johnDB, "Prodigal" has to do with the way the boy wasted his resources.

  
A better definition of "angry" from this story might be "elder brother".  

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I am not much interested in degrees of punishment after death, no more than I am interested in degrees of reward.  I have the Lord's assurance that I will be with Him in His Father's house -- if I am given the "lowly" job of doorkeeper, it's still more than I deserve!

And those poor souls in Hell, eternally separated from God --  I really doubt they will ever console themselves with the idea that the worse sinners are getting pitchfork pokes from more demons, or that there's double steaming pools of lava-like sewerage over there, but only a couple over here... (that's imagery, folks, i'm not guessing at literal scenery in Hell...)

My main concern about sin -- after the fact that we need the Lord to forgive it! -- is the effects it will have on my life, on my witness, on the lives of those around me, here and now on this Earth.

From my POV, some sins are worse than others in their effects in this life.

Trouble is, you can't catch and eliminate all the problems.  Sometimes they don't manifest for many years.  And the cumulative effects of even "small", less disruptive sins may multiply, reaching some sort of critical mass...

Can there be sin outside of motivation? 

Can we accidentally sin? 

I'm not talking about people who haven't read the Scriptures, and so might claim not to know that stealing is a sin.  Paul said God's creation reveals His nature (and by extension, His laws) so that none of us have an excuse.

But it seems to me that sin is solely a matter of the heart- the actual physical carrying out of the sin is almost irrelevant to God - the sin came when we made up our minds to put our will over His.  When we lust, that is when we commit adultery - long before we get to the deed. 

If lust IS adultery, and hatred IS murder (not 'just as bad as', but IS), then it seems that there's only one sin - putting our will over His.   

Paul makes it clear that sexual sins are different.

I appreciate that, but I'm not sure what I'm supposed to take away from this.  Maybe I missed too much of the conversation?

"What sin do you think is the worst?"

The worst is not on the list: sins against children.

Matthew 18.

Can I assume the OP is referring to the difference in sins as pertains to Rewards or judgement?  If salvation, then there is only one sin that counts and that is "Blaspheming the Holy Spirit" which would be a total lack of faith.

I would think that only God knows which sins are worse in regards to rewards or judgement.  We can assume that murder is worse than theivery but even those sins have gradiations.  Is stealing a stapler from the office worse than stealing a gallon of gas from a garage?  Is killing a cop worse than killing a young mother?

Of course, child abuse would rank right up there but even then there are gradiations, slapping a child worse than yelling.  Sexual molestation worse than corporal punishment abuse.

But, in the end, it is God who judges sin, not us.

Perhaps the worst sin is the purposefully nonrepented of sin.

Amen...because love is Jesus in our hearts; if we reject Him, it is the unforgiveable sin.

I would say that is the greatest sin...not allowing love in (Jesus) your heart; all others God will forgive, because Jesus paid the price...and He resides in us.