Missing the Mark God Put There for You to Hit

Have you ever wondered what sin is? Maybe so and maybe not. Some people feel that they already know the definition of “sin,” and therefore shy away from a writing like this. But what about you? Pease invest enough time to read these words, and God may help you more than you ever dreamed possible.

The Greek word most often translated “sin” in the New Testament is hamartia. Its meaning is amazingly simple. It means to “miss the mark.” In the Greek world[1] hamartia does not always relate to moral and spiritual principles of right and wrong. For instance, if an actor in a play has an imperfection, it is a hamartia. Any turning aside from a norm and straying from a standard, is, in the Greek sense of the word, a sin.[2]

People know that “sin” means to miss a mark. And they know that God establishes the mark. But few can imagine the distance to the target and the size of the bullseye. For Instance, one may say, “I only sin only when I injure someone else.” Or they postulate, “Sin is getting caught doing what I should not do.” However, it is obvious to a Bible reader that such persons only broaden the mark. Anyone can hit a barn from twelve feet away with a shotgun blast. But God’s mark is not as big as a barn; it is as small as the point of a needle. The range is over one hundred miles and none of us is a good shot.

Are you getting interested? Well, good. You should be because God has a mark at which you must shoot. The world is His archery range. You compete by His rules by trying to do right. He is God and keeps on commanding you to enter the competition by doing right.[3] You must do it. Here is a suggestion: Read the rest of this writing to find out how to hit the target. Everything will make sense in the end.

IDENTIFY THE MARK

We already know that sin is any missing of the mark that God makes for us to hit. Now we discover what the mark is. We will, in brief and concise points chisel and hack away at that bullseye until it is the exact size that God says it is.

Since God is the best person to explain this mark, it is sensible to begin with His two most important commandments.

Matthew 22:36-39 says, “Teacher, which commandment is the greatest in the Law?” 37Jesus declared, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

The First Commandment shows that we have an obligation to God. It is the chief commandment because He is of infinite value. He requires that our allegiance, loyalty, and devotion be to Him first. He must be the top priority of our lives. If therefore we place cash, car, cutie, or career ahead of Him, we miss the mark. We sin.

But our responsibility is greater than priorities. We are not only to go through the motions of yielding first place to God. We must also love Him. Of all the commendable qualities or traits in life, there is none as great as love.[4] It is not enough to believe in God to hit His mark. Nor is it sufficient to place loving confidence in Him. We must perfectly love Him if we want to avoid sin. This is true even on a human level. What husband appreciates a wife who fixes dinner but does not love him? What woman wants a man who brings home the bacon but cops out on tender loving care? If therefore we fail to love God, we miss the mark; We sin!

God requires that we not only love Him, but that we do this with all our heart, soul, and mind. This requirement extends to the innermost fiber of our constitution. It speaks of “all that is within us” loving God. Our minds must think on Him, relating everything to Him, and submitting to His wisdom in all things. He commands us not only to yield everything to Him, but to love Him supremely. He claims the delights and joys of our emotions. And God demands that we love Him throughout our entire life, not just part of it. Failure to comply is sin.

God does not tell us to love Him simply with all our ability. The command is much greater than that. We must love Him with all our potential. Jesus says, “With all your heart, soul, and mind.” He does not say, “With all your mind that you are using right now.” A woman may love her husband more after ten years of marriage than she does at the wedding. As time passes, her ability to love expands, but enormous possibility for love is always with her. Just so, we must love God to the fullest of our potential. To fail to do this is to miss His mark; It is to sin.

Notice that the mark is becoming more difficult to hit as the Bible teaching on sin becomes clearer. Do you miss the mark? Are you going to try to hit it? Do you plan to center all your heart and affections upon God and seek Him with all the strength that you have? If you do not, you are living a life of sin.

