The word often used for sin in the Greek NT is hamartia. It means “missing the mark.” It does not mean missing the bullseye by half an inch, but it actually means hitting the wrong target. We are to aim at pleasing God, but instead we aim at pleasing ourselves, as did Adam. The target is to love God with our whole being and our neighbor as ourselves. Missing love by aiming at something else is what sin is. Missing the mark of love is to miss opportunities to be right with God and our fellow human.
“No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.” 1 John 3:9-10 (NASB)
