Section II — On Moral Evil, or Sin
On Moral Evil or On Sin
What is moral evil?
Moral evil consists in morally bad actions. those that occur freely and voluntarily and with knowledge of their opposition to the divine law. Scripture calls moral evil that which is evil, wicked, unjust, impious, and every action that is carried out with awareness of its contradiction to the moral law.
What other actions can we classify among morally evil deeds?
Also those actions that have a merely legal character—that is, actions that conform in their external form to the moral law but essentially disagree with the spirit of the law—because a legally moral action loses its moral value and becomes an evil action when it is performed for the sake of various calculations and not to fulfill a commandment of the law. Example: The prayers of the Pharisees at the street corners, and their almsgiving in order to be seen and to gain the people’s esteem, had no moral value whatsoever.
What is sin?
Sin is this moral evil considered as a transgression of the law and opposition to the eternal law of God. (1) In the New Testament, sin usually refers to moral evil not as an individual act, but rather as the state in which sinning has become a habit and custom (Romans 6:4–13, John 9, John 3, and elsewhere). To denote this condition or moral corruption, the New Testament sometimes uses the words disobedience, transgression, trespass, lawlessness, unrighteousness, impiety, wickedness, and evil.
On the Essence of Sin and the Degrees of Guilt and Their Division
What constitutes the essence of sin?
(1) Saint Ambrose teaches concerning the essence of sin that sin is the violation of divine law and disobedience to a commandment (On Tradition, ch. 8). Saint Augustine says: “Virtue is a stable principle, or a demonstration of the principle of the law of God” (Against Faustus, Book 22, ch. 4).[1]
The essence of sin consists in a choice contrary to the divine will.
How many things are required for sin?
Three things: First, knowledge of the divine law; second, free choice toward transgression of it; and third, voluntary transgression of it.
What follows from these three conditions?
There follows a distinction of sins into inexcusable and excusable, because of the possible absence of one of the conditions.
Which sins are excusable and which are inexcusable?
Sins committed in ignorance of the divine law or involuntarily and without free choice are excusable, but those committed with knowledge of the divine law, freely, with free choice, and voluntarily are inexcusable.
Which sins are committed by free choice and which are committed without free choice?
Those committed voluntarily with knowledge of their opposition to the divine law are committed by free choice, but those committed in ignorance of their opposition to the divine law or involuntarily are without free choice and involuntary.
Are inexcusable involuntary sins equally grave in all respects?[2]
No. For just as there are different degrees of development and rank in the communion of the Church, so too there are different degrees of guilt for those who sin.
Does the violation of every commandment of the divine law make us guilty before God?
Certainly. Because every sin is a sin against God, since the transgressor of any commandment whatsoever is a transgressor of the divine will and a transgressor of the whole law. “For whoever keeps the whole law but stumbles in one point has become guilty of all.” (James 2:10; cf. Matt. 5:19).
Concerning the Degree of Guilt
How is the degree of guilt determined?
1.) From the greater or lesser evil intention.
2.) From the sacredness and importance of the commandment.
3.) From the complete or incomplete awareness of the spirit and knowledge of one’s duty.
4.) From the greater or lesser deliberation and the time given.
5.) From the complete or incomplete understanding of the consequences of the sin.
6.) From the difficulty or ease of the sin committed.
7.) From the degree of the human being’s distance and separation from God.
Concerning What Moves the Human Being to Sin
Are sins against God, sins against our neighbor, and sins against ourselves distinguished from one another by degree of gravity?
Certainly. Sins against God are of a greater degree than sins against our neighbor, and sins against our neighbor are of a greater degree than sins against ourselves.
Do these sins, since they are all sins against God, admit of remission? And when?
They receive remission when the one who has sinned repents, turns away from sin, and makes satisfaction to the offended divine righteousness through works of virtue that are opposed to the vice committed. “Turn away from evil and do good.”
Are there unforgivable sins? That is, mortal sins?
Certainly. Holy Scripture says that every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people. but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men; and whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him either in this age or in the age to come. (Matt. 12:31–32).
Who are those who have blasphemed against the Holy Spirit?
