Msgr. Pope, ping!
2 great lessons from “The Screwtape Letters”, by C.S. Lewis:
1. Satan informs his student temptor that the greatest lie they can trick people into believing is “we don’t exist”.
2. “Cards are as good as murder if cards do the trick.”
Meaning that the sins they tempt people into committing, need not be spectacular, as long as it costs them their soul.
Wow, those are hard.
Here’s another one:
Put to death, then, the parts of you that are earthly: immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and the greed that is idolatry. Because of these the wrath of God is coming [upon the disobedient]. By these you too once conducted yourselves, when you lived in that way. But now you must put them all away: anger, fury, malice, slander, and obscene language out of your mouths. Stop lying to one another, since you have taken off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed, for knowledge, in the image of its creator.
Col 3:5-10
bkmk
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The Virtues (counteracting the REAL Seven Deadly Sins)
What are Capital Sins? [Seven Deadly Sins]
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The Anatomy of Envy
The scripture actually teaches that even just one sin is enough to make you guilty of the whole law.
Jas_2:10 For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.
Nor are sins such as lust, adultery, homosexuality, fornication, or murder, limited to physical acts. In fact, to even think on these things and commit them in your mind makes you guilty of the crime.
Mat_5:28 But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.
Whenever the law is spoken of as a means for salvation, it is always in the context of perfect obedience to the law. Which, even when achieved, is not even grounds for a reward, as it is your duty to be perfectly obedient to the law of God.
Luk_17:10 So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.
This is why it is foolish to speak of gradations of sin, when in every instance of sin you have broken the law and merited death.
But we are dead to the law, and are no longer under its power. So though we sin like Paul, doing those things we would not, yet it is no longer we who sin, but sin which dwells in our members.
“For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.”
(Rom 7:5-19)
Therefore they are false teachers who say that righteousness can ever be by the law, and who teach that some sins are lesser than others, when just one damns you entirely. We must rely, then, on the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ, which comes by faith only. And this faith, though not the mere belief of devils, is such a faith that produces good works, but is not the result of good works.