It is not enough to love God supremely. In doing this we should not neglect our fellow man. We must also love our neighbor as ourselves. And God means this. He expects us not only to believe Him but also to be benevolent, kind, patient, and considerate of those around us. Deviation from this is sin, a missing of the mark.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 explains love for others. Here is a list of those descriptions:

1 Corinthians 13:4 says, “Love is patient, love is kind, love is not envious, it is not boastful, it is not puffed up.”

1 Corinthians 13:5 says, “It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no account of wrongs.”

1 Corinthians 13:6 says, “Love takes no pleasure in evil, but rejoices in the truth.”

1 Corinthians 13:7 says, “Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.”

Remember that any deviation from what the Bible says we must do, is sin. It misses God’s mark. If we fail to live up to this all day every day, we sin against God. We are sinners.

SIN IS THE TRANSGRESSION OF THE LAW

God is clear about hundreds of other things that we must either do or not do to hit His mark and avoid sin. 1 John 3:4 says that sin is the transgression of the Law. The mark, then, is the moral and spiritual law of God. It is His revealed demand that He makes on His creatures that have the potential for obeying or disobeying Him. So, to miss the mark is to fail to obey God in something that applies to us in His Word, the Bible.

Here is a familiar list of “must do’s” and “must not do’s” from Exodus Chapter 20. To fail on any of these Ten is to sin against God.

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS:

1. I am the LORD your God. You shall have no other gods before Me.

2. You shall not make an idol for yourself.

3. You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.

4. Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy.

5. Honor your father and your mother.

6. You shall not commit murder.

7. You shall not commit adultery.

8. You shall not steal.

9. You shall not falsely testify against your neighbor.

10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house or anything that is his.

Furthermore, our Lord Jesus Christ taught that the meanings of the Ten Commandments are deeper than the surface. To fail on any of these is to sin against God.

Here is a list that shows that we sin both when we do the outward act and when we think sinful things.

Matthew 5:22 says,	“But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother [without a Godly cause][5] will be subject to judgment.”
Matthew 5:28 says,	“But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
Matthew 5:37 says,	“But let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and 'No,' 'No.' Anything more than these comes from evil.” This means to be perfectly honest both in body and soul.
Matthew 5:44 says,	“But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,”

Above, we see the mark at which we must aim. We must obey these commandments to the utmost. To the extent that we do not do as God tells us to do, we miss His mark; We sin. The bullseye is becoming more elusive, is it not? We are great sinners. Here is an application of this:

Notice that Matthew 5:28 says that we commit adultery when we look lustfully at a woman. Pornography is overrunning our society. And masturbation is the companion of pornography. One cannot watch, listen to, or indulge in pornography without fantasizing about someone else. If we masturbate, we break God’s law of adultery and fornication. Phone sex is the same unless it is with our spouse. So, the world commits adultery and fornication every day.

At one time God destroyed everyone in the world, except for one family, because of sinful thinking. Genesis 6:5, 7 says, “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great upon the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was altogether evil all the time …” “So, the LORD said, ‘I will blot out man, whom I have created, from the face of the earth … for I am grieved that I have made them.” As it was in the days of Noah, so it is now.

Replace that impure thinking with wholesome thoughts. Philippians 4:8 says, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think on these things.”

When we do not obey God’s law prohibiting sinful thoughts, we guarantee that God will judge us for it.

DO THE GREATEST GOOD WHEN ONE COMMANDMENT CONFLICTS WITH ANOTHER COMMANDMENT

God binds requirements upon us. It is no surprise if some of His laws conflict with others. In such cases, we are responsible to do the greatest good. The issue is not good vs. bad, but good vs. good.

An example of this is in Matthew 12:11-12, which says, “He replied, If one of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will he not take hold of it and lift it out? 12How much more valuable is a man than a sheep! Therefore, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”

It may surprise you that taking care of your perishing farm animal is, in God’s eyes, more important than obeying the Sabbath Law literally.[6]

This was in response to a question that a man asked our Lord Jesus as follows, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath days?”

So, there was a contest. Would our Lord do the work of healing? Or would He keep the Sabbath Day and by doing so, obey God’s direct commandment? This was an instance of tension between good and good. It was good to heal, and it was good to keep the Sabbath. But it was not possible to do both “goods” at the same time. One good would exclude the other. If the Lord Jesus healed, He would break the literal aspect of the Sabbath. His detractors thought that if He kept the Sabbath, He would not heal. Well, He chose to heal the man. He believed that the law of love (mercy) was a higher law than the “Sabbath Law.” The former overruled the latter.

