7 deadly sins according to the Bible: list, description of each, what a mortal sin is

What does mortal sin mean?

What does sin mean? This is an action, word or thought that is contrary to the Lord. There are serious, ordinary sins, and there are mortal ones. The latter are understood as serious sins, which, in case of unrepentance, close the door to the salvation of the soul.

In Catholicism and Orthodoxy there are some differences in these concepts, but in general the essence is clear - by behavior, thoughts and feelings, a person moves away from God, distorts his plan, because the Lord created him in his own image. Any sinful passion, be it fornication or greed, especially if it captures a person entirely, deprives the soul of Divine grace and destroys it.

The Holy Fathers compare mortal sins to a heavy stone. If you put it around your neck and jump into the water, the person will die. Likewise, sins cause the soul to drown in the “abyss of hell” under its own weight. Mortal sins are mortal because they kill the soul, making it incapable of repentance, mercy, and love.

"Life is a striped thing"

Cooling in faith can occur both after a formal attitude towards it and after “burning”. I had such a parishioner. I came to the temple, everything literally shines. That’s what I called her: Your Excellency. He told her: “Look, you are so happy now. This is amazing. But your present joy is a gift from God. It needs to be preserved. It's not that simple at all." She was happy for about a year. And then some young man appeared in her life, and she left the Church. This happens, unfortunately. God grant that she finds her way to God.

And it happens that a person seems to have overcome the cooling after such a “burning”, everything seems to have improved for him, and now he again feels some kind of stagnation in his spiritual life. Life is a striped thing. And spiritual life can be compared to climbing a step pyramid. You climb and climb, you come to a level place, there seems to be no change. But you still move, approaching another slope. And so you start climbing again.

That's how it should be. The main thing is not to give up, not to lose heart, not to put up with sin, with what you cannot put up with, and you don’t need to force something out of yourself. If you feel that you don’t have it, ask. The Lord is the giver of all good things. If you feel that you cannot repent, pray: “Lord, teach me to repent, give me the opportunity to sincerely worry about the sins I commit, and give me the strength to fight them.” We need to see our sins all the time and not be horrified, but thank God when He reveals them to us.

Deadly sins in Orthodoxy

They are divided into three types:

Passions from which other mental infirmities arise. One of these is the declaration of an unjust war. Other common mortal sins in this category are fornication, gluttony, anger, greed, envy, pride, and laziness.
Sins against the Holy Spirit, that is, perseverance to the will of God. We are talking about despair in salvation, hope for the Lord’s condescension in the face of stubborn reluctance to live in virtue, postponing repentance for later. This also includes such mortal sins as anger, fighting against God, and envy of those who have achieved greater spiritual perfection.
Mortal sins, called “crying to heaven for vengeance.” We are talking about deliberate murder, all types of sexual perversion, humiliation and defamation of widows, orphans, insulting parents, and depriving workers of their due wages.

Repentance

Photo: Tatmitropolia.ru
But it’s never too late to repent even of mortal sin. Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov preached that those who had fallen into mortal sin should not despair. They can be saved if they repent and leave him, cast aside their sinful habit, their passion.

And in conclusion, I would like to quote the words of St. Isaac the Syrian: “There is no unforgivable sin except unrepentant sin.”

( 4 ratings, average: 5.00 out of 5)

List of deadly sins according to the Bible

In the 18th century, the doctrine of the seven deadly sins penetrated into Orthodoxy, although initially there were eight of them. Tikhon of Zadonsky and other major religious figures identify 7 deadly sins in Orthodoxy:

Pride.
Delicacy or greed.
Gluttony.
Fornication.
Envy.
Dejection.
Anger.

Pride

Here she is, the progenitor of all sins, including mortal ones! It is pride that does not allow a person to “descend” to the Lord. The majority believes that everything he has - friends, work, wife or husband, children, home - is the result of his work, only his merit, no one else's. Everything on your own, everything on your own, relying only on yourself, but who else will help? Who can you rely on today?

