At Woodland we believe there is no such thing as a hierarchy of sins that ranks some sins as worse than others. The Greek word for “sin” literally means “to miss the mark.” To sin is to miss the mark of God’s call of agape-love: that is, to fully love God and fully love others in the way Jesus has loved us (Matthew 22:36-40; John 13:34-35). To use the analogy of an archery target, anything that does not hit the bullseye of agape-love is missing the mark, no matter which “outer ring” of the target it lands in. Understanding sin as missing the mark helps us remember that “all sin is sin,” and that any sin breaks our relationship with God. Knowing there is no hierarchy of sins also helps us fight against the self-righteousness and judgmentalism of believing our sin is “not as bad” as someone else’s.
However, it is also true that different sins have different consequences, and some consequences are more damaging than others. For example, it is obviously far more damaging to someone if we murder them than if we simply harbor hatred for them. So, in this sense, sins are different.
In summary, we could say this: “All sin is sin, but some sins have more damaging consequences than others.”
