Thursday, 05 February 2009
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QOTD: Some Sins "Worse" Than Others
Question by mlkchlate7
As a Christian, I have always been taught that God views all sins the same. Sin is sin. But when sitting in on a church service, the main sins that are preached about these days include sexual immorality, pride, and other things that kind of fall into sub-categories of these things. Never once have I heard a sermon on gluttony. Shouldn't the followers of Christ be taught that overeating is giving into carnal desires just like sexual immorality?
Are all sins are truly viewed equally in the Bible and by the Church?
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- From: mlkchlate7@xanga
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Comments (38)
Blasmery (Have I spelt it wrong?) is the worst sin according to the Bible.
Of course not all sins are equal, which is why St. John makes a clear distinction betwixt mortal sins and others:
"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. All iniquity is sin. And there is a sin unto death." - I John V:xvi
The sacrificial system of the Old Testament clearly distinguished between sins that were of graver and lesser importance. All sin is sin in that it is all wrong, but not all sins are equal. Murder is worse than anger, rape is worse than lust, theft of somebody's food (an necessity) is worse than theft of somebody's stereo (a luxury). Even Jesus speaks about "the weightier provisions of the law", which implies that some have more weight than others.
blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is the unforgivable sin...
lying is just as horrid and filthy as murder as is idolatry and fornication... to God sin is sin... going against what the Bible says as well as the sin of commission and omission...
All sin is equal except for the only unforgivable sin, blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.
Man rates sin to his convenience.
Depends. In what sense do you mean "equal"?
All sin separates us from God. And sin cannot enter heaven (Revelation 21:27). A "good" person who told a lie is separated from God, and a mass murderer is separated from God. In that sense, then, all sins are equal, because they all have the same spiritual consequence. (And this is what necessitates the sacrifice of Jesus, because we all earned the same consequence.)
However, different sins have different temporal consequences, and different temporal effects. In this sense, sins' consequences are contingent upon the range of their effects. The more people hurt, the greater the consequences are: thus in the temporal sense there is a great difference between a liar and a murderer.
Perhaps the degree of focus of homilies and sermons depends on the severity of the temporal impact? (Like, sexual immorality hurts at least two people while gluttony only hurts one, and murder hurts many?) I don't know--I'm not trying to excuse anyone. I'd like to see the pastors who insist on targeting specific sins target the less-talked-about ones. (Though it's not so much the "giving in to carnal desires" that makes such things wrong. It's that such acts take a good God-given act--eating, sex--and use it in a way or degree that it was not intended to be used.)
All sin is equal in the Eyes of the Lord, some are more detramental to the Body of Christ as to ourselves. LIke sexual immorality is descibed in the bible as a direct sin against the Lord. But all sin is equally measured, save one. Denying the Holy Spirit, and blaspheming (?) against the Holy Spirit is the ONLY unforgiveable sin according to Christ.
All sin can be found under the umbrela of Money, Sex, or Power no matter what it is It's there, so usually we talk about the "big" ones because normally they lead to the "little" ones.
I use this analogy a lot: Suppose the manager at a glass factory hands three employees each a sheet of glass and says, "Be careful not to break it." One employee smashes his piece of glass with a hammer, one absent-mindedly snaps off a corner of his, and the third is very careful and manages to only break a tiny piece off the edge. Which employee succeeded in keeping his glass unbroken? The answer, of course, is that they all failed. Some just failed more obviously than others.
As thoughtful as these comments are, no one is answering the second part of the poster's question: she already knows all sins are equal in the Bible - her point is that they don't appear to be treated as such by the church, at least not when judged by the amount of sermon time devoted to them.
My guess is that the reason why sexual immorality and pride are focussed on is it is the one least likely to offend people: the minority to whom the charge of "sexually immoral" would apply already know it, and it is very easy for people to believe the Pastor is referring to "someone else" as being prideful. Pointing out that a large portion of your congregation is fat, on the other hand, or calling them greedy, is guaranteed to lead to empty pews next Sunday, and lighter collection plates.Pastors are human too, after all.Every sin has the same penalty. "The wages of sin is death." Any sin. All sin. The earthly consequences may be worse for some sins than others but I think that in God's eyes all sin is the same because all sin seperates us from him.
ChrisRusso put it very, very well, but I would like to add a bit to what he said.
Another reason Pastors tend to have the sermons on the same topic is quite simply, some sins are more prevalent in society, and more prevalent in the Bible. For example, there are many more passages about sexual purity (and it's converse, sexual immorality) than there are about gluttony. There's a bigger pool of catchy Bible verses to draw from.
Anyone who sins in one aspect breaks the whole law.
And Jesus points out that, for example, lust is adultery in its own right.
However, even God recognizes degrees of wickedness. Some OT heroes can be claimed to be righteous or blameless (though that's relatively speaking), even though they've obviously broken the law in at least one place. Plus, in the OT when explaining that judgment was coming, certain sins riled God up more than others (e.g., idolatry, child sacrifice).
I think a lot of people take more out of Jas. 2:10-11 than is warranted.
Regarding our salvation, one sin is just as damning as another. But that doesn't mean that all are equally evil.
What's funny to me is that the main point of your post is getting pushed to the side for the most part.
Gluttony is never explicitly condemned as such. It's mentioned three times in Proverbs that I'm aware of. One time is saying that you don't need to eat a lot if a king (and later a stingy man) is hosting you. The advice here is not about eating a lot but about how to handle yourself in a certain setting. The other two times it refers to what kind of companions you shouldn't keep. Gluttony is more of a red flag than an explicit sin in these passages.
