I have heard believers say that holding to this ideology— that all sins are equally bad— can help Christians adhere to a more godly lifestyle, in that they will be much more alert, keeping watch over not just sins that might be deemed as more serious, but anything and everything that would be looked upon as displeasing in the eyes of God. Hear me out— I do understand the rationale behind this mindset, and if it has indeed helped you to stray from sin in your walk— more power to you. Unfortunately, based upon what I have seen over the years, I believe that this mantra has done more harm than good to the body of Christ.
Whereas believers who are advocates of this view, contend that it will help Christians to walk even more so in holiness– because they are viewing all sin as being equally grievous and wicked— I have seen it ironically have the opposite effect in the lives of many believers. Putting everything on equal footing has caused many a Christians I’ve known to actually become more comfortable in their ongoing struggles. Their mindset became, “Well, we all sin. I’m just a sinner like everyone else on this earth. And my sin is no more serious or less than anyone else’s.”
What I have learned is that there are indeed biblical answers that can shed light on this complicated topic. How are we to view various sins, or more importantly, how does God view the different sins we get caught up in? Is there biblical data that supports the idea that all sin is equally grievous in the Lord’s eyes? Is there data that advocates for there being different levels of sin in regards to their seriousness?
Looking at James 2:1-13
Based upon what I have observed over the years, it appears that a there is one key passage that believers will draw on, when trying to contend that all sin is viewed as equally the same in God’s eyes. This is James 2:10:
“For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it” (Jms. 2:10, NIV).
As always, it is imperative that we examine the context of what the apostle is saying here. The entirety of James chapter 2, deals with the believers whom James was writing to, who neglected to show hospitality to the poor, and instead invested their time and energy in showing favoritism to those of higher class.
This section– Jms. 2:1-13— is a very theologically rich and complex section of Scripture. Giving this section a short paragraph’s worth of attention really does not do it justice, which is why I intend to write a separate blog article completely dedicated to the exegesis of Jms. 2:1-13. Right now, I will simply do my best to summarize the main points of it, and how v. 10 specifically fits into the entire mold.
The readers of James’ epistle thought that they were doing very well, since from their perspective, they were abiding by all of the commandments of the Mosaic Law, without fail. Yet, James points out that they were indeed at fault. While exact details as to what was happening are a bit vague, it appears that they were showing what the apostle describes as, “special attention,” to those who were wealthy, or as James designates it, those who came into their church body wearing valuable jewelry, or “fine clothes” (Jms. 2:1-2).
By contrast, it seems at least according to the hypothetical scenario laid out by James to his readers in vv. 2-4, that the poor in the church congregation, were being disregarded in ways such as being asked to stand or sit in designated areas of the church corridors. Such undoubtably has nuances of segregation. Indeed James says in relation to what his readers are doing, “have you not discriminated among yourselves…” (2:4)?
Again— James’ readers likely thought that they had done quite well in following the Mosaic law. James reminds them however that the Mosaic law, had now become the “royal law” (2:8). The “royal law” mentioned by James is essentially this: It is the principles that come from the commands and guidelines of the Mosaic Law, which were both clarified, expounded upon, and fulfilled by Jesus Christ, and are properly obeyed through abiding in the key command, “love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt. 22:39; cf. Lev. 19:18). In showing favoritism towards the wealthy, and neglect for the poor, James accuses his brethren of breaking the love command of Lev. 19:18:
“Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.”
Their demonstration of discrimination in the church setting has rendered them guilty of breaking this command— which also happens to be one of two key commands that summarize all of the law and the prophets (Matt. 22:40). This leads into his declaration in 2:9-10:
“But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.”
This passage is one that might be cited by Christians who hold to the idea that all sin is of equal moral seriousness in God’s eyes. But that is really not what the apostle James is saying here. What he has in mind rather is one’s spiritual standing before the Lord.
Right now, he is writing to a group of believers who strongly believed that they were in right standing before God, since in their mind they had followed the law completely. James’ point is that they had indeed transgressed against one of the laws, and one who breaks even one of the laws— no matter which one it is, whether light or great— is no longer in right standing before God.
He is not suggesting that they are unbelievers that haven’t yet been washed by the blood of Christ. Those who have not yet received Christ’s forgiveness, are completely separated spiritually from the Lord, which will ultimately lead to eternal damnation. However, in a sense, to a certain extent, a spiritual disruption does occur between believers and God, when a Christian falls into unrepentant sin (see Eph. 4:30).
On that note, I would like to stop before we go any further, and say affirmatively that we should never become laxed in our pursuit against sinful living. Becoming comfortable in engaging in certain sins that we may view as unimportant or lower level, is undoubtably an act of rebellion against a perfect God who expects complete holiness and nothing less in His followers.
Nonetheless, as I mentioned earlier, I have seen even worse effects in the Christian walks of those who put all sin at the same level. That is why I will now get into some key passages which speak to this topic, that some believers may not even be aware of; I certainly wasn’t for a long time— granted for a long time in my Christian walk, I never actually read my Bible!
