Which is the bigger sin?

[blackribbon]

When you commit adultery you get a double bonus - you sin against your wife and sin against your own body.

Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a person commits is outside his body, but the one who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. 1 Corinthians 6:18​

But when you get married, two become one....so to not love her is also a sin against that "one" that is also yourself.

 

[Kevin Snow]

No, some men are faithful for lack of opportunity, fear of the financial loss that comes with divorce, or fear of God...not love for the wife.

Man. Tough crowd.

 

[Chinchilla]

I think not loving your wife is probably the bigger one to the woman. I think both are equal sins to God.

What is love ?

 

[Kevin Snow]

Look, not loving your wife can be a small matter as in not letting her watch her favorite tv show or it can be a great matter as in not being faithful to her.

To ask which is greater when one is clearly static and the other is variable is not fair.

What specifically do you mean when you say that the man does not love his wife? Are you saying that he just doesn't show any affection? He's just stoic all the time or something? Define this more for us so we can better compare.

 

[com7fy8]

A person can be an unloving spouse without being sexual unfaithful.

I would say this is true.

But God wants us to do all things in His love. Or else, we are not being faithful to Him or our spouse. Because we are having affairs with what is not love, even if these affair things are nonsexual > we are not being faithful to how Jesus wants us to love.

"Do all things without complaining and disputing" > in Philippians 2:13-16 < our Groom Jesus wants us to relate only in His love; so we are cheating on Jesus by having affairs with complaining and arguing!!

So, I would say you are technically correct to say that it is possible to be unloving even though you are not cheating sexually, but - - - faithfulness in Jesus is more about spiritual relating, including always being ready to forgive. Also >

"Husbands, love your wives and do not be bitter toward them." (Colossians 3:19)

This is included in being faithful to our Groom Jesus, including by not having any relationship with bitterness.

I think not loving your wife is probably the bigger one to the woman. I think both are equal sins to God.

I think it is right to consider that being unloving can be what can bring on being sexually unfaithful . . . as

It sounds like the first sin would necessarily "require" the second one as well.

And other sinning can help to make a man more and more weak so he fails to love and then can break down into adultery. If this is so, even the lesser sins and ignorant ones can be helping to bring him eventually to adultery or to being worse about not loving her.

So, while I do not believe that every sin is equally wrong, every one can contribute to someone getting more and more away from loving the way we can in Jesus. And the battle can be in us, mainly against the emotional things and negative thinking which can take us down, first, and then we can get into more outward things.

"Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you." (Ephesians 4:31-32)

So, we need to keep our forgiving up-to-date, being generous and gentle to forgive. And I think of how Jesus prayed for Peter even before Peter denied Jesus three times; so I see I need to pray for people even before they mess up, and be ready for them to get blessed back > like Jesus did with Peter > Luke 22:31-32.

 

[dreadnought]

To cheat on your spouse

or

to not love her with the unconditional love of Christ (or submit to him)


Both cause extreme damage to another person. Christians are supposed to be both faithful and loving spouses.

The pain of infidelity is about as bad as pain gets.

 

[( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)]

Right now I think sin is sin and all are equal in the sight of God. When Jesus talked in one place about some having the "greater sin", I think he would talking about the consequences of it.

 

[CodyFaith]

Adultery is a huge sin. Huge. One that God sometimes will literally cut people off the earth for for committing, whether they are his children or not.

So whatever your opinion is on the matter - something I won't answer because there are too many variables in my sight, just know that adultery destroys your own soul according to scripture.

 

[Niels]

- Cheating is a violation of trust.
- Not loving one's spouse is awful, but it isn't necessarily deceptive or drastic.

I think the former is more likely to be the straw that breaks the camel's back, while the latter is more likely to be tolerated for years.


To answer your question, I think the official line is that there are no "worse" sins in God's eyes. Sin is sin. Some bad decisions just have more practical repercussions than others, depending on one's circumstances.

 

[Sketcher]

Scripture doesn't tell us the greater sin, and I don't care to figure it out.

 

[GoingByzantine]

This really depends on what definition of "love" one uses. Some people (including myself) are just naturally apathetic towards romantic love. I would say that not showing romantic love to someone is not a sin, especially if it is difficult or awkward for you to do.

But spiritual love that forms through loving Christ and the bonds of matrimony is a different idea in my book. If you don't love your wife as your marriage calls you to do, then I would say that is indeed a sin. Cheating is also a sin. The two can overlap as well. All sin leads to death, and should be repented.

 

[Go Braves]

One's not inherently less worse than the other.

 

[blackribbon]

My main purpose was to get people thinking. Especially when they are talking about divorce and submission. A Christian should not judge someone with the popular sin that they can't commit (meaning a single person) while not understanding the sins that don't make the headlines like Christians who forget to invent time in their marriage and end up in lifeless marriages.