Bible Verses About Sin
The Catholic Church distinguishes between original sin — the wounded condition inherited by all humanity from the fall of Adam — and personal sin, the free act by which an individual turns away from God. It further distinguishes mortal sin, which destroys the life of grace in the soul, from venial sin, which weakens it. These distinctions are not minimizations of sin's seriousness but careful attempts to understand its nature so that it can be properly addressed through repentance and the sacraments.
Scripture does not minimize sin either. The Letter to the Romans spends three chapters establishing that all humanity — Jew and Gentile — is under the power of sin before declaring the remedy. The Psalms include seven great penitential psalms that the Church has prayed for centuries as honest acknowledgments of sin before God. The decisive point in Scripture is always the same: God's mercy is greater than human sin.
Note: 1 verse on this page is from the deuterocanonical books — books included in the Catholic Bible but absent from most Protestant translations (Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, 1–2 Maccabees).
8 verses — Douay-Rheims Bible (1899 Challoner revision) — Public domain
For all have sinned, and do need the glory of God.Romans 3:23 — Douay-Rheims
Paul's universal diagnosis before announcing the universal remedy — all have sinned, all are in need of God's grace.
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all iniquity.1 John 1:8-9 — Douay-Rheims
John diagnoses the self-deception of denying sin, then immediately offers the remedy: confession and God's faithful forgiveness.
But your iniquities have divided between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you that he should not hear.Isaiah 59:2 — Douay-Rheims
Isaiah names the primary effect of sin: it breaks communion with God — the face of God is hidden.
For I know my iniquity, and my sin is always before me. To thee only have I sinned, and have done evil before thee: that thou mayst be justified in thy words, and mayst overcome when thou art judged.Psalm 51:3-4 — Douay-Rheims
David's Miserere — the model of honest acknowledgment of personal sin before God.
Flee from sins as from the face of a serpent: for if thou comest near them, they will take hold of thee. The teeth thereof are the teeth of a lion, killing the souls of men.Sirach 21:2Deuterocanonical — Douay-Rheims
Sirach's vivid warning against sin's deceptive approach — a deuterocanonical text on the seriousness of moral danger.
For the wages of sin is death. But the grace of God, life everlasting, in Christ Jesus our Lord.Romans 6:23 — Douay-Rheims
Paul's concise statement of sin's consequence and its remedy — the entire economy of salvation in a single verse.
He that hideth his sins, shall not prosper: but he that shall confess, and forsake them, shall obtain mercy.Proverbs 28:13 — Douay-Rheims
A proverb of practical wisdom that anticipates the Gospel teaching on confession: concealment prevents healing.
But every man is tempted by his own concupiscence, being drawn away and allured. Then when concupiscence hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin. And sin, when it is completed, begetteth death.James 1:14-15 — Douay-Rheims
James traces the interior movement of sin: desire, conception, birth, death — an account of the psychology of moral failure.
Related Topics
Related Catholic Prayers
Source
All verse texts from the Douay-Rheims Bible (1899 Challoner revision), public domain. The Douay-Rheims is the traditional Catholic English Bible, translated from the Latin Vulgate.