I see lots of talk about big sins and small sins. How do we determine big from small using the Bible?
Nice question Embankment. If I am not mistaken Caths distinguish between mortal and venial sins, but that does not seem to be in the Bible.
Roughly speaking to me there are two categories:
Unpardonable sin: blasphemy against the Holy Spirit (and there seems to be no consensus on what that means exactly).
All other sins. Within this category, there are: confessed sins (which in theory should be pardoned, but implies non-recurrence)
Then there are the non-confessed to God sins, and there are more divisions in that:
non-confessed deliberately: not sure what can happen here, if we do not ask for forgiveness and keep missing the mark, some think we can lose salvation,
non-confessed out of ignorance: do we have blind spots due to culture, context, gender, etc.? are we guilty of sins that we do not consider them such because of acceptance in our culture?
For example: structural evil: if our culture is structured in such a way that oppression and exploitation occurs daily in our work, etc. are we guilty by association and not doing anything about it?
Can communal repercussions be taken as a variable that makes some sins more serious than others?
Stealing case: a well off persons going out of the grocery store accidentally has an apple fall off the bags. A hungry child near by sees it, and after the rightful owner departs gets close and takes the apple. Technically speaking that child is stealing.
Now let's compare with a politician, that tampers with accounting records and gets a large kickback from a bid given to a company, taking inappropriately a large sum of taxpayers money.
In the latter case, there seems to be a betrayal of public trust together with the unethical reception of funds. If the project was needed for betterment and a less quality was obtained for choosing the particular company, then the sin is greater than that which the child taking the apple is, or at least so it seems.
Will both go to hell if do not repent? how about if they repent but do not restore that taken?
In Catholic tradition, such studies were done under Moral theology, in protestant traditions I think is Christian ethics. Should we all receive more education and training in this regard to be able to walk in a manner worthy of the calling?
If so what would be the best way to do such training and education.
Deep issue, we all have weak sides, we all may rationalize some behaviors different.
Outward behaviors have to be accompanied of inner change. In the Bible says that disreputable persons were in the lead as compared to religious leaders, because maybe they had bad ways through duress in circumstances, but innerly they knew it to be wrong and dreamed of a way out.
While sometimes persons in authority in all kind of institutions mis behave regardless of the lack of duress of their circumstances... is that worse?
How about the choosing between 2 evils? Example fighting totalitarian regimes in WWII, vs not doing anything and let tyranny reign unchecked?
Not an easy issue. It would be good to have more input from forum participants.
Kind regards.