Historically, the church has focused on seven deadly sins as
root vices, leading to a living death—rather than shalom and human
flourishing—and ultimately to eternal death. These sins are divided into two
groupings: corporal or bodily sins of lust, gluttony, sloth, and greed; and
spiritual sins of pride, envy, and anger. To counteract these sins, the church
has emphasized the pursuit of seven virtues, which can likewise be grouped into
two. First are the cardinal or pagan virtues of wisdom (prudence), courage,
self-control, and justice (fairness); Greeks and Romans highlighted them, and
New Testament writers included them in their “virtue lists” (cf. 2 Cor. 5:6–8;
Gal. 5:22–23; Phil. 4:8; James 3:17–18; 2 Pet. 1:3–9). Also, Christians have
recognized three theological virtues rooted in Christ’s life, death,
resurrection, and promised second coming: namely, faith (trust) in Christ’s
cross-work and salvation through Him alone; love inspired by the sacrificial
death of Christ; and hope (confidence) in Christ’s return to fully establish a
new creation and His unshakable kingdom (Rom. 5:1–5; 1 Cor. 13:13; 1 Thess.
1:3). While the former virtues reflect God’s “common grace” that could be
evident among the pagans, the latter reflect God’s “special grace” through the
Spirit’s working in those who are in Christ.
SEVEN DEADLY SINS
Though there are many other sins that could be addressed in
addition to these specific sins, we will briefly address the seven deadly sins
here along with Scripture that addresses each sin.
Lust
Although the Greek word epithymia (“strong desire”) can be
positive—desiring, say, to be a church overseer (1 Tim. 3:1)—it is commonly
negative; it is a strong desire or craving we are not justified in satisfying
(James 1:14–15; 1 John 2:17). Most often, the church has associated this desire
with sexual impurity, and even coarse joking about sexual matters can “defile”
a person (2 Cor. 6:14–18; Eph. 5:3–4; 1 Thess. 4:3–7).
Gluttony
Gluttony and drunkenness are two vices of intemperance that
go hand in hand during every meal—and in between. Overeating is identified as
sin in both Testaments (Deut. 21:20; Prov. 23:21; Luke 21:34). Given
Scripture’s sparse mention of it, one wonders why the medieval church
catalogued this with the seven deadly sins. Another vice of excessive intake is
drunkenness, and Scripture has plenty to say about this. While not condemning
alcohol—indeed Scripture in places even celebrates drinking (Deut. 14:26;
32:18; Isa. 25:6; John 2:6–11)—it condemns drunkenness and highlights its
dangers (e.g., Prov. 20:1; 23:20, 29–35).
Sloth
While God made our bodies to require rest, even the blessing
of sleep and rest can be abused. Proverbs strongly denounces sloth, urging the
sluggard to learn lessons from the diligent, hard-working ant (6:6–11). One
ought not to love sleep (Prov. 13:11; 20:13). What’s more, work itself is a
gift from God and is not the result of the fall. The “Proverbs 31 woman” is
industrious, hard-working, and resourceful. Paul himself taught and modeled a
strong work ethic: laboring with one’s own hands so as not to be a burden to
anyone; working if one is to eat; providing for oneself and others through hard
work (Col. 3:23–24; 2 Thess. 3:10–12; 4:12; 2 Thess. 3:12; 1 Tim. 5:8; Eph.
4:28). God, with His Son, is the model Worker (John 5:17).
Greed
Scripture clearly prohibits greed/coveting (cf. Exod. 20:17;
Deut. 5:21; Micah 2:2; Rom. 13:9). In the New Testament, covetousness or greed
(pleonexia) gets significant mention (Luke 12:15; Rom. 1:29; Eph. 5:3; Col.
3:5; 1 Thess. 2:5; 2 Pet. 2:3, 14). Paul calls it “idolatry” (Col. 3:5; cf.
Eph. 5:5) because material things become a substitute for God and thus warrant
divine judgment (Col. 3:5–6). No wonder a person cannot serve God and money
(Matt. 6:24). To covet can involve both desiring and seeking for something,
someone, some position, some recognition, or some pleasure not in the will of
God.
Pride
Humility involves a realistic assessment of both weaknesses
and strengths—strengths that are themselves to be acknowledged as God’s
gifts—whereas pride involves a kind of self-advertising campaign that distorts
the truth about oneself. It is the result of thinking of ourselves more highly
than we ought to think (Rom. 12:3).
