Jesus said that to look on a woman with lust was to have committed adultery in your heart with her. And that hating was equivalent to murder.
He made no distinction between *big* sins or *little* sins.
On the contrary, James tells us that if we've broken one law, we're guilty of all. ALL sin is disobeying the God who gave us the law. It's law breaking and it makes no difference if we think it's a *biggie* or not.
....”James tells us that if we’ve broken one law, we’re guilty of them all”......
That one verse was the it which caused me to close the Bible in despair knowing I had no way out and therefore doomed.....I remember the moment vividly because I looked up and told God just that!............But then of course He had another plan which very soon after I would hear.
In retrospect I think God may very well have seen that moment as me agreeing with Him that I was a sinner... and no matter how I tried to weigh the scales favorably, and I was doing just that prior to that one verse,...obvious that verse lets no-one off the hook of damnation.
When ever I see that verse I am reminded of that moment when I KNEW I was doomed.
In the same sermon, Jesus said that if your eye or your hand causes you to sin, pluck out your eye and cut off your hand.
Have you plucked out your eye and cut off your hand yet?