The Lexicon of Sin

All Saints           November 2, 2025

The texts for this sermon are 1 Peter 1:13-16 and John 3:17,19; 12:46-47

We’re going to begin with a simple exercise. Take a 3x5 card or piece of paper and off the top of your head list things you consider sins. Then, once you have your list, number them in order of the most egregious as #1 to the least egregious.

Hold on to those. We’ll get back to them in a bit.

We’re going to begin with the New Testament references to sin because it’s these texts that have, I believe, most influenced the church from its formation in the first century through to this day.

Yes, we know the Ten Commandments, and they certainly have held a premier place in our thinking about what is right and what is not. But the Apostle Paul and the other writers of the epistles attempted to spell out what was wrong and what was right to be and to do in the eyes of God.

It is the Apostle Paul who, in Romans, called believers to turn away from that which leads to death and turn toward the One who leads to life. In Romans, he articulates two parallel tracks, if you will:  

On one track, he speaks of trespass, disobedience, and condemnation
On the other he speaks of grace, righteousness, and a free gift.

The first track represents the track to death; death in the physical sense with the fall of Adam and Eve, but death also to one’s mind, spirit, and well-being. The second track represents the track that leads to life: life that is made possible by the death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ. Life here and now defined by values and characteristics that are eternal, and life eternal in the hereafter.

Paul elaborates about this first track with a list of wrong-doings: 

covetousness, malice…envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity,…gossips, slanderers,…[those who are] insolent, haughty, boastful (1:29-30)

In 1st Corinthians Paul is concerned about the behavior of one of the believers whom he believed would derail the entire congregation. The individual was sleeping with his father’s wife. And Paul wanted the congregation to understand this was not acceptable. In Chapter 6, verses 9-10, he itemizes behaviors they should reject. 

The original Greek reads this way:

Or know ye not the unrighteous men, of God’s kingdom will not inherit? Be not led astray; not fornicators [the unchaste or promiscuous] nor idolaters nor adulterers nor voluptuous persons [individuals who allow themselves to be misused sexually] nor sodomites [those who are pederasts or those who engage in anal rape for the purpose of humiliation] nor thieves nor covetous persons, not drunkards, not revilers, not rapacious persons [swindlers] the kingdom of God will inherit. 

In 2nd Corinthians, Paul addresses

quarreling, jealousy, anger, selfishness, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder. (12:20)

The writer of Galatians offers a pretty comprehensive list:

Now the works of the flesh are plain: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Let us have no self-conceit, no provoking of one another, no envy of one another.

The writer of Ephesians cites

hardness of heart, callousness, lewdness, uncleanness, lust, falsehood, anger that leads to sin, thievery, evil talk. And in verse 31 he writes:
Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, with all malice.

In Colossians we’re told to

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. (v 5) 
…put away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and foul talk. (v 8) Do not lie to one another (v 9)

In First Peter 2:1 we hear this word:

So put away all malice and all guile and insincerity and envy and all slander.

James offers a note-worthy perspective:

If you are fulfilling the royal law, according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, [that one] has become guilty of all. For God who said, Do not commit adultery, also said Do not commit murder. Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do commit murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. (2:8-11)
and
To the one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin. (4:17)

And this brings us to the point where we consider all of what these early writers are telling us.

First, what do most if not all of these sins have in common?

For example, what links pederasts with gossipers? or gossipers with envy?

If we take a close look at these examples as well as all of the others named, do they not have in common exploitation? Exploitation is active in a relationship wherein one person benefits (however mildly) at another person’s expense. One of the things our Scripture most decries is exploitation. 

Second, we see that the apostles and early believers were very concerned about sex and rightly so in that their Greek converts had been enmeshed with a society that condoned if not extoled all manner of sexual excesses. They came from a stratified society where the wealthy were honored and the poor reviled, where people had to align with and please a patron to survive. You might say it was a dog-eat-dog world and Paul and the other apostles had to help these individuals turn their backs on things they thought were normal and how the world worked. It is no wonder our New Testament epistles say so much about licentiousness, promiscuity and sexual immorality.

What might their emphasis be today if writing to us, to American Christians? What might we take for granted as normal that really are counter to God’s intent? What would they decry about us?  This is a question we should not ignore or give only cursory consideration to. 

And third, we’d be wise to reflect on what James puts to us.

Take a look at your list of sins. If you numbered some sins more egregious than others, which one is the most offensive in your mind and which one the least?  Do you include envy or jealousy in your list? Is gossip in your list? If so, what rating does it get compared with the others?

James tells us that if we fall short by leaning toward one kind of sin even as we rebuke other sins, we are a sinner. 

I mention gossip because it’s something pretty common and seemingly benign compared to murder for instance. My sister converted to Judaism, and she told me how the Jewish faith views gossip:

“We never know who is listening when we speak in a group. The individual we address may appreciate an unsolicited positive assessment of another person.  However, others around may not have the same view or appreciation and can in fact be injured by both negative and positive comments.”  

When we gossip, are we not exploiting the person about whom we’re talking? Do we not benefit in some way at their expense—using their circumstances or disposition to elevate ourselves? Even if we are genuinely worried about them and speaking out of our love for them, we might be doing so for the wrong reasons or in a setting that is not appropriate. 

Just as the likes of murder and pedophilia are exploitative, so it is that gossip can be as well. No, not to the same degree but wrong nevertheless. 

The 1st Epistle of John says:

If we say we have fellowship with God while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not live according to the truth; (1:6a)…If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. (1:8a)

I don’t know about you, but James and John make me quake in my boots. We can be so quick and so sure of ourselves when we perceive sin in others, leading us to think we, ourselves, are so righteous when, in fact, as scripture tells us, we too fall short of the glory of God.

The remarkable writer and in my view unacknowledged theologian Fyodor Dostoyevsky wrote this in his great novel The Brothers Karamazov:

At some thoughts one stands perplexed, especially at the sight of people’s sin, and asks oneself whether one should use force or love and humility. Always decide to use humble love. If you resolve on that once and for all, you may subdue the whole world. Loving humility is marvelously strong, the strongest of all things, and there is nothing else like it.

Next Sunday, we’ll take a look at what the Old Testament tells us about sin.

Linda Quanstrom, Pastor

Cornelius UMC

Cornelius OR