Envy
Envy and its cousin jealousy desire what they do not have.
As one writer put it, we envy those who aren’t a threat to us—perhaps a
celebrity’s looks or talents—nor do they cause us pain; they just happen to
have what we want. Jealousy, by contrast, is an idolatrous (over)protectiveness
of someone because we are threatened by a third party or some thing (work,
sports, studies) that threatens us or disrupts what we desire in a relationship,
and this can move us toward resentment and anger.
Anger
Anger itself is not wrong (Eph. 4:26); indeed, never being
angry reflects a defect—a moral passivity and an indifference toward injustice.
God Himself is slow to anger (Exod. 34:6), as is the wise person (James 1:19).
The viciously angry or hot-tempered person “stirs up strife” and “abounds in
transgression” (Prov. 29:22; cf. 37:8). The angry person causes dissension and
finds it difficult to maintain genuine friendships.
CULTIVATING VIRTUE
Oscar Wilde wrote about his tragic life. In his pursuit of
pleasure, he became indifferent to others and destroyed his inner moral fiber:
“I forgot that every little action of the common day makes or unmakes
character, I ceased to be lord over myself. I was no longer the captain of my
soul, and did not know it. I allowed pleasure to dominate me. I ended in
horrible disgrace.”2
Wilde’s life reminds us to guard our hearts diligently
(Prov. 4:23). This is precisely where character transformation begins. Although
we can’t go into detail here on cultivating virtue,3 we’ll briefly discuss the
path away from vice and toward virtue.
1. The properly oriented virtuous life begins with a
relationship with God in Christ. This first point is critical, lest we slip into
a graceless moralism or a life-sapping legalism. John wrote, “We love, because
He [God] first loved us” (1 John 4:19). Personally knowing God’s love in Christ
has the capacity to inspire in us love and forgiveness (Eph. 4:32; 1 John
3:16). And just as being a good spouse is not a matter of checking off a to-do
list, neither is being a follower of Christ. The Christian faith is a religion
of gratitude, and our pursuit of virtue flows from our knowing God’s
reconciling grace; this grace instructs us to repudiate what is displeasing to
God and to live godly lives (Titus 2:11–13). If we have personally known God’s
love, won’t we make sacrifices and choices that reflect our love for Him? These
in turn will shape our character.
2. Distinguish between being accepted by God and being
pleasing to Him. This point is connected to the first. As we engage in
character-shaping practices, we must always keep in mind the distinction
between being accepted by God and being pleasing to Him. In any deep personal
relationship, we are always looking for ways to please, say, a loving spouse or
a parent. We don’t try to earn acceptance—as though the relationship is in
jeopardy if we don’t “perform.” Likewise, as children of God, we have already
been accepted by God through Christ (Rom. 14:3; 15:7), but in the pursuit of
Christlikeness, we seek to please God: we “have as our ambition…to be pleasing
to Him” (2 Cor. 5:9). Recognizing God’s acceptance of us in Christ removes a
performance mentality and frees us up to live lives pleasing in His sight
without fear of condemnation (1 John 4:18).
3. Concrete choices and everyday actions can make—or
unmake—us. Have you tried to learn to play an instrument or to speak a second
language? It’s all so clumsy and awkward at first. Likewise, obedience to God
can be stilted and perfunctory at first. But we find that virtue is cultivated
through our choices and character-shaping actions—it is called the fruit of the
Spirit, after all. And when we take these specific and practical steps of
obedience, we will purify our souls (1 Pet. 1:22). As we daily submit to the
Spirit’s rule and empowerment—being “filled with the Spirit” (Eph. 5:18)—He
will continue to transform our character so that obedience increasingly becomes
second nature to us. Writing from prison, Paul said he had learned the secret
of being content—a process learned through intentionally focusing on how Christ
was sufficient in any and every circumstance, whether positive or negative
(Phil. 4:10–13).
