Posted on 10/01/2014 3:54:22 PM PDT by NYer
American culture may have become more enlightened and moved beyond such constricting, old-fashioned ideas like sin and hell, but God hasn’t.
Sin is still serious, hell still exists, and sinners still go there. Or as St. Paul put it, “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived…” (1 Corinthians 6.9)
Of course, there’s hope! By God’s grace, we can turn from our sins and find salvation in Jesus Christ.
But first, we need to acknowledge our sins and that we need saving. And once we are given new life in Christ, the Christian life has just begun, and we are called to cooperate with God’s grace to grow in holiness.
Here is a list of a few sins that are widely accepted in our culture as normal, but that we still need to take seriously:
But what if the person never finds out? What if it’s just for convenience? Or what if it’s for a greater good?
Nope, lying is still lying, and it’s still wrong.
Lying is telling a falsehood with the intention of deceiving, and it’s always wrong because it’s an offense against the Truth, which is Christ (John 14.6).
Remember, lying is the native tongue of the Devil, whom Jesus calls “the father of lies.” (John 8.44) And the deuterocanonical book of Wisdom warns: “lying will destroy your soul.” (Wisdom 1.11)
“Flee from sexual immorality!” (1 Corinthians 6.18)
But can’t we do whatever we want with our bodies? As long as a person consents, anything goes, right?
Wrong. St. Paul says, “Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. [...] You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” (1 Corinthians 6.18-20)
We can sin against our own bodies. God has made us and our sexuality with dignity, value, and order – all of which should be respected and cherished.
And remember that Christ extended this teaching even to lust in one’s heart: “You have heard that it was said, You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
“You shall not steal.” (Exodus 20.15)
Stealing is taking something to which you have no right.
That includes copyrighted material: stealing doesn’t become acceptable simply because you’re on the Internet. Everyone knows this, but many of us do it anyway. Yet theft is a grave sin.
Alcohol is a wonderful gift from God. Jesus turned water into wine, and Christian monks used to make the best beer in the world.
But intentionally drinking too much so as to become drunk and lose control is a sin: “Do not be deceived… drunkards… will not inherit the kingdom of God.” (1 Corinthians 6.9-10) “Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but,” St. Paul offers us the alternative, “be filled with the Spirit!” (Ephesians 5.18)
Some have called this the forgotten vice.
We obviously need to eat, there’s a time for feasting, and food can be wonderfully enjoyable. But, like alcohol, everything must be enjoyed in moderation. Gluttony is an immoderate love of food, and it can have not only serious consequences for our health, but also our soul.
“Enemies of the cross of Christ… their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.” (Philippians 3.18-19)
Hah! That’ll get ‘em good!
It’ll also get you, too.
Justice is important, and any justice which isn’t served by the government will be rectified by God in the end. But as for us right now, God calls us to a higher plane:
“Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. [...] Never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God… To the contrary, ‘if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Romans 12.17, 19-21)
Also, keep in mind Jesus’ important teaching about forgiveness: “If you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (Matthew 6.14-15)
“Oh come on, nobody actually advocates murder!” Are you sure about that?
Murder is the voluntary and direct killing of an innocent human life. Even if the person is young and still developing in her mother’s womb. Even if the person is handicapped. Even if the person is sick and difficult to care for. Even if the person is old and may die soon anyway. Abortion and, increasingly, euthanasia are widely accepted and practiced throughout our society.
Yet murder is an offense against God because humans are made in His image (Genesis 1.27).
So let us all repent of our sins and seek God’s mercy in Christ!
LOL!
I’m strongly encouraging my 17-year-old to meet that very large feller in green.
Well, we could talk about drunkenness ... but it’s only Wednesday.
The Seven Deadly Sins: Lust [Ecumenical]
Five Biblical Lists of Mortal Sins
On Sloth and the Noonday Devil
Anger, Hatred and Irrational Rage
The Deadliest of the Deadlies, Today
The Meanest of the Seven Deadly Sins?
