Once again! Are all sins equal in the eyes of God?

Question

Is killing someone no worse than telling a "little white fib"?
Is adultery worse than lusting after someone's spouse?
Is stealing food because your kids are starving the same as stealing because you can get away with it?

Does God know or even care about your intentions? If not, then wouldn't prayer just be an exercise in chanting and repitition? And if God's forgiveness doesn't depend on your sincerity and regret, then it would seem that neither your sins nor your redemption had much meaning. All of this would be some kind of phony exercise to impress and control people, that had nothing to do with God.
First of all Christians are not supposed to judge others. So once again...... Are all sins equal in the eyes of God? Anyone can answer this question!

Answer 1

Its a little bit of both, let me try to explain what I believe.
All sin is turning away from God, so in that regard all sin is the same. But their are different consequences. People who lie about their weight are not going to be punished as severely as somone who murders a train full of people

God cares about our intentions, and I believe repentence is entirely worth while. But just because we "feel sorry" doesnt mean we will be free from discipline.

Answer 2

Catholics do not believe that all sins are equal. They divide them into Original Sin, Mortal Sin and Venial Sin.

According to their beliefs, if you die with Original Sin or Mortal Sin, you go to hell. Venial Sins get you a stay in purgatory, where your sins are purged. You are eventually let into heaven.

Catholics believe that everyone except Mary and Jesus was born with Original Sin -- which is wiped clean through baptism. The Immaculate Conception refer's to Mary being conceived without this sin (and not to the virgin birth as most Protestants think).

All other sins are either mortal or venial. In order to be a mortal sin it has to:

1. Be a serious sin
2. Be performed willingly
3. Be performed with the knowledge that it is a mortal sin

The catch 22 is that if you think it is a mortal sin even if God doesn't consider it one & do it anyway -- then the intent of performing something you think is a mortal sin is, in fact, a mortal sin.

George Carlin does this great routine about the seven sins involved in feeling up Mary Jane. Six are committed even before you touch her.

Personally, I feel that the only sin is not searching for knowledge. All other sins flow from that.

Answer 3

Sin is not just murder, rape, or robbery. Sin is failing to do the things we should and doing those things we should not. Sin is anything that fails to meet God's standard of perfection, which includes lying, stealing for any reason, and lusting. Sin is a break in your relationship with God.
Prayer is far from merely being a means of presenting our daily requests to God, prayer is a means of pursuing a relationship with Him.
God's forgiveness does depend on your sincerity and regret. He knows if you truly are sorry for the sin you have committed. If you wake up every morning lusting after another woman's husband and go to bed every night asking for forgiveness you are not truly sorry for that sin and God will not forgive you any longer.

Answer 4

We have all fallen short of God's glory - this, in essence, is what sin is. No one is perfect, and no one ever will be. There has been only ONE who maintained a perfect life...Jesus Christ. It is through His life and death on the cross that we are able to be washed of our sins, whether great or small. Yes, it is true that no sin is greater than another. However, some sins seem to have more serious consequences than others because they affect others and/or ourselves in very powerful ways. For example, murder is a sin that affects many lives; therefore, sometimes people view it as a greater sin. It doesn't matter what people think, though. All that matters is what our Creator thinks. When it all comes down to it, He is the one true Judge. The only thing that is going to matter is whether or not we have asked Jesus Christ to cover us with His blood that was shed after living a perfect life - He made the sacrifice for us on the cross so that we can live "in Him", even though we are imperfect and sinful. We are righteous through Christ.

Since He is the judge, we WILL be judged for our actions. We will either accept Christ's sacrifice that was made for us and allow His blood to cover us in God's eyes OR we will not make this decision and pay for those sins that have been committed our entire lives. Someone has to pay - either Christ or us. God has left that decision up to us.

"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord."

Answer 5

All sins are considered equal aceept for Blasphemy. If you wanna get all catholic about it then its something like...having two types of sins...venial...which is forgiven through Confession, then theres...capital, which basically means youre screwed to eternal damnation. Yes God does care about your intentions. He wants to see what you do with "free will." Its called faith. Not just in your religion, but in your own life, and the people around you. It seems like you had more of a point to make, then a question to ask..which is retarded...but whatever.

