Sin-leveling and Sin-laddering

Welcome to another Thursday UNFILTERED blog post, the only blog that isn’t young enough to know everything.

Let’s be candid, humans love finding ways to justify the shoddy things they do. It’s the (fallen) human way, making ourselves feel better about being a jerk.

And when it comes to rationalizing our sins, folks get super creative employing sophisticated mental gymnastics that would make an Olympic athlete jealous.

First up, we have sin-leveling. This is where you take something really messed up that you did. Like, I don’t know, murdering your neighbor Jeff because he played his music too loud.

Then you compare that to your buddy Dave who raised his voice at you last week.

“Well Dave. Jesus said getting angry is just as bad as killing someone, so really, you and I are equally terrible people.”

Brilliant logic there, my murderous friend.

On the flip side, you’ve got sin-laddering. This is all about making your shoddy behavior seem minor compared to someone else’s transgressions.

“Sure, I cheated on my taxes, but at least I didn’t get caught shoplifting like Derek did!” (As if committing tax fraud is somehow acceptable because your buddy Derek’s an even bigger subhuman.)

Here’s the thing: A person’s sins may have different real-world consequences. For instance, murdering Jeff is definitely worse for your social life than Dave’s temper tantrum. Yet sin is sin in God’s eyes.

While the consequences of sin will be different (Matthew 11:23-24; Luke 12:47-48; Mark 3:28-29), it’s foolish to rank them when it comes to God’s evaluation (James 2:10).

It’s kind of like a kid telling their parent, “Sure, I stole the candy bar, but little Timmy over there started a freaking fire!”

Doesn’t matter, you’re both grounded.

So instead of playing Sin Olympics and rationalizing your bad decisions, how about owning up to your junk?

We all screw up sometimes, but pretending your mistakes are equal to or better than someone else’s is just sad. It also makes you look like a self-righteous tool.

At the end of the day, we’re all works in progress trying not to be total jerks.

But justifying our mess-ups with faulty logic and comparisons – well, that’s just adding another sin to the pile: hypocrisy.

All told, this all comes from fallen human nature. Making excuses. Rationalizing our failings. Pointing fingers to deflect from our own shortcomings. Expressing outrage at the sins of others while ignoring one’s own.

Sin-leveling and sin-laddering are two common tactics people use to maintain their fragile egos.

To sum up.

Sin-leveling says, “My sin is no worse than your sin.” It’s where we equalize transgressions, no matter how disparate, to justify our misdeeds.

Sin-laddering says, “Your sin is worse than my sin.” It ranks sin, placing ours conveniently below the abhorrent acts of others. We selectively sculpt a hierarchy that minimizes our culpability.

Both are postures of the dishonest. They’re coping mechanisms that avoid personal accountability and a rejection of the very personal growth and transformation to which God calls us.

Neither sin-leveling or sin-laddering can be reconciled with the New Testament.

For the sin-ladders, Paul puts slander in the same sentence as sexual immorality. Shockingly, he says both can bar a person from entering the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:9-10).

In addition, Jesus considers viewing pornography equivalent to committing the sexual acts depicted (Matthew 5:28).

For the sin-levelers, the Bible says that if a person breaks one of God’s laws, they’ve violated them all (James 2:10). And everyone who does not do everything written in God’s Law is cursed (Galatians 3:10).

Paul’s words in Romans 2:1-3 summarize it all nicely.

You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment?

Yours in forsaking levels and ladders,

fv