“The wages of sin”

  

THE BIBLICAL QUOTE: “For the wages of sin is death: but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”        Saint Paul (c. 5 A.D - 64 A.D.)                     One of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus and key founder of the Christian Church        The King James Bible version of Romans 6:23         Romans is the sixth book of the Bible. It’s one of the “Pauline epistles” (or letters), written by Paul around 55 A.D. His Epistles, sent to members of early Christian churches, were incorporated into the New Testament and became foundational texts for the Christian religion. In Chapter 6 of Romans, Paul discusses a fundamental part of his vision for the Christian faith: the belief that sinners can be forgiven, redeemed and go to heaven if they accept Jesus and become faithful Christians.              Verse 23 is the origin of the cautionary saying “the wages of sin is death,” which is sometimes used literally. Indeed, there are many risky “sins” that increase your odds of dying. But most Biblical scholars say that in Romans 6:23 Paul was not talking about the literal death of the body. He was suggesting that the spirit, or soul, of unrepentant sinners would be “dead,” and they would not go to Heaven. However, Paul explained, there is hope for sinners. If they stop sinning and accept Jesus Christ as their savior, they will be rewarded with the “gift” of eternal life in Heaven, where — according to legend — Saint Paul is stationed at the “the Pearly Gates” to admit the worthy and send the unworthy to Hell.

TAX PRINCIPLE #1: “It is somewhat ironic that the first tax revenues that were imposed were those on the consumption of whiskey, which sparked the Whiskey Rebellion. But this rebellion was put down and provided legislators the opportunity to impose taxes and collect on them. It also established the custom of taxing 'sin' and enshrining the adage ‘The wages of sin is a tax.’”        Richard McGowan        Associate Professor at Boston College        In his 1994 book State Lotteries and Legalized Gambling: Painless Revenue or Painful Mirage. (Cartoon by J.D. Crowe.)

TAX PRINCIPLE #2: “The wages of sin are death, but after taxes are taken out, it’s just kind of a tired feeling.”        Paula Poundstone        American comedienne and author                     One of my favorite jokes from her stand-up comedy routines

THE UNPRINCIPLED INVESTORS’ PRINCIPLE: “The wages of sin is outperformance for investors...investors often do well by investing in companies operating in ‘sin industries’ and countries where corruption is most developed. Doing bad, in other words, can often mean doing good for investor returns.”        Jonathan Davis        British author, editor and journalist specializing in finance        In an article in the Financial Times, February 22, 2015. Davis suggests that “sin industries” may now not only include tobacco, alcohol, and gambling but, arguably, scandal-ridden banks.

GRAMMY’S OBSERVATION: “The wages of sin is when people do unta you what ya did unta them.”        Rodman Philbrick        American writer of novels for adults and children                     A bit of folk wisdom spoken to the character Zane Dupree by his grandmother, in the novel Zane and the Hurricane (2014)        The book is about Zane’s recollections of Hurricane Katrina. His grandma’s comment relates to a local drug dealer, though it certainly has wider application. Kane recalls:        “Dylan Toomey...was killed by one of the underage kids who worked for him selling drugs. It's awful and all, but Grammy said it best when she heard the news. She said, ‘The wages of sin is when people do unta you what ya did unta them.’ Amen to that. To be honest there’s a lot I don’t understand about what happened after the storm, and why some people were so good and full of love and others so mean and hateful.

MA’S WARNING: “Remember, Ezra, the wages of sin are syphilis, gonorrhea and death.”                     Ma Cobb (played by actress Cosette Lee), in the cult horror movie Deranged (1974).        Ma Cobb is a religious fanatic who teaches her son Ezra to fear and hate women. Ezra overcomes his fear, but not his hate, becoming a serial killer who prefers female victims. But he loves Ma and after she’s dead and buried, he digs her up and brings her corpse home to keep him company. It’s a nice, family-oriented horror flick. (NOT!)

