Does James Say All Sins are Equal ? | Ready Reasons | Karlo Broussard

Some Protestants attempt to undermine the Catholic belief in mortal and venial sin by appealing to James 2:10-11, which says that if we break one commandment, we become guilty of them all. But does this passage have the firepower that Protestants think it does? In this video, Karlo shows why the answer is no.

Transcript:
Catholics believe that some sins are more serious than others, labeling the more serious ones “mortal” and the less serious “venial.” But some Protestants challenge this belief with James 2:10-11, which reads, “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” said also, “Do not kill.”
Does this prove Catholics wrong and that all sins are equal? No, and here are some reasons why.
First, this interpretation is suspect because elsewhere James affirms belief in mortal and venial sin. For example, in chapter one verse fifteen James says that sin in its beginning stages doesn’t bring death (venial sin) whereas it does in its more mature stages (mortal sin). This agrees with John’s teaching in 1 John 5:16-17: “There is sin which is deadly,” he writes, “there is sin which is not deadly.”
Second, James isn’t even talking about the gravity of sin in the passage in question. His point is that we must keep all the commandments in order to avoid incurring the guilt of transgressing the law. We can’t say to the Lord on Judgment Day, “Lord, I only broke one commandment, but kept the other nine.” James explicitly tells us that this is what he has in mind when he says in the second half of verse 11, “If you do not commit adultery but do kill, you have become a transgressor of the law.” Becoming a transgressor of the law is James’s focus, not the gravity of sin.
James 2:10-11, therefore, is simply a misfire in trying to refute the Catholic belief of mortal and venial sin.
If you want to learn more about this topic and others like it, visit our website at catholic.com. Also, visit catholicanswersspeakers.com to learn how you can bring me out to speak at your event.
For Catholic Answers, I’m Karlo Broussard. Thanks for watching.

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