Seven Capital Virtues vs. Seven Deadly Sins
There are many many different sins not listed here. However, many of these great sins, like murder, adultery, stealing, etc., have root causes, like Pride. Pride was the devil's great sin, as he wanted to be like God, and rebelled.
There are 7 basic kinds of sin, that lead to all others, known as the Seven Deadly sins. It takes heroic virtue in most cases to overcome these. Most of us are afflicted greatly with at least one or two of these. And once you give in to one of these sins, the spirits of the other 6 will be only too glad to come into your soul also. All of these sins will lead you directly to hell. 1 John 2:16, "For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is not of the Father but is of the world." In the above scripture, St. John talks about three basic types of sin - The lust of the flesh (gluttony, lust, sloth), the lust of the eyes (greed), and the pride of life (pride, envy, anger). Overcoming these things should be our life's work. How do you get these virtues? Prayer, prayer, prayer. And fasting also helps, a lot (Mark 9:29). After all, if our enemy is the flesh, it would seem that to overcome this enemy, you must starve it, just like you would if you could starve your enemy to death in wartime. |
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