Mortal sins - is it possible to repent and be forgiven?
In His Mercy, the Lord is truly merciful, and therefore there is no sin that He cannot forgive a person. True, a Christian must sincerely repent.
“Everything can be forgiven; there is no need to reach despair and suicide, like Judas from the Gospel. You need, like the Apostle Peter, to deeply understand the mistake and cleanse your heart and be with God.”
Archbishop Vasily Zlatolinsky
The Lord in His mercy will not leave any of us
Don't be like the irritated Jonah
In the book of the prophet Jonah, you can read about how God commanded him to tell the inhabitants of Nineveh that in forty days the city would be destroyed. The inhabitants repented, “and God saw their deeds, that they turned from their evil way, and God regretted the disaster that he said he would bring on them, but did not bring” (Jon. 3:10). Jonah was upset that the sinners were not punished, and was very irritated. Fortunately, God enlightened him. I remembered this episode of the Old Testament due to the fact that many of us are sometimes very reminiscent of Jonah: we care about the sins of others and wish sinners just punishment. But do other people's sins affect us?
Why don’t people die from mortal sins now? This shouldn't concern us. We need to focus on another aspect: we are all subject to jurisdiction, each of us is responsible for our personal sins. We are not tasked with correcting others, we are called to correct ourselves. This is the most important and most difficult thing, because in the fight against oneself the forces with the enemy are always equal.
Why is this struggle always difficult? Because you need to constantly analyze and correct your life, your sinful skills and habits, and all this is serious, extensive work, the work of your whole life.
What sin is considered the most terrible?
During his life on Earth, Jesus Christ performed many miracles. What is his command about the cleansing of the lepers, whom He sent to bathe in the font and thereby be cleansed of leprosy? While the sick were walking to the place of future ablution, they were already cleansed, because they believed in Jesus Christ with all their soul and heart
. After the healing, only one former patient returned to Christ to worship with gratitude for the healing.
Lepers asking for healing
Considering that even modern doctors are not able to quickly cope with leprosy, the behavior of patients seems absolutely unacceptable. Jesus Christ left many confirmed miracles - He healed blindness, lameness, memory loss and demonic possession. With one touch He cleansed the body of scabs and gave complete deliverance from suffering and bodily torment.
And, having so much evidence, people still dare not to believe in our Savior Jesus Christ
. Unbelief is the most terrible sin. Condemnation (blasphemy), slander, unbelief - all this came from the Pharisees, of whom there were plenty in Ancient Jerusalem. Greedy for money and other people's glory, the Pharisees were jealous of the people towards the Savior, blasphemed Him and slandered Him, saying that the Lord casts out illness from people by the power of demons.
Of course, this could not go unnoticed by Jesus Christ, and He said: “All the sins that a person commits will be forgiven him, but blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is the only unforgivable sin.”
Repentance is not only the recognition of an action as a sin, but also help to God
List of sins for confession
The theological science that answers questions about sins is called asceticism. She gives a definition of criminal passions and ways to get rid of them, and also tells how to find love for God and neighbor.
Asceticism is similar to social psychology, since the first teaches how to overcome mortal sins, and the second helps to cope with bad tendencies in society and overcome apathy. The goals of the sciences are actually no different. The main task of the entire Christian religion is the ability to love God and one’s neighbor, and renunciation of passions is a means of achieving the truth.
The believer will not achieve it if he is subject to sin. The person who commits a crime sees only his own self and his own passion.
The Orthodox Church defines eight main types of passions, below is a list of them:
- Gluttony, or gluttony, is excessive consumption of food that degrades human dignity. In the Catholic tradition, this includes debauchery.
- Fornication, which brings into the soul lustful sensations, unclean thoughts and satisfaction from them.
- The love of money, or self-interest, is a passion for profit that leads a person to dulling of mind and faith.
- Anger is a passion that is directed against perceived injustice. In Christianity, this sin is a strong impulse against one's neighbor.
- Sadness (longing) is a passion that cuts off all hopes of finding God, as well as ingratitude for previous and present gifts.
- Dejection is a psychological state in which a person relaxes and begins to feel sorry for himself. Melancholy is a mortal sin in Orthodoxy because this depressive state is accompanied by laziness.
- Vanity is a passionate desire to gain fame among people.
- Pride is a sin, the function of which is to belittle one’s neighbor and impudently put oneself at the center of the whole world.
On a note! The term “passion” in Church Slavonic is translated as “suffering.” Sinful acts torment people more than serious illnesses. The criminal man soon becomes a slave to the devil's passions.
