Sin is the transgression of the Law of God, the failure to fulfill the holy commandments of God. Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law (1 John 3:4).
A person may sin in various ways: by deed, by word, by thought, knowingly, unknowingly, willingly, and unwillingly.
We sin by deed when our actions are contrary to the commandment of God. If a person gives himself over to gluttony, drunkenness, or indulgence in delicacies, he sins against the commandment of God: Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing… (Exod. 20:4). Theft, robbery, murder, and similar acts are sins committed by deed.
We sin by word when our speech is contrary to the will of God. For example, idle talk, words, or songs are sins of the tongue. The Lord Jesus Christ forbids such sins, saying: Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment (Matt. 12:36). If we insult our neighbor with words, reproach him, curse him, speak falsely about him behind his back, complain against him unjustly, or slander him out of hatred, we sin against the commandment of God: Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour (Exod. 20:16). These sins of speech can be more harmful than many sins of deed and may stand alongside murder.
We sin by thought when we harbor desires contrary to love for our neighbor, acting against the commandment: Thou shalt not covet any thing that is thy neighbour’s (Exod. 20:17). Sins of thought are just as serious as sins of deed and word and are strictly forbidden in Holy Scripture.
Sins knowingly committed are those we commit while knowing that they are forbidden by the Law of God. We commit them out of our passions—pride, malice, laziness, and the like—and justify ourselves with false arguments. Those who act in this way deserve the same sentence that the master pronounced upon his wicked and slothful servant: Thou wicked and slothful servant… Cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt. 25:26, 30).
Sins committed through ignorance arise from the weakness of human nature. It is very difficult to recognize these sins within ourselves and to guard against them. Who can understand his errors? (Ps. 18:13), says the Prophet David, meaning, who can fully perceive his own faults and ignorance? Yet since these also are sins, it is possible to be preserved from them; therefore he adds the prayer: Cleanse thou me from secret sins (Ps. 19:12)—that is, from the sins committed by me through weakness and ignorance, which are either unknown to me, or which I do not remember, or which I do not even consider to be sins.
To sin “by will” means to sin knowingly, deliberately, and out of malice. The Apostle Paul speaks of such sins in these words: For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins (Heb. 10:26).
Those who have turned away from Christ and willfully rise up against Him cannot obtain forgiveness, as the same Apostle explains, saying: For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. (Heb. 6:4–6) Yet what is impossible for men is possible for God: the special mercy of the Lord may touch the heart of a sinner and bring him back to the path of truth.
An “involuntary sin” is one that a person does not foresee and commits contrary to his will and desire.
Among the great multitude of sins, the most serious and grievous are called “mortal sins,” for the unrepentant sinner who stubbornly remains in them, after bodily death encounters the death of the soul, and with it eternal separation from God, destruction, and unending torment.
There are seven mortal sins: pride, avarice, lust, envy, gluttony, sloth, and anger.
From these sins, as from seven mothers, all other sins are born. If these seven sins—these seven mothers—are uprooted, then all their offspring, all the other sins, will also be destroyed.
—From the book, Seven Deadly Sins
On the Forgiveness of Sins
A soldier once asked Abba Mios: “Does God accept repentance?” The elder answered him: “Tell me, my beloved—if your cloak were torn, would you throw it away?” The soldier replied: “No! I would sew it and use it again.” The elder said to him: “If you spare your garment in this way, will not God much more spare His own creation?”
—St. Nilus of Sinai
Know that you have sinned, and you will blot out your sins. The holy God, the One without sin, did not spare His Only-begotten Son for your sake; and you, miserable sinner (who does not repent), do not even have mercy upon yourself!
Contrition and confession, through absolution, bring about the union of the divine and human elements in repentance, from which a new creature arises, just as at the beginning from the font of baptism. May the all-merciful Lord grant this to all of us—that we may depart from the infirmary of repentance completely healed and wholly renewed in all the senses and dispositions of our heart; so that from now on we may love what we were formerly cold toward, and hate what we were formerly attached to; that instead of anger we may love meekness, instead of pride, humility, instead of drunkenness, sobriety, instead of fornication, chastity, instead of envy, goodwill, instead of love of pleasure, temperance, instead of sloth, diligence, instead of distraction, steadiness, instead of quarrelsomeness, peaceableness, instead of gossip and slander, kind speech and the guarding of our neighbor’s honor—in a word, that every vice and passion may be replaced by its opposite virtue and good disposition.
It is not so much the sins we have committed that provoke God, as our unwillingness to change.
He who, relying on repentance, slips again into the same sin for which he has repented acts deceitfully toward God.
—St. Isaac the Syrian
Do not strengthen in your soul the sins formerly committed by dwelling on them in thought, lest they be renewed within you. Be assured that they have been forgiven from the moment you gave yourself to God and to repentance. Do not doubt this.
—St. Anthony the Great
The surest sign by which every repentant sinner may know whether his sins have truly been forgiven by God is this: when we feel such hatred and aversion toward every sin that we would rather die than willingly sin again before the Lord.
On Repentance
Today, beloved brethren, you will go to confession. As a pastor, it is my duty to remind you what is required of one who approaches confession so that his confession may be true, pleasing to God, and saving for the soul. From the one who repents there is required contrition for his sins, the intention to amend his life, faith in Christ, and hope in His mercy.
First of all, therefore, contrition for one’s sins is required. Yet this is precisely what we spiritual fathers very often do not see in our spiritual children.
