If God is on one side and we set off the other way, that is sin

Every offence we have committed in word, deed or thought is the fruit of sin; but not committing offences does not mean sinlessness. Sin has put down such deep roots in our being that it can be overcome only with the Lord's help, and even then only by persistent, tireless struggle. Archpriest Teodore Gignadze, rector of the church of the Exaltation of the Cross in Tbilisi, talks to us about the nature and origin of sin and about the Lord's great mercy.

— Father, how does the Orthodox Church define sin?

— The Christian Church gives a rather deep definition of sin, which may come as a complete surprise to someone living without spirituality. Thinking outside the Church, as in the ancient, pagan period, identifies sin with an offence committed. Socrates, for example, understood sin as not knowing what is bad. In his view, if a person knew that something was bad, he would not sin.

Christianity brought an entirely different definition of sin. When the apostles wrote the Gospel in Greek (as you know, every word of Holy Scripture is inspired by God, so everything in it carries its own weight), to denote sin they used a very strange word, “hamartia” — “missing the mark.” By this the apostles indicated that if God is on one side and we set off the other way, that is sin.

Besides this, the apostle Paul tells us that we should do everything to the glory of God; that is, whatever does not glorify God, whatever has no room for God, is sin.

Sin is, of course, connected with evil too. In the pagan world there was also this understanding: sin comes from evil, and the origin of evil is matter. As you know, if a scientist is great, what he says takes firm root, and perhaps only a new genius can overcome it… Plato, relying on the ancient thinkers, said that the body is the prison of the soul. This view became so ingrained in the pagan outlook that before Christianity no one even thought of revising it.

Even today some Christians consider the flesh the source of sin. In fact, as the apostle Paul tells us in his epistle, our body is a temple of God. It is called precisely to become a temple of God, of the Holy Spirit. The apostle even says that temples of flesh surpass temples of stone. How can a temple be a source of sin?! Then how would the saints have worked such great miracles, first in their lifetime and then after their death, or how would the Lord have taken on flesh like ours?

— You mentioned Socrates' view. People still say today: not knowing is no sin. Does this saying contain a grain of truth?

— People in general oversimplify their attitude to sin. This saying is an example. It is a mistaken idea, though it has a certain basis in Holy Scripture too: the apostle Paul says that when you do not know, the responsibility is less. John Chrysostom too used to lament after preaching: now you know what you did not know, and a greater responsibility lies on you. But today, when a person says “I didn't know,” the question arises: why didn't he know? Was Christianity not preached to him? In Georgia that is laughable, especially today. The problem is that he is not interested; he is sinful, he is perishing, and he does not even look for the way of salvation.

— Father, where did sin in people come from?

— One thing must be said: Christianity insistently teaches that even an infant bears sin, and the Church considers it obligatory to baptise him; for a person, however good he may be, even for an infant, we cannot pray if he died unbaptised. So we have something inborn that is the basis of sin.

Whether we like it or not, in searching for evil we come to our first parents, Adam and Eve, whom God created as the most perfect beings among His creatures; there was no sin or other evil in them.

In the first book of the Bible we read that the Lord says of everything He creates that it is good, but before the creation of Eve He says this: it is not good that the man (Adam) should be alone. In fact, this is the definition of evil, which consists in the following: evil is the loneliness of a personal being separated from God (incidentally, one of the definitions of hell too is eternal loneliness, and as soon as a person realises that this loneliness is eternal, a catastrophically growing despair arises in him).

If we go deeper, the cause of the fall of the greatest angel of light was pride. Pride — in fact, the desire to be god without God — is the origin of evil.

Satan also tempted man, who of his own will turned his back on God and wanted to be god himself. It was here that the catastrophe happened: human nature was damaged.

We know that man consists of spirit (soul) and flesh. They stand in a certain hierarchy to one another. This damage turned everything upside down: man's flesh began to rule over the soul, and the soul over the spirit; the human person became enslaved to human nature itself; Adam could no longer be with God, became estranged even from himself, and sewed himself a garment of fig leaves. Although Adam and Eve were parts of each other's body, they were now ashamed even before each other. Before this they had been, as it were, clothed in light, but now they were given garments of skin — an animal body; and from now on they look at each other not with love but as consumers. With the rarest exceptions, man lost the ability to love another person (that is why conflict between husband and wife is so frequent: a person cannot give up his own “I”). Above all, they hide from God, the source of goodness and happiness, and do not open their hearts to Him. “Adam, where art thou?” the Lord calls, but Adam can no longer be with God. This is sin: an evil that arose from man's personal choice, damaged his nature and as a result deprived him completely of the ability to commune with God. That is why it is said in several places in the Bible that man cannot see God face to face and not die.

