Does Scripture Flatten Every Sin?
Five passages often used against distinctions of gravity, examined alongside Scripture’s explicit differences in consequence and culpability. The Catholic distinction does not mean venial sin is harmless. All sin wounds communion with God. Mortal sin is called “mortal” because grave sin, committed with sufficient knowledge and deliberate consent, destroys the life of sanctifying grace; venial sin wounds that life without destroying it.
5 debated passages · RSV-CE · Mortal & Venial Sin
Does Scripture distinguish sins by gravity?
Choose the strongest reading. After the correct answer, compare the passage with other texts about spiritual death, differing culpability, exclusion from the kingdom, and universal human sinfulness.
RSV-CE excerpt
Which interpretation best accounts for this passage?
Read it with the rest of Scripture
A sound interpretation must preserve both truths: every sin is really sin, and Scripture still distinguishes sins by consequence, culpability, and relation to spiritual death.
Catholic synthesis
All wrongdoing is sin. But Scripture itself distinguishes mortal from non-mortal sin, greater from lesser culpability, and sins that exclude from the kingdom from lesser faults. Catholic moral theology names the full mortal-sin conditions as grave matter, full knowledge, and deliberate consent. Venial sin remains sinful and damaging; it simply does not destroy sanctifying grace.