THE ERRANT HUSBAND “MAXIOM”: “The wages of sin is alimony.”        Carolyn Wells (1862-1942)        American writer and poet.                     A line from her book of verse, Folly for the Wise (1904)                     It comes from a section called “Maxioms,” which includes a litany of humorous twists on old sayings, including:              “Reward is its own virtue.               The wages of sin is alimony.               A penny saved spoils the broth.               Of two evils, choose the prettier.              Nonsense makes the heart grow fonder.              A word to the wise is a dangerous thing.”

THE ERRANT CODE CURSE: “The wages of sin is debugging.”        Ron Jeffries        American software developer and writer        A saying Jeffries coined that is widely quoted by and well known to computer coding geeks

*     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *

Comments? Corrections? Email me or Post them on the Famous Quotations Facebook page.

Related reading…

Faith, hope & charity – from the Bible, to American politics, to Dale Evans & Roy Rogers...

THE FAMILIAR BIBLE VERSE: “And now abideth faith, hope, charity these three; but the greatest of these is charity.”         Saint Paul (c. 5 A.D. - c. 67 A.D.)         I Corinthians 13:13 (i.e., Chapter 13, Verse 13)         I Corinthians, usually referred to as First Corinthians or the First Epistle to the Corinthians is a book in the Bible based on a letter written around 53 A.D. by Paul, an Apostle of Jesus (though not one of the first twelve). Much of the letter provides stern guidance to the congregation of Christians Paul established in Corinth, Greece. He’d heard they were violating some of the rules for followers of the new Christian faith that he helped create. So in his letter, he warned them about various sinful things, such as getting drunk, fornicating (which he mentions many times) and allowing women to go around without covering their head (a strange rule that Muslims and early Christians had in common).        One of the less Puritanical and more inspiring parts of I Corinthians comes in Book 13. In that, Paul discusses the importance of being charitable. It ends with the line that includes the familiar triumvirate “faith, hope, charity” – of which, Paul says, the greatest is charity.         This line is preceded by two that include other famous Bible quotes about putting away childish things (Chap. 13, Verse 11) and seeing through a glass darkly (Chap. 13, Verse 12):        When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.        For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.        And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

F.D.R.’S POLITICAL VARIATION: “We are poor indeed if this Nation cannot afford to lift from every recess of American life the dread fear of the unemployed that they are not needed in the world...In the place of the palace of privilege we seek to build a temple out of faith and hope and charity.”        Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945)        American Democratic politician elected to serve three terms as President of the United States        In his acceptance speech after receiving the Democratic nomination for his second term as president, at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, June 27, 1936.

GOLDWATER’S POLITICAL VARIATION: “Freedom has been the watchword of my political life...I believe in faith, hope, and charity. But none of these is possible without freedom.”        Barry Goldwater (1909-1998)        Republican politician who served U.S. Senator from Arizona for many years and was the Republican Party's nominee for President in 1964         The quote is from his autobiography Goldwater, first published in 1988

POLITICAL VARIATION #3: “America's greatness and variety, its perpetual newness and variety, its bedrock of faith, hope and charity is all too easy to forget. Yet it is always there, rising above the cloud banks of cheap and easy rhetoric like the Rockies above the fruited plain.”        Paul Greenberg        Pulitzer Prize-winning political commentator        Commenting on the uniquely bizarre 2016 presidential campaign in an editorial originally published in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, May 27, 2016

ORWELL’S TYPICALLY PESSIMISTIC VERSION: “Now abideth faith, hope, money; but the greatest of these is money.”        George Orwell (1903-1950)        English novelist, essayist and journalist        One of his lines from the epigraph he wrote that appears at the beginning of his novel Keep The Aspidistra Flying (1936)

DALE EVANS’ TYPICALLY OPTIMISTIC VERSION: “Have faith, hope and charity That's the way to live successfully How do I know, the Bible tells me so.”        Dale Evans (1912-2001)        Lyrics from the song “The Bible Tells Me So”        Words and music by Dale Evans        Evans wrote the song to perform with her husband Roy Rogers on The Roy Rogers Show. They sang it as a duet in the episode “Ginger Horse,” which originally aired on March 27, 1955. That year it was recorded and further popularized by singer Nick Noble and bandleader Don Cornell. It eventually became one of Dale’s signature songs.

*     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *    

Comments? Corrections? Post them on Famous Quotations Facebook page.

Related reading…