An Overview of the Seven Deadly Sins

Archdiocese of Washington ^ | 02-20-18 | Msgr. Charles Pope

[Salvation]

An Overview of the Seven Deadly Sins

Msgr. Charles Pope • February 20, 2018 •

The Seven Deadly Sins, Hieronymus Bosch

Do you know what the Seven Deadly Sins are? It is valuable to name and begin to understand these deep drives of sin within us because the more we do so the more we can grow in self-knowledge. Further, it helps us to “know their moves” and gain mastery over them. As they stir deep within us we can recognize evidence of this and begin to take greater authority over them.

Too many Christians know little about twisted nature of sin. They just know they’re a little (or very!) messed up and can’t seem to figure out why. Have you ever gone to the doctor, not knowing what was wrong with you, and left feeling better just because you finally knew that what ailed you had a name and a cure? Being able to name our demons is an essential part of growth and healing.

Here are the Seven Deadly Sins, with a brief description of each:

• Pride – the quality of loving and esteeming oneself more than is proper and at the same time denigrating the goodness of others
  • Pride also stirs us to reject the lawful authority of others, including God, over us and to refuse appropriate submission.
• Greed – excessive desire for wealth and possessions
  • It is not wrong to desire what we need, but through greed we acquire far beyond what is reasonable and fail to be generous. Through greed we can also come to see the things of this world as more precious than the things of Heaven. Greed has been well described as the insatiable desire for more.
• Lust – excessive or inappropriate desires or thoughts of a sexual nature
  • It is not wrong to experience sexual desire per se but Lust moves this to become excessive (all that matters), or for the object of it to be inappropriate (g. sexually fantasizing about someone other than a spouse). More broadly, lust is thought of as an excessive love of others that makes the love of God secondary.
• Anger – inordinate and uncontrolled feelings of hatred and wrath
  • It is not always wrong to experience anger, especially in the presence of injustice. But anger here is understood as a deep drive which we indulge and wherein we excessively cling to angry and hateful feelings for others. This kind of anger most often seeks revenge.
• Gluttony – overindulgence in or overconsumption of anything to the point of waste.
  • We usually think of gluttony in terms of food and drink, but it can extend to other areas as well. This sin usually leads to a kind of laziness and self-satisfaction that allows little room for God and the spiritual life. It may also cause us to be less able to help the poor.
• Envy – sorrow or sadness at the goodness or excellence of another person because one believes it makes him appear to be less so.
  • If I envy someone I want to diminish or undermine his excellence. Note that envy is not the same as jealousy. If I am jealous of you I want what you have. In contrast, if I am envious of you, I want to diminish or destroy what is good or excellent in you. St. Augustine called envy the diabolical sin because of the way it seeks to eliminate excellence and goodness in others.
• Sloth – sorrow or sadness at the good things God wants to do in one’s life
  • • Most people think of sloth as laziness, but it is really an avoidance of God. In sloth, I avoid God because I fear or dislike what He can do for me. Some people avoid God through laziness, but others avoid Him by becoming workaholics, claiming that they are too busy to pray, to attend Mass, or to think about spiritual things.

In the days and weeks ahead, I will be devoting a separate article to each of them, but for today I wanted to offer just a quick definition.

[Salvation]

Video

[Salvation]

Monsignor Pope Ping!

[Craftmore]

The 7 deadly sins are a creation of man not God.No where in the Bible does it list 7 deadly sins.All sins are equally bad in Gods eyes.

[rjsimmon]

Nice summation, Monsignor. You left out a very salient point, thought. In opposition to the 7 Deadly Sins, there were 7 Virtues.

1.Faith is belief in the right things (including the virtues!).
2.Hope is taking a positive future view, that good will prevail.
3.Charity is concern for, and active helping of, others.
4.Fortitude is never giving up.
5.Justice is being fair and equitable with others.
6.Prudence is care of and moderation with money.
7.Temperance is moderation of needed things and abstinence from things which are not needed.

[metmom]

ALL sin is deadly because all sin is disobedience to God.

James 2:8-11 If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.

[Hebrews 11:6]

Over a half-century later, the anagram our 10th grade history teacher taught us still sticks with me: PEWLAGS.