Often, we must make similar decisions. The principle to follow in such instances is not, “Be sure you are doing something good.” It is “Earnestly desire the best.”[7] Sometimes “good” can be sin – especially when there is something better that we could do.

We make decisions regarding our clothing. “What do I wear today?” It is good to simply have something to wear. But we must ask, “What apparel serves best to glorify Christ?” And will my clothing entice others to sin? This agrees with 1 Corinthians 10:31 which says, “Whether therefore you eat, or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” If we dress for God, we also dress for success.

I am not going to tell you what to wear, whether to go to movies, or what to eat and drink. But I will say that God knows in each instance what you should do. And if you make the wrong choice, you sin against God. To the extent that you do not constantly do the highest good, you live in sin. You miss God’s mark. Carefully ponder 1 Corinthians 8:12 in its context:

“But when you sin so against the brothers and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ” (1 Corinthians 8:12).

You are part of a world of others and a Church of diverse people. You must think of them when taking liberties for yourself. Your actions affect them. You must make the right choices to avoid sin against God.

THE SIN OF OMISSION

 Going together with the preceding principle of the highest good is the sin of omission. We commit this sin when we leave out something good that we should do.

James 4:17 says, “Therefore to him that knows to do good, and does not do it, to him it is sin.”

Even failure to pray for someone can be sin. Samuel considered it to be so. Speaking to King Saul, the prophet said, “…far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by ceasing to pray for you…” (1 Samuel 12:23)

This means that to avoid sin, one must never omit finding and doing the greatest good. He must be doing and constantly seeking to do the best possible thing, as evaluated from God’s viewpoint. For example, it is not enough to give money to the Lord’s work. One must donate with care to accomplish the greatest good with the funds that God entrusts to him. It requires prayer and Bible Study to know what to do when giving.

And God expects us to do good both inwardly and outwardly. We can only define the best in the way that the Bible explains it, as it wisely relates to each circumstance.

Also, God does not only expect us to do good outwardly. He evaluates the motives of our hearts. We must hit the mark with every arrow if we want sinlessness. Our hearts must be right if we wish to avoid sin. He knows our thoughts and they must be immaculate. If they are not pure, we sin against Him by thinking.

IGNORANCE OF GOD’S LAW IS NO EXCUSE FOR DISOBEDIENCE

The words above greatly diminish the size of the mark that we must hit. Here is one other consideration for our souls. Ignorance is no excuse. The Bible prohibits sinning a sin which we do not know is wrong. Blind sins are still sins.

Those who crucified Christ did it ignorantly (Luke 23:34; Acts 3:17).[8] But they were still guilty of the crime. The police operate under the assumption that the citizens are responsible both to know and to obey the law. Imagine a policeman stopping you for running a redlight and you object to the ticket on the grounds that you do not know the law. Tell it to the judge and he will scold you out of court. Ignorance of the law is no excuse.

Of course, ignorance does lessen guilt. But it does not erase guilt. Paul explains that the reason that he obtained mercy was because when he committed his sins against Christ, he did it “ignorantly in unbelief.”[9] If, prior to his salvation, he had known the true nature of Jesus Christ, Paul would not have agreed to His crucifixion. So, one who sins with his eyes wide open is far worse than one who sins unknowingly. But that is not the point here. The real issue is that it is wrong to miss God’s mark by committing the sin ignorantly. It makes no difference whether you know that it is a sin or not. God knows that it breaks His law. And He counts it against you. If you know it is sin, He counts two things against you. One is the literal sin, and the other is willfully defying Him.

Friend you are dealing with Almighty God as you live life. Think of it. You are committing tons of sins against God that you do not even know are missing His mark. He remembers what you do. And He is going to bring you into judgment for all sin. Yes, He has a day in mind in which every idle word and deed that you have ever committed, even the secrets of your heart are going to face you. Things that you always thought were good, you will discover at His final judgment are sin. They miss His mark. At His final judgment He will insist upon His rights.

