The Gospel Way CatechismSample

QUESTION 13: What Form Does Our Sin Take Against One Another?

ANSWER

We use each other, treating people like things, and things like people. We love ourselves more than our neighbors, diminishing them through dishonor and injury, lust and exploitation, falsehood and envy.

Listen to pop music today from just about any famous artist and you’ll hear songs about relational conflict and personal hurt. Artists give voice to their lament and anger in a world of hatred, jealousy, and betrayal. Look at social media and you’ll see public feuds, shaming tactics, and vicious trolling. Listen to people talk and you’ll hear them describe others as “toxic,” or “narcissistic,” or “harmful.”

Why do relationships break down? Why do we hurt each other so much? Some attribute relational conflict to racism, economic disparity, or social injustice. Others blame political polarization or religious intolerance. Many see their relational challenges as flowing directly from past trauma or present insecurity. While all these factors may play a role in relational breakdown in society, the Bible takes a step further, pointing us to the deeper issue of sin. Our rebellion against God is the root cause of our broken relationships. And sin disrupts not only our relationship with God but also with each other. Radically, the Bible teaches the problem isn’t out there in the world but in our own hearts.

According to the Scriptures, we were created to love God and love each other (Matthew 22: 37-40), but sin has distorted this design, turning our love inward. We are turned in on ourselves. We give in to a selfish impulse that leads us to act in ways contrary to God’s will. Our selfishness affects us and those around us. Instead of honoring and serving others, we seek to exploit them and use them for our gain (Galatians 5:19-21).

Six of the Ten Commandments focus on the horizontal effects of our sin: our failure to honor our father and mother, murder, adultery, theft, bearing false witness, and coveting what someone else has. Relational brokenness shows up in these various ways: dishonor, injury, lust, exploitation, falsehood, and envy (Exodus 20:1-17).

The world’s solutions to relational breakdown do not come with the wisdom or resources God provides. They aren’t comprehensive enough. The cause of our relational problems can’t be reduced to societal factors or personal differences; the reasons for relational strife indicate a deeper spiritual condition.

Scripture helps us see how our sin against others takes place both through external actions and internal attitudes. Sin is not just about what we do, but also the state of our hearts. Adultery stems from lust. Murder from anger. Theft from envy.

Our sin against one another reflects our broken relationship with God. When we push God out of the center, we naturally place ourselves and our desires above others. This self-centeredness leads us to use people for our purposes, treating them as a means to an end rather than as valuable individuals made in God’s image. We treat people like things (diminishing and reducing them as persons), and we treat things like people (lifting up idols, our careers, our possessions).

This is what it looks like when our sin is directed toward other people. The Bible’s diagnosis is stark, explaining the reason we suffer the effects of others who sin against us, while also exposing the ways others have suffered when we’ve sinned against them.

Reflection Questions

What are some contemporary examples of the sins listed above (dishonor, lust, exploitation, injury, etc.)? Reflect on different attitudes and actions that display these ways of sinning against other people.

What has been your experience in feeling the effects of other people’s sins against you? How have you responded when you’ve realized you have sinned against others? Consider specific moments when you have caused harm to others. How can you seek forgiveness and reconciliation in these relationships, and what steps can you take to prevent such actions in the future?