In his letter to the larger church, James writes, “Whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one part of it has become accountable for all of it” (James 2:10). In other words, there are not major sins and minor sins—there is just sin! So don’t spend a whole lot of time trying to categorize your shortcomings into felonies and misdemeanors because in God’s eyes it is all one and the same.

Now, needless to say, that’s a difficult truth to accept—which may be the reason that most of us don’t accept it. We keep telling ourselves that murder is a far greater offense than lying, and lying is a greater offense than gossiping, and so forth and so on. In fact, within the Roman Catholic tradition, there are distinctions made between the various categories of sin. A mortal sin is one that is committed deliberately, with full knowledge and intent. A venial sin is one that is committed unintentionally, without even being aware of the damage that you have caused another.

Even within the Bible, there seem to be distinctions drawn—at least linguistically. In the Hebrew of the Old Testament, for example, there are three different words for sin. The first word (and by far the most often used) comes from the root “chatah,” and it means “to miss the mark.” It is used to describe David’s plot to kill Bathsheba’s husband Uriah, or Jeroboam’s decision to set up golden calves in the northern city of Bethel. Neither of these men set out to do wrong. On the contrary, they both started out as leaders chosen by the voice of God. But along the way, they got distracted by other voices, and as a result, they “missed the mark.”

The second Hebrew word comes from the root “avah,” and it means “to act wrongly.” This type of sin usually involves a violation of one or more of the commandments. When Eli’s sons steal meat from God, for instance, or when the people of Israel start drifting over to Baal instead of staying true to Yahweh—they have “acted wrongly.”

The third word comes from the root “pasha,” and it means “to rebel.” This kind of separation from God involves a full-fledged revolt. When the prophet Micah denounces the wealthy landowners for kicking the poor out of their houses, and for creating laws that continue to favor the powerful, what he accuses them of is being “rebellious.”

Of course, what links all three of these Hebrew words together is their common theme of going against God’s will. Whether people are missing the mark, acting wrongly, or engaging in outright rebellion, they are out of sync with the music that God wants to play. And I think that’s what James may have had in mind when he wrote that a sin is a sin.

Ask any musician and they will tell you the importance of everyone being in sync. If you are a beat slow, or a beat fast, you are out of sync. And it doesn’t really matter if you are a little out of sync or a lot out of sync—either way the music is spoiled!