Those who despise the divine law and do not accept its divinity: these blaspheme against the Holy Spirit. Likewise, anyone who attributes the works, graces, and gifts of the Holy Spirit to other powers, or who willfully denies them out of vice, blasphemes against the Holy Spirit. The Pharisees who said: “This man casts out demons only by Beelzebul, the ruler of demons” (Matt. 12:24; cf. Mark 3:34), blasphemed against the Holy Spirit.
Concerning the Things That Move a Human Being to Sin
Are the passions of the soul and body innate and manifest themselves necessarily, or are they self-generated and manifest themselves as a consequence of what has happened?
The passions, both of the soul and of the body, are manifested by the darkening; they are self-generated and consequent. These passions are a distortion of the innate good desires that entered through the darkening of the soul’s faculties: the cognitive, the volitional, and the affective. A consequence of this darkening was to think, will, and desire things completely contrary to what one ought to think, will, and desire. Therefore the passions are manifested and develop in proportion to the deficiency, that is, the darkening of the soul’s faculties.
The faculties of the human soul in their original state were illumined and functioned without error. and the cognitive faculty recognized the good and that in this the Spirit finds rest; the affective faculty loved and desired it as the source of supreme blessedness and enlightened the intellect and stirred the will; and the volitional faculty willed the good as the supreme good and sought its realization; but sin, which came through the devil’s deception, darkened the cognitive faculty so that in many things it cannot reliably distinguish the true from the false, or the good from the evil, and goes astray in its estimation of things; it debased and corrupted the affective faculty so that it takes pleasure in corruptible things and things that are good only in appearance; and it weakened the volitional faculty so that it wills and does evil as well; This darkening transformed both the natural and spiritual appetites and desires into passions and causes of sins, and from this come all the sins that proceed from ourselves, as well as the passions of soul and body.
Q. What are the passions of the soul?
Pride (1), anger, envy, sloth and despondency (2), and desire (3).
Q. What are the passions of the body?
Avarice, gluttony, and licentiousness.
Q. What are these passions of soul and body called?
Primary passions: For these things become the origin and cause of many other passions that rise up against the divine law.
On Pride.
What is the passion of pride?
A terrible passion and the beginning of every sin. because pride, according to the divine Chrysostom, is the ultimate folly: “The beginning of pride”
(1) From the intellect. (2) From the irascible part.
Arrogance comes from not knowing the Lord; but the fool denies God. For when the soul is captured by this passion and loses its humble-mindedness, it becomes weak and cowardly and rash and foolish, and it will not know itself. But how will someone who does not know himself understand the things above himself? [Treasury, Vol. 4, pp. 440–448] and Sirach says: “The beginning of human pride is to depart from the Lord, and his heart has departed from the One who made him.” For the beginning of pride is sin, and whoever clings to it will pour out abomination (Sirach 10:12–13). [see Thesaurus, p. 441].
Where does pride spring from?
From a deluded opinion of oneself, on account of ignorance of oneself and ignorance of things outside oneself. For how will someone who does not know himself come to know the things outside himself? This begets a violent desire for glory, for the sake of which the one gripped by it dares everything.
The divine Chrysostom—behold what he says about the one gripped by pride: “There is no evil equal to pride. It makes a person a demon—insolent, blasphemous, perjured—and causes him to desire deaths and murders. The proud man always lives with sorrows, always feels indignation, always wanders in distress. There is nothing that can satisfy his passion; even if he saw the king bowing down and doing obeisance, he was not satisfied, but rather was inflamed all the more. For just as the greedy, however much they receive, need that much more, so also the arrogant, however much honor they enjoy, desire that much more. for the passion grows in them. For it is a passion, and a passion knows no limit, but stops only when it has killed the one who possesses it” (see Thesaurus of Sayings, Vol. 4, p. 441).
What evils spring up from pride as from a root?
Self-conceit, love of glory, vainglory, boastfulness, haughtiness, vanity, arrogance, puffed-up pride, disdain.
What passion is conceit?
