A drunkard is baptized. He has heard that drunkenness is included in the list of sins barring people from entering heaven (1 Corinthians 6:9-10). By his baptism all his past sins of drunkenness are forgiven, but the habit remains. The thirst for drink  still tortures him. It tries to penetrate his will and drag him away as its prisoner. If he does not give in to the temptation, it will gradually become less and less because it gets its strength from submission to it.

–Augustine, Sermon 151.4

Here’s a pride test for you. As you read Augustine’s passage above did you focus on the man in his example or did you apply the lesson to that sin in you which continues to weigh you down? If you focused on the former without considering the latter, you probably have an issue with your pride.

Sin is serious business because it separates us from God and perforce leads to death. There can be no life outside of the Source and Author of all life. Sin is doubly hard because as Augustine reminds us here, it is so very difficult to break and we typically cannot do it by ourselves. Thanks be to God that our sin is covered by the blood of Christ.