Even if a person remembers God, it is only when he cannot cope with the problem on his own. Then he runs to the temple and prays to the Almighty: “Deliver your mother from a serious illness, pacify the evil boss, help her conceive a child.” Having received what he asked, he leaves the church until next time, forgetting to thank the Lord.

Unfortunately, this is the sinful nature of man. Of the ten lepers healed by Jesus Christ, only one returned to thank him. “Wasn’t it ten?” - Christ asked him. Where did the rest go? The rest, having received such a gift from the Almighty, immediately fled in different directions. After all, it is much easier to live without the Lord. Following him is hard work, although in reality everything turns out the other way around. With God's help, things work out, but without God, everything falls out of hand.

Envy

In ordinary circles far from Orthodoxy, this mortal sin is considered the engine of progress. Indeed, by envying others, a person himself tries to achieve more:

buy a car like your neighbor’s or even better;
find a wife even more beautiful than your friend’s;
achieve career advancement.

Thanks to envy, the world is developing, we can say that it is improving. But at the same time, because of it, thefts, murders, and robberies are committed. Such a mortal sin as envy pushes a person to violence, perjury, and condemnation.

Envy led to the fact that the first and great chief of the angels became exalted with pride and imagined himself equal to God. Everyone knows who that fallen angel was. The works of his “hands” are reaped by all humanity, starting with Adam, Eve, Cain, who killed his brother, and ending with the last creature on earth.

Among other mortal sins, envy is considered the most destructive. Why? Because she seeks evil for her neighbor. An envious person wants a nice person to become dishonest, a rich person to become poor, a good person to become evil. It was envy, this mortal sin, that forced the scribes and Pharisees to crucify Christ. They did not forgive him for preaching the truth, healing the sick, raising the dead, but in words they were ardent and zealous servants of the Church.

Gluttony

This mortal sin is familiar to everyone. Who doesn't love to eat delicious food? Books are written about table decoration and food decoration; there are gastronomic tours, when a person goes on a trip with one goal - to eat deliciously. Someone will say: “Well, what’s wrong with that?” After all, food is needed to maintain natural life. That's exactly what it's for maintaining. Often, a small fraction of what a person consumes daily for the sake of himself and his stomach is enough for this.

This mortal sin has now reached global proportions. The number of obese people on the planet is steadily growing. The availability of food, promotions and discounts in stores are aimed at making a person fill the refrigerator for future use, buy more, and therefore eat more. But an Orthodox person has about 280 fasting days a year and only 84 non-fasting days.

Often people justify their reluctance to observe physical fasting by saying that “we sin more with our tongue,” but we must start with the soul. It’s necessary, but on a full stomach you don’t think about God. Without physical fasting, spiritual fasting is impossible.

Fornication

This mortal sin is also well known to everyone. Fornication is considered not only adultery itself, but also thoughts about it. This mortal sin is terrible for its incredible spread, penetration into all spheres of human life.

The sexual revolution led to the open preaching of homosexuality, lesbianism, and other outrages with terrible consequences. How many young people today live in so-called “civil marriages” without officially registering the relationship, considering this to be the norm, but we are talking about real fornication.

The devil often tempts a person with this type of temptation to mortal sin, and here's why. The answer is the words of the apostle: “Neither harlots... nor adulterers, nor defilers... will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 6-9, 10).

The human body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. If he does not maintain chastity, marital fidelity or virginity, the Spirit of God is expelled from his body, giving way to the devil. A person’s entire life is filled with these desires. Books, advertising, radio, cinema are saturated with the poison of mortal sin. Moreover, this passion acts so subtly and openly that a person does not even notice it. Moreover, he considers it natural.

Abstinence and chastity are objects of ridicule and are considered a relic of the past, and yet more and more scientific works, studies by scientists, and psychotherapists are appearing, proving that frequent changes of sexual partners cause irreparable harm to a person - his body and soul.

Anger

One marriage and family expert called this deadly sin the “love killer.” How precisely it is said. This can be applied not only to family life. How many quarrels between friends and loved ones happen in a fit of anger and irritability, how many conflicts occur at work, on the street, in public places.

