Disordered Love and the Coldness of Sin

In Dante’s Inferno, sin is pictured as disordered love, loving the right things in the wrong way. Rooted in Augustine’s theology, this idea affirms that humans, made in the image of God, were created to love rightly: to love God supremely, and to love others rightly through Him. The Seven Deadly Sins illustrate this truth vividly, as each is a distortion of something inherently good.

Lust, for example, is a disordered love for the body, beauty, and sexual intercourse, all of which God created as very good and to be desired, in the right way. Similarly, greed is a disordered love of the good things God gives to us. Each of the Seven Deadly Sins (Pride, Greed, Wrath, Envy, Lust, Gluttony, Acedia (Sloth/Apathy) is a disordered love of a right thing in a wrong way. The root of such sin is idolatry, a sin against the First Commandment, because we have loved something or someone before and more than we have loved God.

Today, a surprising example of disordered love may be found in the modern redefinition of sympathy/compassion and empathy. While sympathy/compassion and empathy are good, biblical, Christian virtues, they can be bad, even sinful, like anything else, when they become untethered from God’s word, truth, and biblical morality.

For example, it has become common to affirm one’s self-chosen identity as inherently good, regardless of its alignment with biological or moral reality. To affirm someone's preferred gender identity or pronouns, regardless of biological sex, is seen as compassionate and empathetic. Yet, Christian love must be grounded in truth (Ephesians 4:15). When empathy becomes untethered from God's design, it is enabling deception rather than healing. Christians are called to speak the truth in love – not to affirm every self-conception, but to offer the better identity found in Christ, who reorders our disordered loves and gives us new hearts.

Dante’s imagery powerfully conveys the consequence of disordered love. Surprisingly, the lowest level of hell is not fiery but frozen. Lucifer is encased in ice, unable to move, locked in isolation and resentment. This frigid image reveals the true nature of sin: not the passionate fire of love gone wrong, but the cold lifelessness of love turned inward and away from God. This is a sobering image. Disordered love does not bring liberation but spiritual paralysis. It cannot satisfy, because it is disconnected from the Source of life and love.

The Gospel offers not just forgiveness, but reformation of our loves. Jesus Christ, the embodiment of God's love and truth, came not only to save us from sin but to reorder our affections. In him, we learn to love God supremely, others rightly, and his creation as a good gift, not a god. Through repentance and faith, we are invited into the warmth of divine love that thaws the coldness of sin. The Spirit works in us to align our desires with God's will, to restore what has been disordered, and to shape us into lovers of truth and righteousness.

Every sin is a misdirection of love. Even virtues like empathy can become disordered when separated from the truth of God. But Christ is the healing of our hearts and the reordering of our desires. His love, unlike disordered love, is not cold and self-serving, but self-giving, full of grace and truth.

May we, by His Spirit, become people who love rightly, who embody both compassion and conviction, and who reflect the warm light of God’s ordered love in a world growing increasingly cold.