The Perilous Harmfulness of Little Sins

Christ's warning in Matthew 5:19 concerns those who break "one of these least commandments." The least commandment carries the same authority as the greatest, for all proceed from the same Lawgiver. Little sins are peculiarly offensive to God precisely because they are little—we risk offending Him for what we ourselves care very little about and expect insignificant return from. A judge's corruption worsens when the bribe is paltry; similarly, the least sin is aggravated by the small degree of temptation accompanying it.

The danger lies not in the magnitude of the transgression but in our blindness to it. Little sins leave men hardly conscious they have broken God's law, whereas great sins stir piercing thoughts. We play fool's sport with firebrands. These minor violations reveal our carnal disposition as surely as a leaf's motion shows the wind's quarter as clearly as agitated oak branches.

Christ does not authorize us to suppose any of His commandments are little. What seems small to us—anger, scornful speaking, reviling—constitutes the sin of murder in essence. Thomas Adam observes the danger: we vacate God's commands in any respect, in any single instance. The multiplication of little sins demonstrates our desperate need for the merit of an infinite atonement. True piety respects all God's commands and keeps them.