Is Every Violation of Church Rules Heresy?
I. M. Kokunin
Report delivered at the Second All-Russian Council of the Old-Orthodox Pomor Church (Moscow, 1912)
“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” (First Epistle General of John, ch. 1, v. 8)
As is well known, the ancient Church did not cast sinners out from her bosom but was always a saving refuge for them. Yet in what manner precisely should the Church deal with those who in particular instances violate her rules? In order to resolve the question of the proper attitude of every Christian toward the sins of his brethren, and to determine how grave, in the sense of a crime against the Church, the violation of her rules by individual persons really is, the Second All-Russian Council places for discussion the question: “Is every violation of the Church’s rules heresy?”
I, one of the least members of Christ’s body, moved by conscience and true Christian duty, have taken upon myself the boldness to write this report, which perhaps, even in small measure, may bring benefit to the Church and cause those who show no mercy to the sinner to pause and reflect.
I believe that those brethren who consider themselves more righteous have no deliberate intention of falling into Pharisaism; if they do suffer from this evil disease, it is only because they little understand the task of the Christian Church and have scarcely acquainted themselves with the meaning of Christ’s teaching. Therefore, in order to clarify for them, at least in part, the character of the Old-Testament Church and to help them understand the purpose of the establishment of the Church of grace, I will begin with that, and only afterwards speak directly to the question.
The Old-Testament Church, although created by the will of God, although it contained prophets and righteous men and represented a prefiguration of the future Church of grace, was nevertheless imperfect. Its imperfection consisted first of all in the fact that the sin of the forefathers reigned in it, and secondly in the fact that its representatives — the scribes and Pharisees — while themselves being under the yoke of sin, fiercely attacked the people, reproaching them for imperfection. They themselves, committing unseemly and sinful acts, hid behind the name of the Law. Whenever anyone from the assembly pointed out their shortcomings, they accused him of ignorance of the Law and, since they possessed a certain authority, threatened anyone who dared to expose their iniquity with exclusion from the assembly. For example, when the man born blind who had been healed by Christ began to explain to them the miracle of his receiving sight, attributing it to the power of Christ, they said to him: “Thou wast altogether born in sins, and dost thou teach us? And they cast him out” (John 9:34).
As long as the legal (i.e., Old-Testament) church was destined to exist, it existed — though it bore no fruit in the sense of salvation. But, as I have already said, it was imperfect precisely because it contained the leaven of Pharisaism. Pharisaism in the strict sense means pride or the opinion that a person, whether he does good or even if he does not, considers himself above others, thinks that only he is capable of virtue, while all others are sinners and transgressors of the law, unworthy to share his lot.
The coming, teaching, and works of Christ were intended to put an end to this Pharisaic lawlessness that had hidden behind the name of the Law. Christ saw that that church was leprous and had been turned into a lifeless corpse; He saw that there was no living water in it, but only dead formality. The Messiah who appeared had to destroy the old, unfit building of that church and raise up a new, non-hand-made temple of His Body. John Chrysostom, in his commentary on Psalm 5, speaks of this as follows: “Great is the mystery, as Paul says, concerning Christ and the Church: Christ came to her dwelling, found her defiled, leprous, moldy, naked, covered with blood, and having taken her, He washed her, anointed her with oil, fed her, clothed her in garments and adorned her such as no other can be found. He Himself became her garment and raised her to the heavens above. Such is the inheritance prepared for us. Therefore even here He shows His care for her, hastening for our sake.”
And for what reasons did Christ find that pre-grace church in such a “defiled and moldy state”? The glorious disciple of Christ, the Apostle Paul, answers this for us:
“Behold, thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy boast of God, and knowest his will, and approvest the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law; and art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which hast the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law. Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal? thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege? Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonourest thou God?” (Romans 2:17–20, 22–23). This is the foundation upon which Pharisaism proudly towered.
The new Church of grace is not like that! In her there is no place for the spirit that formerly reigned, for she is founded upon the principles of divine love. In order to renew her and make her a perfect Dove, God sent His Only-begotten Son, who showed us in His own person all forms of humility, all-forgiveness, and love. He went to the cross, shed His most pure Blood, and redeemed the human race from eternal slavery to sin. This was Christ’s first love toward men who had sunk in the mire of vice. The divine Redeemer did not turn away from sinners. But, reproving the cruel literalist Pharisees and scribes, He said to the oppressed people: “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink” (John 7:37). He saw that the people thirsted for His pure teaching, thirsted for a renewed faith, for cleansing from the heavy burden of Pharisaic hypocrisy. This sinful burden Christ came to cleanse away.
To those who had lost hope of salvation Christ said: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28). The divine Word called to Himself all those who were burdened with sins, who from the standpoint of the legal church were considered lost. Those who led a righteous life were, as it were, passed over by Christ. He left them to go their own way, for He knew that they could manage their own lives; His chief attention was directed toward sinners, for He came to earth not to save the righteous but to call sinners to repentance.
What, then, is the renewed and redeemed Church of grace that Christ established? The divine disciple of Christ, the Apostle Paul, explaining to the Corinthians the essence and composition of the Church, wrote thus: “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ” (1 Cor. 12:12).
Here the Apostle describes the mystery of Christ’s Church and compares its essence to the human body. Just as the body has many diverse members and yet constitutes one body, so also the Church is composed, like a body, of different members and constitutes one body in Christ. Although the members of the Church — that is, all the faithful — differ in their position and yield to one another in virtues, they nevertheless all have equal significance in the Church; whether one of the faithful be righteous or a sinner, they all stand under the light of one and the same grace. “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many” (1 Cor. 12:13–14).
The mystery of Christ’s Church consists in the fact that in Her all the faithful receive the same grace flowing from the one source of the Holy Trinity. The members of the Church are not divided, as they were in the Old Church, into the righteous and sinners; all possess equal dignity. Here neither nationality, nor origin, nor social estate, nor class has any significance; there must be complete equality: the Jew is not exalted above the Greek by the law, nor does the Greek look down upon the Jew and boast of wisdom; slaves are equal to masters in service. One Lord, one faith, one baptism! All this gives everyone one union, one service, one hope. All have one striving, one desire — to preserve the Body of the Church, just as we wish to preserve our own bodies whole and do not want even one member to be torn away and cast out. All members perform one service: they hold together the Body of the Church. The righteous adorns the Body of the Church with his virtues, while the sinner, drawing from the righteous, cleanses himself by repentance. No member can exist apart from the body: whether eye, hand, foot, or the like — they cannot consider themselves either unworthy or privileged.
“If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?” (1 Cor. 12:15–16). Chrysostom’s commentary: “For if one member prays and another receives, this does not cause it to cease being of the body; otherwise everything would perish. Therefore do not say ‘I am not the body’ because I am inferior. For the foot has a lower rank, yet it is of the body… Even if you speak this truly, even if you complain, you cannot be apart from the body” (Homilies on the Epistles, fol. 906).
No member of Christ’s Church has the right to say of himself that he possesses greater privilege before others, that he is more righteous and pure than others. The Gospel parable of the Publican and the Pharisee teaches us this well. Even if we desired to be all equally perfect, that would be impossible according to the Apostle: “If they were all one member, where were the body? But now are they many members, yet but one body” (1 Cor. 12:19–20).
The idea that everyone can be made identical is unrealizable, for then there would be no body; the whole essence of the union of the body lies in the fact that members differing in their properties constitute one whole. From all this the Apostle concludes: “Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular” (1 Cor. 12:27).
Thus, the Christian Church is a society founded by Christ the Saviour of the world for the salvation of mankind. All people without distinction of nationality, origin, or personal qualities, if they have true baptism and believe in the teaching of Christ and His followers — the Apostles and the Fathers of the Church — all have undoubted hope of receiving salvation, for the Church was established to unite the faithful in herself and is called to communicate God’s grace to all nations.
Since the Church was established by Christ, He alone is her Head. He guides her as a good helmsman guides a ship, and the waves of the sea of life do not frighten us; we are under the unceasing protection of grace that leads us to the harbor of our hope.
“Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body” (Eph. 5:23), says the Apostle.
Chrysostom explains: “Christ is the one head, the faithful are the one body. What is the one body? The faithful throughout the whole world — those who are, who have been, and who shall be.”
Such is Christ’s Church!
The will of Christ for the Church is expressed partly in the Gospels, partly by the Apostles, and the rest is supplemented by the writings of the holy fathers of the Church and by church councils.
The chief source of Christian teaching is the Holy Gospel, in which the fundamental statutes are set forth. In the Gospel, besides instructions that are purely practical and necessary for every Christian as a means of self-perfection, we find a full and clear indication of the purpose of the mission of the Son of God to earth; through the Gospel we learn of the essence of God the Father, of His Only-begotten Son, and of the Holy Spirit; here we see depicted the form of cleansing from original sin — holy baptism, repentance, fasting, prayer, the Resurrection foreshadowing the incorruption of our souls and the life beyond the grave, and finally the complete victory over the power of darkness. All this was taught directly by Jesus Christ Himself and laid as a firm stone in the foundation of the Christian faith and Church.
