This blog, as well as all others on this site, are primarily devoted to communicating what we believe is the true character and nature of God. There is no agenda or other motivation. We are aware that long held beliefs could be challenged and some offense taken but we trust the Holy Spirit to bring clarity and dispel error.
There is no argument here that what ended up in scripture has been inspired by God. There is something for us to learn in all of it, whether factual or story-telling, and whether it exposes how to act or how not to act. What could and should be questioned is that the human lens used to interpret the bible may not always be accurate. After all, we have our prejudices and it’s a very human thing to project our wants and our ways onto God, but as scripture says, “my ways are not your ways” (Isaiah 55: 8-9). This is the very thing that got Jesus into so much trouble with his well-versed Old Testament-savvy contemporaries. He came with a message that turned the world upside down – in a good way.
Having said that, let’s look at sin. The first thing we must get settled is that when we talk of sin, we are only referring to its impact in this world – the human realm. Everything having to do with sin happens with humans living on earth. Here – in earth – is where we sin and where the consequence of our sin is felt and played out.
Even the spiritual evil presence (the Accuser of the Brethren, the adversary, deceiver), whom we invite to assist us in our sin, is described in Scripture as existing in the human realm. We all know the story of the fall from heaven and the reappearance in the Garden with man. Almost all biblical scholars’ interpretation of the story, point to the earth as the place where God sent “morning star, son of the dawn.” (Isaiah 14:12)
The Hebrew definition of sin is “missing the mark.” That seems simple enough, until it comes to assigning definition to “the mark.” Although there may be agreement on what constitutes “the mark” among some cultures and other people groups, there is absolutely no agreement among biblical scholars and theologians outside of strict adherence to the Ten Commandments. And when local norms, traditions, and beliefs are added to the mix it gets even more convoluted. No wonder there are constant disputes over who did what to whom and was it wrong or justifiable, so much so that the world had to develop a highly complex judicial system to sort it all out as best as humanly possible.
So what standard are we to rely on to give the correct meaning to “the mark.”
Let’s start with what we know: “God is love.” We also know that God’s love is something we can never be separated from. “Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8: 38-39).
We also know that God is all about life. Jesus is called “the Author of life”(Acts 3:15).
It makes sense then that our all-loving God would prefer that we choose only what is life-giving, for both ourselves and for others. “For the wages of sin is death . . .” (Romans 6:23)
Included in this scripture verse is a whole array of possibilities other than physical death. Just look at Adam and Eve, who are universally seen as the world’s first “sinner.” The story goes that they were told they would die if they ate from the tree of good and evil. Well, they did eat but went on to live outrageously long lives. However, there were severe self-inflicted consequences to their choice, including painful shame (which caused them to hide from God) and loss of access to the garden and, with it, abundant life.
Obviously, this was not a life-giving choice.
If only Adam and Eve (and us by extension) would have trusted that God was always for them and never against, they would have avoided bringing vast amounts of pain and suffering upon themselves (and us by extension). So, our conclusion is that “the mark” is choosing what is life-giving and whatever doesn’t bring harm to ourselves or others.
If we hope to be salt and light to a dark and hurting world, the cycle of “hurting people hurting people” needs to be interrupted. Hitting “the mark” by making life-giving choices is a vital part of this.
Catholic Apostolic Group 