Vices That Ruin Us
When one thinks about overcoming vices, it usually involves a list of things that adjust how we think or act until we consume the ‘vice’.
We might usually think of a vice as a drug or an intoxicating drink. It might be as innocent as a cup of coffee or a chocolate fix.
One of the problems with most vices, is that we treat them more as a friend than the enemy they are.
Consider a few vices that have been silenced because of our love of the previous. Previous what?
A vice by definition is an immoral or wicked behavior that demands to be obeyed, requiring money and time be spent on it. A vice requires attention until it is satisfied. Once a vice is satisfied it will require being fed again, and many times. Depending on the vice, it may require more than previously needed.
I’m not suggesting that a craving for chocolate is the same as a selfish, sinful thought. I’m not saying a daily coffee is the same as a habitual demand of an intoxicating drink or drug.
Consider these two vices that quickly lead us down a slippery slope, many times before we even know it is happening. Vices are like slave masters. Until we are liberated from their demands, we will excuse our not being able to function unless the beast if fed immediately.
Covetousness is a vice few know owns them.
As covetousness is in and of itself an offensive sin, it is a sin that births other sins. The craving for things left undisciplined will eventually lead us to deceive others to get what we want. The desire to have what we don’t have will lead us to do unthinkable things. The undisciplined desires will lead to places we would otherwise avoid at all costs.
Laziness is a careless neglect of doing what is needed.
The hope to avoid doing what is needed will lead us to a life filled with busy activity, convincing us we are busy people. We’ll fill our days with activity and think that the only way to combat this new busy is to give ourselves to undisciplined rest. We’ll give ourselves to lying in bed until we have to rush out of the house, while missing our reading of the Bible and later convince ourselves we are too busy to read the Bible all together.
These two vices go unnoticed on us because we laugh at our silly vices and how we can’t function without our coffee or chocolate. We have grown numb to the reality that these vices, and others, are not just as innocent as a cup of coffee.
How then should we live?
We should live disciplined lives that honor God and treat sin as the poisonous scorpion it is. Deal with it severely, deal with it immediately, deal with it as a disciplined athlete.
Live as a bondservant of God.
“…be sensible; in all things show yourself to be an example of good deeds, with purity in doctrine, dignity, sound in speech which is beyond reproach, so that the opponent will be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us.” (Titus 2:6-8)
---------------------------------------- updated for grammar and spelling 4/26/18
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