27. О блуде

We forbid fornication and all lewdness as illegal actions. For we hear that the divine Paul cries out: “Let fornication and all uncleanness... be called lower among you, as becomes saints” (Eph. 5:3); and again: “Let no one be a fornicator or a defiler like Esau” (Heb. 12:16); and: “marriage is honorable in all, and the bed is undefiled: but God judges the fornicator and the adulterer” (Heb. 13:4). And in the Epistle to the Corinthians he says: “If a certain brother is called a fornicator, or a covetous, or an idolater, or a troublemaker, or a drunkard, or a thief, with such a man is beneath food” (1 Cor. 5:11). For this indecency, the Apostle handed over the one who had fallen into fornication to Satan and clearly cries out: “If anyone corrupts the church of God, God will corrupt this one: for the church of God is holy, just as you are” (1 Cor. 3:17). And this commands us to avoid lewdness in every possible way, for he says: “Or do you not know that there is one body like the fornicator who cleaves? For it will be, he said, both become one flesh: cleave unto the Lord, for there is one spirit. Flee from fornication, for every sin that man commits is except the body, and the fornicator sins in his own body” (1 Cor. 6:16-18). The same teaching was taught by the Apostle to the Galatians: “Now the essence of the deeds of the flesh has been revealed, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, adultery, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, zeal, envy, wrath, incitement, strife, envy, heresy, murder, drunkenness, riotous cries, and the like: which I preface. to you, as I also foretold, that those who do such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God” (Gal. 5:19-21). But Basilides, Carpocrates, Epiphanes, Prodicus and other teachers of intemperance and lawlessness did not know this, but introduced legislation contrary to this, clearly rebelling against the laws of the Spirit. But the Apostle, in accordance with what was said, wrote to the Ephesians, for he said: “I speak and obey these things about the Lord, in whom you are not to walk, just as other nations walk in the vanity of their minds, darkened in their meaning, alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their hearts: those who are in despair having given yourself over to the practice of doing all kinds of uncleanness in covetousness: you will not know Christ in this way, if you have heard Him, and have learned about Him, as is the truth about Jesus: put aside for you, after the first life, the old man, which is corrupted by delusional lusts,” and so on (Eph. 4, 17–22); and in a few words: “For this you know, that every fornicator, or unclean, or covetous, even an idolater, shall have no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God” (Eph. 5:5). And to the Philippians he wrote the following: “Other things, brethren, as much as is true, as much as is honorable, as much as is good, as much as is righteous, as much as is most pure, as much as is most lovable, as much as is worthy of praise, if there is any virtue and if there is any praise, consider this: the same things you have learned, received, heard and seen in me” (Phil. 4, 8–9). He also writes to the Colossians: “put to death your evils that are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil lust and covetousness, which is idolatry, for the sake of which the wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience” (Col. 3:5-6). And the Old Testament Scripture in its legal provisions agrees with the New Testament. God Himself says: “You will be holy, as I am holy” (Lev. 11:45); and: “Do not be evil to the woman: for honey drips from the lips of a harlot’s wife, which for a time delights your throat: but you will find something bitterer than gall” (Proverbs 5:3-4). You can also find thousands of other places condemning obscenity. These vile and malicious heretics even called lewdness “mysterious communication.” You might be interested in: