We are punished by our sins, not for them. (Elbert Hubbard)
When I read that, I could literally hear my mind come to a screeching halt:
Wait!
What?
We do not get punished for our sins?
We get punished by our sins?
How?!
I immediately snatched my laptop and googled the sins. (They had temporarily slipped my mind (*cough*). Just temporarily!!)
This is what I found (not necessarily in this order):
– Greed
– Wrath
– Envy
– Pride
– Gluttony
– Sloth
– Lust
Once I had all the sins, I started digging into the “how”:
How is it that we get punished by our sins?
Here is a little compilation (no claim on completeness!):
When I’m greedy, I will never be satisfied. I will always thirst for something else; I will always aspire for more. In other words, I am ever-hungry. Yep. That’s quite a punishment.
If I’m angry, I will never rest. I will always find something to be angry about. I will never feel peace for long – if ever. Not a nice way to live either.
If I envy other people’s success, possessions, looks and so forth, I obviously lack the ability to cherish my own abilities and circumstances. I am very unhappy in and with my own skin – I am punished by joylessness.
Pride forces me to be in constant competition with other people since I define my self-worth by comparing myself to them. That in itself is punishment enough. But it gets worse: Pride stops me from growing because I cannot take advice. In other words, pride undermines the very thing it needs to thrive: competitive capacity. Ultimately, pride will deprive me of everything I could genuinely and gracefully be proud of.
As for gluttony: Sooner or later, whatever I enjoy in excess becomes dull and disagreeable. One piece of cake is delicious. Maybe even two. But the third, fourth, or fifth doesn’t taste that good anymore and eventually I will get sick to my stomach. In general, overindulgence can be very unhealthy, if not life threatening – whether it is too much food, too much alcohol, too much sleep, too much sun, or too much TV. Even too much water can be lethal.
Laziness has the same unhealthy consequences as gluttony. Only instead of doing too much, laziness causes me to do too little: I don’t eat enough, don’t move enough, don’t work enough. In short, I slowly wither away.
When my sin is lust, I will never experience love. That might actually be the worst punishment of them all …
Sin punishes sin.
No need for a judge.
No need for a jury.
No need for an executioner.
That is genius.
Absolutely genius.
Or dare I say divine?
Brigitte Schneider
aka Ms. Gluttonia Wrath-Sloth
Copyright © 2021, Brigitte Schneider. If you wish to quote text from this article contact the author by leaving a comment.
