The Seven Deadly Sins, Aren’t.

When God’s gifts become our gods.

When Anger Becomes the Atmosphere

I grew up in a house where there was a screaming fight every single day. Anger wasn’t an event; it was the daily weather forecast. By the time I left home, anger felt like it was just how people communicated.

Years later, during my first marriage, I got into listening to talk radio. I had a 10-minute commute to work. I’d tune into a host I agreed with, and by the time I walked into the office, I was furious about whatever topic he had discussed. I’d get home, and 24 hour news would be on in the background, further fueling that fire.

It permeated everything. I became cynical, sharp in my comments. The anger affected the people closest to me and eventually contributed to the end of my marriage.

At some point, I finally saw it clearly: getting angry about the news didn’t change anything. It just made me miserable, and miserable to be around. But the damage had been done. Walking around with a furrowed brow had become my default state.

Then one day, due to a heated dispute at our daughter’s school, a man on our local school board called my wife, was abusive, and made her cry.

I got on the phone. As he tried to explain himself, I cut him off: “If you EVER speak to my wife again, I will come to your home and I will beat the hell out of you. Are we clear?” Even there, it wasn't pure. It was still rough, still human. But it was protecting something - instead of destroying everything.

Same wrath. Completely different target.

One was poison leaking everywhere. The other was a fence around someone I loved.

Righteous anger must still submit to restraint; the moment it seeks domination instead of protection, it’s already crossed the line. I’d made progress, but I wasn’t there yet.

What We’ve Missed About the Seven

We all know the seven deadly sins:

• Pride

• Greed

• Lust

• Envy

• Gluttony

• Wrath

• Sloth

The church has warned against them for centuries. We treat them like diseases to be eradicated, demons to be suppressed, proof that something is fundamentally broken in us.

But here’s the thing: the seven deadly sins, aren’t.

Not at their core. Not as God designed them.

Every one of these “sins” - or more precisely, the capacities beneath them - is a God-given capacity or gift that has been twisted into something it wasn’t meant to be. He designed us with these attributes, for our own good. The problem is two-fold: Where do we point them, and how far we take them.

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”
James 1:17

Pride? That’s self-worth detached from God, making yourself the ultimate reference and architect of your accomplishments. The original intention? To give us a feeling of self-worth.

Greed? That’s accumulation and hoarding for oneself without love. God gave us the ability to build, create and to provide. The drive for “more” isn’t evil, hoarding it is.

Lust? That’s sexual desire disconnected from love and commitment. But sexual pleasure is a gift to be shared between a loving, committed couple.

Wrath is anger ungoverned by love. But we were given anger to fuel us against injustice. To defend righteousness. To protect the good. Remember, Jesus flipped tables.

Gluttony? That’s allowing food to rule you instead of having it serve your body. God gave us taste buds and delicious foods. He made food pleasurable. Enjoying it isn’t a sin, but being a slave to it, is.

“I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything.
1 Corinthians 6:12

Sloth is misunderstood. I thought it was laziness, but it refers to spiritual apathy – resistance to love and duty. Although I still believe laziness certainly is a part of it. But God commanded the Sabbath. He knows we need rest. Any type A person understands burnout from always going 100 MPH. Resting isn’t a sin, but refusing to do what you ought to be doing and pretending you’re just “taking a break,” is.

Envy? That’s resentment at another’s accomplishments, as if it diminishes your own. But God gave us the capacity to appreciate excellence in others and want it for ourselves. To inspire us to do better. When we ignore that, bitterness replaces appreciation.

"No natural desires are bad in themselves. They are good, but they have gone wrong."
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Good by Design, Twisted in Use

Every one of these characteristics were built into us for good. The problem lies in the application and amount. However for some, desires aren’t waiting to be redirected; they have to be refused outright if they are to stop ruling you.

Jesus didn't come to diminish us or kill our desires, but to put them under a higher allegiance. He came to show us what a fully alive man looks like.

Look at how He lived. He ate and drank and attended feasts – look at how much of the New Testament involves him eating and having dinner with others. So much so that religious people accused Him of excess. He felt real anger at injustice and hypocrisy. He wept at the death of a friend. He loved deeply, with the full range of human emotion.

He wasn’t a diminished man carefully managing His dangerous impulses. He was the most fully alive person who ever walked the earth, with every faculty aimed at the Kingdom.

That’s the model. Not repression: reorientation. Not killing desire: training it.

For men rebuilding in the second half of life, this reframe matters.

Many of us spent decades either suppressing parts of ourselves we were taught were bad or letting those parts run wild because we didn’t know what else to do with them. Neither of those approaches work.

Suppression builds pressure until something blows (I’ve been there, many, many times). Indulgence hollows you out from the inside. Think about how you feel after you have one of those days where you overly gorge on food. I feel gross afterward and wish I’d stopped sooner.

On the “running wild” side, it’s easy to get angry and stay that way. We have a government-media complex designed to rage bait you every minute of the day with outrage porn. And you may not admit it, but once the feeling of conquest is past, sex without connection feels hollow and empty over the long run.

Here’s the alternative: recognize these capacities as gifts. Then use them for their intended purposes.

Your ambition isn’t pride unless you make yourself the only one who benefits. Your anger isn’t wrath unless you let it leak onto people who don’t deserve it. And your desire isn’t lust unless you sever it from love and commitment.

You don’t need to be less. You need a worthy target.

That school board member never called my wife again. The same wrath that used to poison my mornings, finally used to protect someone I loved.

The gifts are good. But they were never meant to take His place.

“They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.”
Romans 1:25

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Vic built and sold ScreenRant.com and GameRant.com, then rebuilt himself in his sixties. He writes at TheRedeemedSecondHalf.com about faith, identity, and the second act.