Vices to Avoid
"Vices to avoid" refers to sinful attitudes and behaviors that Scripture warns believers to reject. Bible vice lists commonly include sins of speech, sexual immorality, greed, envy, anger, drunkenness, and idolatry.
At a Glance
"Vices to avoid" refers to sinful attitudes and behaviors that Scripture warns believers to reject. Bible vice lists commonly include sins of speech, sexual immorality, greed, envy, anger, drunkenness, and idolatry.
Description
"Vices to avoid" is a broad theological and pastoral way of describing the sinful dispositions and practices that Scripture forbids. Throughout both Testaments, God warns against sins such as idolatry, sexual immorality, impurity, covetousness, deceit, malice, envy, fits of anger, drunkenness, and abusive speech, and He calls His people instead to holiness, self-control, love, truthfulness, and justice. In the New Testament especially, vice lists function to expose the works of the flesh, remind believers of the character of their former way of life apart from Christ, and urge a manner of life worthy of the gospel. These lists should not be treated as exhaustive catalogs, but as clear moral instruction revealing the kinds of attitudes and actions Christians must renounce by repentance, obedience, and the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit.