Do you believe sin can be ranked on it's severity?

[Sabertooth]

It is said in 1 John.

1 John 5:16-17 LSB If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask and God will for him give life to those who commit sin not leading to death. There is a sin leading to death; I do not say that he should make request for this. (17) All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not leading to death.​

I believe that type of sin only applies to full-fledged Believers (who have otherwise been Born Again).
For somebody who has not yet been Born Again, it does not matter if one or two of their sins do not "lead to death." The bulk of them certainly do...

 

[timothyu]

What does scripture define as sin not leading to death?

 

[Xeno.of.athens]

What does scripture define as sin not leading to death?

I am not sure that it does.

 

[timothyu]

I am not sure that it does.

Then it is left up to the wisdom of man to decide and that is sin in itself.

 

[Xeno.of.athens]

Then it is left up to the wisdom of man to decide and that is sin in itself.

The Church decides, individuals are not very reliable on such matters.

 

[timothyu]

The Church decides, individuals are not very reliable on such matters.

Still human wisdom

 

[Sabertooth]

What does scripture define as sin not leading to death?

HERE is my opinion from a different thread...

 

[JEBofChristTheLord]

Sins are ranked as greater and lesser, according to Christ the Lord:

Jesus answered him, “You do not have any power over me except for what has been given to you from above. Therefore, he who gave me over to you has a greater sin.”
John 19:11

 

[Xeno.of.athens]

Still human wisdom

Maybe, do you believe in the Holy Spirit and do you think he is present in the Church?

 

[timothyu]

Maybe, do you believe in the Holy Spirit and do you think he is present in the Church?

Yes and other than working in a few, no.

 

[Gregory Thompson]

What's worse, the sin of witchcraft or the sin of adultery? or are they all equally bad?

Are there sins that can only harm the sinner only? If someone gets drunk to the point they pass out and die vs them driving a car and getting into a accident.
If they pass out and die before they get into any car they only harmed themselves.

Does God see sins that can only harm the sinner the same as a serial killer? Because that wouldn't make sense but I don't make the rules.

What do you know?

Witchcraft is active rebellion against God.
Sexual Immorality is the only sin that defiles the body.
It is written in Scripture that a Murderer has no eternal life in him.

Sin is kind of like a rainbow, except it's all dark.

 

[timothyu]

Sexual Immorality is the only sin that defiles the body.

And is gain, most often at the expense of another, and not necessarily one of the two offenders..

 

[Gregory Thompson]

And is gain, most often at the expense of another, and not necessarily one of the two offenders..

Yeah very "monkey paw"

You get your wish, but ...

 

[Dan Perez]

There is sin unto death and there is sin not unto death, that is sufficient to know that there is differentiation.

I am not sure that it does.

AND Paul wrote this in 1 Cor 3:11 ,

# 1 You build on the right FOUNDARION !

# 2 You have build with Gold . Silver , costly Stones , Woods in the Plural , Grass and Straw .

# 3 Everyone work will become VISBLE for the DAY will make it plain because it is being revealed by FIRE ,

and the FIRE means JUDGEMENT and the FIRE will TEST the WORK of each ONE , of what sot it is .

# 4 VERSE 15 , If the work of any one will be consumed by FIRE he will suffer LOSS , but he himself will be saved

, yet so as through FIRE !!

dan p

 

[RDKirk]

I believe God's punishment of sin i.e. death Rom 6:23 will come in varying degrees

Luke 12: 47 And that servant who knew his master’s will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. 48 But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.

God is a just God- would He give the same punishment for someone like Hitler who killed millions of people, the same as someone who lived an okay life, but never accepted Jesus as their Savior.

You absolutely missed Jesus' point. The issue was not the severity of the sin...in fact, that parable does not indicate there was any difference in the particular acts of the two servants. The difference in punishment is because of the difference in their knowledge of the master's will.

Jesus explained it clearly: For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.

This indicates that the two servants could have done exactly the same thing, but more was expected of the servant who had more knowledge.

 

[RDKirk]

I believe that type of sin only applies to full-fledged Believers (who have otherwise been Born Again).
For somebody who has not yet been Born Again, it does not matter if one or two of their sins do not "lead to death." The bulk of them certainly do...

I believe any ranking of sins can only apply to believers, inasmuch as unbelievers all suffer exactly the same fate regardless of their actions. The "good person" unbeliever suffers the same fate as the serial killer unbeliever.

Although any true belief will necessarily limit the earthly magnitude of a believer's sin (I would not expect there are any believers actively doing any serial killing), I would warn against discounting the way Jesus equated the desire to sin with the actual performance of sin. Considering what James and John both say about sin, an unchecked desire appears to lead inevitably to the act if the act is physically easy enough and cheap enough.

Over the 70+ years of my life, that's something I've observed. Make a sin easy enough, make it cheap enough, make it appear that one can get cleanly away with it...and unchecked desire will fall for it. Someone who can rationalize a "small" sin can rationalize a "large" sin. So, all sins left unchecked lead to the same death.

 

[SavedByGrace3]

You could read it like this, with this understanding:

1 John 5:16-17 KJV
16 If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto (spiritual) death, he shall ask, and he shall give him (physical) life for them that sin not unto (spiritual) death. There is a sin unto (spiritual) death: I do not say that he shall pray for it.
17 All unrighteousness is sin: and there is a sin not unto (spiritual) death.

There are two kinds of sin—one kind that leads to spiritual death and one kind that leads to physical death.
There are two kinds of life: spiritual life and physical life.
There are two kinds of death: spiritual death and physical death.

If someone sins a sin unto physical death, you can pray for them, and God will give them physical life.
If someone sins a sin unto spiritual death, it is a waste of time to pray for them. They need to repent.

 

[SabbathBlessings]

You absolutely missed Jesus' point. The issue was not the severity of the sin...in fact, that parable does not indicate there was any difference in the particular acts of the two servants. The difference in punishment is because of the difference in their knowledge of the master's will.

Jesus explained it clearly: For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.

This indicates that the two servants could have done exactly the same thing, but more was expected of the servant who had more knowledge.

So you think someone like Hitler is going to have the same punishment who killed millions of people than someone who lived a decent life but never accepted Jesus as their Savior. Perhaps it’s not me who missed the point of few stripes vs many which is not the same as expecting more from those who know more. . We serve a just God!

 

[RDKirk]

So you think someone like Hitler is going to have the same punishment who killed millions of people than someone who lived a decent life but never accepted Jesus as their Savior. Perhaps it’s not me who missed the point of few stripes vs many which is not the same as expecting more from those who know more. . We serve a just God!

Hell is hell.

The idea that there is a bad hell and a not-so-bad hell is going to send a lot of people to hell.

 

[SabbathBlessings]

Hell is hell.

The idea that there is a bad hell and a not-so-bad hell is going to send a lot of people to hell.

Hell means the grave, both end up in the same place, but when Jesus comes...

Rev 22:12 “And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work.

Some will receive more stripes than others as Jesus stated.