Is All Sin the Same?

I used to be part of a church where the pastor would sometimes preach against specific sins. However, as time went on, he would in essence dilute his message by saying something like, “But we’ve all got our own stuff.” Occasionally, he would have us turn to the people sitting next to us and say something like, “I’m messed up, but so are you.” (Ha, ha) Eventually, preaching against specific sins became a rarity. The one exception was pride; the pastor spent about two years focused on humility. As important as that was, however, he didn’t give examples of what it looked like. Not coincidentally, the church had been shrinking for some time, and it wasn’t showing any signs of stopping. A good friend of mine talked to the pastor about the importance of preaching against specific sins, but his response was if he did that, people would become “offended” and the church would become even smaller! Well, the pastor didn’t do that, but the church continued shrinking anyway.

There were other factors that contributed to the dramatic shrinkage of this church, including a series of bad decisions that I won’t go into. However, I believe that at the heart of it was an initial reluctance, and eventually a refusal, to preach against sins of various kinds and to urge people to repent of them.

Perhaps people know about sin without their pastor preaching about it. What does research show? Despite the ready availability of all kinds of Bibles, Christian books, and wonderful spoken messages that are easily accessible, most American churchgoers are Biblically illiterate. A graph that I found through Bob Smietana of Lifeway Research shows that only 20% of Americans have read the Bible all the way through at least once. You can access that graph and others here: https://research.lifeway.com/2017/04/25/lifeway-research-americans-are-fond-of-the-bible-dont-actually-read-it/ Frankly, since only about 8% of Americans are Christians, I’m surprised that 20% have actually read the Bible cover to cover. Regardless, one thing this may indicate is that my former pastor either assumed that congregants already knew what the Bible says about specific sins, or worse, that he shouldn’t confront them. One of the implied messages was that all sin is the same anyway; furthermore, as the pastor told my friend, we don’t want to offend people by pointing out specific sins that they or their loved ones may be struggling with. Maybe he was unsure about how to couple preaching about sin with the wonderful message of God’s forgiveness.

Let’s focus directly now on the question in the title of this post: Is all sin the same? I mentioned earlier that my former pastor preached about humility, which is the antithesis of pride. Since this is my primary sin problem, I (usually!) appreciate being reminded of this. It has helped me to explore humility much more. I’m a work in progress, but I can say, for example, that over time I have become a man who apologizes more readily; the same is true of my forgiving others when they apologize. When I find myself refusing to live in forgiveness, I don’t have peace; that is one of the consequences of that sin. How about other sins? One example of a sin with obvious consequences is murder, which can result in a person living a significant portion of his life in prison. Most people don’t commit murder, but do you know what the Bible says about hate? I John 3:15 tells us, “Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.” Wow. This clearly brings us back to the priority of forgiveness.

One kind of sin that my former pastor very specifically refused to preach against was various kinds of sexual sin. Some people like to focus on STDs and unwanted pregnancies, but here’s what 1 Corinthians 6:18 says: “Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.” This verse very directly states that sexual immorality (a man sleeping with anyone who is not his wife, or a woman sleeping with anyone who is not her husband) is a different kind of sin, but what does it mean? Verse 16 tells us: “Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, ‘The two will become one flesh.'” Beyond STDs, unwanted pregnancies as a result of sleeping around, and broken marriages–as bad as those are–at the heart of it is that the Christian’s body “is a temple of the Holy Spirit.” (verse 19) The consequences of sexual immorality are more obvious than those of pride. However, the Lord knows that sin begins in the heart and mind, which is why Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:28: “But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

I would be remiss if I didn’t also mention another kind of sexual sin: those who have “transitioned” to the opposite gender. Genesis 1:27 tells us this: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” For trans women and trans men, whether they realize it or not, they are saying to God, “I don’t like the way You made me.” The consequences of this sin can be very severe indeed. I have addressed transgenderism more here: https://keithpetersenblog.com/2022/02/23/clarity-and-compassion-for-the-transgendered/ When I knew that my previous pastor was going to be focusing on this verse, I suggested that he address the trans issue, but he again refused.

We could go on to address other sins, some of which have more obvious consequences than others; think of stealing and lying, for example. However, I think we can now answer the question in the title of this post: Is all sin the same? No, in the sense that the consequences are different; this is particularly obvious when it comes to various kinds of sexual sin. We also know that sexual sin is qualitatively different because it is a sin against one’s own body. However, the answer is also Yes, in the sense that Scripture reveals that sin begins in the heart and mind. Furthermore, sin that is not confessed and repented of is what separates people from God, including the ultimate separation in hell.

Maybe you think I focus too much on sin and should instead focus on the love and grace of God. First of all, if you talk to anyone under 40, you may be surprised at their notions of right and wrong. Second, in my most recent post about the Bible as a whole, I wrote that since so much of the Bible is focused on warning against sin and judgment of it, we would be wise to focus more on that than we do; in other words, let’s have more balance. Finally, with Good Friday a mere three weeks away, this is a good time to be reminded why Jesus died on the cross: it was because of our sin. Psalm 32:5 says this: “Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord’–and you forgave the guilt of my sin.” That’s what Good Friday is all about! When we confess our sin and repent of it, then we can receive the Lord’s forgiveness and have the peace that we long for. If you are reading this and do not yet know the Lord, I pray that this will be the time that you confess your sin and turn to Him in saving faith.