Did Christ’s Church stop in the development of her external forms and limit herself to the teaching of the Gospel alone? No! In her development she went further. The disciples of Christ, who had themselves heard His teaching and seen His life, while preaching the Gospel throughout the earth spread faith in Christ and at the same time developed church order. Everywhere they introduced church ritual, discipline, and order. All this the apostles did within the bounds of the authority they had received directly from their Teacher. They more fully developed the theological side of the Gospel and strengthened the rights of the Christian Church to the degree required by the conditions of life at that time; at the same time the apostles exerted every effort so that the Christian Church — still young and suffering all manner of wiles from Judaism and paganism — might remain at the height of her calling. In a word, the teaching of Christ and the apostolic preaching gave the Church what she was to receive for her guidance.
From this follows a direct conclusion: the teaching of Christ and His Apostles constitutes for the Church the foundation, the base, which under no circumstances and in no way can be altered in a negative sense. Therefore any conscious denial of Gospel truth and any deliberate distortion of apostolic teaching unconditionally constitutes heresy.
Along with the growth of Christianity and the Church, various heresies also appeared. Almost all heretics erred in theology: some distorted the Gospel meaning of the teaching on the consubstantiality of the Holy Trinity (Arius, Macedonius, Nestorius), others concerning the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ (Dioscorus), still others rejected the veneration of icons, and so on. In order to overthrow the heretics and prove the falsity of their teaching, Christ’s Church at various times convened ecumenical and local councils, at which the Symbol or Confession of the Orthodox faith was clearly and definitively set forth. Incidentally, along with the clarification and confirmation of the theological-dogmatic side of the Christian Church, at all the ecumenical councils (except the fifth) as well as at local ones, rules were laid down concerning various aspects of church life. These rules were formulated in accordance with the demands of the time; they almost exclusively concern the disciplinary side of the Church — that is, they establish order in her, introduce proper ritual sequence, give a conception of the difference and nature of heresies, serve as a guide for church leaders, and the like.
The Symbol of the Orthodox faith, expressed at the councils (the first and second), is obligatory in its unchanged form both for the Church as a whole and for every Christian individually, and its violation entails undoubted apostasy from the Christian faith and places one in the ranks of heretics. Likewise necessary for the guidance of the Christian Church are all the conciliar and holy-patristic rules (1st rule of the 7th Ecumenical Council).
Now it is necessary to speak about the essence of the very question placed before this council for resolution: “Is every violation of the Church’s rules heresy?” This question is raised at the council because of the need, through the mediation of Holy Scripture, to resolve how we should understand the word “heresy,” in what cases it should be applied, and how, from a Christian point of view, we are to regard the sins of our brethren of the same faith, even if those sins in particular instances do violate the rules and decrees of the Church.
The question has arisen because among our Pomor Christians a wrong view of fraternal sins has strongly developed — namely, no small part of the Pomortsy are inclined to look upon a sinning brother as an apostate from the faith of Christ, as a corrupter, and are not willing to grant him the slightest indulgence. Moreover, the persecution on this ground is carried out with extreme bias and one-sidedness: this portion of our Christians condemns only those brethren who are subject to a certain weakness that supposedly can harm the grace of the Church and weigh very heavily upon all the members of Christ’s Body. These sins — which for everyone are a mote in the eye — consist in shaving the beard, using pomade, drinking tea, smoking tobacco, wearing modern clothing, and in some cases drinking wine. Against these sins — or more accurately, against the brethren subject to these weaknesses — the struggle is waged exclusively by elderly people who still remember very well the times when tea, tobacco, and the like were spoken of as some kind of overseas monsters. These people fight these vices, as well as other sins, not by persuasion or moral influence, but each of them assumes the role of judge and condemns not the quality of the sin but the person who in their eyes commits the given sin. Thus what results is not the uprooting of evil but the condemnation of one’s neighbour. And why precisely do all the above-named sins — from beard-shaving to wine-drinking — deserve greater attention and censure than other sins that by their nature and force are far graver and more destructive? After all, in our life there exist many other sins, such as murder, robbery, corruption, fornication, love of money, extortion, theft, sensuality, despondency, enmity, anger, malice, hatred, drunkenness, perjury, false witness, judging others, unmercifulness, hypocrisy, pride, evil-speaking, and so forth. All these sins existed in deepest antiquity and exist now. All of them are foreseen and condemned by the teaching of Christ and His Church; many of them are forbidden by the rules and decrees of the holy councils — and yet, despite all this, they abound even now in our midst.
