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Are all sins equal in the sight of God?
‘But you have neglected more important matters of the law – justice, mercy and faithfulness.’ (Matt. 23:23). We often hear the comment, in one form or another, that boils down to the question: ‘How can I judge someone else for what I think is their sin, when I commit plenty of sins myself?’ There are …
‘But you have neglected more important matters of the law – justice, mercy and faithfulness.’ (Matt. 23:23). We often hear the comment, in one form or another, that boils down to the question: ‘How can I judge someone else for what I think is their sin, when I commit plenty of sins myself?’ There are many ways the Christian should respond. One answer is because Jesus told us to do so (Matt.
18:15-18). A second involves definitions. If by ‘judge’, someone means being unnecessarily harsh or ‘judgmental’, then no, we shouldn’t act that way. That was Jesus’ point in Matt. 7:1. But Christ and the apostles regularly ‘judged’ in the sense of analysing what was right and wrong and declaring what fell into which category. One person commits adultery, but we probably all lust. So how can we criticise the adulterer or engage in church discipline with them? After all, doesn’t Jesus equate lust and adultery in the Sermon on the
Mount? No, not exactly. He says both bring us in danger of judgment. Every sin separates us from God and every sin requires forgiveness. In the sense that every sin creates a problem that must be dealt with, one can say that the Bible equates various sins. But that hardly makes all of them equally bad. We would far prefer that our wives harbour inappropriate thoughts about another man but never act on them than that she commit adultery. We would, even more, prefer that people who dislike us think hateful things about us but not act on them than murdering us. In terms of the severity of consequences for oneself and others, especially in this life, there
is a big difference in how bad different sins are. That is a big part of what Jesus meant when he criticised the Jewish leaders in Matthew 23 for scrupulous tithing, yet neglecting what he calls more important matters of the Law. He immediately adds that they should have done the one without neglecting the other, thereby showing that he is not challenging any of the Law, at least not before
crucifixion, resurrection and sending of the Spirit at Pentecost. But even while the whole Law of Moses was still in force, there were issues that were much more important than others. Echoing the language of Micah 6:8, Jesus could sum these up with the terms ‘justice, mercy, and faithfulness’.
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