There is a common mindset among believers that “all sin is the same” and since “we are all sinners,” everyone is in the same condition. But are these statements grounded in biblical truth? The answer may surprise you! Check out this excerpt from my new book, Hypocrisy Exposed for insight into this:
What is the difference between a truly righteous person who sins, and a hypocrite who lives a double-life? This is a great question, and it is important for us to understand this distinction. It is easy for us to think things like this: Well, everybody sins, so aren’t we all in the same condition? What makes hypocrisy any different or worse than other sins? Nobody’s perfect, so we should treat everybody the same way. While these sentiments sound good at first glance, they are not exactly grounded in complete biblical truth. To be clear, it is absolutely true that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). But are all sins and all sinners the same? We often tend to think so, but this is not true according to the Bible.
There is a lot that could be said about this, but for the sake of brevity I will outline several examples for consideration:
While each of the above points could be looked at from various angles and we could debate their exact meaning and application, the simple point I am trying to make is this: not all sin and not all sinners are the same. In our desire for love, equality, and fairness, I believe that we have perhaps adopted a too simplistic and naïve view of the nature of sin and evil. Scripturally speaking, though all have sinned, various types of sins have different types of consequences and are sometimes treated differently. People can be in various conditions of heart, mind, conscience, and motive.
Not all sin and not all sinners are the same. A person in blind ignorance is different from a person in willful rebellion. A person who stumbles into sin is not the same as a person living in ongoing hypocrisy. A wounded or broken sheep is vastly different from a wolf in sheep’s clothing. While it might seem loving and honorable to treat all people and all situations the same, we make a tragic mistake when we do so.