what is sin?

Went to a very good Bible study tonight--maybe the best in the many months I've been part of this group. An interesting question came up, the kind that you think you have an easy answer for only to realize upon digging that you really don't have much of anything. So...what is sin?

Ever since my early days at IBC I've gone with the "anything that causes separation from God" comeback. Hey, it's easy, to the point, and even a bit intellectual. But it's also a bit theological and "heady" and lends itself to deeper questions. Moreover, tonight's leader brought up a very good point: What's it all supposed to mean to an unbeliever? Such talk of God and separation means nothing to someone who doesn't believe the Lord exists and certainly doesn't see any reason to avoid some kind of fictitious (to them) "separation." He/She first needs a reason to care. And this is a fundamental question not only in theological terms but also as part of evangelism. I'm a big believer in the idea that someone cannot properly understand Christ and salvation until they understand their own condition and can at least see the hopelessness that results from their actions even if they don't really grasp it. (After all, there probably aren't many Christians who really, really understand this concept and I'm certainly not one of them.) So an inability to put the idea of sin in bite-size form is a hindrance to not only one's understanding of salvation and Biblical history but also to one's willingness and ability to confront others on the issue.

Another in the group made a good point that sin can be anything that isn't done out of love. After all, we each have at least a rudimentary understanding of love and the feelings it brings. This holds across all cultural boundaries. But the problem I see here is that people think of love in so many different ways. I doubt many see it as the godly, agape love spoken of in the Bible. And plenty of others--most, I suspect--see it as only a human feeling, putting it in easy-to-measure terms like pleasure, loyalty, commitment, etc. And while these are important they don't get to the core. At least not to the level that you can begin to relate sin and love and claim that the two are inherently separate. If you tell someone to think of sin and love in such a way when their concept of love doesn't even touch on Biblical tones, they're going to end up with a twisted idea of sin and by extension an incorrect or incomplete view of Christ's sacrifice. So you'd first have to define love and that's probably more difficult than the dilemma we started with. Although the group seemed to come to a consensus on this sin vs. love idea I'm not convinced.

So, while I think I have a good theological grasp of sin, I'm sorely deficient in the practical, common realm. I don't know what the answer is or if there's an ideal answer that covers all bases nicely, but it should at least give me something to think about for a while. Or actually I should just read the Bible more...that would help too...