We're going to start looking at some specific vices that we find in the Proverbs. Before that, let's back up and take a look at what the distinction is between virtue and vice. 

Biblically, sin is more than just external behavior. Sin is a predisposition of the heart. The early church borrowed this notion of virtue and vice from the Greeks. Virtues are those internal characteristics or traits that have been habit formed over a person's life. When they erupt out of a person, they generally cause a person's life to go well for them. You can see a list of the virtues in Galatians 5, where we read about the fruit of the Spirit.  

Vices are exactly the opposite. These are the habit-formed internal characteristics or traits in a person that, when they erupt out of a person, things do not go well. This person did not live a life that was consistent with the way that God had created life to be lived. It's easy to see that wisdom is living a life of virtue and foolishness is living a life of vice. 

The theologian named Thomas Aquinas created a list of vices that the early church adopted. His list of 7 vices is the one you might be familiar with. We’ll look at these 7 over the next several days. 

The modern person thinks that they have just a little bit of sin and that they are a good person. This belief goes all the way back to the Renaissance, when the belief was that man is good. There was a modern writer, Ernest Becker, who began with the optimistic ideal that we're not that bad, But in his last book - the one he was working on when he died - he wrote this in the preface: "I am now looking at humanity full in the face for the first time. In my previous works I had failed to see how truly vicious human behavior is. This is a dilemma that I have been caught in along with many others who have been trying to keep alive the enlightenment tradition or this belief in the inherent goodness of people" (Escape From Evil). The word vicious that he used comes from the word vice. In other words, he's saying that we are far more vicious than we care to admit. 

The Proverbs are about consistently living with the life that God has created, a virtuous life. A vicious life would be the life of vice. Vices are those deeply embedded character traits in the heart that have been habit formed. These are a part of what we would call the hidden heart. In other words, we don't know these deep vices in our heart, but when the right circumstances come up, they come erupting out of the heart. Have you noticed how much more prone you are to being irritated? Have you found yourself more angry? More frustrated? More bored? What the life of Jesus is about is that, as those layers are revealed to us and our heart is peeled back, there is an awareness about how we can address these vices in our hearts.

Prayer is an opportunity to begin to address the vices that we are seeing deep within our heart. I would love for you to pray as you see things coming out of your hearts.  

Prayer for Today 
Father in heaven, it is clear that we can treat prayer in a way where we keep you away. We want to begin to pray honestly that we would see it as an opportunity for us to pay attention to those vices that are deep in our heart. Lord, we know that they don't go away overnight. Give us the patience and the perseverance to pay attention to them and work on them with you in the power of your spirit over a period of time. In Jesus name, amen.