God requires, not only that we obey and never fail to do the greatest good. But also, He knows that we know what is right and wrong. To the extent that we do not do as He says in the Bible, we sin. And He does not forget.

GOD REQUIRES A CHANGE OF HEART

We are responsible to God for purity both on the outside of our lives and on the inside. This means that it is not enough simply to do the right thing. We must also be the right kind of people. God wants us to desire His will more than anything else in the world. He requires that we love Him supremely, more than our dates, mates, parents, and children. He expects us to know Him intimately. Anything short of this mark is sin. It is a missing of the bullseye which God built for us to hit.

It is for this reason that God requires such a momentous change of heart. The most important essential of our Lord Jesus Christ for sinners is repentance. To repent means to radically change the heart in its basic attitude toward God. Be careful! Where there is no change of your life, there is no repentance.

Matthew 4:17 says, “From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”

If you do not turn to God with all your heart, you are living in sin because you are not obeying this simple command that the Lord Jesus Christ gave you.

THE WAY OUT

There are two responses to this investigation into what sin is. You are saying, “I am going to have to do just a little bit better to go to Heaven. I will reform immediately.” If that is your reply to this message, you may not go to Heaven. It may not help you at all. You may die unsaved, and you may pay for your sins forever in Hell.[10] Rather, you need our Lord Jesus Christ to save you.

But you may respond differently. As you read these few pages a terror creeps into your heart. Your conscience stands up and points to you as a sinner. Your awful sinfulness before God breaks your heart. You acknowledge yourself to be a helpless, hopeless sinner. God opens the curtain and helps you see that He hates sin. Your heart cries out for mercy. “Is there any hope for me?” you ask.

Yes, there is hope for you. There is peace with God, and there is joy for you. Listen to the most wonderful true story you are ever to hear in your whole life.

You need a Savior. You need someone who can change you from the sinner that you are, into a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. You will never live up to the standards that God demands of you unless someone changes you. And you will never absolve yourself of the guilt of sin that is between you and God. That is, you will never rid yourself of guilt, unless God punishes someone else for your sins. Another person must take the blame for your sins. It is your only hope.

In yourself you are a hopeless and helpless sinner. You are God’s enemy because of sin. He loves you but your sin turns you into His enemy.

There is no amount of money that you can give; no act of charity that you can perform; no extraordinary work that will please God enough, to save you from your sin. You need help to stop your chain sinning. You need power to do right. God’s Only Begotten Son is the one who can and will transform you

You need to trust Him to do it. Since He resurrected from the dead, you know that He can change you. He went about healing people of all kinds of diseases. He can do the impossible. He raised people from the dead. He has the power to make a new person out of you. But you must bow to Him as your Lord and begin to obey and follow Him. You must determine to never turn back but to always be His disciple.

Not only must He be your Lord and Master, but He must also be your Savior. He will save you from the power of sin. And He will deliver you from the guilt of sin. Please read the following:

“For God so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

When He says that God gave His only begotten Son, He means that God gave the Lord Jesus Christ as the sacrifice for sin. God gave His Son to be the one who would die upon the cross to take the blame for your sin. His death on the cross will count for you if you believe on Him as your Savior and Lord.

When He says that God will give you eternal life, He means just that. As God breathed into Adam to cause him to live, He will give you spiritual life. He will give you eternal life. And that life will cause you to overcome the world. There is a connection between God raising His Son from the dead and God giving you eternal life. If you believe that God raised His Son from the dead, you can believe that God will raise you from spiritual death also. He makes you alive in the resurrection of His Son. Your responsibility is to believe Him with all your heart, turning your back on your past.

But you must count the cost. There is no turning back. You must determine to live as a Christian, knowing that God will help you. You cannot live a passive Christian life.

One more thing: God will justify you. This means that He will enter in your record in Heaven that you are as pure and righteous as the Lord Jesus Christ. Judicially speaking, He will log on your record that you have Christ’s righteousness. By simple faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, He will judge you to be as righteous as Christ and adopt you into His family. He will impute the righteousness of His Son to you and impute your sins to the Lord Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:21).

