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James 4:17
17 Therefore [oun] to him that knoweth [eido] to do [poieo] good [kalos], and [kai] doeth [poieo] it not [me], to him [autos] it is [esti] sin [hamartia]. KJV-Interlinear
17 Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do, and does not do it, to him it is sin. NASB
Whether you are proactively indifferent toward God, doctrine, Jesus Christ, your spiritual life, or anything having to do with the scriptures, or whether you are passively indifferent toward these things, meaning that you don’t really give them much thought on a day to day basis, makes no difference.
When you were born into this world, you had but one obligation to God, and that was to hear His gospel. He gave you life and in return, He only asks that you listen.
And by either listening or not, you make a choice in life that affects your entire future. Rejecting Christ, means that you will spend your eternal days separated from Him, whom you wish to have nothing to do with.
But, if you believe in Christ, then you become members of Gods family, in effect, and thus assume additional obligations. Gods house , Gods rules. If you want to live in His house, then you have to obey His rules.
Unfortunately, far too many folks want things both ways. They want God, but by their rules, not His.
And so we enter into another realm of disobedience toward God, which is a test of wills, so to speak, and when we object to the obligations He places on us, then we are rejecting His wisdom, His truth, and that is a sin. Or, the sin of presuming that we know better, or just don’t care.
There are right things to do in life and wrong things to do. Sin is not limited to simple lies, or more dramatic cursing, or any of the traditional crimes that we are familiar with. Sin is also concerned with responsibility, accountability, and our obligation to obey Gods mandates and such.
Just living your life out of fellowship, means that you are living in a state of perpetual sin. Generally, we call it human good. You could be doing good things, but when out of fellowship, you are performing them in the energy of your flesh (the sin nature), not within Gods fellowship sphere. And human good was rejected at the Cross. All human effort was rejected at the Cross.
Only the work of Christ is perfect and effective, and accepted.
So, you have responsibilities in life. We have covered them many times. To look the other way, to presume that someone else is going to fulfill your obligations, to be greedy or selfish in not wanting to do what is expected of you, to pretend or defiant or just indifferent, is a sin.
