How does God rank sin?

When I was about seven or eight I remember I went in to Cent-Wise Drug store and shoplifted a Matchbox car because I didn't have the 99 cents.  It ate at me so much that within hours I had told my parents and had them drive me back to town so I could confess my sin to the store clerk and give back the car.  It would have been easier to just sneak it back to its display, but I needed to apologize.  I never shoplifted again.  

Now, I have not been perfect in the last 46 years or so, but am I without sin?  no way; daily I have to consider my stand before a perfect, holy God.


Ever wonder how God ranks sin?  Which sin does He think is the very worst and which one is... not so much?


Do you think God has something like felony or misdemeanor categories?

• Murder... that's a big one.  What if they deserved it.... just because?
• Adultery.... was once pretty big; punishment was being stoned (not with grass) to death, but with real rocks.
• Stealing - music, taxes, from banks, fruit at the market, pillow from the plane, phone from a car......etc. is there levels of stealing like hotels one to five stars?
• Telling a lie or bearing false witness - that has some heavy implications.
• not honoring your mom & dad... punishment was same as Adultery
• Prostitution?  Isn't that legal in the Netherlands now.
• Dishonest weights  equates to dishonest business practices.
• Homosexuality, pornography, sexual practices; these are things that are kept quiet.
• How about idol worship; not the carved wood or stone or gold images (not at these gold prices)?  No today having other gods and idol worship is anything, beyond God, that you spend your time and money on... cars, work, beauty, guns, sports, etc. etc.  Worshiping another God at times was a death sentence.
• Taking the LORD's Name in vain - Swearing.  Just because some people have a limited vocabulary doesn't mean it is right.
• Keeping the Sabbath holy, in other words, setting one day aside to rest and contemplate the God who created the universe and holds it all together.
• ooh, keeping up with the Jones....You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.  This puts a damper on "Desperate Housewives" on TV.  The ads for it are enough to make my skin crawl.
• Excesses of Drugs?  Alcohol?  Suduku?  Food? Sex?

I could go on and on, but let's start with these.  You could number them from one hundred to minus 50; worst sin is #100.  I'd leave room for the really, really bad ones at 110!  It might look like this thermometer!  Our "sin-o-meter", oh, I even found one at by Agnus of Texas!  Now, how would God rank them?????

 

First of all, I'm not God and I can't answer for Him, but this much I believe, SIN IS SIN.  SIN is missing the mark, so each of the above are sin and they are all sin.  God's word doesn't distinguish between one and another, however, one might consider that a mark missed that impacts someone else like, Rape, or Murder, are worse.  BUT God doesn't say that.  God says He can not look on any SIN.  He also sent Jesus to wipe away all our sin and He did it once and for all (all sin, all people).


Our movies, magazines, books, TVs, phones, computers, etc. all glamorize these things and that makes us feel better about our lives.  If it is "everywhere" and "everybody is doing it? does that make it less on the sin chart?


Bottom line is we are all guilty of sin and there is only one way to be freed from sin.

"for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," Rom 3:23 NKJV