Talking in Life Group Sunday, we were talking about forming our world views from the Bible. We concluded that Christians should not condone gay marriages and agreed that it would be better for children not be raised in a home of that nature. But then some decided that they believed that being raised by two gay people is better than being raised in a crack house. So my question is, is one bad place "better" than the other? Is one evil more or less evil than another?
In what home would a child the most hope in?
Tim
Great Question! Yes, some situations of earth have worse consequences. Recall that Jesus taught of the peril of leading "little ones" astray. Often, on earth, we must choose from among what we see are available options, both flawed to a degree.
But let me turn to another truth, that Satan uses "enabling scenarios" to justify ungodly action. Thus they use an exception to break a general rule. But the fact is most often we are not faced with these "justify bad choices" circumstances.
Jesus taught we should do right, even in the "little" things. The ends do not justify the means. It is never right to do wrong in order to get a chance to do right.
Now to return to the theological issue, the consequence of sin, or doing something not in the will of God. As scripture teaches if we break even one point of the Law, we have broken the whole Law. We are lawbreakers, and the consequence is eternal separation from our holy God. So here we have various sins, resulting in one punishment. Thus from this perspective, all evil is the same in that it results in one uniform punishment. But wait, there is more.
Our various sins receive specific punishment, with some punishment being "more tolerable" than other punishment. See Matthew 10:15 and 11:22.
In summary, there are two consequences or punishments by God for sin, one (separation = eternal punishment in eternal darkness) and two (appropriate torment for our individual misdeeds) and thus some punishment is "more tolerable" than other punishment.
