INTRODUCTION
Yet some have found the above verses to be in conflict with, for
instance:
THE PERVASIVENESS OF SIN
Unfortunately, sin is also insidiously pervasive, that is, it
is far more extensive and intensive than we sometimes appreciate.
Let us consider what the following verses tell us about sin:
John 16:8 "And when He has come, He will convict the
world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: 9
of sin, because they do not believe in Me;"
The Old Testament gave instructions about these "little"
sins of omission or of "unawareness":
A willful sin, which we may be tempted to label as a "greater"
sin, however, was indeed a more serious matter:
Presumptuous sins of defiance can, to be sure, take us further
away from God.
However, whether sins of omission or sins of commission, His law,
which is an expression of His mind, character and will, is an
essential whole, and to violate any one part of it - "great"
or "small" - is to violate the will of God:
CONCLUSION
Let us begin by noticing a few comments Christ made about sin:
Luke 13:1 There were present at that season some who told
Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their
sacrifices. 2 And Jesus answered and said to them, "Do
you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other
Galileans, because they suffered such things? 3 "I
tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.
4 "Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell
and killed them, do you think that they were worse sinners than
all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem? 5 "I
tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish."
Some of those who heard Christ seemed to have regarded what happened
to these people as a catastrophe sent by God because of their
exceptional wickedness. Apparently at least some of Christ's
own disciples thought in a similar vein, as we see in John 9:2:
John 9:2 And His disciples asked Him, saying, "Rabbi,
who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"
3 Jesus answered, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned,
but that the works of God should be revealed in him.
We see then Christ did not appear to subscribe to this human belief
that the greater the wickedness - or, let us say, the bigger the
sin - the greater the punishment from God. In fact, He did not
even condemn the action of Pilate, but simply called upon all
to repent.
..... these words He said to Pontius Pilate:
John 19:11 Jesus answered, "You could have no power
at all against Me unless it had been given you from above. Therefore
the one [speaking of Judas Iscariot and no doubt also of Caiaphas]
who delivered Me to you has the greater sin."
..... or perhaps with the following comment He made:
Mat 5:19 "Whoever therefore breaks one of the least
of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least
in the kingdom of heaven"
Most of us would have no problem comprehending biblical accounts
of the enormity of sin, such as David description of his sins
in Psalm 25:
Ps 25:11 For Your name's sake, O LORD, Pardon my iniquity
[or sin], for it is great.
However, are there degrees of sinfulness or lesser
and greater commandments? If indeed there is a
"greater sin", there presumably is also a "lesser
sin". So how are we to understand Christ's words above?
Let us first briefly recall a little of what we are told in the
Bible about sin.
In Solomon's prayer of dedication of the Temple, he included the
following comment, one which is re-iterated many times in the
Scriptures:
1 Ki 8:46 " When they sin against You (for there
is no one who does not sin)"
So sin, then, is an unavoidable part of our human experience.
It is all-pervasive.
Indeed, the apostle Paul tells us that all of mankind is
without excuse when it comes to sin. Let's notice why:
Rom 1:20 For since the creation of the world His invisible
attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things
that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that
they are without excuse, 21 because, although they knew
God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful,
but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts
were darkened.
He is saying that man should instinctively know from creation
of the reality of God and that it is inexcusable - in other words,
a sin - for anyone to ignore this reality.
He further explains how the conscience of man also instinctively
knows the laws of God, and how there is therefore an accountability:
Rom 2:14 (for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by
nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the
law, are a law to themselves, 15 who show the work of the
law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness,
and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else
excusing them).
However, Paul goes on to explain how mankind as a whole has chosen
to ignore the reality of God as well as the testimony of their
consciences and "professing to be wise, they became fools"
(Rom 1:22) - and Prov 24:9 tells us that folly is
a sin, perhaps we might even be tempted to say a "little"
sin. Yet such a "little" sin as foolish thinking can,
if not recognised and repented of, also become a besetting sin
to which one can become hardened. This is the deceitful nature
of sin (Heb 3:13).
