The Classification of Sins

Sins, as evil acts of humans, are classified in various ways according to how they are committed. Namely, they are called: 1) mental or inward, if we only think to transgress the law or mentally take pleasure in sin, and outward or committed, when we manifest such evil thought through some action. Whoever takes pleasure in the thought of sin and desires to commit it is already guilty before the Heart-Knower, so, for example: “Everyone who looks at a woman to lust for her”, says the Savior, “has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matt. 5:28). However, from this one should not conclude that there is no difference between mental and committed sin; the latter is guiltier because it shows greater shamelessness and corruption in a person. Moreover, as long as sin is hidden in the heart of a person, it is harmful only to him alone, but when it is revealed in action, it harms many other people; 2) sins are called our own, if we ourselves commit them, and others’, but imputed to us, if in some way we participate in the deeds of other people. We shall one day give God an account not only for our own sins but also for others’, because, taking part in them in some way, we claim them as our own; wherefore the Apostle exhorts to “not share in the sins of others.” (1 Tim. 5:22) When we command, advise, help, or do not prevent others from doing what is evil, when by our example we give them cause for sin, when we praise their evil deeds—in all these and similar cases we share in others’ sins, wherefore we must answer for them according to our share in them; 3) finally, sins are called involuntary, light, and venial, if we violate the law through ignorance or carelessness, and voluntary, grave, and mortal, when we do this with full consciousness and by free will. Concerning involuntary, light, and venial sins, the following should be noted: a) sins of ignorance and carelessness are called involuntary not because they wholly do not depend on our will (in that case they could not be called sins), but because they arise not so much from our desire to sin as from ignorance of their unlawfulness, from carelessness; b) these sins are only light when the ignorance of their unlawfulness, through which they were committed, depended more on circumstances than on our fault or on chance inattention to the law rather than on constant neglect of it; c) they are called light only in comparison to other more serious ones (Lk. 12:47–48), but taken in themselves every sin is grave because by it God the Lawgiver is offended, wherefore every sin must be carefully avoided; finally: d) they are called venial not because they do not deserve punishment or are forgiven us without repentance, but because they are lighter than others, and a person committing them can more easily repent than one who sins willfully.

We sin willfully when we know that a certain action is contrary to God’s law, yet still commit it, and moreover by special desire. In this case our sin is grave and mortal because, committing it, we show disrespect for the law, cooling of love toward God, which constitutes the life of our spirit; and therefore we not only deserve mortal punishment but actually exist in a state of spiritual death. The most serious of grave sins are: a) sins against the Holy Spirit, such as: contradiction of obvious and proven truth and stubborn rejection of Orthodox Christian faith, joined with bold blasphemy against it and hostility toward those who profess it; excessive and foolish presumption on God’s mercy; and despair, that is, when one has no hope in God’s compassion (Matt. 12:27, 31, 34; Mark 3:29–30). The Savior says that such sins “will not be forgiven in this age or in the age to come” (Matt. 12:32) not because the merits of our Redeemer and Lord are insufficient for it, for “The Blood” His “cleanses us from all sin” (1 Jn. 1:7), but because those infected by them, by their hardening, are incapable of repentance; b) sins that cry out to heaven for God’s vengeance, such as: deliberate murder (Gen. 4:10), the sin of Sodom (Gen. 18:20), oppression of the poor, widows, and orphans, and withholding wages from workers (Mal. 3:5), and also disrespect and ingratitude toward parents (Ex. 21:15, 17). Finally: c) the chief sins, which serve as sources for many others, such as: pride, avarice, lust, envy, gluttony, rancor, negligence (these are sinful dispositions).