I have looked around these posts to find some information on sin. I didn't see what I was really looking for so I have decided to just ask in a new thread.
I have thought that sin was simply transgression of the Law of God. However after some discussions with others it doesn't seem to be so simple or is it? If anyone could give their thoughts and opinions along with scripture on this I would be most appreciative.

If this is on another post please accept my sincere apoligies and direct me there. Thank you

I think that transgression of the law of God (1 John 3:4) is the most complete definition for sin.
Of course you could say that sin is "whatever is not from faith" (Rom. 14:23), but if you do not have faith you are already a transgressor of the first commandment, for how can someone love God supremely and still lack faith in Him? "Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him" (Heb. 11:6).
Of course you could also say that sin is failing to do what you know is right to do. "Whoever knows what is right to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin" (James 4:17). But failing to do what is right is also a transgression of the law. If you fail to love/help/do good to someone, you are robbing that person of the good you should have done to him/her, and you are a transgressor of the 6th commandment. And if you fail to love/honor/serve God in some way, you are also robbing God, and are a transgressor of both the 1st and the 6th commandments.
I suppose we could also say that sin is rebellion against God - but this is, again, a transgression of the first commandment.
Therefore, I think any definition you could give to sin would qualify it as a transgression of the law.

Do you mean the 8th commandment instead of the 6th?

Sorry. Yes, the 8th.

are you looking for more specific than general, such as?

this is more along the lines of what righteousness is, since job was declared righteous, than naming particular sins. i would think that not doing these things would be sin. going through the bible, especially the prophets, God gets real specific in the kind of behavior He wants from us.

if this isnt what you had in mind, disregard.

Well, I have been told and have believed myself that sin was transgression of the law and that without the law there would be no sin. While discussing this with someone they said that sin was more then just the 10 commandments of God. They used fornification as an example. I had never really questioned this before but I could not see which commandment fornification would fall under. By the information you gave it looks to be the first commandment.

But if this is true wouldn't all sin fall under the first commandment since sinning to start with means that you are not supremely loving God?

Fornication comes under several. Perhaps the clearest is the second, which speaks of idols (or the first, which speaks of having other gods). The New Testament is clear that fornication is a sin, so to deliberately practice a sin would be to have an idol, or other god before God. One could also see it as stealing, or adultery (if lusting after after a woman is adultery, surely fornication is).

If you're talking about in Old Testament times, then it's not so clear.



Yes, surely.

when i read ellen white there are places where she enumerates sins that would go under various headings.

for example:
The ninth commandment requires of us an inviolable regard for exact truth in every declaration by which the character of our fellow men may be affected. The tongue, which is kept so little under the control of the human agent, is to be bridled by strong conscientious principles, by the law of love toward God and man. {SD 64.2}
False-speaking in any matter, every attempt or purpose to deceive our neighbor, is here included. An intention to deceive is what constitutes falsehood. By a glance of the eye, a motion of the hand, an expression of the countenance, as falsehood may be told as effectually as by words. All intentional overstatement, every hint or insinuation calculated to convey an erroneous or exaggerated impression, even the statement of facts in such a manner as to mislead, is falsehood. This precept forbids every effort to injure our neighbor's reputation by misrepresentation or evil surmising, by slander or tale-bearing. Even the intentional suppression of truth, by which injury may result to others, is a violation of the ninth commandment. {SD 64.3}
He [Jesus] teaches that the exact truth should be the law of speech. "Let your speech be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay." . . . These words condemn all those meaningless phrases and expletives that border on profanity. They condemn the deceptive compliments, the evasion of truth, the flattering phrases, the exaggerations, the misrepresentations in trade, that are current in society and in the business world. They teach that no one who tries to appear what he is not, or whose words do not convey the real sentiment of his heart, can be called truthful. . . . {SD 64.4}
Truth is of God; deception, in every one of its myriad forms, is of Satan. . . . We can not speak the truth unless our minds are continually guided by Him who is truth.

Sin is our character!

Sin is our carnal mind!

Sin is self love, self seeking, the love for self.

Without transgressing God's law, we already live in sin, having a defect character that is sin, and must die for it, for what we are.

In His love

James, self-love is a transgression of the first commandment. If you love yourself supremely, you can't love God supremely. Before you are a transgressor of the law outwardly, you are already a transgressor inwardly.