Are there degrees of sin?
Discussion question for December 11, 2009
Are some sins worse than others? Sin is sin, relative to perfection. But is there a continuum of sin from “white lies” to the “unpardonable sin?” How can you measure the “worseness” of sin? What impact might this have on your choices and how you live your life today?
Here’s my summary of our discussion.
From the point of view that sin is “missing the mark” and goes contrary to who God is, sin is sin. This is the black and white view often supported with James 2:10: “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.” This can lead to a belief that it doesn’t matter if there are degrees of sin, since it either is or isn’t.
Another viewpoint could come from considering degrees of sin based on their spiritual consequences. Our discussion on this point was interesting, but not conclusive. Are there degrees of punishment in hell or degrees of reward in heaven? We agreed that measuring those potential degrees would require a standard that is external to situation. In other words, the person experiencing punishment in hell would have to compare that to the level of punishment someone else is experiencing. It is possible that such an external standard wouldn’t exist for them. Jesus referred to a “greater sin” in Luke 16:15, which supports the idea that there is such a thing from God’s absolute perspective.
The third perspective is to measure degrees of sin based on the observable consequences here on earth. In this case we agreed that there appears to be degrees, and harsher or more lenient punishments seem appropriate. Even those that refuse to acknowledge God are willing to support “punishment that fits the crime.”
In conclusion we decided that any measurement of sin, whether on an absolute or relative scale, would require a fixed standard. That standard is God, since He alone is sinless.