I do not condone gluttony. I think people shouldn't eat until they hurt. But the argument isn't an explicit one. And a lot of preachers like concrete argumentation. However, gluttony isn't exactly concrete.
The main teaching against it, imo, is that we are not to walk in the flesh but in the spirit. Gluttony is letting the desires of the flesh (not inherently bad) go unchecked, which is a problem.
And I'm not a fan of using the "Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit" line in this discussion. Paul doesn't command us to do jumping jacks for Jesus because being fit isn't a moral imperative. And in that passage, Paul is referring to sexual sin. Laziness? Bad. Overindulgence? Bad. Having a high BMI? Inconclusive. [Btw, I'm not getting defensive at all here since I'd fall into an underweight category before overweight.]
Anyway, I think Christians who regularly gather with fellow believers should hear teaching that shapes their thoughts on things such as gluttony. And I think a lot of people could chill a little bit on having favorite sins to preach against. When teaching and preaching become more about feeling good about ourselves and condemning the lost, I think it's missing the point. It should be introspective and edifying in a godly sense, not in a false pride sort of way. I'm not saying we shouldn't take a hard stance on clear biblical directives, but that doesn't mean spouting off about it all the time.
naturally not all sin iz equal the wurst sinz are fashion offences & furst among thoze iz wearing white after labor day
all sins are equal. there are no unforgivable sins, including blasphemy. to me, taking the Bible out of context and saying one sin weighs more than the other is blasphemy, and so is saying there is an unforgivable sin. now you've found yourself in a damnation conundrum, am i correct?
here's it simply: all sins are equal because all sins separate us from God. whether this is rape, blasphemy, or murder. MAN weighs these sins, God does not because no matter what sin it is, you will not be welcomed into heaven without salvation. with salvation, no matter what sin you commit, you will still go to heaven. there is no doubt in that matter. but if you sin and sin and sin, there is a question of if you ever really accepted Jesus or just went through the motions or did it, not out of love, but out of fear and greed. because those who are saved simply do not want to sin. we still do, as we always will, but someone who is saved will not go out and kill someone, else they were probably never saved in the first place.
you dig?
All sin is one thing-following the Self instead of God's Spirit. As has been said, some sins have more serious earthly consequences than others.
If a person has not accepted Christ's sacrifice, all sin is equal because all sin is a mark agains his or her soul.
James 2:10 For whosoever keeps the Law [as a] whole but stumbles and offends in one [single instance] has become guilty of [breaking] all of it. (Amplified)
If a person has accepted Christ's sacrifice, all sin is equal because it is all covered by the righteousness of Christ.
Romans 8:10 But if Christ lives in you, [then although] your [natural] body is dead by reason of sin and guilt, the spirit is alive because of [the] righteousness [that He imputes to you]. (Amplified)
To the poster - it's funny that you wrote this because I was thinking the same thing the other week. I think it's unfortunate how we have a hierarchy of sins according to, as one commenter put it, our convenience. We make the "big" sins (especially abortion and homosexuality) the things we rail against in church so we don't have to deal with our own stuff (lack of concern for the poor, gossip, gluttony, lying, etc.). At least that's what I think because I know that's how I think about it sometimes when it comes to my own life. It's easier to play the blame game or to turn attention to someone who's "worse" than you.
Yes. All sin is the same to God. But, the sin you committed can be easily forgotten, with confessing of your sin. Dose not mean, you can keep doing it over and over again, and think God is just going to sit by and let you do it. He'll take you from this earth, if you are not doing anything for him, beside this Sin over and over again.
That alone frightens me. So, I try to stay busy for my Lord.. doing what he asks of me.
Yes, from time to time, you are going to have doubts and sin, but we have a forgiving Lord.. "and when you confess with your mouth, He is faithful and just to cleanse us from all righteousness"
I don't think you should really think so deep on your sin. I think you should just get down on your knees and ask for forgiveness when you commit a sin, that you think is really bad. You do not have to put it in a category because it's all the same in His eyes. you just need to confess what you've done, and PRAY WITHOUT Ceasing, that you do not do it again. But were not perfect, and we will falter. But we have a forgiving Lord.
:)
All sins are viewed the same in God's eyes, but the consequences of sin is different for obvious reasons.
Some sins have worse consequences than others but that does not take away from the fact that all sins no matter how "small" are still sins and will be judged unless forgiven.
@nowayout001@xanga - Yeah, you did. It's Blasphemy.
That sounds very wrong...
@Pass_the_Aura@xanga - THAT is probably the best analogy on this topic I have ever heard. Well said.
@Audiofreak18@xanga - ...
Blasphemy of the Spirit is worse than other sins. Even in the O.T. God punished some sins with death and some without death. If you were married, would you rather that your spouse look at another person with lust or actually have sex with them?
There wouldn't be so many overweight people who call themselves Christians if all sins were viewed equally. According to some doctrines, all sins may be all the same. But in practice? It doesn't appear to be the case.
I don't think so. Because I refuse to believe I'm as bad as a murderer just because I like to eat, or I've lied before.
Jesus views all our sins the same, in that one sin, no matter what it is, is enough to condemn us, and ANYONE can be forgiven of anything, even if they seem the worse sinner in the world...
I won't argue that we do judge sins here on earth as some worse than others, though.