Do you believe in levels of sin?

Question

I don't I just think all sin is wrong. There are some people that view homosexuality as a greater sin than lying. Neither will get you into heaven. What is your opinion?

Answer 1

Sin is sin is sin.

Period.

Lying is just as much a sin as homosexual behavior.

Answer 2

The noted Muslim Philosopher Kahlil Gibran told us that sin is something that makes us feel bad , something that bothers us to one degree or another , because we wish we had not purposley done it to hurt another . And that the punishment for this sin is the pain we carry around inside us based on how bad we recognize the deed to have been . He says we do not need to be judged by others , we will judge ourselves .
[ But IMHO some people NEED to be judged by others .Some people failed to develop a conscience . Like all these gangbangers in Newark NJ where 2+ people a week have been killed over the past two years . We should have worried about Newark instead of Iraq ! ]
We can not rid ourselves of this pain until we make amends to the individual ( or society if the person is not available ) .
This is why many people commit "sins" agaist their religion . People can not understand the reason behind things like having consensual , safe sex to be a sin . They know it is in the "rules" and they feel bad for breaking the rules , but they don't understand the sin of it when it didn't hurt anyone and it felt good . This is why the churches , who wanted to keep the spread of babies being born out of wedlock and the spead of disease told the people that they would be hurting "god" and they would have to make amends to "god" by suffering . Now instead of teaching people to use safe sex methods , they continue to follow tradition and still teach "Just say no to sex ." Unfortuately this is way less effective than using condoms .

Note Kalil Gibran was a lebonese philosopher / artist whose grandfather was a priest . But Kahlil was very critical of the Christian Religions , especially in the East . Is also seems apparent that he did not believe that Jesus was god by his work " Jesus : The son of men " His beliefs tended towards deism and Islam .

Answer 3

From what I have seen in here, Christians pick and choose which sins to harp on based on personal predjuice.

They are just as morally relativist as those they accuse of being morally relative because they use their bible selectively.

According to strict biblical doctrine, sin is sin is in. There is only ONE truly unforgivable sin- blasphemy against the holy spirit.

According to the bible, gossip is no less a sin than having oral sex with another man. In fact, a lot of people would be suprised to know that the apostle Peter listed gossipers and busybodies among the same group as murderers and theives in 1 Peter 4:15, other passages condemning gossip as sinful are Prov 11:13, Jam 4:11, 1 Tim 3:11 and 5:13 and 14.

You don't see Christians getting all fired up over gossip, even though millions of people's lives are ruined by it, it costs us billions in all the defamation lawsuits and time and money wasted. Think of the ridiculous "gossip driven" celebrity obsessed culture in Hollywood.

But it is seen as a "soft" sin. Their gay neighbor getting hitched to his boyfriend however will create massive protests and fundraising for anti-gay campaigns.

Moral relativism.

Answer 4

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 Jesus was trying to get across to the Pharisees was that it is still sin even if you only think about or want to do the act. The religious leaders of Jesus’ day taught people that it was okay to think about anything you wanted to, as long as you did not act on those desires. Jesus is forcing them to realize that God judges a person’s thoughts as well as their actions. Jesus proclaimed that our actions are the results of what is in our hearts (Matthew 12:34).

So, although Jesus said that lust and adultery are both sins – that does not mean they are equal. It is much worse to actually murder a person than it is to simply hate them – even though they are both sinful in God’s sight. There are degrees to sin. Some sins are worse than others. At the same time, in regards to both eternal consequences and salvation, all sins are the same. Each and every sin will lead to eternal condemnation (Romans 6:23). All sin, no matter how “small,” is against an infinite and eternal God, and is therefore worthy of an infinite and eternal penalty. Further, this is no sin too “big” that God cannot forgive it. Jesus died to pay the penalty for sin (1 John 2:2). Jesus died for ALL of our sins (2 Corinthians 5:21). Are all sins equal to God? Yes and no. In severity? No. In penalty? Yes. In forgivability? Yes.

Recommended Resource: Basic Theology by Charles Ryrie.

Answer 5

It depends on your perspective. Since all sin is simply missing the mark, either you hit the mark or you don't. From that perspective all sin is equal. From a human perspective the closer you come to the mark (knowing God) the better even if you are not there yet.

Answer 6

I believe that sin is sin. Whether you are lying or have killed someone, you have comitted a sin. Now the true test is whether you repent and change your ways. That's where I think sin can differ. If you are living in sin and blatantly don't care that it is sin, then I think that you were never really a Christian to begin with.

Answer 7

Sin is sin. However, because of the way God set up the world, there are more severe consequences on earth for certain types of sin. Ex. If you tell someone you like their shirt but you don't mean it, there probably won't be any consequences. If you kill someone, the consequences will definitely be much worse. After we die, though, none of the sin matters. We either go to heaven or hell.

Answer 8

Mortal sins of seriously grave evil actions with sufficient knowledge of their evil and gravity and full consent of will in performing them lead one to Hell if there is no repentance

Venial sins of lesser gravity or grave actions that are driven by force or ignorance or psychological disorders must be purged by full cooperation with the grace of Christ before one can experience Heaven

Kahil Gibran was Maronite Christian

Answer 9

There's a verse in James that says, "Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all."

In other words, regardless of which sin you have committed, if you have sinned once, you are guilty of being a sinner and subject to the same separation from God as every other sinner.

It's all or nothing. You're either perfect or you're not.

And you're not perfect.

(Neither am I, don't worry. Thank God for redemption!)

Answer 10

We as humans may believe there are varying degrees of sin:
Adultery, lying, sexual sin, etc.

Sin, any sin is an abomination in the eyes of a Holy God.

Hope that helps!

In His Service,
SLJ