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(2 Cor. 10, 7–18; Mark 3, 28–35) “Whoever blasphemes the Holy Spirit will never have forgiveness” (Mark 3:29). How long will it take to fall into this terrible sin? Not very long; for these are the types of sins: “much and immeasurable trust in the grace of God; despair or lack of hope in God's goodness; contradiction to obvious and established truth and rejection of the Orthodox Christian faith. Others add to this envy of the spiritual gifts that one’s neighbor receives from God; persistence in sin and growing old in wickedness; neglect of repentance until departure from this life” (“Orthodox Confession,” part 3, question 38). There are so many ways! If you go into any of them, it will be difficult to return, and you will be carried towards the consuming abyss. Resistance to the truth begins with small doubts, excited by an evil word or scripture. Leave them without attention and treatment, they will lead to unbelief and persistence in it. They also reach despair unnoticed: I will repent, they say, and they sin. This happens several times; then, seeing that repentance does not come, they say to themselves: so be it, you can’t control yourself, and they give themselves over to sin in full power. An abyss of sins is collected, and at the same time an abyss of resistance to the obvious attractions of God’s grace is allowed. When in this form a person comes to the idea of ​​​​correcting himself, a multitude of sins suppresses him, and resistance to grace takes away the courage to approach the Lord, and decides: “My greatest guilt must be left to me” (Gen. 4:13). That's despair! Beware of the beginnings of unbelief and love of sin, and you will not fall into this abyss. You might be interested in: