Why are sinful dreams and thoughts not also considered a type of sin?

Question

Some examples of what I am talking about: Wet dreams, daydreaming the different ways to murder someone, lusting after someone that Christianity says you shouldn't (either you are in a marriage, or you are having lust for the same s*x, etc).

Why isn't thinking or dreaming sinful thoughts a type of lesser sin in Christianity?

Suggesting that thoughts or even dreams are not part of you or you have no control over them basically rules out free will from ever existing in a religious form. You could also argue that point since we have limited control of what we think or feel, therefore we have limited control over ourselves due to genetics to or uncontrollable thoughts which ultimately control our physical actions.

If we have no control over our thoughts or dreams, isn't that suggesting that they are not part of our essence as a person and that dreams and thoughts are part of something separate altogether?

Even if limited control over what we think of dream, even on a subconscious level or where our super-ego is not fully capable of intervening, isn't this suggestive that dreams and thoughts are just as much or even more an expression of ourselves than our actions?

I'm not in favour of labelling everything sin (I don't even think sin exists), but I would like to see a Christian perspective of this.

Answer 1

Of course we have control..that is why me must make it our business to become brainwashed like them to wipe those thoughts out completely.

Answer 2

Sinful thoughts are sins, dreams can not be controlled, so they aren't.  

Answer 3

Everything's a sin, even thinking it. You're set up to fail.

Answer 4

They are considered sinful...just ask a fundamentalist.

If you have a lustful thought of someone and you are married, you have committed adultery "in your heart" and therefore have broken a commandment.  If you feel angry, you have committed murder "in your heart" and have again broken a commandment.  

Answer 5

as for dreams u can't control them but as for thoughts Christ said u have heard thou shalt not commit adultery; i say to you to look upon a woman with lust in your heart (to have adulterous thoughts) is a sin so u r incorrect in your assumption that thoughts can not be sins they can by Christ's own words  

Answer 6

For sure we have those dreams due to the sin within us but to be guilty of the sin you must co-operate with it with your will.

People make a mistake in thinking that sin is only action---sin is something that is real and in us and we are bound up in it and when we exercise that sin it becomes stronger but even if we did not exercise it it is there this is why we need baptism because then we become a new creature in Christ and sin still tries to capture us but if we do not co-operate with it we are free.

Answer 7

Because they're not part of reality, What you dream or think will not ultimately decide what your actions are in real life.