Are All Sins Equal?

Jennifer Knapp was a contemporary Christian music artist who had been away from the music scene for several years when she did an interview on Larry King Live about her self-imposed hiatus and her new album she had just recorded. During the discussion she made a statement that I think many Evangelical Christians probably believe, but really needs some careful biblical analysis.

Jennifer discussed in the interview her long-term relationship with her lesbian partner. Though she didn’t share any identifying details about the other woman, what caught my attention during her interview was how she tried to justify her sinful behavior. While answering a question posed to her about her homosexuality, she stated that if her conduct was sinful (and she believed it was not), that it should not be viewed as any worse than other sins. From her perspective, things such as being overweight, speeding, gossipping, etc., would all be equally wrong before God because “all sins are equal with God.” It seemed clear to me that her reasoning was a means of deflecting attention from herself in an effort to escape criticism for her behavior. But, is it really true that all sins are “equal with God?”

Please understand that my purpose here is not to excuse any sin or to make less of any offense against a holy God. However, if her assumption is true, then shouldn't we be teaching our children that disobeying parental instructions is just as bad as killing a friend? Going one mile over the speed limit is just as bad as taking illegal drugs? And, overeating is just as heinous as an Islamic terrorist blowing up innocent people? I think most would agree that at least in practical/temporal terms we don’t view all sin as being equal. Even in the criminal justice system there are varying degrees of penalties for varying levels of offenses. Is it really true that God’s system of justice makes no distinctions in the sins we commit?

Sometimes we arrive at our conclusions based on incomplete and/or inaccurate data. The “all sins are equal” defense is one of those examples that I think has arisen in part because of the misinterpretation of some key scripture passages. For instance, Matthew 5:27-28 says, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

At first glance it appears that the text treats lust and the act of adultery equally, but is that what we should take away from the passage? Practically speaking, there is a difference in degree of violation between lusting after someone and committing the act of adultery. I know from many years of dealing with people that the act of adultery usually results in worse consequences than lust alone (though lust can lead to adultery). Then what does this passage mean, if the two sins are not “equal before God?” It is not that lust and adultery are equal in degree of violation, but that they are both violations of the same commandment (the seventh commandment). In a similar fashion, hatred is not equal in degree of violation to murder (Matthew 5:21-22; 1 John 3:15), but both are violations of the sixth commandment. Jesus is making the point in this context that a person cannot boast of personal righteousness on the basis of keeping the “letter of the law” (something the Pharisees professed for themselves), because there is also the “spirit of the law” to be considered. Any violation, whether of the “letter of the law” (acts of adultery/murder) or the “spirit of the law” (lust/hatred), makes you guilty before God. In other words, all sins are equally against God, but not all sins are equal in the degree of violation and/or consequences.

Even in 1 John 3:15 where John speaks unambiguously about the sin of hatred, I think we have to assume there is still some distinction to be made in degree of violation between hatred and murder. While both belong to the same sphere of “death,” they are not equal in harm caused. Prolific author, Warren Wiersbe, says it well, “This does not mean, of course, that hatred in the heart does the same amount of damage, or involves the same degree of guilt, as actual murder. Your neighbor would rather you hate him than kill him! But in God’s sight, hatred is the moral equivalent of murder, and if left unbridled it leads to murder.”1 I think many would agree that hatred is the “moral equivalent” of murder, but we certainly wouldn’t punish it to the same degree that we would murder. If this is true then it stands to reason that the two sins are not equal in every way, though they are both violations of God’s law and deserving of punishment.

A similar line of thinking is followed in James 2:10, “For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.” James is teaching that no matter how small the violation of God’s law may seem to you, it still makes the person guilty before God. God’s law is viewed as a unit and any violation makes the person a sinner. John MacAurthur writes, “Although all sins are not equally damaging or heinous, they all shatter that unity [of the law] and render men transgressors, much like hitting a window with a hammer at only one point will shatter and destroy the whole window.” He further comments that being “guilty of all” is not to be understood “in the sense of having violated every command, but in the sense of having violated the law’s unity. One transgression makes fulfilling the law’s most basic commands—to love God perfectly and to love one’s neighbor as oneself—impossible.”2 A similar thought is conveyed by author T.D. Lea, “The Bible does not say all sins are equal. Stealing a candy bar is not the same as committing adultery. Thinking about murder is not as bad as committing the act. Every sin does bring guilt. It takes only a single sin to make a person a sinner. No act of obedience can compensate for acts of disobedience.”3

What I’m trying to demonstrate is that you cannot necessarily argue that “all sin is equal with God.” It’s not really accurate to say that going one mile over the speed limit is equally as egregious as living in a homosexual relationship. Both are sins against God and deserving of punishment, but they don’t result in the same degree of “damage,” “guilt,” and/or punishment.

