Knowing Good & Evil
A lot of people who are culturally Christian are often surprised, I’ve noticed, to learn that the so-called “seven deadly sins” do not originate from the Bible. Certain Catholic monks from late antiquity—or the early Medieval era, take your pick—took it upon themselves to enumerate fundamental evil thoughts or wrong-doings. I know some of y’all love that shit. Can’t stand it. Enumeration. Love to put things in your little boxes. Well, here’s the history of the pursuit. I’m not going to recount it. Go be a monk if you want to!
I think the idea that there could be any fundamental set of sins, some eigenspace of evil, is deeply misguided if not entirely missing the point. Chairman Paul loved to list the many ways in which people tend to be harmful or stupid, but he never did he suppose there to be any base “sin” except perhaps for idolatry (which contains more nuance than being the literal worship of idols, being more about how humans project artificial laws onto Nature, becoming blind to their own self-destruction at Nature’s hands—and of course by Nature I mean the Cosmos or the Logos or some union of the two, maybe ontological, maybe relational, la la la I'm using words).
Here’s my point. I was talking with someone dear to me in real life about anger. Doesn’t it feel good to be angry, especially when one is righteously so? I know I suffer from it, though I have a much easier time overcoming it face-to-face than over text, to the extent that my friends seem surprised how many negative feelings I repress until I post them into the void on my private Instagram story (or perhaps on my blog, itself also a sort of void for me). This dear person asked me how to know when anger is good, or at least justified. Where’s the line between righteous indignation and pointless rage? Is there even a difference? Would that even matter if so?
There’s no hard answer. Paul for his part doesn’t often provide hard answers, and I think he would agree if I said he’s at his worst when he does so. Remember the bit about long hair draining women's sperm from their gonads? What he provides most often, and where he is at his best, are heuristics. How can we tell when we are really doing good or when we are hurting others? Jesus according to Mark says nothing that goes into you makes you impure, but only things which go out of you and impact others. The deadly sins are an attempt to taxonomize wrong-think. Let’s instead brainstorm about ways in which we act harmfully towards others, a constellation of idolatry.
For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters, only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become enslaved to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.
Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law. Now the works of the flesh are obvious: [infidelity]1, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, [potion-making], enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, [drunk riots], [orgies], and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of Gxd.2
By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, [loyalty], gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. And those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, competing against one another, envying one another.
Galatians 5:13–26 (NRSVue + Sarah Ruden)
Do you strive towards love, joy, and peace? Are you patient, kind, and generous? Do you practice loyalty, gentleness, and moderation? You’re probably doing alright. Do you break others’ trust? Do you confuse pleasure for goodness? Do you find yourself constantly picking fights, turning arguments into team sports, spiraling helplessly into hatred or envy? Then you have reason to worry! But we all do, especially because it is so easy to convince ourselves we are doing good by doing those things. It’s only upon reflection that one realizes they haven’t done any good at all. It just leads to drama, hostility, and dread, if not actual material harm. Don’t let those things rule your life. You can be good and give goodness to others.
I am taking πορνεία as “infidelity” or “adultery”, or more specifically to have sex with someone other than your spouse, following Sarah Ruden. “Sexual immorality” is too general, and the rationale for “prostitution” is in Genesis 38 where Tamar in the LXX is said to have committed πορνεία. Although both πορνεία and the corresponding word in Hebrew can be translated in some cases as prostitution, the Hebrew Bible doesn’t seem to take as much issue with prostitution per se than with adultery as the breaking of a covenant (which also applies in Gen. 38:24 when Judah sleeps with his daughter-in-law thinking she’s a prostitute). I think this reading for Paul here makes the most sense—especially when he’s talking about how people wrong each other, rather than things being inherently taboo or wrong, similar in principle to Mark 7:15. Other translations in brackets are also informed by Ruden’s translation. ↩︎
Pobody’s nerfect! Compare with the end of Romans 1 and start of Romans 2; Paul’s sentiment is less threatening the reader with hell—since none of us are free of shit— than reminding them how easy it is to slip from goodness except that Gxd or Nature or Jesus or the Logos (pick your favorite emphasis) models for us a way out. ↩︎
Comments
Post a Comment