A friend sent in this query some months ago. It took me a bit long to get to it, but finally we’re here. He suggested, for discussion, the topic the equality of sin.
Are all sins equal for the God of Christians?
For a more colourful background narrative…
The Hebrew Bible (aka the Old Testament, as Christians call it) includes a rule that bans the wearing of mixed fibers (Leviticus 19 verse 19). The Hebrew word for “mixed fibers” is apparently shatnez. During his year of living Biblically, A. J. Jacobs committed to also following this rule. (His goal was to follow every rule and guideline.) To help people meet this rule, they can employ the services of a shatnez tester. A short fragment from Jacobs’ conversation with Mr. Berkowitz, from page 24 in my copy:
“Are some commandments in the Bible more important than others?”
“All equal,” he says. Then pauses. “Well, I can’t say that. Not murdering is at a very high level. So are adultery and not worshipping idols.”
He seems torn. On the one hand, all the rules are from the same place. The Orthodox Jews follow a list of 613 rules originally compiled by the great medieval rabbi Maimonides from the first five books of the Bible. On the other hand, Mr. Berkowitz also has to admit that homicide is worse than wearing an unkosher blazer.
In a previous post, AtA: Are Lies Always Bad?, we touched on the same idea. In Michael’s first comment, he shared his tentatively-radical ethics with regards to honesty, but noted that situations where lives are at stake might change the game a bit.
In fact, most finicky moral quandaries philosophers like to abuse people with are precisely that kind of thing: designing scenarios that weigh up one wrong against another, and forces you to choose between them. Ala The Joker. What does making that kind of choice tell you?
I suspect the majority of people not approaching this from a particular theological perspective take a more utilitarian view and say “of course sins aren’t all equal!” Thus, let me rather challenge the non-religious, and others with that view, to tackle the bridge-building question: In what ways could all sins be considered equal? Feel free to use your answer to that question as a frame for why you take a different view, but do give it your best shot?
For Christians, the primary target audience for this question: I know there is also diversity of views. All views welcome, agreements, disagreements, personal beliefs, views of a cell/small group you’ve participated in, teachings by a pastor from a pulpit, solid theology from a University seminary, or just some Bible verses quoted without any commentary. All welcome!
My own views I will share once there has been sufficient conversation in the comments below. Or once enough time has passed (I intend to add my views before the end of the month).
4 responses so far ↓
1 Michael // Nov 19, 2009 at 4:50 pm
From an evangelical point of view:
The idea that all sins are equal is not biblical.
Several distinctions are made in both testaments:
1) between deliberate sins and sins unknown to the sinner.
2) between sins against God, against other people, and against your self.
3) between religious self-righteous sin and indulgent fleshly sin.
4) between sin in what you do do and sin in what you don’t do.
The only way in which ‘sin is sin’ is that all sin leads to death.
The English word ‘sin’ means literally ‘to miss the mark’ (The sin of an arrow was the distance between the bulls-eye and where your arrow landed). Sin is thus conceived of relationally. Sin is not a thing you do or don’t do (“do not touch! do not taste!”) so much as it is an orientation towards God.
There’s the kick-off…
2 wouter // Nov 20, 2009 at 5:17 pm
My understanding of the equality of sin from a christian perspective is that all sins have an eternal consequence and are thus “equal” in the sense that they lead to separation from God but all sins are not “equal” when it comes to relationships with others and ourselves. Being rude or selfish can damage a relationship but murder can erase it completely.
As far as I understand there is a different emphasis on old and new testament laws from a christian perspective but as to what exactly this difference is when it comes to sin I am not sure. Some scripture describes the old testament law as a shadow but not the reality (collosians 2:17, hebrews 8:5) and others that the law is not abolished (matthew 5) .
As far as forgiveness goes: all sins can be forgiven but the sin of blasphemy against the holy spirit (matthew 12, mark 3, luke 12) seems to be different. It does not appear to be a single act but rather a continuous condition that makes it impossible to repent. I must admit this is confusing to me. Not sure when you reach this point. It seems like it is very hard to reach this point as Paul described himself as a blasphemer but was forgiven (1 timothy 1:13). It seems like there is no forgiveness left for this condition but all other sins can be forgiven. How to get to this point? I have no idea … I don’t exactly understand.
3 Hugo // Dec 8, 2009 at 12:38 am
A discussion I discovered on 16 November:
Equality of sin – TheologyWeb Campus. I read a couple of those forum posts and think it covers the question pretty well from a Christian theology perspective. The views shared there agree with Wouter and Michael’s views above.
I’ll be happy to discuss this more if I discover there is more interest in this discussion.
4 Is This Blog Evil? // Dec 8, 2009 at 12:52 am
[...] previous discussions contemplating evil and sin (the equality/inequality of) and “not-good-behaviour”, we explored to some [...]
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