17 Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.
This is so often our dilemma. We know what ‘right’ is, but we don’t do it. Instead, we do the ‘wrong’ in its place. This is not activity of kids exclusively. We adults engage in this same bait and switch activity. We knowingly and willingly choose sin. In fact, that really is the definition of this type of sin. We knowingly do the wrong. Or we knowingly don’t do the right. When we don’t do the right, we are doing the wrong. What this concept reveals is that there is a right and a wrong, and that we are capable of knowing the difference. The capacity of knowing right and wrong can be seen during court cases. The prosecution must prove that the accused was competent at the time of trial, that they were able to know right and wrong, and chose the wrong rather than the right. We don’t expect a pre-adolescent to understand fully the consequences of their actions. They have not developed that full capacity yet. Therefore we apply a different standard to their behavior than we apply to someone who has developed that full capacity. If a person has that capacity, we “try them as an adult” instead. This different standard is about knowing right and wrong, and having the responsibility to act on the right they know. When we omit an action that we know is right, correct, moral, then we sin. And sin is falling short of the standard that has been set. The term “sin” is an archery term. When an archer fires an arrow that falls short of hitting the target, that missing is called a sin. They don’t get credit for hitting a different target, a target of their own choosing. They only get credit if they hit the designated target. There is a target for our attitudes and actions, and we all fall short of it. Our arrows do go astray. We sin. We need archery lessons given by the Master Archer. Have you signed up for those lessons yet?
The Arnold Journey 