Sin is a thing that grapples us everyday. Some of the most common and notable sins include, lust, steeling, greed, pride, and murder. Which sin is the worst a person could commit?

this is sort of a split concept.... every sin is bad and separates from God but I think there are sins that do more damage than others.

Take a white lie... this is done with the intent of not hurting someone's feelings at the expense of telling the truth. Not a big deal at the moment but could lead to more lying in the future.... but can also be fixed for the most part by telling the truth at a later date.

Take something like murder or adultery/fornication. These sins can't be undone or fixed. The damage is there and will never go away. You can still repent of these sins, but I think committing sins of this nature lessen your ability to feel the Spirit of God and if done enough times will deaden you to God's influence.

Every sin is on the same level as another sin. No sin is worse than the next except blasphemy.

I guess if your using the term "sin" then all sins are equally bad. But if we are just speaking in terms of how bad something is, then I would say Murder is about as bad as it gets. :X

The bible is pretty clear that Blasphemy against the holy spirit is unforgivable. But you really can't measure sin against sin because it is all bad, and whether you killed someone or lied you deserve the exact same fate of someone like Hitler. But Blasphemy is unforgivable.

That is an easy one, murder. Stealing is not the same as killing. The idea that they are both bad is equal but the sins themselves are not equal when it comes to what is worse then the other.

So if I lust for a candy bar that makes me = to a murderer?

As humans, we like to measure our sins and say one is worse than the other, because we don't want to be "as bad" as someone else, when in reality we sin against an eternal being equally and either way we deserve eternal punishment. Lust for a candy bar? I highly doubt a candy bar would be the most important thing in someones life. Holding something in greater regards than God is sin.

I think murder is the worst sin to commit. Killing someone is irreversible. I believe that holding someone higher to God isn't as bad since their thoughts of that could change in life.

I agree with JigSaw. In my mind, all sins are not equal.
For me the worst sin is to kill someone(in my mind, that includes also commiting suicide, because you're killing someone, you ). Because life is like a gift from God, and nobody should harm it

I'm not claiming that my opinion is right or according to Bible, I just feel this way.

well, I think I can clarify this to make things work for both sides....

I agree with Hoochman that sin is sin regardless of what it is and it separates us from God.

However, I think committing murder does something more severe to your soul/spirituality than same lying, or stealing. I think the road of repentence back from murder or adultery is a tougher one than from something like lying.

The question here is what would god more likely forgive? Lying? Cheating? Stealing? or Murder? Murder is highest on the list of the absolute worst thing you could do.

I got a question though about sins... if say the president and media are lying to their country, or corporations are cheating business by outsourcing, or government and military stealing and killing others and your apart of either one of those things does that make you an accessory to those sins? I think many people are in that boat, they are accessories to sins.

JigSaw : God will forgive all those sins. It is not the sin that determines the likelihood of forgiveness, but the sinner.

In answer to the question, you can still sin and not know it if I understand you right.

All sins are equal in terms of God's eyes. They all separates us from God, and all of them are equally forgivable by God if one puts their trust in the savior, Jesus Christ.

"and through Him everyone who believes is freed from all things, from which you could not be freed through the Law of Moses." (Acts 13:39)

Only one sin is unforgivable, and that is the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, which is saying that Jesus did His miracles by the power of the devil. That is the same as continuous unbelief and trust towards Jesus.

“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him” (John 3:36)

play4fun : that scripture doesn't say all sins are equal.... just that you can be forgiven of all things.... sorry, but your interpretation just isn't there.

geeogree : yeah, that verse only to support that all sins are forgivable if one puts their trust in the savior. I did not put scripture that all sins are equal.

I agree with both you and hoochman. Sin is sin, and the consequence eternally, according to the Bible, is death, no matter what it is. "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:23) So if it is sin, God's wrath is still the same.

You also were right about that some sins may cause more damage in our lives, so the question is, does the person who started this thread want to know which sin is the worst in Man's eyes or God's eyes.

okay.... it just looked like you were saying stuff, and then backing it up with scripture... and then saying some more and backing it up again and it didn't really match up well.

I would argue that God sees sin in a similar way that we do.... all sin is bad and avoiding sin should be our goal, but if we can't avoid all sins then I would think he would want us to avoid the most damaging ones if we could. In the end I think the expectation is avoidance of all sins but I can't imagine God being any less logical about sin than we are.

Although, the attitude of avoiding the "worst sins" but committing "small ones" is also a bad attitude to have. It ignores the idea that all sins are an affront to God.

Concerning the equality of sins, there are degrees of severity, however, they all have equal penalty. But they are all equally forgivable except blasphemy of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 12:31-32). Those who continually reject the Holy Spirit's work portraying Christ as Savior are blaspheming the Holy Spirit. If God pardons our sins through faith in Christ, then to reject His pardon is unpardonable. Apart from this, I would say the worst sin is not a single act, but rather a lifestyle that's lived for yourself instead of for God.