* P = Pride

* E = Envy

* W = Wrath

* L = Lust

* A = Anger

* G = Greed

* S = Sloth

[Hebrews 11:6]

Messed it up. Should have been:

* P = Pride

* E = Envy

* W = Wrath

* L = Lust

* A = Avarice

* G = Gluttony

* S = Sloth

[ealgeone]

The 7 deadly sins are a creation of man not God.No where in the Bible does it list 7 deadly sins.All sins are equally bad in Gods eyes.

Spot on. All sin separates us from God.

We are reconciled to God through faith in Christ.

[richardtavor]

Great point. Doesn’t fit the Catholic Church teaching though. Of course, many doctrines were added by the “Church” to the actual Bible since Constantine’s formation of the modern Church.

[raygunfan]

ignorant anti catholics always seem to forget:

1 John 5:16-17: “If any one sees his brother committing what is not a deadly sin, he will ask, and God will give him life for those whose sin is not deadly. There is sin which is deadly; I do not say that one is to pray for that. All wrongdoing is sin, **but there is sin which is not deadly”**

THUS, THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS IS, AS ALL CATHOLICISM, BIBLICALLY BASED....

now try again.

[painter]

You know you just “kicked” a hornets nest here.

[lightman]

Every Christian should read the chapter titled "Pride: The Devil's Stronghold" in Diary of a Russian Priest at the beginning of each Lent.

[raygunfan]

the truth of the historicity of the His catholic church is kryptonite to the greater ignorant christian community.

[CMRosary]

The 7 deadly sins are a creation of man not God.

Not so. They are, in fact, entirely Biblical.

No where in the Bible does it list 7 deadly sins.

This is partially true. They are in the Bible, just not in a single list (they appear to have been compiled first by Pope Gregory I around AD 600):

1. Lust: 2 Timothy 2:22; see also Job 31:1, Matthew 5:28, Philippians 4:8, James 1:14-15, 1 Peter 2:11 and 1 John 2:16;
2. Gluttony: 1 Corinthians 10:31; see also Psalm 78:17-19, Philippians 3:19-20, Proverbs 23:1-3, Proverbs 23:19-21 and 1 Corinthians 3:16-17;
3. Greed: Hebrews 13:5; see also Exodus 20:17, Proverbs 11:24, Proverbs 28:25, Ecclesiastes 5:10, Philippians 4:6 and 1 Timothy 6:9-10;
4. Sloth: Proverbs 6:6; see also Proverbs 13:4, Proverbs 24:33-34, Romans 12:11-13, Colossians 3:23 and 2 Thessalonians 3:10;
5. Wrath: Romans 12:19; see also Psalm 37:8, Proverbs 14:29, Proverbs 15:1, Ephesians 4:26-27, Colossians 3:8 and James 1:19-20;
6. Envy: Proverbs 14:30; see also Job 5:2, Psalm 37:1, Proverbs 24:19-20, Ecclesiastes 4:4, Galatians 5:26 and James 3:14-16;
7. Pride: Jeremias 9:23-24; see also Proverbs 8:13, Proverbs 16:18, Romans 12:16, 1 Corinthians 13:4, Galatians 6:3 and James 4:6-7.

[Craftmore]

I repeat man created that list,not God.Of course they are sins,but again I say God does not label only 7 sins as deadly.If you were to make a list today perhaps you would choose a different 7.Doesnt change the fact it is a fabrication of man.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Interesting. I had learned in college that envy was the positive one, motivating me to go out and obtain the things the other person has, while jealousy was the negative one. It turns out I had it exactly backwards.

PING!

[caww]

It is always dangerous to attempt to list sins according to their degree of seriousness. In one sense, all sins are equal in that they all separate us from God.....as is written.... “For the wages of sin is death …” (Romans 6:23), this applies to all sin, whether in thought, word, or deed.

At the same time, it seems obvious that some sins are worse than others in both motivation and consequences of how they and should be judged accordingly..... Stealing a loaf of bread is vastly different than exterminating a million people.

Whether our sins are relatively small or great, they will place us in hell apart from God’s grace.

The good news is that Jesus paid the penalty for our sins and the sins of the whole world at the Cross. If we will repent and turn to Jesus in faith, our sins will be forgiven, and we will receive the gift of eternal life.

When we all stand at the foot of the cross the ground is level......

[Salvation]

The video had the virtues.

[Salvation]

**In the days and weeks ahead, I will be devoting a separate article to each of them, but for today I wanted to offer just a quick definition.**

He might cover the virtues in the detailed accounting of each capital sin.

[Salvation]

All sins, though come from these seven sins.