If you cut your finger while cooking dinner, you will immediately need to look after it, cleaning and bandaging it, but the healing will be straightforward, and you likely won’t skip a beat in your daily life. If, on the other hand, you are in a head-on car accident, months or even years of healing may follow. Both injuries require healing, but one needs only a small bandage, while the other will need emergency surgery.

In modern Christian circles, the popular idea has circulated that all sins are equal in the eyes of God. We may hear this taught as an equalizer to remind us that those of us who lie are just as flawed as the murderer on death row. While the underlying intention that all sins lead to death is true, we cannot ultimately collapse all sin into one category.

We can even arrive at this truth with logic. It is not as emotionally and spiritually damaging to steal a pack of gum from the store as it is to cheat on one’s spouse or take another human’s life even though these are all sins. While all sin results in death for the sinner, Scripture reveals that there are sins that are more severe in terms of earthly consequences, spiritual impact, and eternal judgment.

What the Bible Says About Degrees of Sin

Throughout Scripture, we see that God assigns a different consequence to sins that are intentional than He assigns to sins that are unintentional. In Numbers 15, God sets the standard for Israel that unintentional sins can be atoned for by sacrifice, but intentional sins lead to being cut off from the people and thus from access to God. Both intentional and unintentional sins affect their relationship with God, but the intentional sins have a much greater impact.

In Exodus 22, God shows His value for human life over property. If a man steals a neighbor’s ox, he is expected to pay back the stolen property fivefold. But if a man steals a neighbor’s child, the penalty is death. While both examples are theft, God weighs the destruction of human life more heavily than financial loss.

In the New Testament, Jesus draws a distinction between intentional disobedience (after receiving knowledge from God) and ignorance (Matthew 11:21–25). Those who know the commandments of God more extensively and choose disobedience are held to a different standard than those who are ignorant.

Historical Christian Views: Mortal vs. Venial Sin

Historically, most Christians have agreed that there are different degrees of severity to different sins. The medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas wrestled with this question in his theological magnum opus, Summa Theologiae. Aquinas uses a helpful medical analogy to show different kinds of severity for different sins, describing sin as a “sickness of the soul.” He explains that just as some physical sicknesses are fatal, some sins are “mortal” because they cause “an irreparable defect” in our relationship with God. Other sins, however, are “venial,” acting more like a minor illness where “the debt of punishment is taken away.”¹

While the terms “mortal” and “venial” may feel distinctly Catholic, Aquinas’s implication extends across denominational lines. A mortal sin is like a fatal illness, destroying life in a way that rejects a relationship with God directly. A venial sin is more like a common cold, straining our relationship with God but not severing our relationship with God.

Whether we use the terms “mortal” and “venial” or simply talk about the difference between a stumble and total apostasy, Christian history agrees that sins are not all equal in the eyes of God or in their effect on humanity. Some sins leave a scratch, while others break a bone. The beautiful reality remains that Christ is our Healer, able to heal us no matter how broken sin has left us. Even those who have rejected Christ previously can return to Him and receive grace.

One of the most famous cultural expressions of the hierarchy of sins is found in Dante Alighieri’s Inferno. This book from the fourteenth century maps out hell into nine concentric circles, with corresponding categories of sin and their punishments. In Dante’s metaphorical picture of hell, those who struggled with sins of lesser intent occupy the outer circles of hell, while those whose sins were most malicious are in the deepest, most painful circles of hell. While Dante’s work is not inspired by Scripture and should not be taken as authoritative, it is a good reflection of the truth that historical Christianity has affirmed: that God’s justice is perfect and proportional.

Earthly Consequences: How Different Sins Affect the Soul

The distinction of Aquinas is driving at the psychological and spiritual impact of sin on our souls. While all sin is ultimately fatal, some sins affect us and others more deeply than others.

For example, if my sister asks me if I like her new outfit and I say yes but actually find it revolting, this is a sin—and an intentional sin at that. Yet the impact of that sin does not shatter her soul, or mine, in the way that something like adultery would. All sin corrupts, but some sin is more immediately harmful and more harmful to others.

Paul particularly highlights the severity of sexual sin in his first letter to the Corinthians: “Flee sexual immorality! Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the person who is sexually immoral sins against his own body” (1 Corinthians 6:18). Paul is not saying that sexual sin is the worst type of sin, but he is strongly warning the Corinthians that some sins carry a greater personal impact and are more immediately harmful both spiritually and physically.

Varying Judgments: The Eternal Consequences of Sin

All sin is fatal and separates us from God. The punishment for all sin is death, and thus all sin must be taken seriously. However, in a few different places, Scripture outlines various degrees of punishment in hell. In the Parable of the Faithful and Unfaithful Servants, Jesus says that the unfaithful servant who knew the master’s will and disobeyed will be beaten with “many blows,” while the unfaithful servant who did not know the master’s will and disobeyed will be beaten with “few blows” (Luke 12:47–48, NIV). In Romans 2, Paul says that the unrepentant are “storing up wrath” against themselves, because on the day of judgment God will repay each person according to what they have done (Romans 2:5–6, NIV). And in Mark 12:40, Jesus pronounces woe upon the Pharisees because of their hypocrisy and says that they will receive “harsher judgment.” These verses imply that there will be varying degrees of punishment for sin on the day of judgment. While this truth is sobering, it should only cause us to be more grateful for the sacrifice of Jesus for our sins.

Avoiding the Trap of Comparing Our Sins to Others

When we do acknowledge that degrees of sin exist, we run into the temptation to compare our sins to the sins of others and believe the falsehood that we are not as bad as others. At least we don’t struggle with that sin, we might think to ourselves. It is especially easy to judge others based on how public, messy, or socially unacceptable their sin is.

We live in a time where moral absolutes are largely rejected, and the idea of sin is culturally unpopular. The culture not only accepts but even encourages many types of sin. Gossip is circulated easily through technology. Anger is celebrated on social media, where people choose their personal hill to die on and publish it for others to like and comment. We may easily excuse these and other sins because of their acceptability in society.

On the other hand, sins such as racism and corporate greed are rightfully condemned. While Christians should mourn these public sins, the danger remains of creating artificial “degrees of sin” and starting to compare our sins on a scale to the sins of others.

This is where Jesus stops us in our tracks. In the Sermon on the Mount, He directly calls out our human tendency to see our neighbor’s sin more clearly than our own: “how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the splinter out of your eye,’ and look, there’s a beam of wood in your own eye? Hypocrite! First take the beam of wood out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to take the splinter out of your brother’s eye” (Matthew 7:4–5).

It’s easy to see the plank of sin in someone else’s life when we can see the outward effects. But we must have mercy on others and remember that the hidden, inward sins we hold are just as much in opposition to God’s standard of holiness as the public sin of another. We are all in dire need of God's grace.

Christ died for the sins of the whole world. This should cause us to show mercy to others and be humbled when we look at our own lives. We all need the forgiveness of the cross.

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Notes:

1. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province (Benziger Brothers, 1947), pt. 1–2, q. 88, a. 1, www.isidore.co/aquinas/english/summa/FS/FS088.html#FSQ88OUTP1.

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Author Bio

Rebekah Grinestaff is a Staff Writer at The Daily Grace Co.® She is devoted to making rich theological material accessible to others. When she is not writing, Rebekah devotes herself to her family, friends, and church. She also appreciates a lengthy gander at the trees in front of her home.

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