Which Sins Are Mortal and Which Are Venial (a.k.a., sins “unto death” and sins “not unto death” [1 John 5:16–17])

Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov, Bishop of the Caucasus and the Black Sea

 

 

Every mortal sin committed by an Orthodox Christian, if it is not healed by proper repentance, becomes the cause of his eternal condemnation. Mortal sins for a Christian are heresy, schism, blasphemy, apostasy, despair, suicide, adultery, every carnal sin against nature, incest, drunkenness, sacrilege, murder, robbery, and every grave, cruel, and inhuman injustice. Of these, only one—suicide—cannot be healed by repentance.

All of them, however, slay the soul, rendering it incapable of inheriting eternal blessedness until it is cleansed through sincere repentance. Even if a man falls into a mortal sin only once, he dies spiritually. “For whosoever shall keep the whole divine law, and yet transgress in one point, is accounted a transgressor of the whole law. For He Who said, ‘Do not commit adultery,’ said also, ‘Do not kill.’ If, then, thou commit no adultery, but kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law” (Jas. 2:10–11).

Let him who has sinned mortally not despair. Let him have recourse to the healing remedy of repentance. To this the Saviour calls him until the final moment of his life, proclaiming through the Holy Gospel: “He that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live” (John 11:26).

It is a great calamity for a man to remain in mortal sin; it is a great calamity for mortal sin to become a habit! There are no good works that could deliver a soul from Hades if, before being separated from the body, it is not cleansed of every mortal sin.

When is a sin venial? When, for example, someone is slightly carried away by gluttony and eats more than is necessary; when he is slightly carried away by sensuality and casts a fleeting glance at someone with an impure desire or admits an indecent fantasy; when he carelessly utters some unprofitable word; when he tells a small lie, steals something of little value, boasts, or becomes angry for a moment; when he becomes embittered or harbors resentment against his neighbor for a short time.

For all these things, a man will easily be forgiven by the compassionate God, provided that his fall, which is due to human weakness, is followed by awareness and repentance. Venial sin does not deprive the Christian of Divine Grace; it does not slay his soul, as mortal sin does. Nevertheless, venial sin is also harmful to the soul when we do not repent of it but, on the contrary, repeat it, continually making its yoke heavier.

The Holy Fathers say that a man drowns whether he has a heavy stone or a sack of sand tied around his neck. This means that we may be dragged down into the abyss of Hades either by a single mortal sin or by the multitude of accumulated venial sins. What exceedingly evil thing did the rich man in the Gospel parable do by enjoying his wealth (Luke 16:19–31)? The cause of his destruction, as presented by the Gospel, was nothing other than his life filled with diversions, which led him to the complete forgetfulness of virtue and eternity. Diversion became a passion for him, preventing him from perceiving what true life is.

“We must watch over our soul,” counsels Saint Macarius the Great (Discourse on the Freedom of the Mind, 4), “and prevent it from communing with profane and evil thoughts. For just as the body, when united with another body, is defiled and becomes unclean, so also the soul is corrupted when it unites itself with evil and impure thoughts, and especially when it assents to them. And this happens not only with impure thoughts, but also with other evil thoughts, such as, for example, thoughts of unbelief, deceit, vainglory, anger, envy, and contentiousness. We are called to reject all these thoughts by the apostolic exhortation: ‘Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit’ (2 Cor. 7:1).”

 

Source: https://eugenikos.blogspot.com/2026/07/blog-post_295.html