138. От познанного зла всякий уклоняется

We see that all people, having known evil, shy away from it. So, knowing that the snake harms and kills with its poison, they shy away from it; Knowing that the teeth of animals bring harm and death, they run away from the animals; Knowing that fire burns and scorches and kills, that the depths of water drown and kill, they are careful about water and fire; Knowing that the villain and robber exposes and kills, all such destructive people avoid. Likewise, people avoid other known evils. Christian! We also recognize our evil, which is truly evil and harmful to us. Let us recognize that sin is our bitter and cruel evil, and we will turn away from it as from known evil. For who, having known evil and destruction, does not shy away from evil and destruction? It is impossible, truly impossible, for someone who knows evil not to hate evil and not to evade it. The fact that people love sin and do not shy away from it, because it happens that they do not know this evil and its bitter fruits. It is impossible for one who knows sin as evil not to avoid it. Why are you running away from the snake? Because it kills with its sting. The sting of death is sin by which a person is killed (1 Cor. 15:56). How, having known this deadly sting, will you not evade it? Sin and its bitter fruits are known from the law of God. 1) Great evil is sin. For sin is a crime and destruction of the eternal and unchangeable law of God. Sin is lawlessness (1 John 3:4). What God commanded and legitimized is ruined through sin, and God commanded and legitimized is done in opposition, and disobedience is revealed. 2) Great is evil, sin. Because with every sin the Great and Infinite God is offended, and the One who created us from nothing, created us in His image and likeness is angry; He who provides for us, cares for us, benefits us, feeds us, clothes us, preserves and gives us rest; He who loved us so much that He sent His only begotten Son into the world for us, and prepared for us the inheritance of eternal life and the kingdom, and gave us other countless blessings. Thus, we insult and anger our Highest Benefactor, who loved us. Oh, what a fierce evil - sin! We insult and anger our Creator and Father. Truly it is better to die than to even sin lightly! God the Holy and Righteous is angry with sin. His angels sing, praise, honor and worship Him with fear and reverence; but a poor man, earth and ashes (Sir. 10:9; 13:31), dares to offend and anger Him through sin. Oh, how we poor people are sold into sin! How the gold has darkened, the good silver has changed! ( Lamentations 4:1 ) How the most beautiful beauty of our souls has been darkened! Where is our dear beauty - the image of God? Remember, Lord, what happened to us; look and see our reproach. The joy of our heart has ceased; our face turned to tears. The crown has fallen from our head; woe to us that we have sinned! Because of this our heart was troubled; because of this our eyes have grown dark (Lam. 5:1, 15–17). I don’t do what I want, but what I hate, I do; I don’t do the good that I want, but I do the evil that I don’t want. Poor man I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? (Rom. 7:15, 19, 24) With You, O Lord, is righteousness, but on our faces is shame (Dan. 9:7). 3) Great evil is sin, since it brings great torment to the human conscience. Through sin, the conscience is wounded, irritated, and disturbs, denounces, torments and torments the sinner. The sinner flees, although no one persecutes him: conscience, stronger than any persecutor, persecutes him. When people say something to each other, he thinks that they are talking and consulting about him; hears a word about the sin to which he is guilty, thinks that this is being said to him, although the word is extended to everyone in general. It is the evil conscience that operates in him, which, like a household judge and accuser, judges and denounces his sin, and worries and torments him. The sinner always and everywhere carries this internal and domestic evil with him until he cleanses the sin he has committed through true repentance and contrition of the heart. And for those who sin and do not feel the torment of their conscience (which seems impossible to happen), their conscience sleeps for a time. But when she awakens and begins to expose them, and to present to them the sins they have committed, then they will know how fierce her torment is, and how bitter the fruit of sin is. This torment happens so fiercely that the poor sinner will do any evil rather than endure that torment; and many, not tolerating this, kill themselves, as Judas, the betrayer of Christ, did (See Matt. 27:5). We see this evil even today. In such torment of conscience, a person actually learns to recognize sin and its bitter fruit. If here, in this world, a person’s conscience torments and burns for sin, what will happen in the next century, where all his sins, known and unknown, committed by him from the first age to death, will be clearly revealed in his conscience and will be presented to him, convicting, tormenting and tormenting him? Think about it, poor sinner, and know sin. Sin seems sweet to you, but its fruit is bitter, which you will certainly eat if you do not turn to God and are not cleansed by true repentance. 4) We see that for sin various executions from God have been sent and are being sent. For the Righteous God hates sin and will execute the sinner for it. For sin, angels were cast out of heaven, became demons, and were condemned to eternal torment. For sin, the first parents were expelled from paradise and sent into the world as if into exile. Because of sin, the global flood was brought about. For sin, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities were burned with fire from heaven. For sin, Pharaoh, the tormentor of Israel, with all his army was drowned in the Red Sea. For sin, the Israelites who came out of Egypt suffered various plagues in the desert and the promised land, as we see in the holy books of the Old Testament. For sin, even now there are various executions, bloody battles, pestilences, civil wars, fires, famine and earthquakes, various diseases and other countless troubles. The cause of all troubles that exist in the world is sin. The world sins and suffers for sin in troubles and misfortunes. This is how God’s truth puts to death the sin that is contrary to Himself. There is no sin without punishment. If you sin, man, you will expect execution, either inside or outside of you, or both there and there at the same time. For this is the fruit of sin. It does not give birth to anything except execution. 5) Sin is the entrance to eternal life. And nothing unclean will enter into it (Rev. 21:27). Every sin defiles the one who created it. And outside are dogs, and sorcerers, and fornicators, and murderers, and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices unrighteousness (Rev. 22:15; 1 Cor. 6:8–9; Gal. 5:19–21). 6) For sin, man is given over to eternal fire and torment, and he will suffer endlessly with the devil and angels. Their fire does not go out, and their worm does not die (Mark 9:44, 46, 48). But the fearful, and the unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and fornicators, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone. This is the second death (Rev. 21:8). You see, Christian, the bitter fruits of sin. Bitterness and sin, which gives birth to bitter fruits. As the fruit is, so is the seed, for the seed produces fruit similar to itself. The fruits of sin are evil and bitter: the bitter and evil seed is sin; and there is no greater evil than sin. The evil and bitter seed is pride and arrogance. The evil and bitter seed is disobedience and disobedience to God and the authorities sent from Him. An evil and bitter seed is disrespect for parents, and opposition to them and ingratitude shown to them. The evil and bitter seed is malice and remembrance, revenge and murder. The evil and bitter seed is fornication, adultery and all uncleanness. The evil and bitter seed is theft, theft, robbery, violence and all untruths. The evil and bitter seed is contempt, destruction and ridicule of one's neighbor. An evil and bitter seed is slander and condemnation of one's neighbor. The evil and bitter seed is ridicule and blasphemy of one's neighbor. The evil and bitter seed is lies, flattery, deceit and cunning, and every crime. Know, Christian, this is evil and sorrow, and you will beware of this evil. Beware of the serpent, beware of the teeth of animals, beware of fire, beware of the villain and the robber, beware of all evil that harms your body and takes away temporary life. Sin, more than the serpent, more than the teeth of animals, more than any villain and robber, more than any other evil, harms you, and takes away not temporary, but eternal life, destroys not the body, but the soul, and causes not temporary, but eternal death. What could be more terrible than this evil? This evil harms us even more than the demon himself. For sin also made the demon a demon, who before sin was a bright Angel. Why shouldn’t we beware of such a great and terrible evil? Do you want to voluntarily plunge into obvious misfortune, as do those people who kill themselves with poison, or pierce themselves with a sword, or hang themselves and strangle themselves, or throw themselves into fire and burn, or plunge into the depths of water and drown, or plunge themselves into other obvious evil? These people are rightly called senseless and insane, because they destroy themselves. Isn’t that person more insane and senseless who, knowing that sin is a terrible and deadly evil, willfully touches it and indulges in it? Christian! You do not see this evil with these eyes, but you feel its bitter fruits in your conscience. The whole world feels it when it is punished with troubles and misfortunes for sin. Everyone calls him wise and blessed