A man is terrible when he is angry. He no longer controls himself and can cause severe injuries or even kill, especially under the influence of alcohol. Few people know that “domestic homicides” occupy a leading place in police reports.

In anger, this mortal sin, the very appearance of a person changes, facial features are distorted, and a clouding of the mind occurs. He becomes possessed by a demon. This leads to the destruction of his soul, and the reason is connected with other sins - pride and pride.

People with power and a dominant character have the hardest time. How difficult it is for them to overcome themselves when something does not go according to their plan, and someone dares to contradict their will. Saint Theophan advises such people to “sacrifice something out of routine neatness.” Get rid of this very soreness and “selfishness”, “self-worth”, so that you become calmer.

Greed

Before the coming of Christ and the advent of the New Testament, the Jews thought like this: if God loves a person, then he rewards him with wealth. Sinners live in poverty. Jesus Christ came and said: “It is difficult for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” Everything was turned upside down.

How so? After all, I saved for so many years, collected my wealth bit by bit, worked, so why should I give it to someone and beg? This happened to one rich Jew, to whom Jesus Christ predicted death that same night. Unfortunately, you can’t take everything you’ve accumulated with you “there”. “There” everyone will appear before God as they are, “their deeds will run ahead of them.” How will a rich man be justified before God?

The Lord says: “You cannot serve God and mammon at the same time.” That is, you need to make a choice. For some it is obvious, for others it is not. However, those who cling to their wealth must remember that it leads to internal anger and isolation. A person is haunted by a constant fear of loss, anger at possible competitors and envious people.

However, wealth itself is not a mortal sin. For example, Saint Spyridon of Trimifuntsky lived in abundance all his life and had a good harvest. But he understood that all this was given to him from God and acted in accordance with the Gospel, rendering “to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s,” helping the poor, treating strangers, giving alms to widows and orphans.

Dejection

Has anyone ever felt depressed because things weren't going the way they wanted? All kinds of obstacles and obstacles on the way lead to despair, and the reason is distrust of God. All this is a consequence of lack of faith.

There are few people who will humble themselves and say: “Everything is God’s will.” No, you will want to somehow change the circumstances, take part in them. At the very least, let out a murmur and proclaim: “For what, Lord? Why are you punishing me like this?” Meanwhile, Isaac the Syrian said that God never punishes or rewards. He works through love, giving everyone what is useful to them.

But man is accustomed to relying only on himself, trusting himself, and not God, which is why he falls into despair and despondency. Pride, selfishness - this is where this mortal sin comes from - despondency. Finding himself in difficult circumstances that a person cannot change, he immediately becomes despondent, believing that if he cannot correct what happened, then no one else will correct it. At the same time, he is still sad and irritated.

However, those who are humble and accept this test from God are strengthened in faith just as the muscles of an athlete are strengthened during training. He knows that God is always there. The Almighty knows what is better and more beneficial for a person. Will not give a burden heavier than he can bear. He who trusts in God, glorifies Him, and gives thanks for everything does not lose heart even in the most difficult and seemingly insoluble conditions.

LiveInternetLiveInternet

-Music

—Search by diary

—Subscription by e-mail

—Interests

— Regular readers

—Communities

—Broadcasts

-Statistics

How to deal with them?

For Orthodox Christians, the main qualities are humility, submission, sincere faith in God and repentance.

Once a month, be sure to plan a trip to church to see the Holy Father - talk to him, tell him about your experiences and problems. He will point out your mistakes and help you understand your thoughts. The priest will guide you on the right path, tell you what questions to whom to turn to, and recommend prayers to the holy saints and martyrs.

Weekly prayer and repentance will be helpful. Ask for help from God and the Mother of God, worship their power. Write down your thoughts and actions that are contrary to your will, read this list while praying and communicating with the Lord.

Also see: Which hand should I wear red thread on?

Deadly sins according to the Bible - what they are and how many there are, how to atone for them