Examining the OT: A Look at the Mosaic Law and Ezekiel’s Vision.
We will start in the Old Testament. It is first important to consider the fact that within the Pentateuch it is established that not all sins result in the same consequences. This is shown from many different standpoints in the OT, perhaps starting with the fact that on Mt. Sinai, God provided many legal stipulations that the people of Israel were to follow, complete paired with different levels of consequences depending on the law that was broken.
A prime example would be that of murder. In Exo. 21:12 we read, “Anyone who strikes a person with a fatal blow is to be put to death.” Here it is established that capital punishment would be enacted in response to a cold-blooded murder.
The necessity of executing a known murderer was actually not first introduced in the Mosaic law— for in Gen. 9 as part of the covenant that God made with Noah and his descendants (one of a number of unconditional, lasting, covenants we have in Scripture), God made it clear that, “Whoever sheds human blood, by humans shall their blood be shed…” (Gen. 9:6). Why such a serious consequence for murder?
The answer is given in the second half of v. 9, “for in the image of God has God made mankind.” We see then that the severity of the punishment undoubtably matches the severity of the moral transgression being committed—that of, slaying one who is made in God’s image.
If you read on from v. 12 of Exodus 21, you will see however that not all killings were handled in the same exact way. The very following two verses read,
“However, if it is not done intentionally, but God lets it happen, they are to flee to a place I will designate. But if anyone schemes and kills someone deliberately, that person is to be taken from my altar and put to death (Exo. 21:13-14).”
Here we have the type of situation that our modern legal system would designate as manslaughter. Those who accidently killed another person were not liable enough to where they would suffer immediate execution, but rather a special, “place” would be designated by the Lord for them to flee to. These special places became known as the “cities of refuge” (Num. 35:6-34; Deut. 4:1-43; Josh. 20:2-9).
The manslayer who successfully flee to one of these cities, would be protected there, with no avenger able to kill him, until the High Priest of that city passed away (Josh. 20:6). Once the latter occurred, the fugitive would no longer be liable for the killing, and he was free to go his own way. It also seems that the tabernacle and or temple setting would be a place that a manslaughterer could take refuge in temporarily according to v. 14— “that person is to be taken from my altar.”
So whereas the penalty for pre-mediated murder was execution, the one who did not kill a person was designated a special place to flee to, in order to escape the wrath of a loved one seeking to avenge their loss. Any loss of life is serious since Man is made in God’s image, but God who knows the thoughts and intents of the heart, understands that not all killings stem from a same exact heart condition within a person. One who premeditates someone’s death is demonstrating a far greater moral rebellion against God’s law than a person who unintentionally killed a person in a fist fight or in some sort of freak accident.
So we see that the Mosaic Law established levels of consequences for different sins, and there were indeed very real reasons of moral implications for why God had there be degrees of punishments depending on the laws broken. But if we venture further into the OT, we find even more that lends to this topic of varying degrees of sin.
Yet, the Lord tells the prophet that it doesn’t end there. God was about to reveal to Ezekiel things, “even more detestable,” that the children of Israel were practicing, including that of her leaders (8:6b). This expression that I have in quotes, is repeated by the Lord two more times (8:13, 15), as He takes the prophet through the shrines that the elders of Israel were burning incense at (8:11-12), and the different parts of the Temple where idolatry was being practiced (8:14-16). All this, lends credence to there being different degrees of sin/moral failings, in God’s eyes.
Moving Into the NT: The Words of Jesus Himself
Moving into the New Testament, the words of Jesus are very telling in some areas concerning this particular topic. Let’s start with His words about specific commands of the law. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus said this:
“Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:9).
This is a very intriguing passage to examine for the subject we are focusing on in this article! That is because within it, we appear to get both contrasting ideas together— that all commands are equally imperative to follow AND that there are still varying degrees of commands. Can both be true?
Jesus says here that one is not to set aside, or in other words, ignore the lesser commands, and only focus on following the greater ones and encouraging others to do so as well. This correlates with what we learned earlier with the words of James. All of the law is essential to abide by, because just one transgression of it, effects a person’s status before a holy and perfect God. Telling others that a particular sin does not warrant our avoidance, is basically the same as saying that certain sins do not matter to God. Nothing can be further from the truth. No sin is permissible in God’s sight and as established before, just one sin as light as stealing a cookie from the cookie jar is enough to keep a person out of heaven.
At the same time, very interestingly Jesus still specifies within this passage that there are different levels of commands—
“… anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands (v. 9a).”
From the standpoint of our legal status before the Lord, even the lightest blemish is enough to keep us eternally separated from Him. Yet, looking at things from the lens of Christ’s evaluation of our earthly performance when we stand before His Throne (Rom. 14:10; 1 Cor. 4:5; 2 Cor. 5:10; 2 Tim. 4:1), sin no longer stands on the same level. Consider the words of King Solomon in the final phrase of Ecclesiastes:
“… Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind. For God will bring every deed into judgement, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil” (Ecc. 12:13-14).”
