This saying is a very popular saying in today’s churches. One source for this saying is a popular recent book, called UnChristian (David Kinnaman and David Lyons). The context is the book’s defense of homosexuality as being a sin that is no worse than another. There are degrees of sinful acts. That is why the OT Law proscribed various types of punishments based on the severity of the offense. In fact, Jesus said offending a believer has a much sorer punishment than other types of offenses. Saying one sin is not worse than another greatly diminishes the Doctrine of Sanctification, whereby the believer is separated by the Power of the Holy Spirit from unbelievers in the pursuit of a holy life. The Doctrine of Original Sin implies our inability to keep the 10 commandments. While it is true that God has judged all of us as sinners who share the same guilt of falling short of God’s Glory, it is not true that one sin is no worse than another. In fact, to suggest otherwise infers that it is wrong for the church to exercise discipline among its members, since one sin is no worse than another. Consider the case of the man committing adultery with his father’s wife in chapter 5 of 1 Corinthians. The church is ordered by Paul to judge and remove that wicked person from the church. But if one sin is no worse than another, then you must judge Paul as being unfair and unjust for not kicking out everyone, for who, as the Bible says, does not commit sin?
“For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.” Eccl 7:20 (KJV)
In one sense, as mentioned previously, one sin is no greater than another only as far as being judged as lawbreakers and sinners before God is concerned. As James states:
For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. James 2:10 (KJV)
Being judged for sin is not the issue, but the degree of punishment for that judgment is the main issue. Without delving into the details, the Old Testament contains hundreds of laws for the Israelites which have varying degrees of proscribed punishments for the transgressors of them. In the New Testament, there are degrees of punishment based upon the specific transgression as noted in the following scriptures.
“14 And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet. 15 Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city.” Matt 10:14-15 (KJV)
“47 And that servant, which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. 48 But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes.” Luke 12:47-48 (KJV)
“But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.” 1 Tim 5:8-9 (KJV)
There are also differences in types of sins committed regarding the believer and unbeliever. For example, a believer who commits sin confesses it to the Lord to receive forgiveness, while the unbeliever would not even think about confessing his transgression to the Lord.
“They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot of his children: they are a perverse and crooked generation.” Deut 32:5 (KJV)
Consider the difference between fornication and homosexuality. Fornication is an uncontrolled, natural lust, whereas homosexuality is an uncontrolled, unnatural lust. Sins of an unnatural nature are much more worse than ones of a natural one. Unnatural sins cause societal confusion since it obscures the differences between men and women resulting in ambiguous roles for each. No wonder that today we have such weird gender terms like “gender neutral”, “non-binary”. When a society embraces lies instead of truths, it is not far from God’s Judgment. Hence, homosexuality is a far worse sin since it hastens God’s Judgment on a nation.
In summary, “Sin is sin” is just too general a statement to be treated with seriousness.
Does the bible actually say an unnatural sin is worse than a natural one? It seems pretty natural for hay people to be gay? What makes it unnatural? Whats natural for me isnt natural for them. Its unnatural for them to be with the opposite sex
My intent was to focus on sins being judged differently based on the difference in severity of punishment applied. Like I said, “Being judged for sin is not the issue, but the degree of punishment for that judgment is the main issue.” My intent was to show that the Bible does refer to varying degrees of punishments for sin so that we should not so carelessly lump them all into a single category, i.e., “sin is sin”.
Please provide scriptures for your lesson where you say we should not take the “sin is sin” is careless. Does not ALL sin separate us from GOD?
No, of course not! That is not a good question to ask since it genders to strife –> “Does not ALL sin separate us from GOD?”
We all fall short of the Glory of God, but that does not mean we are all separated from God. We can walk in fellowship with God and at the same time still fall short of the Glory of God. Like Paul said in Philippians 3: 12-14:
Not that I have already attained or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
I in no way meant to offend. I am seeking answers to some serious questions. I wasn’t trying to be rude. I merely want all facts. I know we make mistakes and sin daily but I THOUGHT it said all sin separates us from the Father but we have an advocate through JESUS and we should repent daily. I seen just a bit ago (another site) someone said Paul was the false prophet?? So I was digging for TRUTH when I came across this. Sorry. I’ll move along.
Ps. A VERY wise man once told me, there are no stupid questions. Just people too afraid to ask for answers. 💜
awatchman:
Be careful about who you regard as “VERY wise”, and yes, there are stupid questions. Moreover, they can do much damage to the fellowship of believers. Have you forgotten the scripture, 2 Timothy 2:23? –> “But foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes.”