Community answers are sorted based on votes. The higher the vote, the further up an answer is.
S. Michael Houdmann
Supporter
In Matthew 5:21-28, Jesus equates committing adultery with having lust in your heart and committing murder with having hatred in your heart. However, this does not mean the sins are equal. What Jes...
Login or Sign Up to view the rest of this answer.
Kelli Trujillo
Supporter
When Jesus died, He shed the same amount of blood for all sins. Nowhere does the Bible say that the sin of murder requires more of those drops to be forgiven than the sin of telling a white lie requires. In Matthew 5:21-28, Jesus lists several sins that we tend to categorize into "mild" and "severe" sins and essentially declares them all equal. When it comes to receiving forgiveness for our sins, God requires nothing more from a murderer than He does from a teller of a white lie in order to receive His forgiveness and redemption. However, every sin begins with a thought, then progresses to repeated thoughts, then progresses to an action, then progresses to repeated actions, and if left unchecked, a compulsion or habit results. For sins like murder or adultery, this progression takes longer and involves a hardening of the heart over time. While God's forgiveness is the same for all sins, the condition of the heart looks very different for that of a murderer than it does for a teller of a white lie. Luke 6:45 says, A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. In summation, sins may all be the same in terms of what is required to be forgiven them, but the heart condition of a sinner can look very different depending on the kinds of sin a person has allowed to consume his/her heart.
JD Abshire
James 2:10 " For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all."
Tabatha Wilbert
Rather than worry whether all sin is the same in the eyes of God why not let HIM be the judge of that and focus on eradicating sin from our own lives. I believe that God does not want us to put ourselves on a rating scale or hierarchy but rather wishes us to consider each sin unacceptable, fully repent and avoid further sin. Rating how bad sin is in comparison to others leads us down a road of accepting "better" sins and condeming those that sin "worse" than we do. All sin seperates us from God. I don't believe we need to be concerned with the distance, just the mere fact of the seperation and rejecting ALL SIN. To me this is what the over-quoted scripture of Matthew refers to: Matthew 7:1-3 King James Version (KJV) "7 Judge not, that ye be not judged. 2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. 3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?"
Dan Rivers
This issue matters to those that are not Christians. Those that are still under the Law...When Jesus taught during his ministry, he ministered by and with the law, Matt 5:17, Gal 4:4,5. because Grace and the Holy Spirit had not yet been given, John 7:39. After the Cross believers are not under the Law, Rom 6:14, Galatians. We are a new, born of God, creation, 2 Cor 5:17, we are dead to sin and and no longer live in it, Rom 6:2... The Holy Spirit indwells us and we naturally do what is pleasing to the Lord, Phil 2:13, Heb 8:10,11 That is why John wrote that those born of God, those that belong to him, his children, cannot sin, 1 John 3:9,10 Having said that, due to the fact that we still live in this "tent" the flesh, 2 Cor 5:4, 2 Pet 1:13,14, and even though we don't want to, we are still able to sin... But because of Jesus' work on the Cross, ALL of our sins have been forgiven, those we committed before being saved and all those that we may commit after we are saved. And most importantly, those sins we may commit after being saved are not charged or imputed to us because we are NOT under any law, Rom 5:13...James 2:10 does not apply to Christians, it applies to those under the law. A Christian cannot be a sinner, if he is a sinner he cannot not be a Christian, otherwise what Jesus did on the cross is of no effect, 1 Cor 1:17, and we would need another sacrifice, Jesus would have to die again, Heb 9:25,26... Knowing and believing this allows me to walk without any guilty burdens, it gives me peace. The peace that only the Lord can give, John 14:27, Rom 5:1, Rom 14:17, Phil 4:7... All Praise and Glory to the Lord!
Michael Moss
I beleive that All is sin,no little or big sin,there is no white or black sin.Sin is sin in God eyes we miss the mark,all have sin and fell short of gods glory.
rogers ward
From a prophet by permission of the Holy Spirit. To say that all sin is the same is an oversimplification and lack of understanding of the Bible. The first four commandments are concerning belief. Ergo the worse sin is the sin of non-belief. The bible says the only sin that is unforgivable is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. When someone blasphemes against the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit is not present within the person. In order for someone to speak against the Holy Spirit would indicate that the person knew or had known of the Holy Spirit(God, Jesus) but is rejecting him. I personally believe that Grace and Mercy and the Power of the cross is greater than any sin we as humans could commit. God is greater than Satan, Good is greater than Evil. The redemptive power of Jesus at the cross nullifies any and all sin, now and forevermore.
carol Shihadeh
Even though we are not under the law, we still have the sin nature. God gives us the free will to make choices to sin or not. The bible says salvation is a gift from God, the evidence is our works; also the bible says faith without work is dead. To me that means your old life is dead, and a new life is given. Change must take place. Being saved is much deeper than saying 'I'm going to heaven because I accepted Jesus then living the old way. The person you were should be going through the process of transformation. Remember, God said we cannot serve two masters.
