Six Sins Typical of a Christ-less Life

It is interesting to look at the six sins which Paul selects as being, as it were, typical of the Christ-less life.

First, there is revelry (komos). This is an interesting word. Originally komos was the band of friends who accompanied a victor home from the games, singing his praises and celebrating his triumph as they went. Later it came to mean a noisy band of  revelers who swept their way through the city streets at night, a band of roisterers, what, in Regency England, would have been called a rout. It describes the kind of revelry which lowers  a man's self and is a nuisance to others.

Second, there is drunkenness  (methe). To the Greeks drunkenness was a particularly disgraceful thing. They were a  wine-drinking people. Even children drank wine. Breakfast was called akratisma, and consisted of a slice of bread dipped in wine. For all that, drunkenness was considered specially shameful, for the wine the Greek drink was  much diluted, and was drunk because the water supply was inadequate and dangerous. This was a vice which not only a Christian but any respectable heathen also  would have condemned.

Third, there was immorality (koite). Koite literally means a bed and has in it the meaning of the desire for the forbidden bed. This was the typical heathen sin. The word brings to mind the man who sets no value on fidelity and who takes his pleasure when and where he will.

Fourth, there is shamelessness (aserlgia). Aselgeia is one of the ugliest words in the Greek language. It does not describe only immorality; it describes the man who is lost to shame. Most people seek to conceal their evil deeds, but the the man in whose heart there is aselgela is long past that. He does not care who sees him; he does not care what people think of him. Aselgia is the quality of the man who does publicly tthe things  which are unbecoming for any man to do.

Fifth, there is contention (eris). Eris is the spirit that is born of unbridled and unholy competition. It comes from the desire for place and power and prestige and the hatred of being surpassed. It is essentially the sin which places self in the foreground and is the entire negation of Christian love.

Sixth, there is envy (zelos). Zelos need not be a bad word. It can describe the noble emulation of a man who, when confronted with greatness of character, wishes to attain it. But it can also mean that envy which grudges a man his nobility and his preeminence. It describes here the spirit which cannot be content with what it has and looks with jealous eye on every blessing given to someone else and denied to itself.

Prayer:
Father, we know that sin is missing the mark and doing that which we should not do. Give us grace to overcome, especially those sins that are typical of the Christ-less life.

In His Service,
Terry Phillips