Answer 6

Of course not all sins are equal in severity. Just as a slap is not as bad as shooting someone (and of course both are sins of violence), sins exist in degrees of badness. All of the sins so bad that they were listed in the Bible ("The Ten Commandments") are mortal sins. Sins such as telling a minor lie (saying for example, "Oh, I forgot," to prevent an argument over an insignificant matter) will not condemn you to Hell. All of the above, of course, presupposes a belief in a supreme being and judge. Those who do not believe in God have only the law of humanity and their own consciences to guide them as to degree of severity of wrongdoing (which I doubt they would call sin). A person is not sitting in judgement simply because he or she regards some sins as worse than others.

Answer 7

All sins are equal in the eyes of God because all sins are damning. You aren't going to be damned any worse because you told a little white lie as opposed to killing a person. After all, if you sin and are therefore damned to hell what can be worse?

Answer 8

The following passage from the Epistle of St. John seems to lend credence to the view that not all sins are the same. St. John speaks of sins that are deadly and sins that are not.

Most of us are not very good at judging the severity of our own sins. We either think they're more terrible than they really are, or we don't think they're sins at all.

That's why the Catholic church has always required the priest to be the impartial arbiter of a person's sins. Then, after confession, the priest passes along God's forgiveness, and everybody is clear about how they stand.

Don't be misled about praying favorite prayers over and over again, either. The operative words that many people misunderstand in scripture are "vain repetition".

The pagan's prayers are repeated in vain because they pray to FALSE and powerless gods, NOT because praying repeatedly to the one,TRUE God is in vain.

God encourages us to pray without ceasing, and to pray with confidence.

1Jo 5:13 These things I write to you that you may know that you have eternal life: you who believe in the name of the Son of God.
1Jo 5:14 And this is the confidence which we have towards him: That, whatsoever we shall ask according to his will, he heareth us.
1Jo 5:15 And we know that he heareth us whatsoever we ask: we know that we have the petitions which we request of him.
1Jo 5:16 He that knoweth his brother to sin a sin which is not to death, let him ask: and life shall be given to him who sinneth not to death. There is a sin unto death. For that I say not that any man ask.
1Jo 5:17 All iniquity is sin. And there is a sin unto death.

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Answer 9

No, of course not all sins are equal. HOWEVER all sins whether equal or not, result in the same fate. Does God consider murder worse than a white lie, yes, he considers it much much worse. But the bible says, "the soul that is sinning, it itself shall die" soul meaning person. It also says "the wages of sin is death". Does this mean we should go on a killing spree since we're all doomed to die? lol, no. Everyone dies because everyones imperfect (no matter what your boyfriend thinks of himself). God wants us to live our life and have as much enjoyment as possible, he doesn't want us to ride our neighbors about who to worship, about whether abortion is right or wrong, about whether to salute the flag or worry about gay marriage. God isn't worried about that, He's concentrating on His Kingdom that's coming in the future, not about whether America is doing okay. Prayer WORKS if its Through Christ.

How egocentric of christians today to think He cares about anyone's kingdom but HIS. We don't need to worry about it either, concentrate on the future, not the present, worry about your own salvation, not worry about whether Adam and Steve next door may be happy (so what?). So there's a war, God isn't involved, He doesn't advocate it. He's going to have to ressurrect these people, He doesn't want them dying for nothing.

Answer 10

According to the Bible, yes all sins are equal. It doesn't matter if you killed someone or told a lie, they are all weighted equally in God's eyes. People place "Morality" on sin, making it seem like if you lie, that it is not as bad as killing someone when in God's eyes all sin is the same. We all commit sin everyday. The purpose of our lives is to live LIKE Jesus, not to be him. It is impossible for us to live like Jesus did! People need to accept that. We will all fall short of glory. However, in the words of Donnie McClurkin," For a saint is just a sinner who fell down and got up." Hope this helps.