Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like: of which I tell you beforehand, as I have also told you in time past, that they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
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Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
Let no one suppose that envy is the same thing as jealousy. For they are indeed neighbors and because of that very neighborhood either of them is often freely substituted for the other…. But because each is distinguished here they require us to make a distinction. Jealousy is the mind’s anguish when someone achieves something that two or more were seeking but which can be had only by one. Jealousy is cured by peace, in which all may obtain that which is sought and thus become one. Envy on the other hand is the grief one feels in one’s mind when an unworthy person appears to have obtained something, even if it is not being sought by others. Envy is overcome by meekness, when all who yearn appeal to the judgment of God and do not resist his will, trusting rather in the justice of what he does than in one’s own estimate of what people deserve.
Revellings. This seems to teach that immoderate indulgence in the pleasures of the table is a mortal sin, as it excludes from the Kingdom of heaven. On this I remark that some Theologians hold from this verse that gluttony and lust are mortal sins, not only if they impair the use of reason, but if they be excessive. They rely on the case of the rich man in the parable, who was condemned, not because he was a drunkard, but because he fared sumptuously every day; on the words of Isaiah ( Isaiah 5:22), where woe, i.e, eternal damnation, is threatened against those who are mighty to drink strong drink; on the fact that excess in eating may be more than bestial; and they ask why should gluttony, so degrading to reason as it Isaiah , not be a mortal sin, if pollution is.
But the common opinion of doctors is in favour of a milder view, viz, that excess in eating is not a deadly sin, except when it seriously impairs the health, or causes some disease; or when a man eats with the object of vom...
Since God is righteous, such people do not obtain the kingdom of heaven so long as they do such things. But since God is merciful, the wicked, if they cease doing revolting things by which they try God’s patience and turn to God in humble amendment, they do without doubt obtain the kingdom of God. .
Wherefore also it comes to pass, that the "most perfect "among them addict themselves without fear to all those kinds of forbidden deeds of which the Scriptures assure us that "they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God."
It would have been a long task to enumerate all the works of the flesh and make a catalog of vices, so Paul has wrapped this all up in one phrase: “and the like.” I wish that we could avoid these vices as easily as we can see them! Epistle to the Galatians–.
It is after displaying to the Galatians these pernicious works that he professes to warn them beforehand, even as he had "told them in time past, that they which do such things should not inherit the kingdom of God"