In the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5–7), Jesus gives concrete
transforming initiatives to break vicious cycles of attitudes and behavior
patterns. Instead of being angry and bitter when problems arise in
relationships, we should take specific steps to be reconciled to others: “Leave
your offering at the altar and go; first be reconciled” (5:23–24). Instead of
the vicious cycle of lust, Jesus commands His followers to counteract the
sources of temptation and to take constructive—and ruthless—action to combat
this: “If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you”;
the same goes with your hand: “cut it off and throw it from you” (5:29–30). And
if you just love those who love you, you’ll only perpetuate relational barriers
and never turn enemies into friends; as Jesus’ disciples, we are to break the
negative patterns of relating (or not relating at all) by engaging in a
transforming initiative to love and pray for our enemies; in doing so, we will
have a perfect love just as our enemy-loving God does, who sends rain and sunshine
on His enemies, not just His friends (5:44–48).
Likewise, if we want to break our pride and become more
humble, we should remember that we have been saved by God’s grace—not our own
merits (Eph. 2:8–9); we should engage in acts of service to others; we should
express gratitude to God, the giver of any good thing we’ve received (1 Cor.
4:7; James 1:17); we should put away what draws attention to ourselves—for
instance, taking “selfies” and uploading them to Facebook for all to see and
approve and then measuring our worth by the “likes” we receive. If we want to
address the problem of greed, we should renounce a clutching attitude toward
our possessions and hold them lightly, since they are gifts from God (1 Tim.
6:17–19); we should be generous with those in need; we should be content in all
our circumstances because Christ enables us to face them all—whether we have
much or little (Phil. 4:9–13). To break the hold of gluttony, the spiritual
discipline of fasting can remind us just how attached we are to food in the
pursuit of contentment and well-being; in fasting, we focus on God—illustrating
that a human being “does not live by bread alone” (Mt. 4:4)—and that our bodies
should be our slaves rather than our masters (1 Cor. 6:13; 9:27).
4. We mustn’t simply avoid what is evil, but constructively
replace it with what is good. As God’s people, we participate in a new creation
(2 Cor. 5:17) and a new covenant community. Christ died to make us a “kingdom
of priests” and a “holy nation” (1 Pet. 2:9; Rev. 1:6; 5:10; cf. Exod.
19:6)—true worshipers of God as priests and co-rulers with God over His
creation. So we are a renewed humanity in Christ, the second Adam; we are part
of the new exodus, having been led out of slavery to sin, death, and the law
(Rom. 5–8) through the obedient Son that ancient Israel failed to be. So we are
not only a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15) but also the new Israel—the
true people of God (Rom. 2:26–27; Phil. 3:3). Now that we are “in Christ,” we
are given the resources to reflect increasingly the character qualities of the
new Adam—the archetypal human.
Notice that we are commanded not only to put off, like we
would a garment, that life associated with fallen humanity and the lifestyle of
the seven deadly sins. We are also to put on the virtues of Christ
Himself—love, humility, righteousness, kindness, faithfulness, and so on (Rom.
13:12–14; Eph. 4:22–24; 6:11–16; Col. 3:9–14; 1 Thess. 5:8). We cannot simply
avoid vice (putting off) but must constructively engage in transformational
habits (putting on). We should not only abhor what is evil but also cling to
what is good (Rom. 12:9). We are not only to flee but also to pursue (1 Tim.
6:11).
No wonder the late author Dallas Willard referred to the
life-shaping importance of the spiritual disciplines in terms of engagement and
abstinence. Disciplines of engagement include study, prayer, meditation,
celebration, service, submission, worship, confession, and fellowship;
disciplines of abstinence include fasting, silence, solitude, frugality,
chastity, secrecy, and sacrifice.4 This is part of “working out” our salvation.
But remember this salvation has already been “worked in” to us, and this
process requires relying on God’s grace and power, because “it is God who is at
work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (Phil. 2:12–13).
How would this apply to battling lust? “Putting off” at a
very basic level has to do with rejecting a false way of looking at the world
and adopting a different—and correct—mindset and then acting in accordance with
that new vision. One obvious way to “put off” lust is to flee in the face of
sexual temptation (2 Tim. 2:22). But we can also think about how God is our
ultimate hope and satisfaction beyond all earthly pleasures (Ps. 73:25–26).
Even beyond this, rather than looking at a person as a sexual object, the believer
can view this person as someone who bears the image of God, as the son or
daughter of a mother and father, as someone with a story filled with hurts and
damage, as someone loved by God, and as a person for whom Christ died. The
believer should personalize rather than objectify another, including praying
for that person. Another part of seeing God’s reality more clearly involves
reflecting on the negative consequences that sexual impurity brings—damaged
relationships with God and humans, guilt and shame, corrupted character,
dishonor when facing an all-knowing Judge one day—which can help deter such
actions.