— We all know that we commit many sins, but often we are unable to feel them, to perceive them as sin. How can we come to have “a sense of our own sins,” and how should we fight them?

— We must study God's commandments, carry them out scrupulously, and be faithful to the Lord.

The very first heir of Adam and Eve was a murderer. Every person carries in himself genetically that damaged nature which is called original sin. If you analysed a person's whole being — flesh and soul — you would not find original sin anywhere, because, as the Church explains, it is the state of a person when he does not go towards God and, even if he wanted to, could not. When he realises this, a person acknowledges Christ not as a being who rewards us or rescues us from worldly problems, but as the Deliverer from the sin that does not let man go to God. And the person begins to live not only by doing good — animals do that too — but by the virtues as well, by striving for likeness to God. At once he discovers that he has an enemy within himself in the form of fallen nature, and he begins to fight against it. In this fight he is helped by the grace of God, which enters us through faith and repentance; and repentance is not only shedding tears or pangs of conscience — any atheist may have those — but a person's firm decision to turn his back on godlessness, on a godless life, and to go to God, become His disciple, and begin to keep the commandments the Lord has given, which make the way to God easier for us.

So sin carries within itself the primordial evil that deprives us of the possibility of returning to God. Beginning a life in the Church is a person's firm personal and moral decision. As soon as he begins such a life, he at once runs up against terrible resistance within himself. There is something in us that is not inert — something that could not draw us towards God — but hostile and active, fighting against our very selves. That is sin. It is so deep, so ingrained in our being, that even Abraham, even Job, whose faith — an astonishing faith — and love for God are the standard, went down into hell. That is why it is impossible to be saved without the life of the Church, that is, without discipleship to Christ and being with Him. When the apostles realise that for man this is impossible, the Lord consoles them: what is impossible with men is possible with God. The whole Christian life, the whole life of the Church, is meant to teach us how this is possible with God.

— How did the attitude to sin change from the Old Testament to the New?

— In the Old Testament the commandments (the Ten Commandments and the other commandments of the Old Testament) were given in the form of prohibitions, and breaking the law is dangerous both in the material world (you must not step out of a fifth-floor window, you must not put your hand on a hot iron…) and in the spiritual world. In the New Testament, however, a way is given; it is shown how we should act; people have been given not only prohibitions but an active call: what we must do, in what case we shall be blessed (you remember the nine Beatitudes).

Christianity tells us: in order for a person to know himself, which is necessary for the journey to God, he must begin to keep God's commandments scrupulously; otherwise he will not realise that he is perishing, will not run up against resistance within himself, nor understand that the way to God is closed to him through his own fault.

— Which sins are considered mortal, and why? And in general, how can sins be classified?

— There is much talk of mortal and non-mortal sins, but we cannot reassure a person and tell him that if he has not killed (though there are a great many killers in our society — I mean abortion), has not stolen or robbed, he is not in mortal sin.

Of course, murder, robbery, theft and fornication in any form are mortal sins, but we can continue the list: drunkenness, and drug addiction, it goes without saying. The apostle Paul says plainly that drunkards and homosexuals (sexual minorities) will not inherit the Kingdom. The Bible says that wine maketh glad the heart of man. Indeed, when you drink two, three, at the very most five glasses — depending on the person — and your heart is glad, that is acceptable (only not during a fast); but when Bacchus moves from the heart to the brain, that is drunkenness.

A person's mind filters all the information coming in from outside. Many do not know that much of this information is demonic. People who live spiritually will agree with me: sometimes terrible thoughts come to a person, but the mind drives them away; when the mind is clouded by drink, however, the soul is defenceless against the information and thoughts coming from outside, and an evil spirit takes hold of the will. Such a person's actions are not rational. He may commit many terrible crimes. The fathers call this “voluntary demon-possession” and consider it a most grievous sin. Even the communists knew that a crime committed while drunk is more serious: if you know you get drunk like that, why do you drink?!

Besides this, judging others is a most grievous sin. The Lord says: with what measure you judge another, with the same measure you will be judged. Judging others is a sign that a person does not know himself.

Idle talk is a grave sin: we shall give account for every idle word. Since the tongue, as the fathers teach, is the key of the heart, the soul of a person who talks idly is emptied, and he loses the ability to be with God. Keeping silence does not necessarily mean becoming completely silent; it is also silence when a person says nothing superfluous.

Some do not consider smoking a mortal sin, yet it is plainly of demonic origin: when one first smokes, the whole body rises up against the smoke — I don't want it, what are you letting into me? Smoking is a pagan ritual; in this form the Indians burned incense to idols, supposedly to the soul of the world. What is very important, tobacco kills a person's will; it is a kind of spiritual AIDS (that virus destroys immunity, tobacco destroys the will). As long as a person smokes, he should not hope to fight his passions seriously. More than that — he will not even see them.

Anger is a most grievous sin; the Lord says: whoever is angry with his brother is worthy of Gehenna. Gehenna is a symbol of hell. Thus anger is equivalent to murder.

How many of our fellow countrymen keep the commandment that one day of the week is the Lord's? Sunday is the eighth day, the symbol of eternity. If a person does not show on this day the desire to be with God, will he enter the Kingdom after death? A monk tells this story: two people were travelling together; in conversation it came out that one of them was in great hardship. The other had 700 dollars in his pocket. He took a hundred and gave it to his fellow traveller. Then little by little he learned that the man had many children, had debts, was out of work… and six hundred dollars moved into the needy man's pocket. The owner kept only a hundred. When they stopped to rest and the benefactor fell asleep, the needy man got up, beat his benefactor and took his last 100 dollars.

After this the monk asked what, by human measure, this man deserved. Death, they answered. Well, this man is you, because the Lord has given you six days out of seven, and you will not give up even that one. Man takes from the Lord even that one day which He left us for communion with Him. That one I want too, says man, and You, as heavenly Father, I don't need — just look in on me now and then. Such an attitude is repulsive. When you do not go to church on Sunday, you commit a mortal sin.

Now let us say which sin is mortal and which is not. Every sin that makes us lose the Lord is mortal. What does it matter with which sin we end up where God is not?

— There is sin in deed, in word and in thought. Does it make any difference to our spiritual state in which form we commit sin, and will we be judged differently for them?

— Of course, a sin committed in deed is heavier than one in word, and one committed in word heavier than one in thought; but sin develops. So if a person does not fight sin in thought, it will certainly show itself in word; and if he does not fight it in word, it will certainly show itself in deed.

It is true that a sin committed in deed is much heavier; but when a person loses God and loses the happiness that is called being with God, would it be reasonable to console himself that he will end up on a slightly higher tier of hell and suffer less?

— What effect does sin have on a person; what is its consequence?

— Before the Fall the Lord warned man: if you sin, you will die. So the chief consequence of sin is death, not only bodily but spiritual too. We know what bodily death is; a spiritually dead person loses the ability to see God and cannot be with Him.

Physical death lies before the eyes of an unbeliever too, and if this person has even a little depth, it will certainly trouble him and set him searching, and this process will to some extent lead him to acknowledge God. If he then thinks and lives logically, according to conscience, he will certainly reach the truth.

The chief consequence of sin, death, is utterly insurmountable for man. It is laughable to seek happiness while we carry death around in our breast pocket. It is always beside us. Human life is like a soap bubble — lovely and beautiful, but liable to burst at any moment.

Whoever today consciously chooses godlessness and stresses his own irreligion and life outside the Church is, it turns out, content to be merely a physiological being; that is, his person is reduced to a hand, a foot, an eye, a stomach. He may not say it aloud, but by this attitude he acknowledges descent from the ape. This too is a sign of sin: a person does not want to be the image of God and agrees only to a passing, vain life. Looking at such a person we are reminded of: “The little cricket chirped and hopped about…”

— People who live outside the Church rarely fight sin. For the most part it does not even trouble them; they are used to living with sin and even feel rather comfortable. Is their life really carefree, or do these “unacknowledged” sins still manage to disturb their souls?

