Vanity. A Deadly Sin in our Modern Society

Vanity. One of the deadliest sins in our modern society

Part of a new series of articles on the Seven Deadly Sins which was covered extensively in an article in the past. This will be looking at and just focusing on each one of these Deadly Sins to reveal what they are all about, how they start, the warning signs, where you could end up and finally how to overcome them in the first place.

Vanity is one of the Seven Deadly Sins, the others being Wrath, Sloth, Gluttony, Lust, Greed and Envy. These are also known as the capital vices or cardinal sins. The deadly sins are those behaviors or habits that directly give birth to other immoralities. True Believers are well aware of these, they class them as evil thoughts or spirits that someone needs to overcome and are equipped to recognise and overcome them. The problem is most normal people are not aware of these Sins, or they are aware and choose to not be aware. Either that or they think that Sin dates back to the Victorian Era and doesn´t apply to modern day society. If everybody else is doing it, surely in this modern day and age it must be OK....right? You may want to think again!



These sins take the form of abuses or excessive versions of a persons natural faculties, desires or passions. Gluttony would be a prime example, which abuses someones desire to eat and takes eating to excess.

Pride or Vanity is one of the most subtle of the deadly sins and is a sly one and will creep into your life whilst you are unawares. It will gradually increase it's presence over time, until one day you realise you have a major problem and your life is starting to go off the rails, by then it is too late.......the damage has been done.

The biggest culprits of the Sin of Vanity I would say are Beauty and Fashion and their associated industries. Both will do the same thing, bring you admiring glances and fuel your ego and give you that initial buzz, but over time if you are not careful you are walking on a trapeze wire without a safety net and you could fall.The initial buzz just like crack cocaine never lasts and you end up coming back for more and increasing quantities of it or stronger versions  to get the same kick. You end up in a vicious cycle of Buzz, Guilt and Depression, Buzz, Guilt and Depression. This is a never ending cycle that takes you into a downward spiral which eventually leads you to a very dark place and trust me I have been there. All Sin does this.

So how does the Sin of Vanity apply in our modern day and age and how does it all start. Beauty and Fashion are good examples to demonstrate this. There is no harm in wanting to look good and wearing some makeup and looking your best. This is normal everyday life, but when your desires start to take over and it becomes an obsession and starts taking over your life and you start pursuing some media created dream this is where the problems start. Celebrities and the "Industry" perpetuate this airbrush driven impossible to attain look but people want to look like this and they will give all their money if that´s what it takes.

Vanity Example 1 Designer Brands
Images are everywhere of women that are an impossible Size 6 or 8 when the average woman on the street is probably a size 14. We see music videos with people covered in tattoos and we want to be the same. We can´t afford the Gucci, Prada, Burberry and Dolce and Gabana but we want those things and are pressurised by the constant barrage of adverts saying if you don´t have these things, you are missing out on some sort of exclusive party or club. These designer stores are all too willing to give you a store card or take your credit card. You get that initial buzz, you will get the envious looks, soon though it wears off or goes out of fashion. So you go back and buy more, you no longer shop at the major High Street Chains and eventually your credit card or store card gets tapped out. You ask for an increase on your limit, you get it.... and you get your fix again only to be tapped out again and it dawns on you that maybe you have a problem and some form of addiction is in your life. You cannot make the repayments and reality has kicked in....but it´s too late.

Vanity Example 2  Selfieville
Social Media is another example with Instagram and You Tube being the main candidates. Instagram is the poseur website of choice and is a Vanity playground waiting to leap onto you and take over your life if you are not careful.. It's the likes system that generates this wander down the road into the world of Vanity and Sin. Once you are on this road you are not aware you are on it, it will start making you do things you wouldn´t normally do just to get those extra likes and feeling of web fame. You continue to take more and more extreme measures to climb up the ranks of selfiedom to become a selfie guru that everybody aspires too but you realise that every waking hour is taken up to achieve that status and it dawns on you, that you have no life but you can´t give the fame up, by then you realise you have a problem but then again it´s too late.

Vanity Example 3 Extreme Beauty Techniques
Another example of beauty is anti ageing creams or using more and more makeup to paper over the cracks as you get older. After a while you realise you can´t fool people anymore with these techniques so you opt for minor surgery or Botox. The celebrities do it so why can´t I, you think. The difference is staggering and the first few months things are great and everybody says how young you look and you are on what you think is a permanent high, but the ageing signs start to creep back, the buzz wears off, so you go back for a "touch up"..it works but again only last 3--4 months...you go back again. This time the surgery and botox are not minor but are the next level up to bring you back to where you were before. The minor surgery was 1000. This surgery is now up to 5000. You pay the money and sell the car and decide to use public transport. You look great again although you notice you have a permanent grin on your face like the Joker out of Batman, you can´t frown but who cares, you are buzzing and are on a high again. 6 months to a year later the effects wear off again, you are back to where you were before maybe worse. To bring back those looks that you had before, again you are told you would need major surgery and a facelift. Cost 10000. You go away and think about it. You remortgage the house and go for it. I could go on here but you can see where this is heading. A massive Pop Icon that died recently went down this route and this is a prime example where Vanity can lead you. To a very dark place indeed.

