I like your take on sin. ‘Dehumanize’ hmm it seems to be the antithesis of love. At least that’s my take. And in a sense I would agree. But to me it goes further. It like a tear in an otherwise perfect fabric. A blemish if you will, a fault or a bug. Something that seemingly can’t be healed. And it doesn’t just go away. Like the possessed boy’s father in Mark 9 said, “I do believe. Help my unbelief.” A fault. And out of that cry for help because of the fault, God yields mercy, grace, and love.
Yeah, I heard that one before. In my experience that’s only the beginning though.
“The Bible often uses language that sin is a force or disease which affects and infects us.”
I think this is more of personal interpretation of preachers who want to wax eloquent to their parishioners than it is in the Bible. But it’s a fair comparison. As any disease is akin to a fault. That’s why in computers malicious programs are called viruses. They replicate themselves and infect their host like a disease exploiting faults or bugs in the OS or hardware even.
For a different visual, sin is like pot holes in a road. Those creap up because of ice forms in the cracks in winter and break up the surrounding concrete or asphalt. And pot holes form. The problem is the upkeep. The environment, the world, is part of the cause but you can’t do anything about it. So to with the Christian. The world provides a fertile environment for sin but the Christian has to upkeep themselves.
And to me that one part of sin that has recently come to my attention, the role that the world plays in it. This world or universe is flawed. But we are in it. We’re asked to be holy before God in a sinful world that affect us. It’s not just about personal sin, which is indeed important and needs to be dealt with first. It’s also about personal upkeep and how you handle the sin around you that affects you day in and day out.