Many come to confession with complete indifference, and if they are not asked anything, they would either say nothing or say only in general: “I am a sinner, father, in all sins.” And even if they said this with heartfelt awareness of their guilt! But no—this is the trouble: They say it without any real awareness of their sins, simply to finish the confession more quickly. Beloved, let us not turn this great mercy of God toward us sinners into a cause for God’s anger. How insensible we are! Have we nothing to grieve over in confession? Do we not have many sins? Even if we were to weep over all the sins of our life, we would still be doing nothing excessive, but only what is due. Alas! If any of us were to say that he has no sin, he would be deceiving himself, and no one would find the truth in such a person.
You do not see your sins? Pray to God that He grant you to see them. Was it in vain that you so often said in church after the priest: “O Lord, grant me to see my own transgressions”? Let us now strive together to see our sins, so that afterward, in confession, we may acknowledge them with heartfelt contrition.
And here is the first and very important sin: that we, being great sinners, do not feel that we are sinners deserving not mercy but the punishment of God. Let us therefore first condemn ourselves for this insensibility and say to the Lord with all our heart:
“O Lord and Master of my life, behold me, a senseless sinner! I am the greatest of sinners, yet I do not feel my sins. It must be because my sins have multiplied beyond the number of the sands of the sea, and I am wholly covered with sins, as a man sick with smallpox is covered with sores. I repent before Thee, my Lord and my God, with all my heart for my insensibility, and I beseech Thee: grant me Thyself to feel with my whole heart how greatly I have angered Thee and continue to anger Thee.”
Ah, this imagined, Pharisaic righteousness of ours—how many people it has destroyed and still destroys! And to our harm it strikes our hearts precisely at the time of fasting, during the very Mystery of repentance, and on the eve of the Holy Communion.
But let us look further; by what sins have we most often sinned against God? If we are people of little faith, living on earth not for God and the salvation of our souls but only for the earth and for everything earthly—in other words, living for the flesh and its pleasures, and not for our immortal soul and its future life—is this not a great sin?
Have we forgotten the sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, endured for our sake—His most pure Blood poured out for us upon the Cross, His glorious Resurrection? Was not His coming down to earth precisely for us, that He might raise us to heaven, from which sin had separated us, together with His divine teaching, His miracles, His prophecies (for example, about the future dreadful judgment, the resurrection of the dead at the last day of the world, the blessedness of the righteous, and the eternal torment of sinners)? And finally His sufferings, His resurrection from the dead, and His ascension into heaven?
If it is true that we must live here for the life to come, is it not a sin not to live for that life, but with all our thoughts and all our hearts to live only on earth and for the earth? And how much sin arises from our desire to live well only here on earth, without believing with our whole heart in the blessed life to come! From this come hatred, malice, avarice, envy, greed, and deceit. From this arise all vices, all fleshly lusts, and all passions of the soul.
Let us therefore repent of this also—that we are people of little faith, if not unbelievers, and that we either do not live here for God and the salvation of our souls or live for it very little; and also that there is little hope in our hearts, if not none at all, for the life to come. We are also afflicted by the great sin of ingratitude toward God, of lack of love for Him despite His countless and inexpressible mercies. I think that each of us recognizes this in himself at least from time to time. All of you who walk upon your feet are healthy in body and soul, honored with reason by God the Creator, and endowed with freedom of will—and what were you not so long ago? Nothing. Yet the Lord brought you all from non-being into being, and since that time has given you everything: He has given you a soul with its powers; He has given and continually gives you food to nourish your body and clothing to cover it; He has given you a place upon His earth and shelter for your dwelling. He feeds you with the priceless, life-giving food of His Body and Blood, strengthening and comforting you by it; He gladdens you with the hearing of His word; He forgives your sins without number; He constantly preserves your life as a mother preserves the life of her infant. He grants us His future kingdom—and how many other things does He not do out of His love for us, sinners and ingrates? It is impossible to recount them all. And how do we respond to His love for us—a love without measure or limit? With nothing but lawlessness, wickedness, and ingratitude. Therefore let us repent with tears of our ingratitude before God, of our lack of love for Him, and let us also ask Him with tears for the gift of love. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits (Ps. 103:2)
From the one who repents there is also required the intention to amend his life—and pay attention to this. As you go to confession, say to yourself “After confession I will strive with all my strength to correct those sins of which I now wish to repent. I will no longer deceive myself, I will not lie to God, I will not again offend the Mystery of repentance. Help me, O Lord; strengthen the powers of my soul, O Lord!”
What benefit is there in such repentance, after which a person again without shame gives himself over to the very sins of which he has repented? About such people is the proverb: The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire (2 Pet. 2:22).
Finally, from the penitent there is still required faith in Christ and hope in His mercy. Everyone who approaches confession must believe that during the Sacrament, Christ Himself stands invisibly present and receives his confession; that Christ alone can forgive sins, since by His sufferings, His precious Blood, and His death He obtained from the Heavenly Father the right to forgive all our iniquities without violating divine justice; and that in His mercy He is always ready to forgive every sin—if only we confess it with heartfelt contrition, if only we have the intention to live better henceforth, if only faith in Him lives in our hearts.
Thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace (Mark 5:34). Thus He speaks inwardly to everyone who repents as he ought, after absolution from the priest. Therefore let us all repent with sincerity; let us all take care to amend our lives; let us bring forth fruits of repentance to God. Amen.
—Holy Righteous John of Kronstadt
From: Readings For Every Day of Great Lent, Ed. N. Shaposhnikova (Moscow: Danilov Monastery, 2025).