Beyond this, “putting off” involves taking serious action
(“gouge it out/cut it off/throw it from you”): be honest with yourself, with
God, and with others; keep a guard on your thoughts and redirect them to
appropriate, God-honoring pathways; make yourself accountable to another for
TV- and movie-watching habits; install a filter on the computer to avoid junk
on the Internet; check a place like Pluggedin.com to review movies and TV shows
ahead of time for any sexual content, among other things; avoid going to places
of inevitable temptation; maintain high standards concerning physical contact
while dating and engaged. “Putting on” will involve praying, reading and
memorizing Scripture, and even channeling your energies into reading,
athletics, creative pursuits, or Christian fellowship.
5. Corporate body life and worship enhance our growth in
Christian virtue. We need not only God’s Spirit to cultivate virtue but also
deep relationships within the body of Christ, by which we can grow in virtue
and diminish the hold of sin in our lives. Did you know that, except for
self-control, every virtue in the “fruit of the Spirit” list (Gal. 5:22–23) is
corporate, not individual? Thus we ought to attend to those reciprocal (“one
another”) commands, since deep body life helps us grow in virtue. Furthermore,
by truly worshiping together, we become spiritually and emotionally mature; we
move beyond our own self-defined interests to concern for the larger common
good in Christ. Our emotions are shaped by what we care about, and a deepened
commitment to one another will help develop a deepened character.5
6. Our emotions do not define us, but they must be directed
by other, more important factors: our status in Christ, right choices,
commitments, and promises. Our culture celebrates “authenticity.” We’re told
that it’s hypocritical to “go through the motions” of prayer and worship or
showing kindness and expressing gratitude even though we don’t feel like doing
these things. But emotions are very unstable and are only part of who we are.
And what about our will and our choices and the commitments we have made? What
about character formation? I may not presently feel the love God has for me—or
maybe I don’t feel it to the same degree all the time—but that doesn’t change
the objective love God has for me and how He has displayed this in the cross of
Christ and adopted me as His child (John 3:16; 1 John 3:1, 16). I must trust God’s
promise to me. And emotions often follow when we “step into” making the right
choices, keeping our commitments, reminding ourselves of God’s love. In fact,
we are called to cultivate a frame of mind that is shaped by God’s Word and the
cross of Christ so that we will choose to give thanks (1 Thess. 5:18) even when
we may not feel thankful; that we will choose to rejoice in Christ despite
negative circumstances (Phil. 4:4, 9–13; cf. Hab. 3:17–19); that we will set
our hope on God and take courage in the Lord and His enduring kingdom when the
world seems to be crumbling all around us and evil prevailing (Ps. 27:4; 42:5,
11; 43:5; 6:1–2; cf. 71:14; John 16:33). You see, these are not only commanded
for us but also are to be enacted by us.6 We have a duty to be hopeful, joyful,
thankful, and courageous, and we must intentionally cultivate a frame of mind
that doesn’t despair or give way to grumbling: “Prepare your minds for action,
keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to
you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 1:13). We must take control of
our thinking and acknowledge (“reckon”) the reality of certain things even when
we can’t feel them (Rom. 6:11).
Although some Christians think they shouldn’t act until they
feel a sense of delight about doing it, duty has its place. It is much like
teaching manners and politeness to children; while it may be perfunctory and
mechanical at the outset, children can grow to take pleasure in being polite
and bringing blessing to others because it has become habitual—second nature—in
their lives. Likewise, godly character is not automatic; we are colaborers with
God, who is at work within us (1 Cor. 3:7–8; Phil. 2:12). Paul commands Timothy
to “discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness” (1 Tim. 4:7–8).
If you want to overcome the seven deadly sins in your life,
this guidance from Scripture can steer us toward the path toward
Christ-likeness so that Christ might be formed in us (Gal. 4:19).
Written by Paul Copan
Paul Copan is the Pledger Family Chair of Philosophy and Ethics at Palm Beach Atlantic University (FL). He is the coauthor of An Introduction to Biblical Ethics: Walking in the Way of Wisdom (IVP Academic, 2014).
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