As I was looking up words on Google this morning – something I frequently do as I write – I came across lists of the Heavenly virtues paired with the seven deadly sins. Chastity with lust, charity with greed; diligence, sloth; humility pride etc. I was intrigued, especially when some list paired the sins differently than others- Humility with sloth, pride with truth, greed with tolerance. It made me wonder…
Do the virtues match up Biblically? What are the heavenly virtues?
The truth is I don’t think there’s much agreement on what the virtues are. But I remembered about the Fruits of the Spirit from Galatians 5:22-23. So…
I looked up the Fruit of the Spirit and tried to pair them with the seven deadly sins…or more arcuately the nine deadly sins.
Why nine? You may ask.
How could I get nine?
Well, there’s actually nine listed in “The Enneagram: A Christian Perspective by Richard Rohr and Andreas Ebert. I reference this book a lot, because I love it. Written by a Catholic Monk and Protestant Theologian they talk a great deal about all nine sins. Each enneagram number is actually paired with a sin. And…another reason nine worked out is…
There are Nine Fruits of the Spirit.
Tada! – Nine just works!
After messing around with the pairings, a bit. Here’s how my parings ended up. (The Enneagram Sin pairing is from Ebert and Rohr’s book.)
Wrath or rather Anger just went so well with Peace, it’s opposite. I didn’t have to think too hard on this. Finding peace amid situations or people that inspire anger is just exactly what the trick of anger is.
Pride and Gentleness was a bit harder to settle on. This was partly due to that fact that Goodness, Kindness, and Gentleness all sound so similar. But…I ultimately landed on it because there’s something about someone who has the chops to be prideful – knows he or she can Lord it over others – and yet he or she is gentle to others, soft, mild mannered. There’s a benignity, a tolerance towards people who are different.
Deceit, one the of the non-seven sins, was also hard to match up. Again, this was mostly due to the fact that Goodness, Kindness, and Gentleness are so similar. But one of the synonyms of goodness is truth – and that’s sure the opposite of deceit.
Envy, one of my major pitfalls when it comes to sin, always seemed like it matched badly in the virtues and seven deadly sins lists. Yet, rejiggering this list I found Kindness – the way it was matched before – worked best. It’s about not being that green monster to people, but being kind.
Avarice or Greed, number five on the enneagram, just went so nicely with Patience I didn’t think much about it. You want something and want it now is very much the opposite of being patience. That doesn’t mean you don’t want stuff, you’re just patient about getting stuff.
Fear, the second and final non-seven sin, is my enneagram number and you’d think it would match up with hope. But, alas, hope is not one of the Fruits of the Spirit. Yet, what does hope often bring…? Joy! At least according to C.S. Lewis Surprised by Joy. And my personal experience as a six would attest to this truth. The opposite of Fear is joy, aka what I lack the most and ironically my middle name.
Gluttony was the first one I matched up. It matches with Self-Control. There’s no surprise there, wanting more and more is absolutely the opposite of controlling one’s self.
Finally, the last two… Shamelessness (i.e. Lust) is paired with Faithfulness. In the Rohr and Ebert’s book, “The need to be Against” is the title for the chapter on Enneagram eight – the Shamelessness sin. So being Faithful too something is just the opposite. This also works for the traditional lust. Instead of lusting after someone, the violation of another for pleasure or passion (Rohr and Ebert, p168-9), there’s a faithfulness to someone that denotes respect.
Sloth and Love going together was a last-minute bit of genius. Originally, I’d put Gentleness there because Sloth – having little to commend itself to any of the other Fruit- remained last to pair. Gentleness was the fruit that had simply remained. But finding it didn’t work I looked over my list again, and made some switches. Now, I’m thinking love is brilliant. Because the opposite of Love is apathy. And Sloth is very much about being away – showing little interest i.e. being apathetic. This also makes it very clear, like John Mayor and DC Talk tells us, – love is indeed a verb.
So go do LOVE.
To sum up…
I hope you enjoyed this list. Let me know in the comments if there’s questions, comments, stuff you’re just flummoxed about when it comes to being any of these things.
And to check out The Enneagram: A Christian Perspective by Richard Rohr and Andreas Ebert here’s a link, Rohr and Ebert Rock!
Julia Joy Wells 