A passion impure by nature and, as the ancient saying goes, “conceit is the cutting off of progress.” For “the one who imagines himself better does not tolerate improvement,” says Cyril of Alexandria.
What is love of glory?
A trafficking in virtue. For those who love glory do nothing for the sake of virtue, but for the sake of glory, as though to some idol.
And nothing is sincere or confessed, but they do many things that are spurious and mixed, says Plutarch.[3]
What is vainglory?
A disordered desire for glory and praise, a poverty of virtue, an obstacle to virtue. For Chrysostom says that he who seeks empty glory is empty of all virtue within (Thesaurus, Vol. 2, 212).
What vices are born from vainglory?
From it are born disobedience, boasting, hypocrisy, stubbornness, and innovation.
Who is the disobedient person?
The disobedient person is contemptuous of his superiors. The boaster is arrogant and exalts himself above all, and utters blasphemous words even against God himself, calling himself God.
What kind of vice is hypocrisy? And who is the hypocrite?
“The hypocrite always harbors hatred in the depths, yet displays a love that is spread across the surface, and just as submerged rocks barely covered by water become an unforeseen danger to the unwary,” says Basil.
As a devout man, he wants to be called holy and to be worshiped by all; you see his outward appearance and think he does everything according to God, but his heart is full of envy and deceit and every kind of evil.[4]
(Chrysostom). He will think to hide his inward arrogance behind a veil of dejection, and to cover the ugliness of his soul with borrowed garments. (Nilus.) Draws near with the mouth, and honors with the lips. but their heart is far from me. He teaches teachings in vain, deceiving everyone under a venerable guise. Do not play the hypocrite in the mouths of men. Hypocrites will hide anger in their heart, and their soul will die in youth; Hypocrisy is hidden bitterness. (Job 36.) See how great a vice hypocrisy is! It is itself the fruit of envy, bringing with it all vices. (Basil.) It seems to have the speech and face of a lamb, but inwardly it is no different from a serpent. (Hermippus.) It is not right to love or hate anyone based on appearance; one must judge by their deeds. Some people outwardly pretend friendship, but are filled with murder, cruelty, and harshness. (Aesop, Fable 340.)
The ultimate unrighteousness is to seem to be righteous when one is not. (Plato, Republic II.)
Who is the stubborn person and who is the innovator?
The stubborn person struggles to uphold his own opinion and rejects the truth out of vainglory, while the innovator out of vainglory is even able to deny the foundational principles of his faith in order to demonstrate a superior spirit and intellect.
Vainglory is the mother of various sins.
What is boastfulness?
Plato, giving the definition of boastfulness, says:
“Boastfulness is a disposition that pretends to possess a good or goods that do not exist.” The boaster lives in an imaginary world, rejects reality, and hates truth; he delights in deceit and seeks to deceive others as well; truth never comes forth from the lips of the boaster; But falsehood sits upon them.
What is arrogance?
Arrogance is an irrational exaltation of the mind and an overestimation of one’s own virtues and accomplishments. The arrogant person does not know what humility is. His gaze revolves around great things, but his heart is empty of noble sentiments.
What is vanity?
Lack of sense, according to the Proverbs. All the vain make their desires, which will not profit them. They trust in vain things and speak empty words; They conceive only and bring forth vain things and weave a spider’s web.
What is conceit?
Conceit is a darkening of the mind from the smoke of arrogance and vanity, and moral insensibility. it is a passion of a sick soul. the conceited person is not far from being mad; This is why Alcaeus says, “Typhon has destroyed the mind.” Socrates says: “In the presence of pride, just as in the presence of a bad sculptor, one can see distorted images of reality.”
What is pride?
Pride is a display of vanity and a demonstration of one’s own emptiness. Menander says: “Thrice-wretched, for they do not know the nature of man.”
What is arrogance?
Arrogance is pride on account of the goods of fortune. The arrogant person is self-centered and contemptuous of others. He is puffed up over noble birth, wealth, and reputation, and despises the lowly.
What is anger?