Kenneth Heck
This question seems to originate in response to the Catholic doctrine that there are sins of greater and lesser importance. The greater are called 'mortal' sins since they cause spiritual death if not forgiven. The lesser are called 'venial sins' which impede the soul and can lead to mortal sins if not forgiven. In the Old Testament the penalty for the most serious sins was physical death. This was true for the 10 Commandments and others such as the prohibition against witchcraft. A substitutionary blood sacrifice was required to cover over these sins, if allowed. For less serious sins the usual penalty would be "an eye for and eye, and a tooth for a tooth." With the higher standard in understanding sin established in Christianity, greater emphasis is on the heart and the intention besides the actual act. Seemingly little sins for a beginning Christian can be large sins for those who are well advanced in the Holy Spirit. No sin, however small it may seem, can be ignored by Christians if they are to remain true to God.
Priscilla Quarles
Sin is to disregard what God has said. Whatever God says is brings life John 6:63 and the opposite of what he said brings death. God speaks to his children to instruct us what to do and not to obey is sin. Sins are not equal they have different judgements but, the end result of all sin when it is mature the judgement is death Roman 6:23 the wages of sin is death. A thief when he is caught stealing must repay sevenfold Proverbs 6:31 An adulterous' body will be destory. If you don't forgive you will not be forgiven Sin is first conceived as a seed James 1:15 as we water the seed that seed grows as we continue in the sin. First the blade then the ear and then the full corn. Once the fruit is exposed then judgement comes. This is why all things are not hidden and all things in secret shall be revealed Luke 8:17,Mark 4:22. This is also the formula for answered prayer.Thats why God tells us to wait and be patience its must grow. It grows in the spiritual realm and appears in the physical realm once the seed is full grown. The stronger your faith the faster it grows. We are not bound to the Law to serve the law. The law was made for man.without the law how else would we know sin. Sin comes from the heart so does righteousness. It all depends on why we sin. We read how it was unlawful for David to eat the Priest's bread. Because it was the only food they had it was the righteous thing to do,feed David. He is more important then the law. And when Jesus healed on the Sabbath day It was very important to observe the Sabbath day.Because the law was made for man not man for the law. Why should Jesus allow the man to suffer another day. Jesus did what was righteous. Because it was the right thing to do it was counted righteous which made him perfect. Sin comes from the heart its motives and intentions therein we serve God.Be not deceived God is not mock for whatsoever a man sow that shall he also reap.
Aurel Gheorghe
Is one sin greater than another? Yes and no. No, because any unconfused, willing, and deliberate sin can lead to the same place. Sin is lawlessness - the intentional breaking of God’s Word (1 John 3:4). Was Adam's sin big or small? After all, it was just a bite of a fruit; however, the first couple purposely disobeyed God’s command and it was enough for them to lose eternal life. Someone might say “is just is little lie, I didn’t kill anyone” – however, Revelation 21:8 say that unrepented murderers are excluded from the kingdom just as unrepented liars. Nonetheless, while all sins are an abomination to God, not all sins are equal and different sins have different consequences; murder causes a lot more physical pain than lying. Personally, I would rather be lied to then stabbed to death. But we all have our biases. For example, one person who is being physically abused by an alcoholic spouse might feel different about alcohol consumption than a person who believe an occasional beer or glass of wine is no big deal. We often rank sins based on consequences and our own viewpoint. But each of our sin, small or big was enough to nailed Jesus to the cross (Isaiah 53:4, 5; 1 Peter 2:24). Finally, in James 2:10 we read that when we are disobedient in one of the least important (in our own eyes) of God’s commandment, we are disobedient of all of them.
Terry Galloway
I agree with many of the answers already posted, but I do want to point out that the Bible has many verses putting sexual immorality to a different standard. Yes, we all have lusted, some have fornicated and some have committed adultery, and all that can be forgiven after repentance and going and sinning no more (as the woman caught in adultery), but then that is what you WERE. See these Scriptures: 1 Corinthians 6: 9 Don’t you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, 10 or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people—none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God. 11 Some of you were once like that. But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. But right after this, the Bible talks about the extra danger of committing sexual sin--18 Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. 19 Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, 20 for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body. Think about other places in the Bible-- Old Testament- adultery was punished by death, 1 Cor 10:8 And we must not engage in sexual immorality as some of them did, causing 23,000 of them to die in one day., Jesus speaking about the seriousness of this in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) to cut off your hand or gouge out your eye (figuratively) than to send you to hell, Paul is concerned that he will be grieved if the Corinthians have not given up their sexual immorality (2 Cor 12:19-21) and Sodom and Gomorrah being destroyed over sexual sin. When the Gentiles were brought into the church they were given simple instructions from the Holy Spirit- Acts 15:28-29 including abstaining from sexual immorality. The problem is that sexual immorality shows the condition of the rebellious, sinful natured heart which is what God examines. In Mark 7:20-22 He says this is what defiles men from the outflow of their heart. Look at these other verses about sexual immorality: Galatians 5:19-21, Ephesians 5:3, Colossians 3:5, 1 Peter 4:3, 2 Peter 2:2, Jude 1:7, Revelation 9:21, Revelation 21:8, Revelation 22:10-15. This is so serious because God invented sex and for sex to have boundaries that He set up. The marriage covenant represents the marriage covenant of Jesus Christ with His bride-- the saints, holy