Drop the shame: A sin is a sin

Let's drop the shame about sin - I promise that you are not worse than anyone else.

We have a problem, as a church and as a society. We like to rank things; 'our top ten movies', 'the five mistakes you're making'. We can't help but put things into a order from best to worst. The problem with this is that we take it into our relationship with Christ. We internally rank sins - we categorise some things as 'not so bad' and some as 'unforgivable'. But, if we actually read the Bible there is no ranking - it's made clear that a sin is simply a sin. The only sin that we are told is greater and most destructive is denying Jesus. This, in my opinion stands alone from any other form of sinning. The complete rejection of Christ is the only 'worst' sin, it is the only thing that should ever be held in a higher position. Everything else should not be categorised. Whether you steal, lie, commit murder or adultery - you are plainly committing a sin - none being worse than the other. So, why do we award some sins the title of being 'worse' and therefore more shameful?

I think the biggest reason we have these unspoken 'worse' sins is due to the way that sin was looked at historically. Sexual sins are usually seen as much more shameful and therefore people feel they have done worse than someone who simply stole. The reality is however that both are a sin and require redemption. They both are not good but sexual sin doesn't need to be more shameful than stealing. We need to stop all of this categorisation of sin - we need to stop carrying shame for something that is not 'so awful'. We often look at sin in such a bad way that we can start to think we are bad people. Just because we are sinful doesn't make us bad.

Let me just stop for a second to say: whatever sin you may have committed - you are not bad, you are not worse than anyone else. You simply made a mistake, something we all do but you are totally forgiven and you can change.

As a society we need to stop over-emphasising certain sins but overlooking others. When we do this ranking of sins, we not only cause too much shame to be put on some things but we also reduce the amount of weight that people view other sins. We can then end up reducing some sins to almost not being a sin at all. Lying for example - this is not the way in which Christ lived and yet due to the way we rank sins - lying can become a way of life and almost goes unnoticed and unrepentant. We need to drop the ranking and the shame of some sins over others. We need to view it as 'a sin is a sin'. Everything should be held in the same weight, this is so that we can identify the need to repent but also be able to move on and walk better with God. We should not be making people feel worse because of the 'type' of mistake they've made and let other off because we don't value it as much.

So, lets drop the shame and change the way we look at sin.

A sin is a sin - no worse, no less.

Faithfully,

Becky