The Great Evil and Danger of Little Sins
Bp. Hopkins. Matthew 5:19 Whoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so… I. What is meant by the "LEAST COMMANDMENT." It must not be understood as if one commandment were less necessary to be obeyed than another; God's commands are all alike necessary. 1. They are all enjoined by the same authority. 2. They are all necessary to be performed in order to eternal life. But when Christ speaks of the least commandment, He alludes(1) to the corrupt doctrine of the Scribes distinguishing God's commands into small and great. (2) Those commandments which are great in respect of the Lawgiver, may yet be least in comparison with other commands of the same law, which are indeed thought greatest. This inequality arises from the inequality of the objects about which they are concerned, our duty to God or man. Sometimes it arises from the latitude that any command hath in it, to our thoughts, words, or actions; a thought is said to be less than an action. II. What is meant by "BEING LEAST IN THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN." Either the kingdom of grace, the Church, heaven. Little sins carry great guilt and bring heavy condemnation. 1. This appears in that the least sin is a most high affront and provocation of the great God. 2. It is a violation of a holy and strict law. 3. What a complicated evil every sin is, that the commission of the least makes you guilty of the greatest. 4. The authority of the great God seems more to be despised by the commission of small sins than by the commission of great. 5. Little sins do greatly deface the image of God in the soul. In curious pictures, a little scratch is a great deformity. 6. Little sins have in them ordinarily of temptation, and therefore more of wilfulness. 7. Little sins do maintain the trade and course of sinning. III. The evil and danger of little sins hath been made apparent: I shall add farther proofs of their AGGRAVATED GUILT. 1. Little sins usually are the destroying sins. 2. Small sins — what they want in weight, usually make up in number. A ship may have a heavy burden of sands, as well as of millstones; and may be as soon sunk with them. 3. It is very difficult to convince men of the great evil and danger of little sins. 4. The allowance of the least sin is a certain sign of a rotten heart. 5. Little sins usually make way for the vilest. (1) The devil, by his temptations, nurses up youngling sins, till they arrive at full stature. (2) Natural corruption is of a growing nature. 6. Little sins are the greatest provocations; murder is a reproach to all; unbelief does not provoke public scandal. 7. Damnation for little sins will be most intolerable — here for such little sins! IV. APPLICATION: 1. If little sins have so much danger, what shall we think of great impieties? 2. Then behold a fearful shipwreck of all the hopes of formalists. 3. What absolute need we stand in of Christ. 4. What cause we have to bemoan and humble ourselves before God. 5. Pray for a tender conscience. 6. Keep alive reverent thoughts of God. 7. Get a more thorough sense of the spirituality of the law. (Bp. Hopkins.) Parallel Verses KJV: Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. WEB: Whoever, therefore, shall break one of these least commandments, and teach others to do so, shall be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven; but whoever shall do and teach them shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.