Paul arrives at this conclusion, which also begins to provide
us with an answer to our question:
Rom 3:9 What then? Are we better than they? Not
at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that
they are all under sin.
Whether Jew or Gentile (and by extension all of mankind is being
referred to), in God's eyes we are all equally guilty of sin,
whether great - like the sins of Jereboam whom God denounced as
having committed more evil than any king of Israel before him
(1 Kin 14:9) - or "small" - perhaps the sin of
folly mentioned before. So all mankind is under condemnation.
It is important that we keep in mind this perspective that God
has in regard to sin.
1 John 3:4 Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness,
and sin is lawlessness.
Christ further tells us that a failure to believe is sin:
1 John 5:17 All unrighteousness is sin
1 John 5:17 (NRS) All wrongdoing is sin
Rom 14:23 ...for whatever is not from faith is sin.
Jas 2:9 but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and
are convicted by the law as transgressors.
John 15:22 "If I had not come and spoken to them,
they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their
sin."
"LITTLE" SINS OF OMISSION
James adds another definition of sin to our already growing list,
one we might perhaps also be tempted to describe as a "lesser"
sin:
Jas 4:17 (NRS) Anyone, then, who knows the right thing
to do and fails to do it, commits sin.
As we know, we can be guilty of sin by omission. The prophet Samuel
understood this, as evidenced by his words to King Saul, even
after the latter had disobeyed God:
1 Sam 12:23 "Moreover, as for me, far be it from me
that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you;
but I will teach you the good and the right way"
Indifference, then, is a sin if it prevents you from doing good.
It is in this light that the apostle Paul gives the example in
1 Cor 8:9-13 of one weak in the faith brought to stumble
by the callous behaviour of a fellow brother.
Lev 5:2 'Or if a person touches any unclean thing, whether
it is the carcass of an unclean beast, or the carcass of
unclean livestock, or the carcass of unclean creeping things,
and he is unaware of it, he also shall be unclean and guilty.
3 'Or if he touches human uncleanness -- whatever uncleanness
with which a man may be defiled, and he is unaware of it -- when
he realizes it, then he shall be guilty. 4 'Or if
a person swears, speaking thoughtlessly with his lips to
do evil or to do good, whatever it is that a man may pronounce
by an oath, and he is unaware of it -- when he realizes it,
then he shall be guilty in any of these matters.
And sacrifices - which, of course, foreshadowed the sacrifice
of Christ for all sins - were specified for these sins, as they
were for all transgressions:
Lev 5:5 'And it shall be, when he is guilty in any of these
matters, that he shall confess that he has sinned in that
thing; 6 'and he shall bring his trespass offering
to the LORD for his sin which he has committed, a female from
the flock, a lamb or a kid of the goats as a sin offering. So
the priest shall make atonement for him concerning his sin.
For such "little" sins of omission or negligence, as
the proceeding verses verify, a blood sacrifice was still necessary,
as the remainder of the chapter goes on to show, for we are told
in Rom 6:23 that "the wages of sin" - all sin,
all unrighteousness, "great" or "small" -
is death, and requires Christ's atoning blood. Sin defiles, even
a sin of omission, which if unattended to can sear the conscience
as readily as any other sin. It is interesting to note in this
light the parable Christ gave in Luke 12:48 where we see
that the servant who does wrong is still beaten with a
few blows although he hasn't even known his master's will for
him.
Num 15:30 ' But the person who does anything presumptuously,
whether he is native-born or a stranger, that one brings
reproach on the LORD, and he shall be cut off from among his people.
31 'Because he has despised the word of the LORD, and has
broken His commandment, that person shall be completely cut off;
his guilt shall be upon him.' "
And the punishment could be much more severe, as verses 32-36
illustrate.