There's only one thing that can compare to murder, which is the worst sin...because of the fact that you can never correct this mistake....but something just as bad in my opinion is pediphilia. That is an extreme case of fornication and I feel that it is a form of murdering the spirit of the person. This is because this is something that has been proven to cause bad decisions later in life, often commiting other sins themselves. So they never get a chance to be good cause of someone else's actions.

ignor this

[edited because drag00n's post was not his]

All sins result in judgment and/or consequences, but the Bible does support the idea of different degrees of penalty. It would seem that murder or sins of sexual immorality would be the worst; but God doesn’t grade on a curve in terms of forgiveness, apart from the one that can't be forgiven.

geeogree : *sigh* im gana have to make a thread about this my account got hacked yesterday so i didnt make that post

It is pointless to determine which sin is more damaging to someones life, it depends upon the person. God punishes sin all the same. God never says which is worse except blasphemy. He simply says we deserve everlasting punishment."for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," says Romans 3:23. Romans 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord". The thing that makes sin equal is the fact that no matter what sin we commit it is still defiance against one of his commands.

I tend to agree with the thinking that all sins are equall, except for blasephemy. Any sin is the equivalent of turning your back on God, your creator and savior, why you turned your back is not important, the fact that you did turn your back is.

Hoochman makes valid points. In general though a lot of times when sin is mentioned or discussed, we tend to think of the things that we do wrong or in rebellion against God. But what about things that we don't do? James says in James 4:17 (KJV), "Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth [it] not, to him it is sin." He's telling us that sin is also not doing that which is right. It is a sin to lie; it can also be a sin to know the truth and not tell it. It is a sin to speak evil of someone; it is also a sin to avoid him or her when you know he or she needs your friendship. I'm not saying the lack of action is the worst sin, I just noticed that a lot of the responses provided were sins of commission rather than omission. Sins of omission are usually the ones we (including myself) tend to forget about.

I have to think murder, suicide, sacrilege. Although, the idea that any sin is worse than the other seems absurd. If you say, stealing is worse than lying, and my friend steals and I lie, that does not make him a worse person than I, or me a better person than he.

Well based on what I was taught and told...every sin is considered the same whether it be stealing a toothbrush from a store to committing a mass murder. All are looked at as equally sinful....there is no greater sin than the other.

well, based on what I understand about Christianity (at least the way many people in here seem to describe it) there really is only 1 sin.

That one sin is not accepting Jesus as your savior. Nothing else matters if you don't do that. But if you accept Jesus then none of the other sins seem to matter. That's how it sounds to me at least.

Nailing someone elses wife.

Well, we are all born with sin, and therefore sin is something we can't escape. It has been said that all sins are equal to each other; I believe in that. Therefore, we have technically all murdered and stolen and everything. However, if someone kills someone else, or something to that effect, our society has grown around that being worse then, say, watching porn.

Golvellius : I really don't get your response. The question was about sins being worse then others; your post really doesn't have anything to do with that, to be honest. I'm not gonna get mad now, as I'm not really that kind of person, but I thought I oughta let you know that posts like that are looked down upon.

the_casualty : the question was actually what is the worst sin, so he was answering it...although I don't really like the way it is displayed.

Very sensitive people indeed. Hmm...Look down upon it, I meant no harm. It was the first thought that came to mind...People are being tortured and mutilated everyday around the globe by evil people and some people are so sensitive/bothered on how a sentence is written..? Get outside and travel a bit more. Wow, random,I wasn't expecting that. Anyway moving on.

How's this one then.From what I've read today is that there is only one Unforgivable Sin and that is to Deny the Holy Spirit. Any thoughts on what people think about this. I'm sure there will be bucket loads.

Is this a more fitting contribution for the topic at hand ?

Golvellius : Some sins are definitely worse than others if there is a scale to judge them by. However, my perspective is that there's not a sin that's too "small" that doesn't deserve consequence, or a sin that's too "big" that can't be forgiven.

The idea of denying the Holy Spirit as the worst sin is this -- the Holy Spirit convicts everyone of their sins and leads them to Christ to receive the remission that comes through Him. As such, to never receive Christ's pardon is consequently unpardonable.

I am currently doing this topic at school in my religious knowledge class.

My teacher, who is also a priest, told us that there are some sins which are worse than others like blasphemy and murdering unborn babies.
To help us understand, he told us that the sin of murdering a 60 year old man is different than killing a 40 year old man which is also different than killing a boy which is different than killing an unborn baby. Killing an unborn baby is the worst since the baby cannot protect itself while a man can.
Also the penitence for committing the worst sins, which are about 7 like blasphemy & killing unborn babies which I mentioned above, can be really harsh.

I think this is the gist of my 2 lectures I had this past week.

I think there are a few that are on equal levels.

