What is sin? Depending on which church you have a background in, there are all sorts of things that may come to mind. As I have covered in the past I attended many churches that said drinking any alcohol was a sin. I had people in my life that would tell me my hair was too long and that was a sin. While doing research for this comic I came across a commentary on some of the above verses that said any type of failure is a sin. So, being part of a race and not getting first – you just sinned!

Is this what the Bible teaches though? No, it isn’t. We see from John that sin is transgression of the law. What is the law? The Torah. What is transgression? Transgression is not preforming the action or going against the action. Does the Bible ever say that it is a sin to drink alcohol? No, it doesn’t. It does say equate being a drunkard to rebellion. (Deut 21:20). Does the Bible ever say that it is a sin for men to have long hair? No. In fact the Nazarite Vow, a vow God set forth for someone who wanted to try and live as holy as they can, states that someone taking the vow is not allowed to cut their hair and it should grow long. (Numbers 6:5)

We need to stop looking to people and/or denominations to tell us what sin is and look back at God’s Word to tell us.