The Seven Deadly Sins
Galatians 5:16-25
Several years ago, Bill Bennett, former Education Secretary, a devout Catholic and the author of “The Book of Virtues” was discovered to be a heavy gambler in Las Vegas. Bennett in an interview following the disclosure in the media, apologized for gambling and said he would quit gambling altogether. In an interview with a Fox News reporter he said, ‘Apparently what happens in Vegas, doesn’t stay in Vegas.’ We may be uncomfortable talking about it, but sin is a hard truth. We try to ignore it or pretend it’s not there. But sin is not a vacation spot that we visit and enjoy ourselves in excess only to come home to be normal again, leaving it all behind. Rather we carry with us our sins wherever we go and we have trouble laying them down, because sin stays in us. We are about to start the season of Lent, a season of soul-searching, evaluation of our lives and repentance of our sins. Most of us never really take the time to evaluate our lives, let alone to name and confess our sins. In fact, in most churches today, there’s very little mention or discussion about sin. We act almost as if sin isn’t real. But the truth is, sin is real and it has a part in each of our lives. It is a constant battle. As Jesus noted in the Garden of Gethsemane when he found the disciples asleep while he was praying, “The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” The same can be said about our following God’s will in our lives and why we sometimes fall short and sin: “The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.”
So what better time to talk about sin than during the season of Lent? Today we begin a new series, “The “7 Deadly Sins” which is meant to help you in your journey of Lent to evaluate your life and name and repent of your sins. This is a time to get real about the lives we lead, the thoughts we wrestle with and the desires with which we struggle. It was a monk named St. John Cassian in the 4th century who began to put down on paper the things that he struggled with. He originally wrote down 8 deadly sins he wrestled with in his life and as he lived in community with other monks, he found that they shared these same common struggles. In the 6th century Pope Gregory I limited the list to 7 and pronounced that these sins are not unique to those in the monastery but that all Christians struggled with these sins. The Seven Deadly Sins were originally taught to educate and instruct Christians not only about humanity’s tendency to sin but also equip us in the pitfalls which lie before us in following God. The sins were listed in order from least to most deadly beginning with lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and finally pride. The early church saw these sins as enemies of the virtues Christians needed. Instead of lust -self-control, instead of gluttony – temperance, instead of Greed – generosity, instead of sloth – zeal, instead of anger – kindness, instead of envy – love, instead of pride - humility. So the 7 Deadly Sins were taught not only to help us avoid them but to free us to pursue the virtues of God or more simply, to be the person God wants us to be and to live the life he would have us live.
As we think about the Deadly Sins, that raises a fundamental question, “What is sin?” The Bible doesn’t give one definition of sin. There is one primary word in the Greek NT which is used are most often for the word sin, hamartia. Hamartia was used in archery in the Greco-Roman world. If the archer didn’t hit the target, hamartia occurred. It missed the mark. And so when we sin, we miss the mark of God’s will for our life. What’s important to understand is that God sets the mark and we either choose intentionally to take another path or we accidentally stray from the path. In either case, we didn’t hit the mark and thus failed to do the will of God. So sin is failing to do the will of God in your life.
Why are these sins considered to be deadly? They don't mean deadly in the sense of putting you in physical danger, they mean destructive of your immortal soul. There are four misconceptions of why these specifically are believed to be deadly. First, they can lead to eternal damnation. The Catholic Church divides sin into two categories: venial sins which are relatively minor and can be forgiven through any sacraments of the Church as well as through prayer and acts of charity. The second is more severe called "grave" or mortal sins. Theologically, a mortal sin is believed to destroy the life of grace within the person and thus creates the threat of eternal damnation. From a Protestant and Methodist perspective, we believe these 7 sins are no more “deadly” than any other sin because in God’s eyes, a sin is a sin is a sin. All God sees is a sin. Second, it is falsely believed that these are sins God will not forgive. The Bible is clear that the only sin God will not forgive is that of continued unbelief, because it rejects the only means to obtain forgiveness through Jesus Christ and His death on the cross. Third, these sins can lead to all the other sins. Pope Gregory the 1st noted that these sins were the root of all other sins, indicating that if these sins are a part of your life, they could lead to many more sins. The fact is any sin can lead to another sin. It’s like opening the flood gates, once the door is open, even more can flow through and it’s that much more difficult to close them because of the momentum or water flowing through.
The fourth reason these sins are considered deadly is that they lead to death or separation from God. Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” To understand this more fully, we need go back to the Israelite understanding of life. When God called the Israelites to be His chosen people, they no longer looked at life as something to be enjoyed for themselves and their pleasure, but instead saw the very purpose was to be in relationship with God and to do His will. Every part of their lives was looked at through this lens of relationship to God. It’s like when you get married, no longer are you living for yourself and making decisions only based upon yourself. Now every decision and every action is taken with your spouse in mind. So the Israelites looked at the life they had been given as one lived fully in relationship with God. This is why they were created and given the gift of life. To live a life separated from God was as good as death because life lived apart from God was not life at all. So all sin is deadly is that it separates us from God.
