Does James 2:10 mean there's no real distinction between mortal and venial sins?

Yeah, I think that's the one that says for one sin you will be condemned. So let's look up James 2:10 and find out what the commotion is all about. James 2:10: For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. So the claim is, it doesn't matter whether it's mortal or venial, and so the Catholic distinction between mortal and venial sins is not correct. Now that is false. In 1 John 5, he talks about the sin unto death, which is different than other sins that aren't unto death. Then we just have to develop it. Murder, adultery, things like that: they're mortal sins. Venial: we know by natural law that there are sins that are just very small. Still sins, but they're small. And they should not receive the same punishment as a mortal sin. And we even have that in our law system. If you commit a capital crime, murder, adultery, theft, large theft, you will be convicted, sometimes put in prison for life, sometimes put to death. But it's serious and we know it. So it doesn't take much education to realize that there is a distinction between kinds of sins that we commit. Now, just like Protestants do very often, they will take a verse out of context. And this is one verse that they do that with. If the context was talking about the fact that there is no distinction between sins, and that had been made clear, and then it came up with this verse, which says, for whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it, we would say, okay, there's some justification here for applying this principle to mortal and venial sins, that there are no mortal and venial sins, they're all just sins. We could do that. But you can't take an idea and then superimpose it on James 2:10. The correct way to attack this verse and exegete it is you look at the context. What's it telling me? It's dealing on a very general level, this context, not a specific level. If it wanted to get specific, it could go into mortal and venial sins and whether they're justified or not. So we take the context as a general context. And if you're going to do that, then how would you interpret it? Well, you would interpret it the way St. Paul does. So James and St. Paul are going to say the same thing. St. Paul says, Therefore no one will be declared righteous in His sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. It doesn't matter whether it's mortal or venial. If the law says don't do it, it's not because it's trying to get you necessarily to do something good. It's there to tell you that you don't, nine times out of 10. Paul lists the Ten Commandments, for Pete's sake, and says, make sure you do these. Love your neighbor as yourself. Once you're in the state of grace, then you can do the law. And how do you get to the state of grace? God puts you in the state of grace. And then you can please Him by obeying the law, ironically. You have to be in the state of grace. If you think you can obey the law to please God without grace, both James and Paul are going to say no. If you try to obey the law to please God that way, you will be even more condemned. So don't play that game with God. You come to Him first, ask for forgiveness of your sins, and then you obey the law. And if you don't obey the law, let's say you muff up somehow, then you come back to God and you say, please put me back in the state of grace. That happens all the time when people commit mortal sin, because the Church will say, you're out of the state of grace and you need to get back into it. And the only way that can come about is if you go to confession through the Church and ask for your sins to be forgiven. The priest is now acting like God to forgive you of your sins, because Jesus gave the Church that power. We may be out of the state of grace, but we get back into it. Now, venial sins, the Church says, don't take you out of the state of grace. You're still in it, because your sins have not been serious. But you still need to ask God for forgiveness for those venial sins, and He will forgive you. You can do that in your bedroom at home if you want. That's a promise of the Church. We see that when we do apply venial and mortal sins, the distinction between them, after we've learned that you can't come to God by yourself without grace. That's the important thing. Learn that first, and then you'll understand why there is a distinction between mortal and venial sins. But don't take the verse out of context. It's very dangerous to interpret the Bible that way. You will go off into all kinds of bad ideas, bad thoughts, bad religion.