David understood this distinction between willful and hidden sin:
Ps 19:12 Who can understand his errors? Cleanse
me from secret faults. 13 Keep back Your
servant also from presumptuous sins; Let them not have
dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, And I shall be innocent
of great transgression.
GOD AND UNRIGHTEOUSNESS
So God's perspective is that all unrighteousness, defined as sin
in His Word, is deserving of death. True, the apostle Paul tells
us that before our conversion, God "overlooked" (Acts
17:30) our times of ignorance, but only in terms of the atoning
sacrifice of Christ, for the penalty for sin is not automatically
waived.
Jas 2:10 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one
point has become accountable for all of it.
If this is then the case, can there really be a "greater"
or a "lesser" commandment? What was Christ attempting
to convey to the crowds when He spoke to them in these terms in
Mat 5:19?
God is incorruptible and, unlike man, cannot be tempted by evil
or sin:
Jas 1:13 Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am
tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does
He Himself tempt anyone. 14 But each one is tempted when
he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. 15 Then,
when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when
it is full-grown, brings forth death
To us, some sins may indeed be more grievous and besetting, and
harder to disentangle ourselves from than others, but God cannot
be tempted by evil as we can because by His definition all evil,
great or small, is sin. He hates all evil, not just the
seven abominations listed in Prov 6:16-19, and He demands
that all sin, "great" or "small", be repented
of.
Ps 5:4 For You are not a God who takes pleasure
in wickedness, Nor shall evil dwell with You. 5 The boastful
shall not stand in Your sight; You hate all workers of
iniquity. [Verse 5 should give us some food for thought!]
Let us then notice how God defines "greater" and "lesser"
sins. Christ's words give us the answer:
Mat 11:20 Then He began to rebuke the cities in which most
of His mighty works had been done, because they did not repent:
21 "Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For
if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre
and Sidon, they would have repented long ago ["lesser"
sin] in sackcloth and ashes. 22 "But I say to
you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of
judgment than for you. 23 "And you, Capernaum, who
are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades; for if the
mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it
would have remained until this day. 24 "But I say
to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in
the day of judgment than for you ["greater" sin]."
The cities of Chorazim, Bethsaida and Capernaum, in which Christ
did mighty works were, by implication, guilty of "greater"
sin than the cities of Tyre and Sidon, for these three cities
defiantly hardened their hearts and denied the reality of what
Christ's miracles testified to. Their "greater", or
"presumptuous" sin will be harder for them to come to
terms with in the judgement than the "lesser" sins of
the two ancient cities, who had never been witness to the miracles
of the Son of God, and who will find repentance easier when they
come face to face with His power.
In this light we can see how Judas' sin was certainly "greater"
than the sin of Pilate. Judas had so seared his conscience that
he was in fact unable to come to repentance, and killed himself
in a fit of remorse (Mat 27:5). It is these type of sins
that are being referred to in passages like 1 Tim 4:2 and
2 Pet 2:14 where we read of consciences being seared and
of individuals unable to cease sinning.
On the societal level, we can very readily recognise a sin that
is indeed heinous, damaging to human relationships, and in blatant
violation of one of God's commandments. There is also the human
tendency among us in God's Church to compare ourselves to one
another in terms of righteousness and to often acquit or soothe
our consciences by classifying our sin as a "lesser"
one, as opposed to someone's "greater" sin. Yet this
mode of thinking and of delineating sin is not God's mind for
He is pure, without sin (I John 3:3-4), righteous (v
7) and He abhors all unrighteousness - because it is
unrighteousness! It is therefore foolishness for us to attempt
to compare ourselves to one another in terms of sinfulness or
of righteousness:
2 Cor 10:12 For we dare not class ourselves or compare
ourselves with those who commend themselves. But they, measuring
themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves,
are not wise.
Instead, let us realise that God alone is our standard of perfection,
and so, looking only to Him, strive to become as He is, without
spot, blemish or even "lesser" sins:
Mat 5:48 (NRS) Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly
Father is perfect.