Avoiding Mortal Sin

If you have been reading our daily blog for any length of time, you know we speak a great deal about sin. We speak about avoiding sin. We speak about confessing sin. We speak about forgiving the sins of others and being forgiven by God for our sins. We rarely speak about the ‘type’ of sins, until today.

Beloved, if any one says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.  And this commandment we have from him, that he who loves God should love his brother also. Every one who believes that Jesus is the Christ is a child of God, and every one who loves the parent loves the child.  By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.  For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.  And his commandments are not burdensome.  For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith.  Who is it that overcomes the world but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? This is he who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with the water only but with the water and the blood.  And the Spirit is the witness, because the Spirit is the truth.  There are three witnesses, the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree.  If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater; for this is the testimony of God that he has borne witness to his Son.  He who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself.  He who does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne to his Son.  And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.  He who has the Son has life; he who has not the Son of God has not life. I write this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.  And this is the confidence which we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.  And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have obtained the requests made of him.  If any one sees his brother committing what is not a mortal sin, he will ask, and God will give him life for those whose sin is not mortal.  There is sin which is mortal; I do not say that one is to pray for that.  All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin which is not mortal. We know that any one born of God does not sin, but He who was born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him. We know that we are of God, and the whole world is in the power of the evil one. And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, to know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ.  This is the true God and eternal life.  Little children, keep yourselves from idols.  Amen.

1^st John 4:20-21;5:1-21

One thing you have read here before is the Church teaches that all sin is ‘the same’ in that all sin separates us from God. All sin is ‘missing the mark’ in our goal to live as God desires for us to live.

Today’s lesson from Saint John may be a bit confusing if all sin is sin. He says, “All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin which is not mortal.” What is moral sin? More importantly, how do we avoid it?

Just the other day we read “no one born of God commits sin.” (1^st John 3.9-22) Today Saint John tells us to pray for those who sin, but not for mortal sin. Either we sin, or we do not sin. Of course, we know that we do sin. Is our sin mortal or not?

Let me be clear. God forgives ALL SIN when we confess and ask His forgiveness. A mortal sin would be a sin that leads to death. Saint Paul teaches, “the wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6.23) That makes all sin mortal sin. Now…..we are really confused.

Just because all sin is sin, doesn’t mean all sin causes equal damage. A papercut and a deep laceration are both ‘cuts to the skin’ and by definition but cuts. One heals within hours while the other could be life-threatening if ignored. Think of sin as ‘a cut’ to the soul.

The sooner we tend to the wound, the sooner our soul is healed. Even a paper cut can become infected if ignored. Similarly, a ‘minor sin’ can become a ‘mortal sin’ if ignored. A mortal sin creates more illness making it more serious. Nonetheless, even mortal can be healed and forgiven by God if we ask and confess.

That leaves us with the final question. How do we avoid mortal sin? We must confess every sin as soon as we realize it before it becomes mortal. We must work on our repentance and heal the wound in our soul before it festers.

Make confession a regular part of your spiritual journey and allow the healing of the Church to clean the wounds of your soul. As Saint John says, “God gave us eternal life.” He IS the antidote to mortal sin.