Missing the Mark

If I were to come to you one-on-one and ask you how you define sin, what would you say? My guess is that many of us would say something to the effect of, “doing bad things.” But sin is more than that, it’s deeper than that. Sin is missing your purpose.

The Bible never comes out and defines sin, but there’s a 3-fold definition that comes out of the various passages that touch on sin. First, sin is rebellion against God. This is the idea that God wants us to do something or be a certain way and we do things our own way instead. The second part of the definition is the idea of surrendering to evil instead of God. But the third piece and most prevalent today is: missing God’s purpose for our lives.

The word sin literally translated means “missing the mark.” Think of it like we’re all Katniss Everdeen and we step up to shoot at the target with our bow and arrow. The goal, as always, is to hit the bullseye right? That’s living according to the way God has purposed us. But we all miss. None of us hit the bullseye. None of us live according to the way God has purposed us.

“For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Everyone misses.