Ask yourself this: if all sin is on the same moral footing in God’s eyes, why would there be any need for a judgement to take place where everything we have ever said or done in this life is evaluated? Let’s not play God for a fool. Just as it is naturally engrained in our senses to recognize that a particular sin is of great seriousness such as a murder or rape that we hear about on the news, and react to it accordingly, it is not too far off to conclude that God sees certain actions as more rebellious in a person’s heart than others. Scripture tells us that our God will sometimes “grieve” over the lifestyles exemplified by His children. Note Pauls’ words in Eph. 4:30-32:
“And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you” (Eph. 4:32).
With that in mind, we see on another occasion, Jesus scolds the religious leaders for observing only the lighter laws, and disregarding the moral serious ones:
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former” (Matt. 23:23).
Here we again have a passage where Jesus simultaneously both attests the necessity of obeying all the commands, and affirms that some commands are indeed more important than others when it comes to the effect they have on the believer’s walk.
We will end this study with looking at one more instance where Jesus spoke to this topic. In my opinion, this passage right here is the one that really drives the point home regarding whether or not there are different levels of sins. In the Gospel of John, we read that after Pilate had Jesus flogged (Jn. 19:1) and subsequently brought in front of the people who called for His crucifixion (Jn. 19:6), the Roman governor interrogated Jesus back in his palace (19:9). When Jesus gave him no answer to his interrogation, Pilate said to Him,
“Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you (19:10)?”
Jesus’ response to this is where we get what is in my view, the proof text for certain sins being more serious than others. The Lord told Pilate:
“You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin (19:11).”
The Roman governor was thus simply a tool in God’s salvation plan. However, that does not excuse Pilate’s actions. It indeed was still sin (cf. Matt. 27:19); Pilate’s actions demonstrated an overall lack of trust in God’s power and plan.
Yet, the one who had handed Jesus over to Pilate was guilty of an even, “greater” sin according to Jesus’ words. Of course, the question on the minds of most Bible students is, who is the, “one” whom Christ refers to here? Some have suggested that this is reference to Judas who indeed handed Jesus over to be arrested. However, Judas did not directly hand Jesus over to Pilate, rather, it was Caiaphas, the High Priest who acted as the spokesperson for the Jewish religious hierarchy, had Jesus brought to Pilate for judgement.
The continual stubborn countenance of the religious leaders towards Jesus throughout His earthly ministry can be a blog article in and of itself, due to the amount of detail that we are given in the Gospel accounts regarding the tension between Jesus and the religious leaders of His day. Suffice to say, the religious leaders of Jesus’ time were completely without excuse to not accept Jesus as the Messiah of Israel. These were men who should have known the Scriptures well, including that of the intended purpose of the Messiah’s coming, and the true nature of His kingdom.
Their refusal to accept Jesus for who He was, revealed the devastating condition of their hearts. Caiaphas of all men, was without excuse— for John reveals that he was well aware of the signs and wonders Jesus had been performing, including the raising of Lazarus from the dead (see Jn. 11:38-44; 45-50). We read that upon hearing these things, he as high priest, plotted with his Jewish religious contemporaries, to kill Jesus (Jn. 11:51-53).
With this, we see that Caiaphas, along with the rest of the religious leaders who took part in this plot, were guilty of a truly inexcusable and incredibly grievous sin. It was pre-meditated murder of a completely innocent man— one whom they should have accepted for who He truly was—the Son of God. Thus, Jesus we see designate this in Jn. 19:11 as a greater sin, than that of what Pilate did; it was a monumental demonstration of rebellion against God.
Conclusion
I believe that the reason for many Christians wanting to view all sin as equal, is multifaceted. Some believers I think mean well, and they perhaps do not want to appear to come across as, or fall into the temptation of, becoming judgmental towards other Christians who are struggling with certain sins. Thus, these well meaning believers will say things like, “Well, I’m a sinner just as much as that person,” or, “my sin is in need of forgiveness just as much as this other individual.” Again, such statements ring true, but they are only looking at things from one lens, as we discussed earlier.
Then, there are those who unfortunately are trying to write off the specific sins that they are dealing with as less significant than they really are. This is where I have seen the mantra of “all sins are the same,” become a way for people to actually justify remaining in certain sins that are rather destructive.
But in the end, we need to make sure that we formulate a balanced view of sin, and the Scriptures are what will help us achieve this balance.
From our legal standing before God, all sin is equal in that even the lightest blemish is enough to keep us out of His kingdom. Yet, from the standpoint of God evaluating our performance and service to Him on earth, it appears that not all sin will be seen as the same. God will one day evaluate and judge each person’s heart.
Different sins reveal different levels of heart conditions towards the Lord. Even within our human conscience we have the ability to recognize that some things are of greater severity in wickedness than others, and it is evident based upon the Scripture passages examined, that there is biblical basis to accept this as true.
I like this, especially your evidence from the old and new testaments!
Thanks, great post
Praise God