Monday, June 16, 2025

AfterWords: “Seven (Deadly Sins) Life-Giving Virtues”

 

Philippians 2:1-4

I had the habit of eating two pieces of toast with a generous helping of butter and honey every night before bed. I realized that this was literally killing me, that I had to stop. Stopping was not enough—I needed to do something else at that time…or I would just fall back into the bad behavior. So, I started eating a sliced tomato with olive oil. Better, right? (I hope!) Just as it is with habits, we need to replace our sins with virtues, our sinful attitudes and behaviors with godly attitudes and behaviors. Therefore, while we identify these deadly sins in our lives, we also need to practice life-giving virtues.

The “Seven Deadly Sins” are not found in the Bible, per se—no Old Testament list, no list in Jesus’ sermons, and no list in Paul’s writing. Rather, these sins were first identified by 2nd and 3rd Century Christians who were escaping the evil cities and going out to live in the desert. They soon learned what we know today: Wherever you go, there you are. They took their sins with them. Over time, they began to identify the sins that were most damaging, most life-sucking…the sins that took their eyes and attention off of God. That list evolved into the Seven Deadly Sins.

Our first sin is lust, a sin Jesus highlights in his Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5:27-30). Jesus points out that the sin behind adultery is lust…and that we need to root out this and other sins the seek to destroy us and others. Other writers of the New Testament also point to the sin of lust (Col.3:5; 1 Thess. 4:5; 1 Peter 4:3).

What is lust? “Lust is the strong, passionate desire for something…a disordered and inappropriately strong desire…a desire that leads us to act against our best interests…When directed at a person, lust makes us unconcerned about the object of lust.”[1]

While we can lust for power, for wealth, for popularity…Jesus and Scripture focuses on our lust for others. When we do, when give all that energy to the object of our lusts, we take our eyes off of God, and we rob ourselves of real life. We say, “the object of our lust,” and that indicates exactly what happens when we lust for another person—we objectify them. They lose their humanity. When we catch ourselves in the sin of lust, we find a way of escape by recalling and holding on to the person’s humanity. We remember this is a daughter or son of someone…a brother or sister…a person with dreams and hopes and aspirations—and those do not include being the object of our lust. That person is also created by God, loved by God, and embodies the “image of God” (Gen. 1:27).

The other side of this same coin is loathing. When we see someone that we loathe, we have done the same thing—we have objectified them, robbed them of their humanity. We are able to think less of them because we have conveniently forgotten that they, too, are sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, made in the image of God and deeply loved of God.

We respond to lust and loathing in the same way—we remember that they are human beings. Paul tells us, “… in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others” (Phil. 2:3-4). When we see another person that we feel tempted to objectify (whether lusting or loathing), let us hold on to this Scripture and remember their very real humanity. If doing this, we walk away from death and embrace life.

Sunday, June 15, 2025
Seven Deadly Sins Life-Giving Virtues
Watch/Listen: HERE

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