Is there such a thing as BIG sin and little sin?
(which presupposes the issue that there such a thing as SIN...)
Name it what you want - good/evil; healthy/unhealthy; righteousness/sin; functional / dysfunctional... isn't it all more or less the same thing?
Things that move me TOWARD being unified & at peace with self , unified & at peace with others, I view as "good" and things that create dissonance/disconnect within myself or conflict between me and others, I name "bad".
Putting a moral spin on it is not what I'm getting at.
What I am considering is this:
What determines the nature of, or intensity of something being bad?
Is it the CONSEQUENCE? (ie: killing is worse than lying, killing ten people is worse than killing 1 person, killing ten people and lying about it.....you get the picture)
Is it the INTENTION of the person doing it? (killing in self defense is less bad than killing out of revenge or for sport, even though the victims all wind up just as dead)
Is it the CONTEXT of the situation? (killing in war is not considered morally wrong by some, but killing in grocery stores is...)
Then the flip side of that would be....are there DEGREES of good, and if so, based on what?
If I say something nasty but no one hears me say it, does it matter?
If I say something nasty and the person I say it to is able to laugh it off, then what?
How does that compare to me saying something innocuous that inadvertently hurts a friend's feelings very deeply. In this last case - my INTENTION was not negative, but the OUTCOME clearly has a negative spin. Which is worse?
is it better to do ONE big bad thing as opposed to fifty little bad things or visa versa?
If someone is MOSTLY "good" but does something "bad", at what point does the bad cancel out the good in determining character?
One of the problems I have with organized religions is all this talk I hear about the "righteous" and the "wicked", as if they were discrete, separate teams. (Sorta like the shirts / no shirts in pick-up basketball).
From what I can tell, we are ALL good and we are ALL bad, with lives glistening in irredencent shimmer as we continually glide between the two.
If I do a bad thing for a good reason, if I do a good thing for a bad reason....it all confuses the suject.
Some days I am more conscious of the many ways I miss the mark - some would call that being "aware of my sin"....... other days I make JUST as many mistakes, but give myself more slack; Is that justifying/rationalizing or is that appropriately living in grace of the moment?
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3 comments:
lots of stuff to think about here.
what caught my eye... my mind... was 'intention.'
"is it better to do ONE big bad thing as opposed to fifty little bad things or visa versa?" what is the intention? to see what we can get away with??
at the same time, i try to teach my children that even when they have done wrong and it is an accident that they are still responsible for what they have done... regardless of what the intention is/was.
"If I say something nasty but no one hears me say it, does it matter?
If I say something nasty and the person I say it to is able to laugh it off, then what?"
for me it goes back to the intention... and i feel responsible for what was intended whether it was heard or not.
at the same time, "How does that compare to me saying something innocuous that inadvertently hurts a friend's feelings very deeply. In this last case - my INTENTION was not negative, but the OUTCOME clearly has a negative spin." those who we call friends (hopefully) know our heart and even though there may have been hurt, there can also be reconcilliation because they will be able to see the consistency of who we are and have been and see that our intention was not harm. this of course is a little harder with those whom we do not have a relationship/friendship with...
you have given me something to ponder and think about; since i started on the 'intention' thing i will just leave my comment to that area.
”…how does that compare to me saying something innocuous that inadvertently hurts a friend's feelings very deeply. In this last case - my INTENTION was not negative, but the OUTCOME clearly has a negative spin. Which is worse?”
That reminds me of something my Jewish friends had told me once. She said, when someone gossips, and talks bad about another person, they are killing three people.
1. The speaker
2. The one spoken of
3. The listener
Life and death are on the tongue. You can hurt someone intentionally, as well as ‘unintentionally’. What makes this so difficult to understand? Being human is hard to understand. So, in my beliefs, as a person of Christian faith, we are saved and forgiven by God, because He knew it would be hard for us---the struggles of the human nature----the conflicts that we endure. We’re constantly at battle with the good and the bad of our mind. Who determines what’s good or what’s bad? It depends on who’s hurt.
I truly believe that if you’re not hurting another person, and your heart is in the right place, it’s fine. However, if it ends up hurting someone, then apologize and hopefully, that person will forgive you. Nevertheless, God will forgive you regardless. With a sincere heart and the conscience of God, we can try to be ‘good’.
By the way, thank you for making me think today!!!
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