Setting Your Sights

Adjusting Sights

Anyone who is familiar with hunting or target shooting with weapons such as rifles or pistols knows the importance of having the weapon’s sights set properly. It is not enough to simply aim the weapon at the target, but also necessary to make sure the sights which are used to aim are properly adjusted. By making those minute adjustments, it becomes possible that when you place the reticle of scope or the point of the sights over the bulls-eye, it is exactly where the shot will end up. Learning to set one’s sights can make one a better marksman, but the principle can also be applied to our everyday lives.

Literal “Sin”

The most literal meaning of the New Testament word most commonly translated as “sin” is “to miss the mark.” This meaning can also mean “error” or “mistake” but each have the idea of one whom, through their actions, failed to meet a goal or criteria. A common illustration of this idea comes from archery where a shooter fails to strike a bulls-eye.

It is important to remember that the failure for such a “strike” does not lie with the weapon, nor with the target, but entirely with the shooter. For man, it can be argued that some are not even firing at the same target at all, and have wandered so far from God they are almost shooting themselves. However, there is exists a strong temptation to believe that one is not only aiming correctly, but also a confidence that one’s “sights” are correct.

Spiritual “Sights”

In our spiritual walk, man’s own “sight” is both myopic and self-serving, because man chooses to set his “sights” based upon his own wisdom. The only way to be certain that we are truly going to strike a bulls-eye and avoid sin is to ensure that our “sights” are adjusted not by our own thinking, but by God. That we have “sights” adjusted upon a mind whose focus is on things above (Col. 3:2). That we have “sights” adjusted by a mind renewed in the will of God (Rom. 12:2). That we have “sights” set by His will and His standard.

A marksman would never entire into a competition with a weapon with faulty, maladjusted sights. Neither would such a marksman insist that, just because he “likes” the sights, or “set them once” that they were just fine. It would be insane for such a marksman to insist that the faulty sights, which fail to strike the bulls-eye, were not only working, but to be preferred. So, why do so many people have this kind of an attitude when it comes to sin?