people that He has purchased with His blood to be His servants even to the point of martyrdom. We are to confess and forsake our sin. Yes, we are saints that still sometimes sin, but He gives us time to repent and accept His gift of repentance that comes from godly sorrow that produces deeds of repentance. We will be held accountable not for what we claimed but for the proof of our surrender to His Lordship. The amazing thing about grace is that He alone makes us born again and in that His indwelling Holy Spirit sanctifies us and gives us a growing holiness with a new heart that wants to obey and be clean (Ezekiel 36:25-27) so that this is true: Rev 21: 27 But nothing unclean will ever enter it (heaven), nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and understanding. We need to be aware that He sees it all, and we will all give an account even for the words we have said (Matthew 12:35-37). If we KNOW Jesus we will KNOW change out of our sinful nature, be forever grateful for His amazing salvation and go tell others the wonderful Good News of the cross, His cleansing blood and resurrection! He alone- the Way, the Truth and the Life
Don Quinn
Romans 3:10 says "As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:" That statement in itself says everyone is not righteous. Romans 3:23 says "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;" It doesn't say that the sins are either big or little. Romans 5:12 Says "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:' Again no big or little sin, but there is a way out of our situation. Romans 6:23 says "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" God treats all sin the same man puts a quality of sin the excuse for some sins and man puts a degree of sinning. When you look at it from our eyes we say murder is worse than petty theft. Dealing drugs is worse that lying, why do we put degrees on sin? For our criminal justice system that has nothing to do with God. From our Birth we are condemned as sinners and all we did was be born. We escape that fate by accepting Jesus Christ as our Lord and savior. God said in the verses above give to us from the apostle Paul that all have sinned and sin brings death as Adam and Eve did make the way for all there after. God never said some sins are acceptable and others are not he did say there was one unforgivable sin but it is still a sin. God did not put weight on sin, sin is indeed sin, and with out Jesus we are all condemned.
Steve Bookout
In John 19:11, Jesus told Pilate the one who delivered Jesus over to Pilate had committed the "greater" sin. In Matt. 10:15, our Lord declared it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the Day of Judgement than for the city that rejects the apostles teachings. The apostle Peter states in 2 Peter 2:21 that it would be better for someone to have never know the way of righteousness than to have known it and then turned from it. These words from our Lord and his apostle are just a few that teach that, on some level anyway, some sins are greater than others and varying degrees of punishment. From there we can quickly get into speculation about things that God has not told us and other unprofitable endeavors. The important thing to remember is that all have sinned, Rom. 3:23, and fallen short of the glory of God. And, that the result of sin, any sin, is death, spiritual separation form God. Rom. 6:23. And, that redemption and eternal life is said in Scripture to only be found in Christ Jesus, Rom. 3:24, 6:23. The only two passages, which is all we need to know, to clearly articulate how one gets into Christ Jesus is found in Gal. 3:27 & Rom. 6:3. Again, any other way would be speculation. "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it" Jesus Christ. Luke 11:28
Vincent Mercado
Supporter
There are sins that lead to death; there are sins that does not lead to death. Catholic Theology call these Mortal and Venial sins. 1 John 5:16-17 If you see any brother or sister commit a sin that does not lead to death, you should pray and God will give them life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that you should pray about that. All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death.
Nils Jansma
I am surprised that the Scripture in Luke below, was not included in this discussion about the relative nature of sin and punishment. With all due respect, to imagine that murder and assault are equally punishable in God’s eyes, makes Him out to be very scary to me. Apparently, we try to rationalize God into a being that is guilty of what we would normally consider to be a gross miscarriage of justice. However, in Genesis 18:20-23, Abraham established the president that God is fair even in our eyes. It is the Devil who is our accuser, not God. (Revelation 12:10). The Devil would like us to paint God out as an unjust tyrant exemplifying the chant “Might makes Right.” Even the Law distinguished between degrees of sin and punished accordingly. Because the Law has been replaced by Grace, we should expect an even greater degree of justice than the Law sometimes allowed. As was pointed out, there are degrees of sin (1John 5:16-17) which should reassure us that we can still depend upon God to be fair as was illustrated by Jesus as follows: Luke 12:41-48 “Then Peter said unto him, Lord, speakest thou this parable unto us, or even to all? (42) And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season? (43) Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. (44) Of a truth I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he hath. (45) But and if that servant say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken; (46) The lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. (47) And that servant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. (48) But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.” While there are Scriptures that can rightly be interpreted to suggest that God’s “justice” is not the same as our justice, we should be assured, however, that His justice and mercy favorably exceeds anything we can imagine now. (Romans 11:32-36)
Add your Answer
All answers are REVIEWED and MODERATED.
Please ensure your answer MEETS all our guidelines.
A good answer provides new insight and perspective. Here are guidelines to help facilitate a meaningful learning experience for everyone.
- Adhere to the eBible Statement of Faith.
- Your answer should be complete and stand-alone.
- Include supporting arguments, and scripture references if possible. Seek to answer the "why".
- Adhere to a proper tone and spirit of love and understanding.
- For more info see The Complete Guide to eBible