How do you define sin? Why do people sin? Does everyone sin?
Today, I read this:
“When Rachel saw that she was not having children for Jacob, she envied her sister Leah. She said to Jacob, ‘Give me children, or I’ll die!’ Jacob became angry with her and said, ‘Can I do what only God can do? He is the one who has kept you from having children.’ Then Rachel said, ‘Here is my slave girl Bilhah. Have sexual relations with her so she can give birth to a child for me. Then I can have my own family through her.’” (Genesis 30:1-3 NCV)
. Rachel saw her sister and became jealous—lust of the eyes.
. She saw the joy Leah had with her children and craved that experience for herself—lust of the flesh.
. Instead of waiting on God, Rachel took matters into her own hands—the pride of life.
These three—lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—are the roots of sin.
The Apostle James put it plainly:
“Anyone who knows the right thing to do, but does not do it, is sinning.” (James 4:17 NCV)
If you have nothing to hide, you hide nothing. But the truth is, we all sin. The lust of the heart craves physical or emotional gratification. The lust of the eyes desires what we see and covet. And the pride of life? It pushes us to rely on ourselves instead of God.
Here’s the reality: we all have a sinful nature—every single one of us. Even as professing Christians, saved and redeemed, we still sin. Isn’t that wild?
But here’s the hope in the middle of it all: we minister best to others in their sin when we remember our own. God didn’t call us to be perfect examples; He called us to be living testimonies of His grace.
Solomon warned us: “Some people think they are doing right, but in the end it leads to death.” (Proverbs 14:12 NCV)
And Jeremiah didn’t hold back either: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9 ESV)
In other words, we are capable of deceiving even ourselves. This is why we need an outside source—someone greater than us—to guide us. That someone is Jesus Christ.
If you feel something is off, it probably is. And yes, you should expect others to sin—even sin against you. But when that happens, remember the depth of God’s forgiveness toward you.
God forgave us so much that He gave us His Son, Jesus, as the way to permanent forgiveness. Without Him, we’d face eternal death. But with Him, we have eternal life—a promise of a new heaven and a new earth. (Revelation 21:1)
People forgiven - forgive.
LORD, thank You for saving us from ourselves. Left to our own devices, we become a mess. Thank You for Jesus Christ, the One who saves us and makes us whole. INIP amen ♥️
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