Gradation of Sins

I was discussing with some brothers the other day whether the Bible treats the various sins such as lying, greed, divorce, abortion, homosexual relationships as being the same "degree." We were wondering if one could make a case whether or not the Bible teaches that there are different degrees or gradation of sins (not sure if there's a standard theological term to describe this.)

**This is a request for help with Logos, not a request for personal theological opinions or convictions.**

Question: How would one go about doing either a Bible Search or a general library search to start exploring this question in Logos 5? Or do you have any good books or resources to recommend? [I own Portfolio.]

Thanks in advance!

Peter

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Jack Caviness

gradation of sins

Did a basic search for my entire library for tis phrase with these results: Sproul—the Holiness of God—seems to have an interesting discussion. I did not consult the other hits.

JT (alabama24)

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/558948#Comment_558948

I would think that determining key words and their synonyms would be important. One that comes to mind is hierarchy. What about hierarchy NEAR sin?

Graham Criddle

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/558948#Comment_558948

I did a similar search to Jack but using "degrees of sin" which produced some interesting results including "The Gravity and Gradation of Sin" in "Studies in Dogmatics: Sin"

Milford Charles Murray

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/558951#Comment_558951

Peace to my Brothers and Sisters on these Forums! *smile*

A different kind (s) of search could be made - depending on one's definition of sin - also ... whether sin is mortal sin - venial sin - or capital sin ..........

I found this quote from the Roman Catholic Catechism quite interesting ...

1866 Vices can be classified according to the virtues they oppose, or also be linked to the capital sins which Christian experience has distinguished, following St. John Cassian and St. Gregory the Great. They are called “capital” because they engender other sins, other vices.¹³⁸ They are pride, avarice, envy, wrath, lust, gluttony, and sloth or acedia. (2539)^{^[1]}

¹³⁸ Cf. St. Gregory the Great, Moralia in Job, 31, 45: PL 76, 621A.

^{^[1]} Catholic Church. (2000). Catechism of the Catholic Church (2nd Ed., p. 457). Washington, DC: United States Catholic Conference.

Francis

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/558951#Comment_558951

You can also use Nave's, Collins Bible themes or other topical resources to get you to relevant passages in the Bible.

There are a number of passages that are relevant: the different penalties for different sins in the law, the many more blows that the servant who knows his master's will and does not do it will receive, the unforgivable sin, James' statement about being a transgressor regardless of what commandment is transgressed, etc.

Two broad questions to take into consideration: (1) How a sin relates to God Himself (exemple: if someone keeps on sinning after receiving the knowledge of the truth... he has trampled on the Son of God and insulted the Spirit of grace, Heb 10:25-31; How God treated Nadab and Abihu, etc); (2) The relative gravity of a sin in relation to one's neighbor (murder, adultery, leading others into idolatry / causing a little one to stumble, etc).

Consult commentaries on relevant passages to wrestle with them but I would suggest being careful not to keep with commentaries that are tendentious (have an obvious agenda else than just dealing as fairly as possible with the teaching of the Bible).

fgh

1 John 5:16-17.

not sure if there's a standard theological term to describe this

There certainly is in Catholicism: mortal sin vs venial sin.

If you want to have a look at the Catechism of the Catholic Church, you can start at #1854. It's on the web if you don't have it.

John Brumett

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/558959#Comment_558959

I would try the search Sin NEAR degrees. (make sure Match Case is checked) and search your entire library. One example in the Scripture is John 19:11.

Jesus answered, "You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above. Therefore the one who delivered Me to you has the greater sin."

An argument for degrees of sin would be the degrees of punishment in the Bible for certain sins. Even is our courts we treat murder with more severity than stealing.

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/558974#Comment_558974

Thank you for all of your timely responses!

I ran a Basic Search over the Entire Library with this query:

sin NEAR (gradation OR hierarchy OR level OR degree OR mortal OR venial OR gravity)

Got back tens of thousands of hits (in < 5 seconds!) which I'm going to dig through. I will also follow through on the other specific Scripture passages and book/resource suggestions.

Thank you so much. You all are great!

Peter

Milford Charles Murray

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/558998#Comment_558998

Blessings, Peter, on your task! *smile*

To make it even slightly more difficult, please remember that there are :

1. Sins of Commission ...

2. Sins of Omission .....

and ..

Worst of all! *smile* 3. Sins of No Mission!

Lots of blessing on classifying and categorising and cataloging of these! *smile*

David Thomas

https://www.logos.com/product/16424/respectable-sins-confronting-the-sins-we-tolerate is a great book to challenge the "lesser" sins that we allow to permeate our lives.

DominicM

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/559028#Comment_559028

Bible best interpreter on this:

if wages of sin is death = all sin equal as all terminal..

Bible doesn't categorise, just give us a way of escape, the shed blood of Christ..

DMB

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/559032#Comment_559032

I was reading my Billy Graham devotional, and he really, really wanted the readers to 'do' stuff. But of course, everyone's saved by grace, not works (not arguing the theology here; just quoting). And he really, really didn't want to cross that line.

So he came up with the major sin of NOT doing stuff. That'd be 'omission' I guess. Jesus spoke on that somewhat earlier.

George Somsel

The greatest sin of all is using an interlinear. [:)]

DominicM

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/559046#Comment_559046

The greatest sin of all is using an interlinear.

Some of us keep trying to break the habit, but I guess we are biased towards their beautiful layout [:O][:P]

Jack Caviness

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/559046#Comment_559046

The greatest sin of all is using an interlinear.

That is a serious one, but a person lying about his age is probably worse—although I do not personally know anyone who would do this [:S]

George Somsel

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/559056#Comment_559056

The greatest sin of all is using an interlinear.

That is a serious one, but a person lying about his age is probably worse—although I do not personally know anyone who would do this

I don't know anyone who would do that either. Personally, I'm "Honest Abe." [;)]

Jack Caviness

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/559060#Comment_559060

Personally, I'm "Honest Abe."

Then, why do you use George as your screen name? [^o)]

George Somsel

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/559076#Comment_559076

Personally, I'm "Honest Abe."

Then, why do you use George as your screen name?

That's my second middle name. [;)]

Otto S. Carroll

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/559046#Comment_559046

The greatest sin of all is using an interlinear.