1. Murder
2. Rape
3. Homosexuality
4. Adultery
5. Drug use
6. Fornication
7. Pornography
8. Drunkenness
9. Stealing
10. Lust
…
97. Outbursts of anger
98. Envy
99. Lying
100. Covetousness
“But all sins are equal in God’s sight,” you’re probably thinking. And that’s exactly right. There is no such thing as a “definitive ranking of sins.” The payment for each and every sin is the exact same – death (Romans 6:23) or the blood of Jesus (Isaiah 53:5). Sure, different sins can carry different earthly consequences, but in the end they are all rebellion against God’s holy nature. “A sin is a sin,” we say.
But… do we live like we believe that? I don’t think we do. Even though sins can’t be ranked along any particular lines, I don’t think the list above is too much of a stretch for the way most of us see sins. Some might even see the list and try to rearrange the rankings based on what they think is worse. The truth is, we often do have an arbitrary hierarchy of sins, typically so we can look at the first few listed and say “Well, at least I don’t struggle with THAT” and feel better about ourselves. That would make us just like the Pharisee in Luke 18 saying, “I thank you, God, that I am not like this man.”
Or, on the other side, we can look at people who do have things like that in their past and view them in a totally different light, never letting them outgrow their former life, or worse – never helping them leave it. But many homosexuals have abandoned that life and come to Christ. A number of adulterers have restored their marriages. Even murderers (Saul of Tarsus, anyone?) can be restored, because the blood of Christ is that powerful. Imagine how the history of the world would’ve been radically altered if Ananias hadn’t taken God’s command to go speak to someone whose career purpose was to persecute people just like Ananias.
If you are that person who is either struggling with one of those sins or has in the past, you have likely felt the stigma associated with such shortcomings. It’s this feeling that drives many with a deep, dark sin history to drive it deeper and darker rather than exposing it to light through confession.
Sin is bad. It’s ugly, evil, and will be the death of each of us if we don’t repent. But that doesn’t mean sin can’t be forgiven. Regardless of where a sin falls on the lists we come up with for “big” and “little” sins, we have to strive to have the heart of Christ in all things, forgiving others and helping them move past their sins. Or, it could mean forgiving ourselves, because we know God is faithful and righteous to forgive and we aren’t being more just than He is by continuing to beat ourselves up over the past. Finally, it’s important that we don’t gloss over those little sins. An unrepentant heart will only care about the “big” sins that might make others look down on us, or the sins for which we may get caught or punished, but a heart that’s truly given to God will be constantly striving to root out all sin. Every sin is a failure to show the glory of God, and we should never forget that it’s our purpose to shine His glory as brightly as possible in all things.
By Jack Wilkie