Let's think back to the original 7 sins:
Lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, & pride

Lust is linked to extravagance (wanting to live in luxury, always get what you want and have your way. AKA living like a prince/ss)

Gluttony can be:
- eating too soon.
- eating too expensively.
- eating too much.
- eating too eagerly (burningly).
- eating too daintily (keenly).
- eating wildly (boringly).

Sloth will link to acedia (not taking care of things that should be done) and dispair.

Pride relates to vainglory (unjustified boasting)

Although out of all of these, what I think is the worst is Lust & Pride, one can be caused by the other.

Both will lead you to be envied by others. And this is where we get a chain reaction in the sins we commit.

Lusting after something or being extravagant and having all your nice things will lead you to become proud. By being proud you'll want to show off. You WANT to be envied.

Although I can't say I've never sinned, I have, these are just the worst that can be done.

tRIUNE :

(Matthew 12:31-32) - "Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven men, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. 32 And whoever shall speak a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever shall speak against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age, or in the age to come."

(Mark 3:29) - "but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin.

This is why i thought that Blasphemy against the Holy spirit is the worst Sin. It's the only unforgivable sin.

For without lust, mankind will not reproduce and create a new generation. So I wouldn't say lust is the worst sin to commit!

ShayneSL : While lust may not be the worst sin to commit , God's intention of procreation has never been to be from lust . Lust = coveting something, or greedy expectations for something, that's different from reproduction within a marriage. Also, you don't need to lust for someone in order to be attracted to them.

There are so many sins but I'll just focus on the 7 MAIN sins.

Lust, greed, pride, wrath, sloth, gluttony, and envy.

I think these sins overlap. For instance isn't lust and greed almost the same thing? And this leads to envy and pride. I personally think greed is the worst sin out of the 7 main sins because if you want something this starts envy, and possibly gluttony (if you are talking about food). Gluttony is the least worst sin, I believe since you do no harm to others.

If we were talking about all sins, I believe murder truly is the worst sin. Taking another's life is a truly horrible and terrible thing to do. Even if you have a motive, the motive is never enough reason to kill someone.

Of the seven deadly sins, I have to say that the worst is gluttony. Thinking about food all the time, and only thinking about food completely draws you completely away from god.

In Gods eyes a sin is a sin, any sin is like any other sin to Him. Or at least I rember reading that, but I'm pretty sure it says that in the Bible.

There isn't much point in discussing the degree of sin as it applies to God, because aside from blasphemy(aforementioned) all sins are punished and forgiven the same way. The idea of "degrees" of sinfulness is more of a product of the Catholic church's system of punishments than scripture. If you measure a sin by the harm done, than it could be any sin depending on the result. Finally, one thing I have to say, NONE of the "seven deadly sins" are sins of themselves except for envy. Rather, they are emotions or traits that invite sinful behavior.

Glyphomancer : Actually they are. [THIS BRACKETED AREA HAS BEEN EDITED BY THE POSTER DUE TO GRIEVOUS MISTAKE ON HIS WRITINGS]

God does not only sees your actions as sins, but your thought life as well. Jesus talks about how looking with lust is considered adultery in the heart." (Matthew 5)

Simply put, "sin is lawlessness" or "transgression of the law" in different versions (1 John 3:4)

play4fun : Bro, could you please describe how the 7 in Proverbs relates to the 7 in Catholic doctrine? Not being rude or anything, just that I don't see the correlation.

tRIUNE : whoops...made a HUGE mistake. Apologies for that. I'll edit it that out and tell everyone to ignore that part.

play4fun : Yeah dude, interesting how there is the "six, no seven" in Proverbs and then the "seven deadly sins". But no correlation except the number , no worries .

tRIUNE : yeah man, and no, you are not rude at all. It's important to correct me on this.

play4fun : That chapter is talking about the intent to commit sin, not the thoughts that lead to it. You could be angry with someone, but it wouldn't necessarily mean you intended to harm them.

Glyphomancer : You are correct that being angry is not sinning. However, God does see both our deeds AND our thoughts and intentions. That is why in that same chapter, it talks about how if you are angry at your brother without cause, you are subjected to judgment, and calling someone "you fool!" is subjected to judgment. Here it says that being angry without cause is sinning.

You can continue looking at 1 John, where it says that whoever "hates" his brother (no action, just the thought) is a murderer. You also see in 1 Timothy, so many people mistaken that money is the root of all kinds of evil, when 1 Timothy 6 says "For the LOVE of money is a root of all kinds of evil." From the thoughts of greed for money is enough to cause evil.

What the Bible is trying to point out is that evil does not start with the action, but from the heart and your mind. You can think of talking bad things as well. The Bible says this: "A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of." It points out how evil starts from the heart and that when you speak evil things out, it is showing what is stored in the heart.

So, sin is not limited to what you do, but also what you think, what you intend, and what you plan, even if there is no action that comes with it. That is how corrupting sin is to human nature.

I always thought that pride was the worst sin. Envy is probably second. They all seem pretty bad though.