My wife and I attend a weekly class at church in which we read and discuss various books. During last night’s class there was a discussion on sin and specifically how difficult it is to understand that all sins carry the same weight to God. It can be hard to imagine that someone who shoplifted a candy bar is no better than a serial killer, especially if your life was affected by the sins of the serial killer. The Catholic church has the mortal sins, which are considered the worst of all sins, but most church’s will simply say that a sin is a sin. As we discussed this an illustration came to mind that I’d like to share to the broader audience.
The Cups Analogy
Let’s say that at birth God gives each of us a cup and the simple instruction to keep it empty and dry. For the sake of argument, we’ll say that this cup hold 16oz, but that doesn’t matter so much. When we sin, in this scenario, water is poured into the cup and we must ask God to forgive us allowing our cup to get wet. Of course, God will give us a parent-like smile, dump out the cup, wipe it dry, and hand it back to us with a “ok, but remember, don’t let your cup get wet.” This is sin and forgiveness.
Now, let’s discuss the magnitude of sins and whether all sins are created equal. If we go with the assumption that sins are ranked by badness, then the worse sins would pour more water into the cup than the more forgivable ones. To use the examples from above, stealing is equal to a 1qt container of water and murder is equal to a gallon. When we commit the sin, the appropriate container is poured into our cup, but since our cup holds only 16oz, both the stealing and the murder would fill the cup to overflowing, leaving the same amount of water for which we must ask forgiveness. Did you listen to the instructions carefully? Even a drop of sin would make the cup wet, so any amount sin requires equal forgiveness from God. The point is that whether one sin is worse than another is irrelevant, since any sin fills our cup.
We each go through life with our cup to carry and keep dry. We shouldn’t worry ourselves with ranking sins by how much they offend us. We shouldn’t look at someone on death row and think, well at least I’m not that bad. We must instead remember that any amount of sin, no matter the offense, violates the expectations God has set for us and requires equal forgiveness. That’s good news, there’s hope for you and there’s hope for me, because no matter how much or how often we screw up, God has his dish towel ready.