[circlecity]

"...it's important to remember that religion is about encouraging virtue, not just avoiding sin."

I understand what Mona is trying to say but there is no difference between the two. Whenever ever you don't do one you are doing the other. The first words Jesus preached were to "repent".

[McBuff]

15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.[c] For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. Romans 7:15-20

Paul rightly describes "sin" not just as an act, but rather, as also a nature within each of us.