Intent to sin?

[invadersomeone]

Is it a sin to think of doing a sin, and getting to the point where you are about to commit a sin, and then you stop just prior to doing the sinful action? Is this sinful because you had the intent to sin?

 

[Billy29]

Is it a sin to think of doing a sin, and getting to the point where you are about to commit a sin, and then you stop just prior to doing the sinful action? Is this sinful because you had the intent to sin?

Read CCC1857
The sin must be COMMITTED with full consent while full consent I don’t see committed but you still need to look at why. Think of it in terms like this if you planned on committing a crime but didn’t so the police aren’t going to come after you. Nothing to charge you with. This sounds more like temptation and falling for it but then you stopped before you committed the sin so praise God that you prevailed.

 

[Pug]

Is it a sin to think of doing a sin, and getting to the point where you are about to commit a sin, and then you stop just prior to doing the sinful action? Is this sinful because you had the intent to sin?

Just thinking about doing a sin can occur spontaneously, without our willing it. Our thoughts often come to us willy nilly. We might even deliberate for awhile about taking a course of action before any idea that we ought not be thinking about it enters our mind. But once our mind comes to order and once we realize that we ought not be thinking about it, and that there is no good in it, then we ought to stop. It becomes a sin of thought when we choose to continue. Sin has happened by that point.

But you might just be talking about not yet deciding. You are still thinking about if you will do something or not, and you are almost on the brink of deciding to do it, but then you chose against it. This is not a sin. You did not make a sinful decision. There has to be some choice for there to be sin.

Remember, sin comes from your heart. You can commit adultery in your heart and never get your duff up off the couch to go do anything. If our heart is wrong within us, we must repent. If you decide to go do a sin, but some unforeseen circumstance comes up and stops you, there is still something wrong inside that you chose to go do whatever it was, even if you didn’t get to carry out the deed. Of course, just repent (and go to confession if it was serious).

 

[LilyM]

I’d say if you, for example, determine on robbing your neighbour’s house while they are away on holidays, but then of your own free will later choose not to do so, that you haven’t sinned.

Remember Our Lord’s story about the son who when asked SAID he wouldn’t go to the Father’s vineyard (ie do his will) but then changed his mind and went? I think God isn’t harsh on the thoughts of our wayward minds and the temptations the Devil puts on us.

On the other hand, if you determine on robbing your neighbour’s house and fail to go through with it only because of something outside your own control (ie because you get there and find that they’ve come back earlier than expected) then your sinful intent has remained unchanged and you’d be as guilty as if you’d gone ahead and done the robbery.

Hope this makes sense.

 

[Frosty]

Is it a sin to think of doing a sin, and getting to the point where you are about to commit a sin, and then you stop just prior to doing the sinful action? Is this sinful because you had the intent to sin?

The malice of sin lies in the intention rather than in the action. The moment that one deliberately makes up his/her mind that he/she is going to commit a certain sin, then that person has already committed that sin. As in the example that LilyM gave above, it doesn’t matter if one changes one’s mind about stealing before the actual deed is done. One is still guilty of the sin regardless of circumstances outside one’s control. Changing one’s mind cannot wipe out a sin that has already been committed.
Having temptations or sinful thoughts [against chastity or charity for example] is common to pretty well everyone, The sinful thought may linger for some moments. Then one realizes that it is a sinful thought and eventually does try to put it out of one’s mind. The thought may come back again and again, stubbornly refusing to be so easily dismissed, Afterwards one wonders “Did I try to dismiss the thought soon enough? Did I willingly accept it and let it linger in my mind to the point of sin?” Often we can’t answer the question ourselves and have to be content with an Act of Contrition and leave the answer to God… The Church teaches that it is almost certain that we have not sinned grieviously, if day by day, we honestly are trying to keep from mortal sin. This is completely different from allowing thoughts to progress to the point that one is deliberately choosing to commit a sin whether or not one follows up on that choice.

 

[japhy]

Some sins are sins of intention rather than action. Frosty pointed out the examples of sins against charity or chastity: malicious or lustful thoughts.

But there is yet another way to look at sins not actually committed. Thought of sin (especially thought of past sins that elicits a positive response) is part of the problem of “attachment to sin”.