By John Ceccon

Are you a sinner? Have you sinned today? What’s your definition of sin? What does the Bible say about sin? Let’s take a look at it. 

I was in the first grade at Cathedral of the Holy Cross when I was formally taught about sin by Sister Simeon. At home, everything was a sin. Me killing bugs. Me not finishing my food. Me not wanting to go to church on Sunday. I was 6 or 7; what the hell did I know about sin? One day Sister Simeon was lecturing us about the technical aspects of the soul, venial sins, and mortal sins – according to the Catholic Church, of course. It was kinda-sorta like a science class where the teacher talks to the kids about the moon and the sun – you know,                                             real stuff.

Factoid – Nowhere in the Bible will you find the concept of venial and mortal sins.

Go ahead – Google it. 

She started by drawing a big circle on the blackboard, then turned around with a stern look on her face and said “This is your soul”. In hindsight, it would have been cool if next she had taken some colored chalks and drawn a rainbow in the circle and said to us “this is your soul on drugs”, but she didn’t. Then, she drew what looked like corona rays emanating from the sun, radiating out from the circumference of the soul circle. It was like one of those pictures of the sun you see in the astrology magazines, where they block out the sun and all you see is a black circle and the brilliant corona sun-rays

“THIS IS YOUR SOUL”

She said it again, and she is jabbing her finger repeatedly at the black hole, and she is looking at us with the angry gangsta rapper face. She pointed to the corona ray-looking stuff: “This is grace, and when you commit a venial sin, you lose some of your grace,” and then erased some of the corona ray-looking stuff. Apparently, losing your grace was a bad thing. Keep in mind, she still hasn’t told us what a venial or mortal sin is.

She turned around and, with a growl, said, But when you commit a mortal sin, you lose all your grace, and when you die, you go straight to hell.” Then she erased the rest of the corona-looking stuff in one swoop, leaving behind the circle she started with. She turned to the class and made eye contact with me for what seemed like 5 minutes, but it was more like 5 seconds. She didn’t say anything; she didn’t have to. The scowl on her face said it all. Fear is an amazingly destructive thing, especially to a seven-year-old. 

 If you talk to people and ask them to define sin, most of them will give you the standard definition that has to do with some type of slight against God. Most people have their own version of what sin is, and we custom-tailor it to fit our denial of our own sin, and our biggest mistake is thinking that we can get away with it. 

                        So, what is a sin?

Scripture portrays sin as wrongness before God in various ways. It’s the result of satan’s effort and activity to destroy Gods creation. Sin doesn’t just happen spontaneously. 

MAN’S DEFINITION

GOD’S DEFINITION

This describes sin as failing to do what God requires. It is the clearest definition, and needs little to no explanation. Every one of us has this little voice inside of us that guides us to do the right thing.

Need a helper? God has your back.

If you allow the Holy Spirit to lead you, He will. Just pay attention and keep a righteous mind. It will keep you out of trouble.

Not to sound sanctimonious, but many of the problems we face in the world today can be traced to sin. Just watch the news; it’s like a daily reminder that we are surrounded by sin. Now, are most of the people on Earth good? Absolutely, most people know the difference between right and wrong, but it only takes a handful of knuckleheads to make good people bend a little, even if it’s only once. But at the end of the day, sin doesn’t happen spontaneously. You need to heed to Satan’s tricks and lies, and that one is on you. 

Satan has one job in life, and that’s trying to get you to do stupid stuff. That’s all he does 24/7, he’s relentless. He started with Adam & Eve, and hasn’t let up since. He even tried with Jesus in Matthew 4:1-11 and failed. Tried killing him on the cross and failed. He has billions of people to choose from, and he can make sin happen simultaneously in thousands of locations. We are all he has left, and the playing field is wide open. 

Sin started with Adam & Eve in Genesis 3:1-6. God asked them not to do one thing. ONE THING. Don’t eat from that tree over there. He was very clear about that. Satan convinced them otherwise. And what did they do? They did it anyway. We inherited this sinful nature from Adam & Eve.

      It’s almost like a genetic defect.

Our sinful nature causes us to gravitate naturally toward sin, even when we are trying to do good. We need to acknowledge this because it will help us pay attention to situations that cause us to sin.

TYPES OF SIN – SINS OF OMISSION

A sin of omission is failing to do something that God commands or expects you to do. Instead of doing something wrong, a sin of omission is failing to do something right. 

It is not only the things we do that matter; the good that we fail to do is equally important to God. The story of the Good Samaritan addresses both of these. 

TYPES OF SIN – DELIBERATE SINS

Deliberate sins, sometimes called willful, intentional, or presumptuous sins are sins a person commits knowingly and intentionally, rather than out of ignorance, weakness, or accident. This is where you plan out your sin. 

Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.

TYPES OF SIN – UNINTENTIONAL SINS

An unintentional sin is a sin committed without knowing, without intending to disobey God, or through ignorance, error, or weakness. The Bible recognizes that not every sin is committed deliberately.

TYPES OF SIN – THE ONE UNFORGIVABLE SIN

The sin against the Holy Spirit, often called blasphemy against the Holy Spirit or the unforgivable sin, is the deliberate and persistent rejection of the Holy Spirit’s testimony about Jesus Christ, especially by knowingly attributing the work of the Holy Spirit to Satan.

So, there it is. If you know the nature os sin, you’ll be better equipped to see it and Satan coming from a mile away. If you got anything from this video, please like, comment, and subscribe. As always, have a blessed day, and I hope to see you on the next one.

Copyright 2026 John Ceccon. All rights reserved