Proverbs 16:18, Luke 18:9-14
Most of us know of the 7 deadly sins; however, in our thinking, while not the most attractive of personal attributes, they can hardly compete with the more grand SINS of SEXISM and RACISM and the blood-letting of cruel dictators. These 7 seem so small- pride, envy, anger, sloth, greed, gluttony, and lust – that while appearing small and trivial in comparison with some of humanity’s other “bigger” sins, these sins at least keep it PERSONAL to us… it becomes my sin, OUR sin. Hence it is in the progressive nature of these 7 that we discover the peculiar deadliness of them and they are all so pervasive that we are all exposed to them. Pride as the first of the deadly sins is really the ROOT of the other sins. Pride can lead to spectacularly bad judgments. We know this, we’ve experienced it! Pride is the sin that is the refusal to stay in one’s proper place…it is worship wrongly ordered…the thinking of oneself as the Creator rather than the created. With ALL sin we have to NAME it, CLAIM it, and MOVE on in Christ to more significant lives. Only a complete hope in God to change us or fix us when we cannot fix ourselves is the ANSWER! Christians believe that the only means of understanding our sin with appropriate seriousness and without despair is our knowledge of a God who manages to be both gracious and truthful. God Loves Ya;)