Even more telling for this discussion is the fact that numerous scriptures indicate that not “all sins are equal with God.” The following texts are hard to explain, if they are teaching the “all sins are equal” doctrine.

1. When Christ was before Pilate He said that Israel had committed a worse sin by rejecting Him. “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.” (John 19:11, emphasis mine)
2. Sins in the Old Testament were not all punished to the same degree. Under the Mosaic law, a thief paid restitution; an occult practitioner was cut off from Israel; one who committed adultery or a homosexual act was put to death (cf., Exodus 22 & Leviticus 20).
3. Some sins in the Old Testament were labeled as abominations to God, which meant they were especially damaging violations (e.g. Leviticus 18:22; Deuteronomy 7:25; 23:18; Isaiah 41:24, etc.).
4. Solomon listed seven specific sins that he said were notably egregious to God (Proverbs 6:16-19).
5. Jesus said that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit was more consequential than blasphemy against the Father or Himself (Matthew 12:31).
6. The scriptures seem to indicate that there will be varying degrees of punishment in hell, reflecting the severity of the offenses committed (Luke 12:47-48).
7. At times Christ distinguished the sins of the Pharisees as greater than the sins of others. For instance, He said that they would strain out a gnat while swallowing a camel (Matthew 23:24). He also said they would receive “greater condemnation” (Luke 20:46-47). To me, that is a statement that makes no sense, if all sins are equal with God.
8. If all sins are equal then it seems difficult to understand how there could be parts of the law that are“weightier” (Matthew 23:23) than other parts. If all sins are equal with God then all parts of the law should be equal in weight.
9. God classifies unforgivenenss as a particularly offensive sin, elevating it above other sins in some passages (Matthew 6:14-15; 18:23-35).
10. Paul says that immorality is a worse sin than others because it is “against” the body while other sins are “outside the body” (1 Corinthians 6:18).
11. Jesus rebuked some of the cities where He had done His mighty works and warned them that it would be “more tolerable for the land of Sodom” (Matthew 10:15; 11:24) than for them. Certainly this implies that some sins are worse than others, if for no other reason than the fact that greater opportunities result in greater culpability.
12. Jesus said that before you can help your brother remove the speck from his eye, you first have to remove the mote from your own eye (Matthew 7:3). Christ is making some kind of distinction between two sins of varying degree.
13. John the apostle distinguished between sins that didn’t lead to death and “a sin” that brought death without remedy. (1 John 5:16-17).

It just seems impossible in light of the aforementioned scriptures to argue, as Jennifer Knapp did, that “all sins are equal to God.” We at least have to acknowledge that there are varying degrees of offenses, as well as consequences, that result. Jennifer is wrong to excuse her sin as though it’s no worse than any other sin. Actually, homosexuality is worse in some ways than other sins. Homosexuality can lead to God giving the person up to their vile affections so that they can no longer discern good from evil (Romans 1:26-32). It does greater damage to the persons involved, the society around them, and the children that may be affected. It violates several direct commands concerning biblical morality, as well as God’s creation order in Genesis. As much as we should hate all sins, I don’t see how homosexuality can be equal to all of them, if you are considering the degree of the violation or its consequences.

Let me be clear that I am not trying to categorize sins so that we might excuse some of them while decrying the evil of others. That was the error some first century Rabbis made. Neither am I in agreement with the Catholic doctrine that distinguishes between venial sins (those that do not separate you from God) and mortal sins (those that separate you from God). The Bible teaches that all sin is against God and offensive to Him. Any sin, no matter its degree of violation, separates the sinner from God. And, all sin is deserving of God’s divine wrath. That’s why Jesus had to come. There are none of us that are guiltless before God and only the sinless One, Jesus Christ, could pay our sin penalty.

But, trying to make the sin of homosexuality the same as another sin is nothing more than a veiled attempt to lessen the evil of your own behavior and its consequences. A child’s sin in disobeying his/her parent just isn’t the same as the flagrantly immoral sin of homosexuality, either in it’s degree of violation or its severity of judgment.


1. Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (1 Jn 3:13). Wheaton, III.: Victor Books.
2. MacArthur, J. J. (1997, c1997). The MacArthur Study Bible (electronic ed.) (Jas 2:10). Nashville: Word Pub.
3. Lea, T. D. (1999). Vol. 10: Hebrews, James. Holman New Testament Commentary; Holman Reference (284). Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers.