Overcoming Sin through Christ

A Comprehensive List of Sins

(Alphabetically Arranged)

Richard Hollerman

The plan of this study is simple.  We will look at a large number of sins, one by one, alphabetically.  We will define the sin, describe it, and comment on it, along with noticing Scripture references on the particular entry.  Some illustrations will be offered along with the description.

Lust

This has been called the age of lust, an age that is so characterized by sexual lust that it dominates society.  Lust can be used of other desires as well.  The Greek noun, epithumia, means “strong desire” of any kind, and the verb epithumeo means desire or evil desire.  The term is found frequently in the New Testament writings.

Paul says that God gave the unbelieving Gentiles over “in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them” (Romans 1:24).  Although lust is an inward sin, it is manifested in outward sins. In the context, lust is shown in “degrading passions” that are expressed in homosexual or sodomite relationships (vv. 26-27), but it can be revealed in premarital and extramarital relationships as well.  Today, lust is common because of the grossly immodest clothing worn by women and even men (cf. 1 Timothy 2:9-10; cf. Proverbs 7:10).  It is common because of the immoral movies and videos available and because of the easy access to immoral and lustful websites as well as immoral and lustful dancing, along with immoral and lustful porno literature and any other literature that promotes lust.

One time I was sharing the gospel with a young man and pointed out the prevalence of lust.  I noted that lusting for another makes one an adulterer at heart (Matthew 5:27-28).  He replied, “I do that all of the time!”  It has become so commonplace that the majority can’t imagine anything other than allowing the eyes to have free rein in lusting.  Peter wrote of those who have “eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin” (2 Peter 2:14a; cf. Job 31:1).

Paul says that the unbeliever comes from a world dominated by lustful attitudes and actions.  Paul acknowledges, “We too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest [the Gentiles]” (Ephesians 2:3).  The believer is to abandon his past lusts and live in absolute purity.  This is different from the Victorian disparagement of anything sexual and the external restraints that society placed on the man in the nineteenth century.  God wants purity from the heart that will renounce lust because it is incompatible with God’s holiness and our own holy calling. “God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification [holiness]” (1 Thessalonians 4:7).  Lusts are part of the world which we must turn from:

Do not love the world nor the things in the world.  If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.  The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever. (1 John 2:15-17)

This shows the huge danger that earthly, fleshly, and sexual lust is to our life.  Worldly lusts will pass away but those who do God’s will live forever!  This should be motivation enough to renounce our lusts!

Jesus speaks to this: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery’; but I say to you that everyone who looks at a women with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:27-28).  Looking with the purpose of lusting or desiring another person sexually is regarded by God as committing the sexual act itself!  The Lord then shows how utterly serious we need to be in renouncing this sin of lust: “If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.  If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell” (vv. 29-30).  If we use our eye to lust over someone or use our hand to participate in lustful actions, we need to eradicate such avenues of sin from our life!  Most people are entirely too complacent about the matter of lust in their life!

As Peter warned, “Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul” (1 Peter 2:11).  Fleshly lusts are used by our flesh and Satan to destroy us!  Paul urges us, “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts” (Romans 13:14).  If there is anything at all that tempts us to lust (cf. James 1:13-15), let us “make no provision for the flesh” and simply renounce it and forsake it (cf. Proverbs 28:13).   We are to be “dead” to “evil desire” or lust (Colossians 3:5).  When we come to Christ, we forsake our former lusts.  “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior” (1 Peter 1:14).  When we were in sin, when we were in “ignorance” of God and His will, we lived in various lusts—whether sexual or materialistic or any other desires—but now we are to live in absolute holiness!

Paul stresses that one is to “know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification [holiness, separation] and honor, not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God” (1 Thessalonians 4:4-5).  It is of note that the unbelieving Gentiles live in “lustful passion” whereas believers have renounced such a focus.  Our orientation is entirely different.  We are to “live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God” (1 Peter 4:2).  We have the choice of either directing our life according to the “lusts of men” or, on the other hand, the “will of God.”  What will it be?

There are lusts that are not directly sexual that we must avoid.  Paul focuses on materialistic or monetary lusts in 1 Timothy 6:9-10:  “Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction.  For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”  These “foolish and harmful” desires will destroy one even if sexual lust doesn’t prove a major problem.

The apostle counsels his young “son” in the faith, “Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart” (2 Timothy 2:22).  If only young people would heed Paul’s command here, that of fleeing or running away from “youthful lusts” and seeking the virtues of a good life!  The apostle also instructs us “to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age” (Titus 2:12).  “Worldly desires” or worldly lusts must never be characteristic of our life!  Whether we are speaking of sexual desires (lusts), materialistic desires, or wrongful desires of any other kind, you must take pains to cut them from your life or they will drag you down to hell!