Vanity Example 4  The Makeup Slave
Makeup in general is another example. Once you have worn it you cannot go back and from that day forward at least half an hour to 40 minutes everyday for the rest of your life is involved in getting your face on before you can even leave the house. Again it´s not just the time but the money involved can be another issue once you start going down that designer/top brand miracle beauty route.

Vanity Example 5 The Gym Slave
Another example is Body Building. You start off wanting to enhance what you have, get a six pack, bulging biceps. You get the look after a lot of hard work then think maybe lets take this too the next level after looking at those Body Building Mags and want to look like Vin Diesel. You know where this one is heading with high protein powders, chemicals and the rest. You realise that once you have this look you are stuck with a punishing workout regime at the gym EVERY DAY...once you stop the look starts to fade.

Vanity Example 6 The Tech Image Slave
Vanity can express itself in materialism and can spill over into one of the other deadly sins called Greed. Examples would be wanting the latest tech gadget to improve your image and how people perceive who you are. Wanting the top of the range and latest Iphone or Samsung mobile would be another example. He or she has the Samsung S7 ultra cool with tungsten casing......he/she must be cool? You can´t really afford but you sign the 24 month contract and the first couple of months everybody goes wow but then the next phone comes out the Samsung S7X, this one is totally off the scale awesome and makes your S7 Ultra Cool look prehistoric and ultra not so cool. What to do..... with still 20 months to go on the contract.....again you can see where this is heading.

The Analysis

People who end up going down this road normally have a hole in their life which they are desperately trying to fill. You can temporarily fill it with these things and with the accompanying buzz that these things will definitely bring but just like with drugs or alcohol you will end up back where you started and that hole returns and I would say bigger than before. So you rinse and repeat and rinse and repeat. This in Christian circles is called being a "Slave to Sin" and you are on the Buzz, Guilt, Depression, Hole cycle. All sin works this way regardless of what it is. It´s pure evil plain and simple, but people don´t see it when they are caught in this vicious cycle and because everybody else is doing it............it must be alright?

Personally I have many experiences with Vanity from other people whilst doing Street Style Photography which is a form of Raw Fashion Photography, been to many of the London Fashion Week Events and also photographed many celebrities (mainly the women) over the years and you see Vanity staring you straight in the face everytime. The term "Fashion Victim" is a very real one.

So what´s the answer?
If you are a non believer, then there is no answer if you continue in disbelief. You will keep seeing adverts on TV, in magazines, in the papers on the web and you will always succumb to media or peer pressure and cave in to your desire (that wouldn´t have been there before without the media). One thing I´ve noticed with vanity is most of these things costs a lot of money to buy but once you have had them a couple of years they are practically worthless. If they have no value after a couple of years what does that tell you about that item..........it had no value in the first place.

So what can you do. Turn off the TV, PC, Laptop, Tablet and Phone, don´t walk past the Apple store, scrap reading magazines and newspapers, look at the floor when you see that Samsung S7X billboard, don´t look at bus sides, stay away from department stores? You could try, but the media and advertising is so pervasive in our society it´s almost impossible. What do you do when a close friend has the Samsung S7X? Check my advice in the video above, that would at least be a start.

I´ve worked in Fashion, The Media and in The Celebrity Game and seen Vanity at work. The colours, the music thumping, the adrenaline, the free samples, the free bubbly and brochures, the go on try it on, the come in and join the party mentality, the EXPRESS yourself mentality and don´t do boring, the in your face beauty............that´s how it all starts. But what they don´t tell you is where it all leads, if you are not careful and what it´s like when you fall off that trapeze. They don´t mention, anorexia, bulimia, psychological disorders, financial problems, drug habits and the rest. That´s all kept quiet.

There is only one answer that gives you the power and the ability to see Vanity as the sin that it really is and avoid walking that trapeze without a safety net, otherwise you are running blind with no hope of ever overcoming it, because you are spiritually blind you cannot see that you are indulging in it in the first place. Judge people by their inner appearance, not the outer and that will stand you well in this life. Proverbs 31:30 - Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised.

More Bible Quotes:

Psalms 119:37 - Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way.

1 Samuel 16:7 - But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.

Jeremiah 4:30 - And when thou art spoiled, what wilt thou do? Though thou clothest thyself with crimson, though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold, though thou rentest thy face with painting, in vain shalt thou make thyself fair; thy lovers will despise thee, they will seek thy life.

Ecclesiastes 2:11 - Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.

2 Peter 2:18
For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.

Job 15:31
Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity: for vanity shall be his recompence.

Psalms 144:4
Man is like to vanity: his days are as a shadow that passeth away.

Ecclesiastes 2:26
For God giveth to a man that is good in his sight wisdom, and knowledge, and joy: but to the sinner he giveth travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him that is good before God. This also is vanity and vexation of spirit.

Hebrews 13:5 - Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.