Saint Basil the Great says: “For anger is like a kind of soot and sharp vapor of the passion; Anger is persistent grief and a lasting impulse toward retaliation against those who have wronged us, as the soul rages toward vengeance.” The same author says: Wrath stirs up strife. fighting breeds insults; insults lead to blows, and blows to wounds. and from wounds often comes death. John of Damascus says, “Where there is anger, the Holy Spirit does not dwell; “Nothing healthy can come forth from where anger issues.” “Anger does not allow one to see, but just as in a night battle, having bound up both eyes and ears, it leads wherever it wishes.” (See Thesaurus, vol. 4, chapters 85 and 86, pp. 924–939.)
“Anger is the cause of the greatest evils for mortals,” says Euripides.
The evils that come from anger are:
(1) Frenzy; (2) insults, curses, outrages, blasphemies; (3) woundings, mutilations, murders. Or Scripture says: “whoever is angry with his brother without cause will be liable to judgment.” But whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca,’ will be liable to the council; “ But whoever says, ‘You fool,’ will be liable to the hell of fire.” (Matt. 5:21–22.)
On Envy.
What is envy?
According to Plato, “envy is grief at the good things of friends, whether present or yet to come.” Aristotle says that envy is the adversary of those who prosper. And Saint Basil the Great says: “No passion more destructive than envy attaches itself to the souls of men. For just as rust consumes iron, so envy consumes the soul that harbors it.” Gregory the Theologian calls envy a “Luciferian passion,” and speaks thus: “O envy, root of death, the many-branched disease, sharpest wound of the heart—[5] For what nail, however sharp, pierces as envy wounds the heart that harbors it?” Chrysostom says: “Whoever is consumed by envy experiences the continuous sting of death.[6] He considers everyone enemies, even those who have done him no wrong. he says and does everything in order to destroy his neighbor. What soul is more wretched than this?” (See vol. 2, ch. 79, etc.)
From envy the following passions are born. First, hypocrisy is born. As Saint Basil the Great says, “and this is the fruit of envy: For duplicity of character comes to people chiefly from envy” (2). Hatred, malice, jealousy, slander, false accusation, rejoicing in evil, and the like. Scripture calls envy the worker of murder. In the Wisdom of Solomon you will find the following: God created man for incorruption and made him in the image of His own eternity. but through the envy of the devil death entered into the world (2:23–24; cf. Rom. 1).
On Acedia and Despondency
Acedia is a passion of the soul that refuses every labor of virtue. enduring no labor or trouble for its sake. John of Damascus says, “More harmful than any demonic activity is the excess of acedia and despondency.” since the demon, wherever he gains mastery through despondency— The one afflicted with acedia hates what is present but desires what is not present.
The passions born from it: (1) hatred toward spiritual goods; (2) cowardice; (3) despair; (4) hostility toward those who teach and practice virtue; (5) slackness of soul and indifference toward every good.
Concerning Desire
Desire moves us toward the sins of the body. The Apostle James (1:14) says: Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. “Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” (See Thesaurisma, vol. 4, pp. 589–592).
On Love of Money
What is love of money?
The root of all vices, leading astray from God. For no lover of money has ever become a lover of humanity (Chrysostom). But Bion the philosopher says: “The disease of love of money is the mother of every vice.” “Love of money is the most shameful disease” (Plutarch). Scripture calls it idolatry.
And the Wisdom of Solomon says, “For nothing is more lawless than the lover of money;” “for he makes even his own soul a thing for sale” (chapter 10:9).
On Gluttony
What is gluttony?
The root of transgressions, preoccupation with the throat (John Climacus), darkening of the soul, enemy of self-control, sharpening of sensual pleasure, cause of drunkenness, dissipation, buffoonery and jesting, occasion for insensibility and carelessness, agent of wretchedness, reason for callousness, denial of God— because the belly is the god of gluttons (Phil. 3:19).
On Licentiousness
What is licentiousness?
The Fathers call it the metropolis of evils. a sin against one’s own body, a destruction of the temple of the Holy Spirit within us; because we are the temple of God and the Spirit of God dwells in us. Therefore, if anyone defiles his own body, he defiles the temple of God; God will destroy him. (1 Cor. 3:16–17). Or Scripture says: “The works of the flesh are evident, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, licentiousness … I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” (Gal. 5:19–21).
