LIBERTY UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF DIVINITY
Describe the seven deadly sin as highlighted in the Bible
Submitted to Dr. James Sulfridge
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the completion of
DSMN 500
Discipleship Ministries
By
Anthony Bean
Describe the seven deadly sin as highlighted in the Bible
According to Catholic theology, the seven deadly sins are seven vices or negative character
qualities that, left unchecked, will result in a host of other sins and eventually kill a person’s
soul. The seven “deadly” sins are pride, envy, gluttony, lust, anger, greed, and sloth. The list was
first delineated by Pope Gregory the Great in the sixth century. Thomas Aquinas later
expounded on the idea. In the fourteenth century, Dante wrote his epic poem Inferno in which
he pictured Purgatory as having seven terraces corresponding to the seven deadly sins.
The seven deadly sins are also called the seven capital sins or the seven cardinal sins—cardinal
in this context meaning, “of basic importance” or “extremely grave.” The seven deadly sins are
considered to be the most basic sins that plague humanity and the sins that are most likely to
beset us. Each of the seven deadly sins leads to other sins; for example, anger can lead to evil
speaking, violence, or murder.
Here is a brief description of each of the seven deadly sins:
Pride — An inflated, unrealistic sense of your self-worth.
Envy — The feeling that you deserve the possessions, success, virtues, or talents of another
person.
Gluttony — An excessive desire for the pleasure of eating and drinking.
Lust — A selfish focus on sex or a desire to have sexual pleasure with someone other than your
spouse.
Anger — An excessive, improper desire to exact revenge.
Greed — A strong desire for possessions, especially for possessions belonging to another.
Sloth — Lack of effort in the face of a necessary task, causing it to go undone (or done badly).
A common misconception about the seven deadly sins is that they are sins that God will not
forgive. The Roman Catholic Church does not teach the sins to be unforgivable; in Catholic
doctrine, the seven deadly sins can lead to mortal sins, which will send a person to hell
immediately upon death, unless such sins are repented of before death. Catholicism also
teaches that the seven deadly sins can be overcome with the seven virtues (humility, gratitude,
charity, temperance, chastity, patience, and diligence).
Is the idea of seven deadly sins biblical? Yes and no. Proverbs 6:16–19 lists seven things that are
detestable to God: 1) haughty eyes, 2) a lying tongue, 3) hands that shed innocent blood, 4) a
heart that plots evil, 5) feet that are quick to rush to do wrong, 6) a false witness, and 7) a man
who stirs up dissension among brothers. Of course, this list is not what most people understand
as the “seven deadly sins.”
Yes, pride, envy, etc., are sins that the Bible condemns; however, they are never called “the
seven deadly sins” in the Bible. The traditional list of seven deadly sins can function as a way to
categorize the many different sins that exist. Nearly every sin could be placed in one of those
seven categories.
In the final analysis, no sin is any more “deadly” than any other sin. All sin results in death
(Romans 6:23). Even one sin condemns a person as a lawbreaker (James 2:10). Praise be to God
that Jesus Christ took the penalty for all of our sins, including the “seven deadly sins.” By the
grace of God, through faith in Christ, we can be forgiven (Matthew 26:28; Acts 10:43; Ephesians
1:7).
seven deadly sins, also called seven capital sins or seven cardinal sins, in Roman
Catholic theology, the seven vices that spur other sins and further immoral behaviour. First
enumerated by Pope Gregory I (the Great) in the 6th century and elaborated in the 13th
century by St. Thomas Aquinas, they are (1) vainglory, or pride, (2) greed, or covetousness,
(3) lust, or inordinate or illicit sexual desire, (4) envy, (5) gluttony, which is usually understood
to include drunkenness, (6) wrath, or anger, and (7) sloth. Each of these can be overcome with
the seven corresponding virtues of (1) humility, (2) charity, (3) chastity, (4) gratitude,
(5) temperance, (6) patience, and (7) diligence.
The seven deadly sins can be thought of as dispositions toward sin and separation from
God. Lust, for example, could result in adultery, which is a mortal sin, or could lead to
somewhat less intentional immoral thoughts that would be classified as venial sins. The deadly
sins were a popular theme in the morality plays, literature, and art of the Middle Ages in
Europe.
In the Old Testament, sin is directly linked to the monotheistic beliefs of the Hebrews.
Sinful acts are viewed as a defiance of God’s commandments, and sin itself is regarded as an
attitude of defiance or hatred of God. The New Testament accepts the Judaic concept of sin but
regards humanity’s state of collective and individual sinfulness as a condition that Jesus came
into the world to heal. Redemption through Christ could enable men to overcome sin and thus
to become whole. Both Christianity and Judaism see sin as a deliberate violation of the will of
God and as being attributable to human pride, self-centredness, and disobedience. While
insisting more strongly than most religions upon the gravity of sin, both in its essence and in its
consequences, both Christianity and Judaism have emphatically rejected the
Manichaean doctrine that either the created world as a whole or the material part of it is
inherently evil. Christianity holds rather that evil is the result of the misuse of their free will by
created beings and that the body, with its passions and impulses, is to be neither ignored
nor despised but sanctified; in the Bible, the “flesh” that is spoken of disparagingly is not
the human body but human nature in rebellion against God.
Theologians divide sin into “actual” and “original.” Actual sin is sin in the ordinary sense of
the word and consists of evil acts, whether of thought, word, or deed. Original sin (the term can
be misleading) is the morally vitiated condition in which one finds oneself at birth as a member
of a sinful race. In Genesis 3, this is depicted as an inherited consequence of the first human
sin, i.e., that of Adam. Theologians differ as to the interpretation of this narrative, but it is
agreed that original sin, however mysterious its origin and nature may be, arises from human
beings having come into the world not as isolated individuals but as members of
a corporate race inheriting both good and evil features from its past history.
Actual sin is subdivided, on the basis of its gravity, into mortal and venial. This distinction is
often difficult to apply but can hardly be avoided. A mortal sin is a deliberate turning away from
God; it is a sin in a grave matter that is committed in full knowledge and with the full consent of
the sinner’s will, and until it is repented it cuts the sinner off from God’s sanctifying grace.
A venial sin usually involves a less important matter and is committed with less self-awareness
of wrongdoing. While a venial sin weakens the sinner’s union with God, it is not a deliberate
turning from him and so does not wholly block the inflow of sanctifying grace.
Actual sin is also subdivided into material and formal. Formal sin is both wrong in itself and
known by the sinner to be wrong; it therefore involves him in personal guilt. Material sin
consists of an act that is wrong in itself (because contrary to God’s law and human moral
nature) but which the sinner does not know to be wrong and for which he is therefore not
personally culpable.
