Sin and the Challenges of Not Recognizing our Unity

If salvation means putting on the mind of Christ, then sin means operating out of a dualistic mind and not recognizing the unity.

Christianity is often preoccupied with sin. Sin is understood by many Christians as a bad or evil action that will prevent us from going to heaven when we die. Often there is a leap in their minds from sinful actions to sinful people. If one is sinful, then one must be evil, therefore that one can be despised. Spending time determining who is sinful and who is not can be a preoccupation for less mature Christians.

However, in the Bible the word “sin” in Greek literally means “missing the mark,” a term from archery. This is a direct translation of the Greek word “Hamartia.” To be a sinful person simply means to be someone who misses the mark, makes mistakes, something which is true for all of us.

But there is another definition of sin which is broader and beautifully incorporates the truth of my mystical experience (described last week), while keeping in line with the original concept of “missing the mark.”

Sin means not acting out of the unity of all things.

All of creation is connected and therefore valuable to God.

Consider the implications. If all of God’s creation is connected, and all of it is valuable, then how we treat it, even the parts we don’t like, becomes enormously important. Sounds a bit like Jesus actually.

“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.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” – Matthew 22:37-40

“Jesus said, ‘Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten in God’s sight.’” – Luke 12:6

For example, racism is a sin, because it treats people of color as less valuable than the holy, blessed, and beloved part of God’s good creation that they are.

Sexism is a sin, because it treats half of humanity as less valuable than the other half.

Permitting poverty to exist is a sin because it allows other parts of your very self, other people, to suffer.

War is a sin because it fosters violence between parts of yourself. For one country to fight another is like stabbing yourself in the eye. War makes no sense.

Pollution, climate change, and environmental degradation are sins, because they treat the planet and the environment as less than utterly sacred.

Photo by Antoine GIRET on Unsplash

Lying is a sin, because deceiving others is simply a way of deceiving and misleading those who are precious to God, including ourselves.

Injustice of any kind is a sin and becomes unthinkable, because why would we seek harm against someone who is essentially part of us?

Animal cruelty, species extinction, and factory farms are all sins, because they treat animals as less valuable than the blessings from God that they are.

Any chronic lack of care of yourself is a sin, because you, too, are profoundly loved and precious to God. It doesn’t matter if you aren’t a Christian, or a perfect person, or even a particularly good person, by virtue of being part of God’s good creation, you are infinitely valuable. God cares about you and your well-being. To treat yourself as less important than others, or to treat anyone as less than a beloved child of God, is to miss the mark.

We are to treat all material beings and things with loving-kindness and compassion, not just for their sake, but our own. Every moment of every day we tread on holy ground, we encounter sacred life, and we are surrounded by blessings. And this includes yourself.

We have the choice as a species to recognize the truth of the unity of all things and live in bliss or, to the extent to which we forget or ignore it, live in a state of suffering and sin. And by sin, again, I don’t mean we are necessarily evil or bad, but that we miss the mark, and treat God’s good creation as trash. In doing so, we are shooting ourselves in the foot, because we are all connected. We are all one. Whenever we treat a part of the creation as less valuable than it really is, ultimately, we hurt ourselves.

When we throw fossil fuel into the air and change the climate, we make our life on the planet more precarious.

When we express hate and vengeance to those with whom we are angry, and let them take up real estate in our head, we create a toxic environment for them and ourselves.

When we look down on another human as being less than us, we are sending out low vibrations of energy which can boomerang around and through others, and return to us.

When a whole society looks down on another society or sub group, it triggers civil unrest and wars.

“Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow.” – Galatians 6:7

Which brings up another point about sin:

We are not punished FOR our sins. We are punished BY our sins.

God doesn’t go around trying to create rules in order to trap us into judgment! Avoiding sin is not about avoiding judgment from God and going to hell when we die. Rather, avoiding sin is about us avoiding creating our own hell right now! God sent Jesus to try to save us from ourselves. We cause our own hell. God has nothing to do with it. Jesus is trying to teach us how to live well, to save us from sin, and to keep us from hurting ourselves.

He is offering us something like an instruction manual. When our car instruction manual says that best practices include changing the oil every 3,000 miles, we find that if we do that, things chug along nicely. But if we never change the oil, we will eventually create our own hell. Our car engine will fail. We do it to ourselves. So too, if we operate without loving-kindness and compassion towards all of God’s good creation, we create hell on earth.

Left to our own devices, most of us see the material world as a bunch of separate entities: people, plants, animals, earth, and so on, and we believe ourselves to be separate and in competition against everyone and everything else to get ahead. This causes us great suffering. Jesus is trying to point out the truth that we are all one, and connected, and must treat all parts of ourselves, including other people, plants, animals, the earth, as precious. Everything comes from God equally. No part is superior to any other part. All is very good.

“For us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.” – 1 Corinthians 8:6

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.” - John 1:1-5

“God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good.” – Genesis 1:31

One of the challenging things about seeing everything as good is that we often encounter people or situations which are not good at all. Are we supposed to love them too? Do we treat them with respect and value? What if they are depraved human beings? Think of the worst person you can, someone you know who is really awful. Hitler. Stalin. Terrorists. Your boss. Whoever. These are bad people. Surely God doesn’t want them treated as valuable? If people are bad, that means they lose their value, right? Wrong!

God loves Stalin just as much as God loves Mother Teresa.

I want to underscore that I am in no way saying God approves of Stalin’s actions. But the logical conclusion of loving your neighbor is treating all parts of God’s good creation as equally valuable. Of seeing the Oneness. God sees us from the soul level, and not our human level, and that is why God tells us to love all people regardless of their human sins, regardless of what they do on the physical plane of existence.

“It must be known that God dwells and is present substantially in every soul, even in that of the greatest sinner in the world, and this union is natural.” – St. John of the Cross

On earth, Stalin and Mother Teresa are very different. God assess their actions very differently from that perspective, and we should too. There need to be severe repercussions on the physical plane for people like Stalin. But from the soul level, God loves both equally.

“From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view.” – 2 Corinthians 5:16

The 14^th century mystic Julian of Norwich writes: “God makes no distinction in love between the blessed soul of Christ and the least soul on this earth.”

We can judge people’s physical actions and hold them accountable for those actions, but at the same time, we don’t value their essential self any less. We need to also look at people from the soul level on the eternal planes of existence, and value their basic human dignity. We are to engage the world from the perspective of Christ Consciousness. It is what Jesus advocates.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.” – Matthew 5:43-45

This does not mean there are no consequences to bad actions, but the consequences must recognize human dignity. Dignity is not something you earn; it is something you are born with by virtue of being part of God’s good creation. While we all have times when we feel this, we are not to take pleasure in another’s downfall.

For instance, a criminal may deserve the consequence of having to go to prison. But prison does not mean their human rights may be violated. Starvation, beatings, underpaid labor, withholding medical care, rape, torture, humiliation, and other grave harm are profound sins, even to a convicted criminal.

Proportionate consequences may be necessary, but they must be done with sadness, with prayers, and with hope for healing and reconciliation. No matter how awful a co-worker, or your ex-spouse, or a politician, or a criminal, seeking vengeance against them, wishing for or causing pain or suffering (outside of that from proportionate consequences), is a sin. And sin will come back to bite you, because we are all connected.

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.” – Romans 12:2 [ie: salvation is putting on the mind of Christ].

Humanity and all creation is in union with God in Christ. Sin is when we fail to see or embody this unity, hurting ourselves and others, creating hell on earth. Salvation is adopting Christ consciousness and recognizing this unity. The Kingdom of God is when we operate out of this unity, we embody it, living lives of love.