By no means let any of you suffer as a murderer, or thief, or evil doer, or a troublesome meddler.
I Peter 4: 15 (NASB)
Scripture: 1 Peter 4: 1-11
Many people ask the question, Are there good sins and bad sins? We like to think there are degrees of sin. This devotion looks at if that is the case.
Degrees of sin. Isn’t it nice to convince ourselves there are degrees of sin? But are there really?
Of course, there are degrees of sin, right? I mean, a murderer gets a stiffer punishment. That makes it a worse sin than others, right?
You know all the phrases – ending someone else’s life, cutting someone down in their prime, violence against another human being. We can justify that it is a bad sin.
But we, at times, say someone murdered our innocence and killed our joy. What if the sin was bullying someone, which caused that person to lose their joy? That isn’t too bad.
And thieves, they are really bad. They take something that doesn’t belong to them, something for which someone has worked hard and paid good money.
Thieves not only steal the material possessions, but they also steal the victim’s sense of security. That could have even more far reaching consequences. In some cases, that’s may even be worse than stealing the material possessions.
An evil doer is truly a bad dude, someone who purposefully does something they know they shouldn’t. They intend to do something wrong. You can forgive someone if they really don’t know their actions are wrong. But if someone knows – and does it anyway – what scum!
So, it’s comforting to know that I don’t commit the really bad sins. I’m good, right?
But we’ve heard about sins of omission. What if we are sinning because we just haven’t thought to do something? We are so focused on us, sometimes, that we don’t see how our inactions affect others.
Oops. A troublesome meddler? You mean a gossip? Sure, you mean someone who tells lies to someone else. No. You mean someone who just sticks the old nose in where it doesn’t belong just to have a story to tell? You’re getting warmer.
You mean someone who tells a story, even though they really don’t know the facts? Yes.
We all talk to mutual friends about mutual friends – or maybe even not so mutual friends. But we really have to look at the stories we are telling. Are we putting that person in the best possible light?
Are we sure every word we are saying is absolutely true – or is it just our version of what went out on the party line? Are we in a position to be judging this person? That is what we are doing.
But gossiping is such a minor sin compared to the others. (Thank God for different degrees of sin!) Or is it? We may be killing the hearer’s friendship with the person about whom we are talking about. We may be stealing the person’s dignity and integrity. We may be doing the person a great injustice by speaking lies. Troublesome meddler low on the degree of sin list? I don’t think so. They seem pretty equal to me.
But let’s look at it this way.
Romans 3: 23 says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (ESV). Romans 3: 10 is along the same line: “As it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one” (ESV). That establishes that we are all sinful.
The kicker comes in James 2: 10-11. “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. For he who said, ‘Do not commit adultery,’ also said, ‘Do not murder.’ If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law” (ESV). Mess up one thing, it is like you did everything wrong. Seriously?
When God looks at sin, He doesn’t look at it the way we do. Look at Matthew 5: 27-28: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (ESV). Just thinking the sin is the same as committing what we would consider a “worse” sin.
First John 3:15 is along a similar vein. “Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer …” (ESV). You may not act on the hate, but even if it is in your heart, God considers you a murderer?!?!
What gives? Why is one equated to another? Doesn’t that make us horrible sinners?
Whatever the sin, the root is our sinful nature against our spiritual nature. Whatever we commit, it is not how God intended us to be. Is that the equalizing factor?
The horrible sin is our defiance of God. When we question His Kingship, when we disobey His commands, it really is all just one sin — no matter the actions we have committed.
God, in His loving, infinite mercy, has provided a way that the payment for those sins have already been made. He sent His Son to pay that price.
We don’t have to rationalize that our sins really aren’t bad. We don’t have to tear ourselves down because we do mess up.
Jesus paid the price He did because there was no way we were going to be able to by ourselves. He redeemed us so that we could once again have access to God. We need to establish and build a relationship with God.
That includes being obedient to His ways. That includes being sorry for the sins of commission and omission.
We just need to see them as they are — our sinful nature warring against our spiritual nature.
Father, our Maker and our Judge. You have told us in Your Word there are no degrees of sin. You have said that “… the wages of [all] sin is death …” (Rom. 6: 23 ESV), and all sin separates us from You. Yet, we convince ourselves there are degrees. In this way, we can make ourselves feel better by thinking You will gloss over what we do because of its minor nature. But, Lord, You don’t. You want us to value others for the beings they are. You want us to see worth in them — just as You see worth in us. Father, help us be better citizens of this world by showing Your love flowing through us to others. Remind us the only thing of value we have in the world is Your salvation. Amen.
What do you think? Are there degrees in sin? Or is it all considered disobedience to God? Leave me a comment below or head over to my Facebook group for some interactive discussion.
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