Or Do Not You Know what Sin Produces?

Or Do Not You Know what Sin Produces?

Or do not you know what sin produces? Did not it introduce death into the world? Did not it destroy the earth? Has not it filled the inhabited world with graveyards and tombs from the beginning of time until now? For humanity was incorrupt before the fall and none of the things I have mentioned would have started if the first-formed had steadfastly observed the commandment that had been given. Sin is the cause of the everlasting punishments, the fuel of the unquenchable fire of Gehenna, the food of the undying worm; sin that has made humanity, that was in honour, be compared to the unreasoning beasts (Cf. Psalm 48,13.21).

And so, because sin is like all this, destructive and deadly, we must flee from it, brethren, with all our might, and choose virtue, which makes humans angels, raises them from death, resists the demons, overcomes the rulers of this age, and finally betroths them to the kingdom of heaven. May we all reach it too by the grace and love for humankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father and the holy Spirit belong glory, might and honour, now and for ever, and the ages of ages. Amen.

St. Theodore the Studite

Photo taken from Wikimedia Commons