What better topic than sin as you draw up your New Year’s resolutions?
When trying to avoid sin, it seems to me that two problems commonly arise that are not quite the same thing: They are close but distinct. First, we might wonder whether the Bible labels an action sinful at all. Second, we might wonder whether a particular action falls within what the Bible clearly does ban.
As an example of the former, some Christians might profess skepticism that the Bible (now) labels gay sex a sin while others say it clearly does. As an example of the latter, there might be a discussion of whether (even though we are generally not supposed to lie) it was wrong for someone who was hiding a Jew during World War II to deny that fact to an inquiring Nazi soldier who knocked on the door (since we are also not supposed to abet murder).
The point of this post is simply to note that I bet most of the time we can be pretty sure what the Bible says, so problems of the second sort are more common than problems of the first sort. I’ll add that, when it comes to my two examples, I don’t see much doubt that the answers are clearly yes and no, respectively.
By the way, there is a third kind of sin problem: How do I steel myself to act rightly when I am tempted to act wrongly? I bet that that is a much more common problem than either of the other two. And I think that is what most people rightly focus on when they contemplate their resolutions for the New Year.