Is one sin greater than another?

In 1 Timothy 1.16 Paul tells us that it was because Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners that he, Paul, was shown such great mercy. He reasoned that If God could save him, “the worst of sinners” – and He did! - then God could save anyone. (The New Jerusalem Bible translates the apostle’s self-description with “the leading example of his inexhaustible patience for all.”) And that is what I would like you to join me in thinking about. Was Paul the worst? Did he actually think he was the worst? Or is this simply the use of metaphor?
       That Paul was a sinner, there’s no question about that, we all are. But he claims to be “the worst” so from Paul’s point of view no one else can make that claim. We know that he was a zealous young Rabbi, which ought to argue the opposite, but he viewed the burgeoning Christian faith as such a heretical menace that he secured permission to hunt down those who had embraced such a terrible heresy and throw them into prison. In fact, he stood by and watched the rabid religionists stone Stephen to death. He even gave them his permission and guarded their clothes while they killed him (Acts 22:20.) 
       Does that make Paul the worst? I don’t know for sure, but I am quite sure he qualifies. The reason I hesitate is that all sin is wrong. It may be that some does far more damage to society, but in the long run, sin is sin. There’s a tendency to separate sins on our own scale of seriousness. We judge things like killing, stealing, hatred of the other as really bad – about 8 or 9 on a scale of 10. But then we seem to be not quite so turned off with such bad habits as arrogance, envy, or greed and score their “badness” no more that 2 or 3 at the most. Perhaps we could call them “Christian sins.” But wait! Doesn’t Paul put ”greed” right there in the middle of a group of “really bad sins” (as we would say) such as wickedness, evil, and depravity? (Romans 1:29)
       The truth is that from God’s point of view, sin is sin; it separates us from God. All Adam and Eve did was to pick a piece of fruit from a little tree and mankind has suffered the results from then until now. Paul may have been the “worst of sinners,” but in terms of separating man from God, any sinful act could have accomplished that. The point the reaches me is the hideous nature of all sin. Some sins have a greater and more immediate affect on society, but each and every one kills in the very real sense of separating us from communion with the source of all life, even God. We are all “worst sinners.”
       Since God the Father, for the benefit of his wayward children, sent his only Son to the cross where he would experience the unutterable desolation of separation from the Father, every thought or act that played a part in that unthinkable tragedy is a sin for which there is none greater. We are all “worst sinners,” but we are loved by God and forgiven. As the more expressive among us would say, “Hallelujah!”