3.06.2005 | PEWSLAG

No, this isn't the name of a funky new men's cologne. Rather, it's a mnemonic device to help remember the seven deadly sins. Which are, drum roll, maestro, if you please:

    Pride

    Envy

    Wrath

    Sloth

    Lust

    Avarice

    Gluttony

My personal favorite has always been gluttony, but I've indulged in all of these at one time or another. The good news is that I know this, and make every attempt to not repeat any of them. The bad news is that the pride of the pack, pun intended, Pride, will likely force me to sin yet again.

Pride may be considered the father of all other sins, although wide acceptance of this might put some some Christian sin accountants out of business (you know who they are). One can make an argument that it is pride that causes us to commit all other sins. For example, consider gluttony, which on its face might seem to have nothing to do with your pride.

But it does. Gluttony is, among other things, a waste of God's gift of food to us; an unneeded consumption that is blind to the possible needs of others. Blind also is it to our own needs -- our pride tells us that it does not matter what we stuff down our gullets, even though there is ample evidence that an ample girth (the natural result of gluttony) is not what God had intended for us. In short, our pride blinds us to both the needs of others, ourselves, and the requirement that we be faithful stewards of the land and our bodies, both gifts from God.

Envy is easy to attribute to Pride. Only someone who thinks that he is better than someone else would envy what that person has. Or, put it in the form of a question you might have asked yourself: "Hey, Joe over there has something, and since I'm so much smarter/stronger/handsome (fill in your strong points), why shouldn't I have it?"

C.S. Lewis tells us about Pride (found via Reverend Mike's House of Homiletic Hash):

Pride can often be used to beat down the simpler vices.... Many a man has overcome cowardice, or lust, or ill-temper by learning to think that they are beneath his dignity -- that is, by Pride. The devil laughs. He is perfectly content to see you become chaste and brave and self-controlled provided, all the time, he is setting up in you the Dictatorship of Pride.... For Pride is a spiritual cancer: it eats up the very possibility of love, or contentment, or even common sense.

And, last but not least, Paul wrote to the church at Corinth to warn us against pride:

1 Corinthians 4:6
..."Do not go beyond what is written." Then you will not take pride in one man over against another. 7 For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?

We are all prideful creatures. Therein lies the problem. As with most things, the answer also lies in Scripture, in this instance Paul's letter to the Galatians (6:4):

Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else...

Amen.

technorati tag Christianity