The only person who hits God’s mark every time is our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 2:22 says of the Lord, “He [Jesus] committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.” By connecting yourself to Him by faith, God judicially views you as perfectly righteous also.

Everyone in the world must wait until the final judgment for God to condemn or acquit him. But God justifies those with faith in Christ at the beginning of the Christian life, rather than at the end. No, it is not too good to be true. It is good because it is true!

Once the Lord Jesus Christ is your Savior, He will never leave you. With our Lord saving you from sin, you need a Church to baptize you. Baptism by immersion will confirm your faith to your soul. You become a Christian before baptism. But you act it out when God buries you by baptism in water and resurrects you from that watery grave.

I first believed in the Lord Jesus Christ when a young man of twenty-three years. I affirm to you that He is indeed the Lord of all those who died with Him at the cross. When I believed in Him, I connected myself to Him by faith. And He connected Himself to me by the Holy Spirit. I now say with Paul,

“I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. And the life which I now live, I live by faith in Jesus Christ who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

I personally, as a servant of Jesus Christ urge you to go to Him by faith now – before it is too late. Put yourself into His hands. He will answer your questions, lead you in the right way, forgive your sins, give you eternal life, and change your life. I certify to you that the Lord Jesus Christ is your only hope to escape all the sins that are in this post. You will discover what a wonderful Savior He is.

But when you believe on Christ for salvation, you must abandon sin. Trust Him to have died for your sin and trust Him to take away your future sins as well.

Jesus died as the sacrifice to God for all those sins that you commit every day, every hour, and every minute. He sacrificed Himself for those sins. And His blood sacrifice counts for you if you believe in Him. You do not have to pay for your sins because Jesus paid for them. Remember, what He did counts for you if you believe. Do that now!!!

You will be able to say, “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. And the life which I live, I live by faith in Jesus Christ, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). You will testify: “I died at the cross with the Lord Jesus when He died.”

When you decide to become a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ and want baptism to confirm it, you can email me. I am a member of First Baptist Church in Eads, Tennessee. Email me at billrandolph4@gmail.com. The angels rejoice in Heaven over every sinner who turns to Jesus as Lord and Savior, and I will praise God with you also.

NOTES:

[1] Greek is the language in which the Holy Spirit originally wrote the New Testament. And Greek New Testaments still exist.

[2] This does not mean that God necessarily thinks it is a sin. This simply explains the use of the word hamartia in the Greek speaking world at the time of the writing of the New Testament.

[3] Acts 17:30 says, “Although God overlooked the ignorance of earlier times, He now commands all people everywhere to repent.” To repent means to turn away from sin and turn to God. So, God is saying to you, “Quit sinning, and come to me.”

[4] 1 Corinthians 13:2-3 says, “If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have absolute faith to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and exult in the surrender of my body, but have not love, I gain nothing.
[5] Some ancient New Testament manuscripts, namely the Received Text on which the King James Version is based, and the Byzantine text, include the words “without cause.”

[6] Christians keep the Lord’s Day, not the Sabbath Day. See Luke 23:56 “…they rested on the Sabbath.” Then Luke 24:1, the very first verse after Luke 23:56, says, “On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women came to the tomb” There are two aspects of the Sabbath Day, the literal and the spiritual. Lord’s Day of resurrection (on the first day,) replaces the literal aspect of the Sabbath Day of the 6th day. The spiritual part of the Sabbath was resting in the Lord by faith.

[7] 1 Corinthians 12:31 says, “Earnestly desire the best gifts.”

[8] Acts 3:17 says, “Now, fellow Israelites, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders.” NIV

[9] 1 Timothy 1:13 says, “: I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a violent man; yet because I had acted in ignorance and unbelief, I was shown mercy.”. He expects us to know Him intimately. Anything short of this mark is sin. It is a missing of the bullseye which God establishes.

[10] This was the response of the Rich Young Ruler in Matthew 19:16-24. God will not forgive you if you simply decide to do better. You need the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He can change you if you trust Him to do it.