10 But the seventh day is the Sabbath of Jehovah your God. You shall not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger within your gates.
Exo 20:11 For in six days Jehovah made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore Jehovah blessed the Sabbath day, and sanctified it.
Exo 20:12 Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long upon the land which Jehovah your God gives you.
Exo 20:13 You shall not kill.
Exo 20:14 You shall not commit adultery.
Exo 20:15 You shall not steal.
Exo 20:16 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
Exo 20:17 You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.
Exodus 34:12-26 also gave commandments God wrote on stone tablets given to Moses.
The New Testament
Mat 7:12 Therefore all things, whatever you desire that men should do to you, do even so to them; for this is the Law and the Prophets.
Mat 5:21 You have heard that it was said to the ancients, “You shall not kill” -and, “Whoever shall kill shall be liable to the judgment.”
Mat 5:22 But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be liable to the judgment. And whoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be liable to the Sanhedrin; but whoever shall say, Fool! shall be liable to be thrown into the fire of hell.
Murder and unjust anger obviously is considered as sin by God!
(Rom 14:13) Then let us not judge one another anymore, but rather judge this, not to put a stumbling-block or an offense toward his brother.
(1Co 8:8) But food does not commend us to God. For neither if we eat are we the better, nor if we do not eat are we the worse. God does not care what we eat.
(Rom 14:21) It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor anything by which your brother stumbles, or is offended, or is made weak.
(1Co 8:9) But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours becomes a stumbling block to those who are weak.
(1Co 8:10) For if anyone sees you who have knowledge sitting in an idol temple, will not the weak one’s conscience be lifted up so as to eat things sacrificed to idols?
(1Co 8:11) And on your knowledge the weak brother will fall, he for whom Christ died.
(1Co 8:12) And sinning in this way against your brothers, and wounding their conscience, being weak, you sin against Christ.
(1Co 8:13) Therefore, if food offends my brother, I will eat no flesh forever, that I do not offend my brother. We sin if we do anything that causes another person to sin.
Rom 14:14 I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing by itself is common; except to him who esteems anything to be common, it is common.
Rom 14:22 Do you have faith? Have it to yourself before God. Blessed is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves.
Rom 14:23 But, the one doubting, if he eats, he has been condemned, because it is not of faith; and all that is not of faith is sin.
We sin if do anything that we believe is wrong.
Jas 4:17 Therefore to him who knows to do good, and does not do it, to him it is sin.
We sin if we know to do good and do not do it.
Jas 2:9 But if you have respect to persons, you commit sin and are convicted by the Law as transgressors.
Jas 2:10 For whoever shall keep the whole Law and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.
Jas 2:11 For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” But if you do not commit adultery, yet if you murder, you have become a transgressor of the Law.
We sin if we show partiality between people.
1Jn 3:14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brothers. He who does not love his brother abides in death.
1Jn 3:15 Everyone hating his brother is a murderer. And you know that no murderer has everlasting life abiding in him.
We sin if we hate another Christian.
1Jn 1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
We are to judge ourselves that we do not give a brother or sister in Christ a cause for an offense. We judge our actions as to what is sin. When we judge ourselves (and cease to sin asking for forgiveness), God does not have to judge us.
1Jn 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1Jn 1:10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His Word is not in us. We sin if we lie to deceive ourselves into thinking that we have not sinned.
1Jn 3:4 Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness, for sin is lawlessness.
1Jn 3:6 Everyone who abides in Him does not sin. Everyone who sins has not seen Him nor known Him.
If one continues to sin with no change for good in their life, they have not been saved and are still living in sin. Anything done against the will of God is sin.
1Jn 3:9 Everyone who has been born of God does not commit sin, because His seed remains in him, and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.
1Jn 5:18 We know that everyone who has been born of God does not continue to sin, but the one born of God guards himself, and the evil one does not touch him.
Those in Christ do not sin purposely and continually, ignoring the will of Christ & the Father. We are in danger of sin if we begin to reason what is right and wrong instead of relying on what God says is right and wrong. Obedience to God is the only safe path. When Eve reasoned the apples to be good, she really desired to have self-rule instead of God rule. She deceived herself into thinking that it would be good for her and Adam to reason right from wrong without depending on God. Pride made her want to be equal to God. Satan had the same problem.
Heb 10:26 For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more sacrifice for sins,
Heb 10:27 but a certain fearful looking for judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.
Heb 10:28 He who despised Moses’ Law died without mercy on the word of two or three witnesses.
Heb 10:29 Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy of punishment, the one who has trampled the Son of God, and who has counted the blood of the covenant with which he was sanctified an unholy thing, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?
To continue to sin purposely after receiving Christ, cancels salvation and results in worse punishment.
Rom 1:21 Because, knowing God, they did not glorify Him as God, neither were thankful. But they became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Rom 1:22 Professing to be wise, they became fools
Rom 1:23 and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man, and birds, and four-footed animals, and creeping things.
Rom 1:24 Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves.
Rom 1:28 And even as they did not think fit to have God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do the things not right,
Rom 1:29 being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; being full of envy, murder, quarrels, deceit, evil habits, becoming whisperers,
Rom 1:30 backbiters, haters of God, insolent, proud, braggarts, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
Rom 1:31 undiscerning, perfidious, without natural affection, unforgiving, unmerciful;
Rom 1:32 who, knowing the righteous order of God, that those practicing such things are worthy of death, not only do them, but have pleasure in those practicing them. God rejects those that do not give Him glory and leads them into various sins that they enjoy.
Mat 6:12 and forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors.
1Jn 5:16 If anyone sees his brother sin a sin not to death, he shall ask, and He shall give him life for those that do not sin to death. There is a sin to death, I do not say that he shall pray for it.
1Jn 5:17 All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not to death. But
Mat 12:32 And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him. But whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this world or in the world to come.
Mar 3:29 But he who blasphemes* against the Holy Spirit never shall have forgiveness, but is liable to eternal condemnation.
Luk 12:10 And whoever shall speak a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him. But to him who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven. *Blaspheme: to vilify; specifically, to speak impiously: – (speak) blaspheme (-err,), defame, rail on, revile, speak evil.
There is an unforgivable sin that the saved are not to pray about. But other sins are forgivable and should be prayed about asking for God’s forgiveness.
Concentrate on what God desires that is without sin, but is in love:
Mat 22:37 Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.
Mat 22:38 This is the first and great commandment.
Mat 22:39 And the second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Mat 22:40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.
Take hope: Fear God and have faith in Christ to be forgiven of past sins.
Psa 103:10 He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
Psa 103:11 For as the heavens are high above the earth, so is His mercy toward those who fear Him.
Psa 103:12 As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.
Psa 103:13 As a father pities his children, Jehovah pities those who fear Him.
Rom 3:21 But now a righteousness of God has been revealed apart from Law, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets;
Rom 3:22 even the righteousness of God through the faith of Jesus Christ, toward all and upon all those who believe. For there is no difference,
Rom 3:23 for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God,
Rom 3:24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus;
Rom 3:25 whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness through the passing by of the sins that had taken place before, in the forbearance of God;
Rom 3:26 for the display of His righteousness at this time, for Him to be just and, forgiving the one being of the faith of Jesus.