What you can't ask from God
As a rational being, a person constantly tries to improve the environment, make it more comfortable, more convenient. In their prayers, Christians ask the Lord for recovery and help. But priests warn that not all requests can be satisfied and pleasing to God.
. What you cannot ask the Lord for in prayers:
- help in sinful matters, for example, to wish that the beloved man would be separated from his wife;
- about high virtues, a person must achieve them himself - be humble, pious;
- there is no need to earnestly pray for your desires, since a person cannot know exactly the likelihood of events from receiving what he wants, but the Lord knows what to give us and knows all the likely developments of events;
- to pray for punishment means not to believe in His forgiveness; one must ask not for punishment, but for forgiveness and repentance;
- asking for death is showing cowardice, and unbelief and blasphemy are the most terrible sins;
- requests for fame and wealth are a crime against Christ, since they are not fundamental in life.
Persistent requests are also not needed. The priests say that you need to ask once with Faith for help, and Christ himself will judge whether the request should be granted or not.
There is no excuse for human sin because “everyone sins”
How to deal with sins
The phrase “seven deadly sins” in Orthodoxy does not demonstrate a certain number of crimes, but only numerically indicates their conditional division into seven fundamental groups.
However, the church sometimes talks about eight sins. If we consider this issue in more detail, the list can be increased to ten to twenty.
Important! The daily struggle with sins is the most important task of every Orthodox person, and not just a monk. Soldiers take an oath to defend the fatherland, while Christians promise to renounce diabolical deeds (crimes).
After committing original sin, that is, disobedience to the Will of the Lord, humanity doomed itself to a long stay in the bonds of intractable passions. Let's look at them in order.
Confession of sins
Pride
This is the first sin and the most terrible sin in Orthodoxy, which was known even before the creation of mankind. He despises his neighbor, darkens the mind and makes his own “I” the most important. Pride inflates self-esteem and distorts the rational vision of the environment. To defeat the sin of Satan, you must learn to love the Creator and every creature. This will require great effort at first, but gradual purification of the heart will soften the mind towards the entire environment.
Gluttony
The need for drink and food is natural; any food is a gift from Heaven. By taking it, we gain strength and enjoy it. The line separating measure from excess is located within the soul of the believer. Everyone needs to be able to live both in poverty and in abundance, without taking more than they should.
Important! The sin is not in the food itself, but in the unfair and greedy attitude towards it.
Gluttony is divided into two types. The first includes the desire to fill the stomach with a colossal amount of food, the second is the desire to delight the tongue receptors with delicious dishes, without knowing the measure. Sated bellies do not allow their owners to think about the sublime and spiritual.
Gluttony reduces the quality of prayer and leads to desecration of body and spirit.
The demon of gluttony can only be overcome by prayer and fasting, which serves as a colossal educational tool. The one who is able to develop the skill of spiritual and physical abstinence, as well as strict adherence to church precepts, becomes blessed.
About spiritual life:
- Namesake in Orthodoxy
- Bible prophecies
- Ecumenism in the Orthodox Church
Fornication
The Holy Scriptures call sexual relations outside of marriage a grave sin. The Lord blessed only marital intimacy, where husband and wife become one flesh. An action blessed in marriage will be a crime if it goes beyond moral boundaries.
Fornication allows bodies to unite, but in lawlessness and injustice. Each such carnal relationship leaves deep wounds on the heart of the believer.
Important! Only divine marriage creates proper spiritual intimacy, spiritual unity, true love and trust.
Disorderly fornication does not achieve this and destroys the moral foundation. Adulterous people steal from themselves in an attempt to gain joy through dishonest means.
To get rid of passion, it is necessary to reduce sources of temptation to a minimum and not become attached to objects that irritate your attention.
Love of money
This is an indescribable love for finance and material acquisitions. Society today has created a cult of consumption. This way of thinking takes a person away from spiritual self-improvement.
Wealth is not a vice, but a greedy attitude towards property gives rise to the passion of love of money.
To get rid of sinfulness, a person needs to soften his own heart and remember that things are harder for those around you. The Lord, the Ruler of the Universe, will never leave a merciful and generous believer in trouble.
Happiness does not depend on financial wealth, but is achieved through softening your own heart.
Anger
This passion is the cause of most conflicts, killing love, friendship and human sympathy. In anger, a distorted image of the person with whom we are angry appears before the person.
The manifestation of passion, which often arises from pride and envy, traumatizes the soul and entails huge troubles.
You can get rid of it by reading the scriptures. Work and humor also distract from the effects of an angry mindset.
Sadness
It has many synonyms: melancholy, depression, melancholy, grief. It can lead to suicide if emotions take precedence over common sense.
