He's not bad – he's just partly bad

Proverbs 6:16–19

These six things the Lord hates,
Yes, seven are an abomination to Him:

• A proud look
• A lying tongue
• Hands that shed innocent blood
• A heart that devises wicked plans
• Feet that are swift in running to evil
• A false witness who speaks lies
• And one who sows discord among brethren

We have all heard sins described in ways that belittle the impact of the sin. A little white lie, a small daliance with his neighbor's wife, spin, he's fibbing, and on and on it goes. We all have our own list of what should be considered a "big" sin and what should be considered a "little" sin. In fact, in the case of the "little" sins, we usually don't even want to use the word "sin."

But the question then rises: are there degrees of sins? Are some sins greater than others? I guess to answer that question we would need to go to the person who defines sin—God Himself.

Sin is anything contrary to God's design. Sin is any imperfection. Sin is anything we do that does not spring from faith in God.

Unfortunately, that doesn't help us figure out what the biggie sins are though. Certainly homosexuality would be considered one of the big ones! And of course adultery! And murder! Alcoholism! Probably stealing should be included in the list of really, really bad sins.

I think we populate our own personal list of the BIG SINS with sins that we do not personally struggle with.

• I am faithful to my wife so adultery is a really bad one
• I am attracted to the opposite sex, so homosexuality should be included in the list of really bad stuff
• I don't drink alcohol (something I'm particularly proud of and am certain God is proud of me in this regard as well), so alcoholism should be included in the list
• I have never murdered and certainly am too righteous to ever do something such as that, so murder will be included in the list
• I never steal ... well, I haven't stolen anything more than some pens from the library, ...oh, and I kept some extra money the cashier gave me in change (but that was her fault, not mine) ... and I fudge a little on my taxes, but IT'S MY MONEY! I don't really steal, so I'll include stealing on my list of really bad sins. But I'm going to keep this one at the bottom of the list because I don't want to return that old library book that I love so much

Perhaps we should look at what God groups together as the REALLY BIG SINS.

Proverbs 6:16–19
These six things the Lord hates, Yes, seven are an abomination to Him:
A proud look, A lying tongue, Hands that shed innocent blood, A heart that devises wicked plans, Feet that are swift in running to evil, A false witness who speaks lies, And one who sows discord among brethren.

So murder is there: "hands that shed innocent blood." See ... I told you that was bad. But what else is really bad in God's eyes?

"A proud look." That goes a bit beyond saying "a lack of humility." This is elitism or egotism that is apparent at a glance. If we consider ourselves better than others, we likely fall into this particular sin. And "a heart that devises wicked plans." This is someone who thinks through the evil they're going to do in order to make it more effective and efficient. The last one on the list says "one who sows discord among the brethren." So that would be someone who points out things within the body of Christ that will cause others to become upset. "Feet that are swift in running to evil" would indicate an insatiable desire to do things we know we should not.

So we've now covered five of the seven things. And although we probably are not heavily involved in these five things, we probably fall prey to some of them. The egotistical, elitist one is something that is seen regularly among those who like to populate lists of sins they think are really bad.

What's left? The remaining two things that God hates are linked. They are:

A lying tongue	Lying
A false witness who speaks lies	Lying

So God puts lying twice on the list of the seven big ones. And lying is one of the things we all fall to. How desperately we need a Savior.

May we all strive to put away lying. May we not fall to lying in order to present ourselves in a way that fits our elitist and egotistical view of ourselves. And may we be concerned more with what God sees as an abomination than the lists of abominations we have built in order to belittle others and retain our elitist view of ourselves. May we be concerned with God's BIG SEVEN rather than the lists we have compiled in order to create discord among the brethren. May we focus on avoiding God's BIG SEVEN rather than broadcasting our lists in an attempt to coerce others into following what we think is most important—which springs from a heart that devises wicked plans.