Sin
Heb: a missing; rebellion; transgression; perversion; evil in disposition; impiety
GK: missing the mark; transgression; unrighteousness; impiety; lawlessness; depravity; evil desire
Sin is to be defined primarily in relation to God. It is disobedience, unbelief, ignorance, the positive assertion of usurped autonomy, and the wicked deviation from, or violation of, God's Righteous Will and Law. The breach of a right relationship with God carries with it the disruption of a right relationship with others and the disintegration of the self. But this is derivative, for it is because of sin against God that there is sin against others and oneself (Ps. 51:4) [MT 6]
A feature of the Biblical definition is that sin is not just a lack, a failure, or a deficiency. The ignorance that is sin involves not only the lack of True knowledge but also the substitution of falsehood. Sin is commission as well as omission. Yet this must not be pressed too far. Sin has no place in the positive will of God, nor does God allow the existence of another reality alongside and equal to His own creation. In the last analysis sin only has a negative or parasitic reality. It's positive reality is paradoxical and secondary, as is clearly illustrated by the manner of it's entry into human life.
(ISBE)
Inwardness of the Moral Law
The Biblical narratives, too, show us the passage over from sin conceived of as the violation of external commands to sin conceived of as an unwillingness to keep the commandments in the depths of the inner life. The course of Biblical history is one long protest against conceiving of sin in an external fashion.
explanation-
The war on cannabis, like all sin, misses the mark. "Just say no" is not the command of God. The claimed benefits of "just say no" are secondary and paradoxical to reality. There is an image of saving lives, but in reality, asceticism pays no mind to the lives it destroys. Paul writes that, although "touch not, taste not, handle not" all have an appearance of wisdom, they in the end result in fleshly indulgence (Col 2). We can see this play out in the war on cannabis.