Envy A Capital Sin [Ecumenical]
Understanding God's Anger: Compline, Anger, and God
Catholic Word of the Day: CAPITAL SINS, 10-26-10
Anger and the Anger of God (Quotes from Scripture)
Lists Every Catholic Should be Familiar With: The 7 Capital Sins and their Contrary Virtues
Prayer to be Freed of the Seven Deadly Sins
The Seven Deadly Sins Revisited: Greed
"Care for an Entrée With Your Entrée?" Gluttony, the Forgotten Sin
Seven Deadly Sins: Sloth or 'Acedia'
Seven deadly sins alive and well today, says Jesuit journal
The Virtue-Driven Life
The Virtues (counteracting the REAL Seven Deadly Sins)
What are Capital Sins? [Seven Deadly Sins]
Satan's Arsenal: "The Seven Deadly Sins"
The Anatomy of Envy
Gluttony can be buying too many purses, shoes or clothes, too. (((sigh)))
Ha! It is related to the topic. What’s the most embarrassing drunk you’ve ever been before?
I Corinthians 6:9-11
Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, 10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
Why does the author start with a partial quote of this verse and then pick a different list of sins?
Why does the author quote sources which are rejected as canonical by Protestant Christians?
Idolatry is a sin which will prevent many so-called Christians from entering Heaven because true Christianity requires repentance from sins such as this rather than making excuses for why it is acceptable to kneel before, pray toward, and offer incense and flowers to statues.
Rather than teaching that so-called “veneration” is a required practice for Christians, church leaders should be warning everyone that such practices will result in being denied entrance into the Heavenly kingdom and being sent to eternal fire.
Joshua 6:18
And you, by all means abstain from the accursed things, lest you become accursed when you take of the accursed things, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it.
Exodus 20:4-5a
You shall not make for yourself a carved imageany likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them.
Jeremiah 44:17 & 22
[Idolaters:]
But we will certainly do whatever has gone out of our own mouth, to burn incense to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her, as we have done...
[Jeremiah:]
So the Lord could no longer bear it, because of the evil of your doings and because of the abominations which you committed. Therefore your land is a desolation, an astonishment, a curse, and without an inhabitant, as it is this day.
Not to be repeated on a public forum, but it involved a hot tub.
Awesome! Send me a private message then.
BELIEVE!
So...are all the sins equal? ? I mean being fat is same as being fag as same as murder???
BELIEVE!
“Any old or new fashioned sin can send one to hell. Only forgiveness through Jesus Christ atonement and believe in and follow the Lord saves one.”
Romans 6:23 -
For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord
2 through 7 are clearly damnable, but somehow I’m missing pride, self-esteem, accidie.
And number 1... in the East we do not regard lying as indefeasibly evil. St. John Chrysostom wrote in defense of spiritual fathers deceiving their charges for their benefit, giving a medical analogy of a physician who knows his charge, who is roaring for wine, would be killed by wine and helped by water, using an unglazed cup filled with water with its lip smeared with wine and telling his charge that it is filled with wine. There is also the case of one of the recent Athonite fathers who was vouchsafed prophetic gifts, and knowing by this gift that a brother was burdened with a serious and unconfessed sin, went to the brother and falsely confessed having falling into the self-same sin. The brother was moved to compunction, confessed and his soul was healed.
Left off was to covet-the desiring of having things that others have. Isn’t that what 40% of the nation wants today?
I had a bible scholar once tell me that the commandment for lying is sort of mistranslated, and the translation is actually closer to what we think of as a combination of "perjury" and "fraud", basically lying is a sin only when another will be harmed by the lie or the liar will gain something through the lie they wouldn't have been entitled to otherwise. It was never meant that you were breaking a commandment and God was going to send you to hell because you told your wife she didn't look fat in that dress when she really did.
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ANY sin will send you to hell and all it takes is one.
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