September 15, 2012
Degrees of Sin
I would rather someone be angry with me than murder me, but that doesn’t mean that anger isn’t a sin. It is. Jesus did not teach that there are any unimportant sins. On the contrary. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus went to the heart of overt sin—He showed that it began with an attitude that needed to be changed. For instance, He said: “You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘You shall not commit murder’ and ‘Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.’ [22] “But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever shall say to his brother, ‘Raca,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever shall say, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.” (Matthew 5:21–22 NASB)
Anger is the seed of murder, it is where it begins. It isn’t unimportant. By itself it is a terrible sin, but it has the capacity to become a worse sin, it can end in death.
Jesus also said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery’; [28] but I say to you, that everyone who looks on a woman to lust for her has committed adultery with her already in his heart. (Matthew 5:27–28 NASB)
Lust is the seed of adultery, it is where it begins. It isn’t unimportant. By itself it is a terrible sin, but it has the capacity to become a worse sin, it can lead to adultery.
To Jesus, what is on the inside of a person is important. He is not saying that anger is just as bad of a sin as murder, or that lust is as bad of a sin as adultery. But He is saying that anger and lust are sins. And that a person who commits them is also a sinner just like someone who commits murder and adultery.
We’re all sinners, whether the sin is great or small isn’t the issue, it is that we’ve all sinned against a holy God. It wouldn’t matter if we drowned in the ocean or in a bathtub, either way, we’d be dead. Whether our sin fills an ocean or a bathtub, we stand in need of God’s grace.
Jim L. Wilson, Fresh Start Devotionals (Fresno, CA: Willow City Press, 2009).
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