Are all sins equal or will God judge some sins harsher than others? That’s what we’re going to be talking about today. But before we get started, make sure to like and subscribe and hit the notification bell so you never miss an episode. Dad, great topic, James. Is there a hierarchy of sin? Is some sin not as bad as other sin, or is all sin punished equally? I’ve I’ve heard it so many times.
So, what made you pick this? >> I got this question based off of a video that I was watching from RC Sproul the other day and he was talking about a psychiatrist and this psychiatrist talked about the teachings of other people when it came to moral ethics. And he studied Jesus and his teachings one day and said, “Why are we holding Jesus as such a great teacher of moral ethics when Jesus’s teachings are flawed?” and he went straight to the sermon on the mount and he quoted two verses from the sermon on the mount which number one was Matthew 5:es 21- 22 where it’s talking
about murder and Jesus says you have heard that it was said to those of old you shall not murder and whoever murders will be liable to judgment but I say to you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment >> that’s one of the verses that this psychiatrist said is is bad moral ethics.
>> Yep. And then the other verse that he talked about was on adultery and Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, you shall not commit adultery, but I say to you that anyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” And so the psychiatrist said, “How is this possible? How are we even comparing these two things? Say in the sense of murder or anger, how is anger the same as murder? They have completely different outcomes.
If I hold anger in my heart towards a man, yes, I’ve wronged him. Yes, I may have hurt his feelings, but I haven’t killed him. I haven’t made his wife a widow and his children fatherless. I haven’t made the ripple effect of the pain and suffering for his entire community. I haven’t taken away the main provider of the household.
It’s not the same as just not liking someone and hating them. And then he said in the sense of lust in the terms of lust, he said if I’ve lusted after a woman, yes, maybe I’ve wronged her. Maybe I’ve objectified her. Maybe I’ve looked at her as an object rather than a person and just thought about sleeping with her rather than the creation that God made her to be.
But I haven’t had intercourse with her. I haven’t cheated on my spouse. I haven’t betrayed my family. These are not the same thing. How are we holding Jesus in such high regard as a moral ethics teacher when he said, “Anger is the same as murder and lust the same as adultery.” >> You know why I love this, James? Because it really sharpens the question to a point.
The way that that psychiatrist is framing the teachings of Jesus forces us to wrestle with this dilemma. Is lust the same as adultery? Is anger and hatred the same as murder of the heart? What did Jesus mean? Was he mistaken and misguided? Or is Jesus exactly right and the psychiatrist wrong? And how do we know? >> Yeah.
And I think that this is also something that I’ve kind of just blindly believed but not fully understood because in my own mind I think yeah like anger is one thing and if I am angry towards someone or hateful towards someone I don’t think that’s the same level as me going and killing that person. >> Yeah. And then you have somebody at church go yes it is.