Prolonged sadness begins to take over the soul and lead to destruction. This sin deepens the understanding of the present, making it harder than it actually is.
To overcome unpleasant depression, a person must turn to the Almighty for help and gain a taste for life.
Dejection
This passion is associated with bodily relaxation and laziness. It distracts from daytime work and prayer. In despondency, everything seems uninteresting and there is a desire to quit it. Everyone should understand: you cannot succeed in business if you are bored.
For the struggle, the cultivation of one’s own will is suitable, which will overcome all laziness. Every important matter, especially in honor of the environment, requires detailed coercion from the individual.
Vanity
Passion is the desire for vain glory, which does not provide any advantages or riches. Any honor is short-lived in the material world, so the desire for it distracts from truly correct thinking.
Vanity happens:
- hidden, dwells in the hearts of ordinary people;
- exposed, stimulates the acquisition of the highest positions.
To share the desire for empty glory, one should learn the opposite - humility. It is necessary to calmly listen to the criticism of others and agree with obvious thoughts.
What can you ask from the Almighty?
The only thing that Christianity allows as requests is forgiveness. But in their prayers, believers touch not only their own sins, they ask for their neighbors and relatives - this is also not prohibited and is not considered a sin. You can ask:
- health for yourself and your loved ones;
- be useful to people;
- making life easier for the sick and poor.
Requests and pleas for health may be displeasing to God, especially if a person wants recovery for committing a sin. This happens when a person begs to “get back on his feet for vengeance,” but health may not be expected.
It turns out that you can only ask for something that is not harmful to other people, not a sin. And, of course, you cannot insist on your requests, leaving the fulfillment of your wishes to the discretion of Jesus Christ. He still knows better what will benefit a person, and what desires are too early to come true - they will not lead to anything good, on the contrary, they will lead a person into sin.
The main thing that the priests talk about is that you need to believe in the forgiveness and atonement of sins. Do not blaspheme the Holy Spirit, do not deny its existence with slanderous speeches. If a person doesn’t believe, then let him not blaspheme.
Learning to forgive people and yourself is difficult.
Subscribe to our Social networks
The concept of sin in the Bible
The Bible tells us that because of the Fall, Adam and Eve were expelled from paradise. They lost grace and eternal life and became mortal. From this tragic moment in human history, death became a constant companion of life. The penalty for sin is death. This is an immutable law of God that cannot be abolished.
Find out what awaits you today - Horoscope for today for all zodiac signs
Sin is a distortion of human nature. Unconquered sin entails other sins. Thus, gluttony can lead to greed and lust. The desire to get more money to satisfy greed can lead to theft, money-grubbing and even murder. Therefore, victory over one sin leads to liberation from other vices. Because everything is interconnected.
Violation of one commandment is considered a violation of the entire law.
Do all sins lead to death or are there minor sins? The Bible says that any sin separates a person from God and is an obstacle to God's grace. Violation of even one commandment of God is considered a violation of the entire law. And it doesn’t matter whether a person is overcome by envy or the need to steal - he is a transgressor of the law and commandments.
The concept of mortal sin has roots in the Old Testament, when people were physically destroyed for committing untruths. For example, they stoned people for fornication. It was believed that this sin could not be atoned for by any repentance. The basis of this belief lies in the concept that the fornicator has long departed from the source of life and draws his inspiration from the waters of death. The logical chain of reasoning leads to the fact that the fornicator has long been dead spiritually, so he must be laid to rest forever and physically.
Old Testament religious doctrine was based on the eradication of everything that opposed God's commandments. The carrier of spiritual death must be destroyed so as not to infect the entire society with it. That is, sin was viewed as an infection to be exterminated.
Due to numerous requests from readers, we have prepared an “Orthodox Calendar” application for smartphones. Every morning you will receive information about the current day: holidays, fasts, days of remembrance, prayers, parables. Download for free: Orthodox Calendar 2022 (available on Android)
For the first time, people heard about the commandments of God from Moses in the Sinai desert. These were the 10 commandments on which modern Christianity is based. The commandments were given to people to save them from trouble. Not everyone understood that violating moral laws leads to disaster. The commandments explained to people how to behave in society and what to avoid.
Should sins be ranked by severity?
Photo: Flickr.com
It doesn't make much sense to rank sins in order of increasing severity. The whole nature of sin is that a person does not have love for God, does not act according to His will and commits lawlessness. The choice was made not in favor of good, but to commit evil - so what gradation can we talk about here?
It is important to understand that the severity of sinful acts depends on the circumstances and situation in which this or that choice was made. Sometimes ridicule of a person leads to more serious consequences than causing him bodily harm. Hence, sorting all sins by severity is completely wrong and not useful.