The evils that come from licentiousness: 1) hardening of the spirit; 2) instability of judgment; 3) hatred toward God; 4) extreme love of life; 5) contempt and disregard for chastity; 6) unbelief toward the life to come; 7) destruction and ruin of the health of body and soul; 8) hardening of conscience.
Besides the passions of soul and body that move us to sin, does something else also move us to sin?
Exactly. The devil, who seeks to lead us astray from the straight path, the moral law, and to lead us into crooked paths.
Sins That Come About Through the Operations of the Devil
How do we know that the devil also moves us to sin?
From the holy Scripture, both Old and New.
For in the Old Covenant the devil is mentioned as the cause of man’s fall. In the New Testament, both passages concerning the temptations of the Savior by the devil (or concerning Judas, as having been moved by the devil to betray Jesus (2), and concerning Peter, that he was assailed by the devil and slipped into denial (3). Furthermore, Jesus Christ Himself, teaching about the devil’s incitements to sin, says, “Watch, that you enter not into temptation” (by the devil). (4) Matthew 4.). Likewise the holy Fathers of the Church in their writings often speak about the temptations of the devil. An example is also Job, who was put to the test.
The Evils from Being Mastered by the Temptations of the Devil
What evils come from the temptations of the devil?
1.) Darkening of the spirit; 2) the distortion of truth; 3) the violent suppression of the good; 4) evil schemes; 5) distress through terrifying images; 6) hatred toward the good; 7) inclination toward evil. 8) Unbelief in the existence of God; 9) Hatred toward God; 10) Despair; 11) Denial of blessedness and of the life to come and eternal, apostasy, etc.
Concerning Hardness of Heart
How a Human Being Reaches the Final Degree of Sin
According to the Apostle Paul, there is a continual struggle between the sensory and the spiritual life of man. “For the flesh covets against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are opposed to one another.” (Galatians 5:17). But for the most part the flesh conquers, because it has as an ally, so to speak, the sensory world that is of the same kind as itself, while the Spirit, being as it were an exile in this world, has no other help except the all-powerful divine grace alone, which is always for all
people, and for this reason the sensory life usually conquers the spiritual, as being stronger. At the beginning the sensory life is subject to the spiritual and is directed according to the dictates of the moral law, with the will also in agreement. but it begins to resist the Spirit and in the end rises up, raising demands; and the spirit, having grown listless and not seeking the help of divine grace, begins to feel itself powerless against the demands of sensuality. Finding himself in this situation, the human being still does works in accordance with the divine commandments, but the commandments now appear to him as a heavy burden.
Now sensuality begins to dominate him, and the stronger the sensual life becomes, the weaker the spiritual life becomes; the human being still feels what he ought to do, as a being with free will, and hears the voice of conscience proclaiming to him the moral law, but he lacks moral strength to resist the demands of the sensual life; he obeys conscience and follows the dictates of the moral law only insofar as the tranquility of the sensual life is not disturbed and its demands are not harmed. At this stage the human being feels himself bound, yet is unable to break the bonds. He has knowledge of his spiritual and moral wretchedness, but he does not have the power to free himself from it and to restore his own spirit to the sovereignty that belongs to it. This condition of the spirit is not yet complete slavery, because, still hearing the voice of conscience, it continues to resist the sensual yoke imposed upon it, which it bears with displeasure and despondency.
At last the resistance ceases; the spiritual nature submits and surrenders to the sensual nature; and so the voice of conscience also ceases, and the human being willingly serves the sensual life, denying his own spirituality; This is the state of complete moral slavery.
The longer a person remains in this slavery, the more decisively wickedness dominates his spiritual life. And not only does he no longer resist its demands, but he also willingly employs all his spiritual powers
for the achievement of its goals. This is the state of depravity.
When a person is in this state, he practices evil shamelessly, his conscience is completely silent, the admonitions given to him no longer make any impression on him, and even misfortunes are no longer sufficient to bring him to sincere repentance. This is the state of moral hardening.