— Do we know what goes on in each person's soul? Take a rich, powerful person. What do we know about whether he is happy? We see only part of his life. The life of such a person is often an uncontrollable pursuit of amusement, a constant search for something new, for renewal. Why is he always on the move? Why can he not stop for a little and look into himself?

The bottomless abyss in the human heart can be filled only by God. Without this a person begins to live outside himself. If we no longer give him television, newspapers or other amusements, he may go mad, because he has no inner world; inside him there is emptiness.

A person who lives an inner life, however, is the happiest of all. First, his inner world is far more beautiful than the world around us, because it is the place where God may set up His throne. Second, the Lord is the source of happiness; communion with Him makes a person happy.

When this source of happiness is closed to a person, he spends all his income and energy on an outward, false life. He quietens his conscience with charity, yet he really does feel a certain comfort, because he does not resist his own nature; he lives a life that matches fallen nature and does not know what it is to force oneself, without which the Kingdom will not open to anyone. The Lord says plainly, after all: the Kingdom of God suffers violence. Without this forcing of oneself, the human person, held captive by physiology, will never go to God.

— Which sins are more characteristic of our nation?

— His Holiness and Beatitude often speaks about this. He notes that our nation is especially marked by pride, arrogance and uncontrolled emotionality. To this we might perhaps add the grave sins committed by our forebears: the destruction of churches, the insulting and killing of clergy. I think these sins have not been repented of, because, although our generation did not commit them, part of society has a very negative attitude to the Church and is indifferent to her calls. Our failure to see and feel what we did with our own hands makes us debtors for the sins our forebears committed.

— In the time of the first Christians the punishment for this or that sin was much heavier than now. Does this not show that the Church's attitude to sin has changed?

— The Lord founded the Church for people.

Among the first Christians, a husband or wife who was unfaithful was barred from Communion for 14 years for adultery, a fornicator or one living unmarried for 7 years. He could hear the services only standing at the door.

In the canons these periods were reduced to 3 years, and today they are shorter still. In Byzantium Orthodoxy was the state religion; being barred from Communion meant being cut off from society, cast out. Besides, the Church and her services were the most beautiful, the most festive event. Being deprived of them was a punishment in itself. But today, if we did the same, a person would go off and console himself with some amusement and be lost to the Church… Besides, this time is given to a person not for punishment but for repentance, for sharpening the desire to be with God. If today we deprived a person of the right to take part in the Church's sacraments, his desire to be with God would not grow sharper; on the contrary, it would be crushed, and in the end he would perish. That is why the penalty has been lightened, but in essence the sin remains the same. The Church's attitude to sin has not changed.

— When He sees our efforts, the Lord probably helps us especially in the fight with sin…

— On no account should we picture God as a cold and cruel judge dispensing the law. He is a loving Father, as He says not only in word (every hair of your head is numbered) but shows in deed: He took on human nature, suffered for us and shed His blood. No human weakness is unknown to Him any more; He went through loneliness, trial and hardship — everything a person goes through. So our pain and suffering are familiar to God.

True, our condition is grave, but the Lord wants us to be where He Himself is. And if God wills it, who can hinder Him? For there is no one stronger than He!

Some fathers (St Grigol of Khandzta, the apostles Peter, John and James, St Seraphim of Sarov, St Symeon the New Theologian and a great many others), whose spiritual eyes were opened, saw God not only with the heart — as everyone should see Him — but as light, from which a waterfall of love pours out, giving a person such joy as cannot even be imagined. If we were given that joy, our heart could not bear it; it would burst. This experience is beyond what a human being can contain.

When a person begins the spiritual life, great consolation is given him by the Lord in the form of joy — at first now and then, unexpectedly, and later during prayer, Communion and the Liturgy. If a person struggles, he also receives a reward. God lets us feel that He is with us, and this is such happiness, such joy, that a person sees everything with quite different eyes and truly becomes the happiest and most joyful of all; he himself is filled with grace and shares it with others.

The ray that leads us towards future happiness, the source of our hope, is the spiritual life. If we try to keep the commandments scrupulously, fight original sin, try to be selfless before God and faithful to the Lord already in this life, we shall taste beforehand that eternal joy which in the life to come will never end. And if hell is eternal loneliness, in the Kingdom those who share this immeasurable happiness will be the people we love.