Sin has three affects in our lives. First, it desensitizes us to others. Sin makes us uncaring and selfish and we cannot see the life focused on others and their needs that God wants us to live. Second, sin distracts us from God’s purpose for our lives. It’s in living out God’s purpose and doing His will that we are drawn closer to Him. Third, sin destroys relationships, our relationships with other people and our relationship with God.
God knew this so He in His love and grace set out laws by which we are to live, beginning first with the Israelites who had been freed from slavery and never knew freedom which would have led to utter chaos and pandemonium. The Ten Commandments were given first and then many more laws to shape and guide the Israelites as they lived in a new land with new freedoms as His chosen people. Those laws, rules, and commandments have been passed on to us as well. When you were a child, your parents set rules for you not because they wanted you to miss out on life but because they wanted you to have a full life. They weren’t trying to rob you of great experiences, they were trying to make sure you were safe, protected and able to experience all of life to its fullest. And so it is with God because His will is designed to bring us peace, joy, hope and life. The law of God is an expression of his love and grace for us. He made a choice to make us his own by grace. We enter that relationship through faith, accepting his offer of forgiveness for our sins through Jesus Christ. And then and only then do we become accountable to his prescription for living.
What is God’s response to sin? Some think that God is angry with sinners, namely us, and I believe there are some sins that make God angry. In fact there are many instances in the Scriptures when God says through His prophets that He is angry at the sins he sees in His children. But I think more often than not, God’s response is disappointment. When my children have sinned or not done my will, I am disappointed in them because I knew the consequences of their actions and where it was going to take them. I wasn’t angry with them but rather was disappointed because I wanted the best in them and I thought they were headed in a direction that I didn’t want them to go and I knew God didn’t want them to go. I think sometimes that God does get angry with sin but more often than not I think he is disappointed in sin because His will was a path that would lead to life, joy and peace. Second, God hates the sin, but not the sinner. We need to remember that when God does get angry, it’s at the sin and not the sinner. Yet too often we roll ourselves up into sin and never make a distinction between the person and their actions. Our sinful actions against God will never cause Him to stop loving us.
Now when we think about sin and especially the 7 Deadly Sins, they are all a distortion of God’s will for our lives. God’s will is, for example, that we have sexual drives. He made us and created them as a part of us. That’s a good thing because after every thing was created, God said, “This is good. This is exactly what I intended. This is my will in creation.” But when sexual desire moves to lust, that is a distortion of what God gave us. And then we begin to misuse the gifts God gave us in ways that are harmful for us, we stray or miss the mark. In the case of gluttony, we all have to eat. God designed us to eat. Your bodies are meant to get hungry indicating to you that it’s time to eat. It’s food that gives you the energy to live, to work, to serve and to do His will. The problem is when we take eating to an extreme, we actually hurt ourselves by shortening our lives and making ourselves sick. When you gorge yourself at a buffet or Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner, after you don’t feel like going out and working but rather feel bloated and just want to sit or lie down. When gluttony takes over, eating becomes the focus of our lives, thus that sin can become our god.
The Seven Deadly Sins are not only a distortion of the good gifts of God, taking something good and going too far with it. In the end, they become a form of idolatry because we end up taking that object and it becomes the primary focus of our lives. It becomes our God. And so with lust, the pursuit of pleasure becomes our sole focus of our thoughts, words and actions in life. Or when it comes to greed, money becomes our god. And when we get to the very last of the 7 Deadly Sins, pride, we become our god. So the sin here is really idolatry. And you shall remember the first commandment is that you shall have no other gods before me. And so it’s a violation of the most important commandment because if God and His will isn’t first in your life, you cannot live for God as He intended in the rest of your life. Jesus put it this way: you cannot have two masters.
So how can you make the most of this series? First, don’t judge other people. We can spend so much time talking about what others do or don’t do, we never look at our own lives. It’s a lot easier to see the sin in other people’s lives than our own. Preacher Henry Fairlie said, “We can recognize evil in others, but if we wish to look on the face of sin, we will see it most clearly in ourselves.” This is about you. Second, don’t speculate on someone’s motives. We say things like, they just want to be seen, or they only like being noticed. Don’t speculate. Only one person can know the heart and that is God. Third, offer grace and also allow people time to grow into Christ. We are all a work in progress and all of us are at different levels of faith and have different things we need to work on. You didn’t get to where you are in a day. Others will need the time to grow too. Fourth, remember our highest calling is to love and encourage one another. “He (Jesus) died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.” Fifth, spend time focusing on and refining yourself. “He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.” Proverbs 28:13 Sixth, develop ways to passionately pursue Jesus. Ultimately, you must give up any pursuit of sin and give your life back to Jesus Christ, so that He can change your life. You don’t just give things up but replace them with healthy habits. How? Develop ways to reinforce the life of Jesus in your own experience. Read, pray, memorize scripture, talk openly about your faith with Christian friends. Begin practicing the soul training exercises we shared in the last series. Take a step this week to do something that invites Jesus into your daily routine so that you can see His ways and follow them more easily.
