In our modern world, sin is often reduced to breaking rules or violating moral codes. In the ancient Christian understanding, particularly within the writings of the Desert Fathers and Orthodox Saints, sin is something deeper, subtler, and far more universal: it is ‘missing the mark’.
The Greek word used in the New Testament for sin is hamartia (ἁμαρτία), an archery term meaning “to miss the target.” In Hebrew the word for sin chata or (ḥāṭāʾ, חָטָא) has the same meaning. This imagery is not about legal guilt, but about aim and orientation. Humanity is created with a single aim: union with God, the source of life and joy. To sin is to allow our thoughts, desires, and actions to stray from that aim, to lose sight of the mark.
St. John Cassian, one of the great teachers of the desert, speaks vividly of this in his Conferences. He insists that unless we keep the goal clearly in sight, our spiritual efforts scatter like arrows shot into the air without a target:
“The end of our profession indeed … is the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven: but the immediate aim or goal is purity of heart… fixing our gaze then steadily on this goal as if on a definite mark, let us direct our course as straight towards it as possible, and if our thoughts wander somewhat from this, let us revert to our gaze upon it, and check them accurately as by a sure standard.” (Conference I, Chapter IV)
He expands on this metaphor by comparing spiritual life to the training of soldiers or archers:
“As those, whose business it is to use weapons of war … try to shoot their arrows … into certain small targets … but if it happens to be withdrawn from their sight, they cannot perceive that they have strayed … since no mark is their accuser, showing how far they have gone astray from the right direction.” (Conference I, Chapter V)
For Cassian, the end of the Christian life is the Kingdom of Heaven, but the mark by which we gauge our every step is purity of heart. Without this, we cannot even recognize when we have wandered.
The great Orthodox saint, St. Maximus the Confessor, deepens this teaching:
“Evil is not to be found in existing things, but in the misuse of our will. We were created for the good, but by misdirecting our desire we fall away from it.” (Philokalia, Vol. 2)
Here, the problem is not creation itself, everything God made is good. Sin is the misuse of the will, a misdirection of desire. The “missing” lies in choosing lesser goods over the Highest Good, scattering our hearts instead of keeping them fixed on God.
Abba Dorotheos of Gaza offers another profound image:
“Imagine a circle with its center and radii. The closer the radii come to the center, the closer they are to one another; the closer they come to one another, the closer they are to the center. The same is true with us: the more we are united to God, the more we are united to one another in love.” (Discourses and Sayings of Dorotheos of Gaza)
When we miss the mark of God, we also miss one another. Sin is not merely personal failure; it is a fracture of communion. To aim rightly is to move toward both God and neighbor in love.
Repentance, the realigning our aim. This ancient teaching reframes sin not as a tally of infractions but as a tragedy of orientation. The good news of Christ is that He comes as both the true mark and the power to aim rightly. As St. Isaac the Syrian reminds us:
“This life has been given to you for repentance; do not waste it in vain pursuits.” (Ascetical Homilies of St. Isaac the Syrian)
Repentance (metanoia) literally means a change of mind, a reorientation of our aim. It is not mere regret, but a turning back, a realignment of the heart toward its true goal.
To speak of sin, then, is to speak not of rules broken but of lives mis-aimed. And to speak of salvation is to speak of being healed, re-aimed, drawn back to the mark: God Himself, who is love.
This vision of sin as missing the mark is not meant to condemn but to awaken us. Each day, each moment, is another chance to lift our eyes and take aim again. For as long as we breathe, the mark still stands before us, and Christ Himself strengthens our hands to draw the bow.
👏🏼 - congrats on your first article! You ARE a writer to be sure. You’ve reminded me of how Dr. Dan Allender, a Christian psychologist and therapist once defined sin as man’s attempt to do life autonomously apart from God. The aim is off. Most of us, probably all of us will have received wounds, sadly horrendous wounds for many as children, and these wounds cause us to relate in such a way to make self preservation the target and aim, and as we do this we end up doing harm to others. There’s so much more to this, but I’ll stop there.
Also, I loved the sections about our desires needing a right orientation. A professor at seminary once told us that there are three basic parts to us: knowledge, desire (or affection), and will. Knowledge: cake is bad, it will make you fat. The will: we will not eat the cake. Desire: but I really LOVE cake! 😂- what we need is a transformation and healing of our desire and affection so that our aim is always pointed in the right direction ☦️
Great article. It was eye opening for me personally, as someone coming from Protestantism, to learn the patristic and apostolic teaching of sin being more than what I always thought, but also a sickness and of us needing healing in union with Christ.