who warns himself against all evil and avoids it; Much wiser and more blessed is he who guards against all sin. This one preserves the body and temporary life, while this one preserves the soul and eternal life. This is Christian wisdom. This is the mind, enlightened by the Divine light, to live carefully in the world, and to beware of all sin, and to touch everything with fear, and to withdraw from the vanity of the world and to think about things above, and to have God before the eyes of the soul everywhere and always, to honor Him with faith and holy obedience! See that you walk carefully, not as fools, but as wise (Eph. 5:15). It happens that parents of their children and other people warn other people against harmful things and cases, and say: “Beware of this and that.” But when children or other people, without listening to useful advice, touch what they were warned against, they are damaged, and thus learn the harm of what they were warned against. So little children touch a coal of fire and are burned, and they know that the fire burns; people touch a poisonous potion and are damaged, and experience its harm. Christian! Thus, the God who loves mankind, pitying and providing for us, warns us in His holy word against all sin. Come, children, listen to me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Who loves life and wants to see good days? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from deceitful words. Turn away from evil and do good (Ps. 33:12–15), and so on. But when we do not listen to Him - which is our blindness and madness - and touch destructive sin, like little children of fire, we are damaged by this, and we are burned like fire, and then we already know what a fierce and destructive evil - sin. This is how God warned our first parents in paradise against sin: but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day that you eat from it you will surely die (Genesis 2:17). Our forefathers did not believe God’s holy commandment, did not listen to God, their Creator, who commanded it, touched the forbidden fruit, and so gravely sinned, and then they already learned how cruel and destructive it is to transgress God’s commandment. We learned what a bitter seed sin is when we tasted its bitter fruit - death: the wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23). The same thing is happening today with Christians. God warns everyone from sin through His holy law: do not kill, do not steal, do not commit adultery, etc. (See Ex. 20:2–17); warns through the executions that sinners suffered for sin, the executions described in His holy word, and, as it were, says through them to everyone: “Sons of men, beware of sin!” You see that when they sinned, they suffered for sin; you too will suffer if you sin. Blessed and wise is the one who, seeing the misfortunes of others, is more careful and avoids trouble. But when Christians, despite this, sin, then they will already learn from the bitter consequences of sin - executions - how great and bitter evil sin is. The conscience is tormented and every execution that occurs shows the power and grief of sin. Then everyone will know that there is sin. The word of God is true and saving, which warns us from sin. God warns sinners from eternal execution and torment, for this is why it is written about eternal punishment, it is written about eternal fire, the never-ending worm, gnashing of teeth, outer darkness and other evils. Through this, the Lord seems to be saying: “Poor sinners! All this evil awaits those who have sinned in the next century. Repent, so that you do not fall into this evil. I do not want the death of the sinner,” says the Lord, “but that he should turn and live” (Ezek. 33:11). But if sinners do not believe this, and do not turn from their sins, and do not repent, then they will learn in the next century what a great evil sin is, when they will eat its bitter fruits throughout all eternity. Those who have now departed from this world and have not repented will recognize it; Fornicators, thieves, predators and other lawbreakers who have not cleansed their sins by repentance will know and will be cast into hell in order to accept it according to their deeds. The wicked who live on earth now will know this if they do not turn and repent; They will learn by doing that the wages of sin is death, when they will endlessly taste the sorrows of death, will wish to die and will not die. Christian! The word of God is true, and not false. Heaven and earth will pass away, but the word of God will not pass away (Matthew 24:35; Mark 13:31; Luke 21:33). What it proclaims is true. There will be eternal life for the righteous; There will be eternal torment for sinners: these will go away into everlasting torment, but the righteous into eternal life (Matthew 25:46). Repent, so that by the grace of Christ you will receive eternal life. Beware of sin, lest you die forever. The wages of sin is death. You might be interested in: