Sins of Cowardice

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I believe the cowardice being referenced in the scriptures is a reluctance to express one’s faith.
 
I would say that cowardice is the refusal to do what one ought to do because one fears the consequences. It is the failure to do the good one is called to do that is sinful. An example would be an employee who goes along with his employer’s fraud rather than expose it because they feared the loss of their job. Another example would be someone does not act to prevent harm to another when they have the means and the ability to do so because it involves physical risk.

This is not to say that we must put ourselves in danger, however we must not unreasonably flee from danger either. Sometimes you have to have some skin in the game. It can be a difficult prudential judgement to make at times. Lacking a large amount of courage is not the same as being a coward.
 
mdleagedguy said:
I would say that cowardice is the refusal to do what one ought to do because one fears the consequences. It is the failure to do the good one is called to do that is sinful. An example would be an employee who goes along with his employer’s fraud rather than expose it because they feared the loss of their job. Another example would be someone does not act to prevent harm to another when they have the means and the ability to do so because it involves physical risk.

This is not to say that we must put ourselves in danger, however we must not unreasonably flee from danger either. Sometimes you have to have some skin in the game. It can be a difficult prudential judgement to make at times. Lacking a large amount of courage is not the same as being a coward.
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I believe that this is what is meant by saying cowardice is sinful. It’s sinful because you’re cowardice doesn’t permit you to do the acts God has asked you to do.
 
Aquinas says “Accordingly when the appetite shuns what the reason dictates that we should endure rather than forfeit others that we should rather seek for, fear is inordinate and sinful. On the other hand, when the appetite fears so as to shun what reason requires to be shunned, the appetite is neither inordinate nor sinful.” (Summa, II-II, Q.125, art. 1).
 
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