James 2:10 says, “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it” (NRSV). On one level, the meaning is clear: break one of God’s laws and you become a lawbreaker. The meaning of “accountable for all of it” is less clear, since we are accountable to God’s law whether we break it or not. The idea actually being communicated is that guilt before God is the result of breaking any law, from the most innocuous to the most heinous. Guilt is guilt.
But does that mean that God considers every violation to be the same level of wickedness? Every sinner is guilty, but are all sins equally awful? The answer is no.
The Bible is quite clear on this matter. First, just as in our own legal/judicial system, Old Testament laws could be divided into categories. One example would be case law—laws that depend on certain conditions. These Old Testament laws are expressed by if-then statements (“If X happens, then Y is the punishment”). These laws are hypothetical: the nature of the crime (and therefore its punishment) can change with a situation. Other laws are strict prohibitions, regardless of the situation. They aren’t hypothetical. These are usually expressed with the familiar “thou shalt not” phrase.
Second, Old Testament laws did not carry the same punishments. While any violation made one guilty before God, the fact that God’s law did not demand equal punishment for any violation demonstrates that all violations were not viewed the same way. The notion that God is “just as angry” with the person who steals an ox as he is with a blasphemer might make for good preaching, but one was punished by remuneration (Ex. 22:1) and the other by death (Lev. 24:16). The outcome was far from the same. And in the Old Testament, death penalty offenses could not be atoned for by sacrifice.
Third, of the many laws in the Torah, God himself singled out one that was fundamentally important to him, and therefore to his covenantal promises with his children, Israel. Loving God—being loyal to him above all gods—was fundamental to possessing the promised land (e.g., Lev. 26; Deut. 4:25–27, 39–40). Loving loyalty to God was the greatest commandment (Mark 12:30–31).
The lesson is not that we can take solace in not being as bad as the next person. We are all guilty before God and undeserving of eternal life (Rom. 6:23). We all need the same grace. Instead, the lesson is that God is not unbalanced and cruel, viewing all acts of sin and evil the same way. His laws are not capricious.