We, not wishing to have in our church beard-shavers, those who use pomade with heretics, tea-drinkers and wine-drinkers, tobacco-smokers, and the like, readily tolerate those greatest mortal sins that are foreseen in the Gospel and censured by the Apostles and the decrees of the Church Fathers. The same thing happens with regard to virtue: preaching and edification concerning the fulfilment of the Gospel commandments are almost completely absent; nowhere are those voices heard that would teach truly Christian life; everywhere and always what is placed at the very centre of salvation is the exact and obligatory fulfilment of purely everyday ritual obligations — that is, people insistently advise, even to the point of condemnation, not to drink tea and the like, and confidently declare that observance of this will be fully sufficient for obtaining salvation.
But if all the sins listed above — both the old and the new — violate the canons of the Church and contradict her spirit, if they are unconditionally ruinous for Christians, can it be said that a church whose members are subject to some sinful weakness is a heretical church? This question, brethren, we must resolve here at the council, for the remote life of many of our Christians does not allow them to sort the matter out more thoroughly and correctly; that is why schism has already nested firmly in many places, whence issue chicks intending to fly beyond the bounds of the Church.
My own view of the matter is this: in Christ’s Church grace acts above all, and by its divine brightness it cannot be darkened by any sins of the Church’s members. Every Christian who does evil deeds, who sins, answers for himself alone, and his other brethren cannot be harmed by the sins of the sinner. Of this Christ says in the Gospel: “Verily, verily, every one that committeth sin is the bondservant of sin” (John 8:34). The Apostle Paul confirms the same: “For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law” (Rom. 2:12). The meaning of the words of Christ and the Apostle is clear: each answers for his own deeds.
One often hears from brethren the question: can the Church herself sin? Can she, through the sinful deeds of her members, perish entirely? To this it can be said with certainty that the Church herself, however much her members may sin, cannot perish, for she is eternal and infallible. And the Christian Pomor community as a whole, as the Church, stands firm and infallible on guard over piety and cannot perish. If members of the Church do sin, if some of them perhaps even give scandal to others, they nevertheless do not justify their sins, do not defend them, do not present them as good deeds, but repent of them; the Church herself cannot answer for them, since she gives not the slightest indulgence to her members to sin; the one who commits the deeds answers for them.
Undoubtedly there have been and still are in the Church individual violators of the holy fathers’ rules, but the Christian Church remembers no moment when all her members without exception were pure and sinless.
For the healing of the sinful illnesses of certain Christians the conciliar rules have been laid down. From the viewpoint of Holy Scripture our worldly life is continuous sin; therefore for us to preserve ourselves from sin and be pure under the conditions of our life in the world with its temptations and vices is almost impossible; only those who dedicate their life to the service of God can be pure.
Our Christians, admitting the thought that Christ’s Church could perish through the sins of her members and intending to allow no sins in their midst, consider themselves obliged to watch over the actions and conduct of their brethren, which they do (as they declare) for the sake of achieving perfect purity and wholeness of the Church; in this they usually refer to the words of the Apostle Paul: “We command you to withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly” (2 Thess. 3:6). Watching over a brother’s actions and sometimes seeing him sin, these “zealots of purity” regard the weak one as a disorderly person, a violator of Christian life, and immediately hasten to “withdraw” from him. They do not extend to him the hand of brotherly help, but usurping God’s judgment and condemning the brother as disorderly, they regard the sinner as a heathen and a publican or even directly as a heretic; meanwhile they do not look at themselves, at their own conduct, but with all their might concentrate their attention on the sinner, blacken him, and cast him into the abyss of perdition. In our midst this is called “withdrawing from every brother that walketh disorderly.” Such a “zealot,” before withdrawing from the sinner, should ponder the Apostle’s words commanding to “withdraw from every brother that walketh disorderly,” and he would see that by these words the Apostle teaches not to despise the sinner but to beware of false teachers who in apostolic times went about preaching not for the sake of proclaiming the Gospel teaching but for gain, representing a kind of parasites. It is from these that the Apostle commanded to withdraw — that is, not to accept their teaching, which contained a mixture of paganism, Judaism, and Christianity.
Thus, if the Christian Church, by virtue of the grace present in her, cannot perish through the sins of her members, the question arises: what relations should her members have among themselves — that is, how should they conduct themselves toward one another? The Lord Jesus Christ teaches in the Holy Gospel: “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” (John 13:34–35). Such are the relations toward one another that Christ established! In love of God and neighbour hang all the law and the prophets. Love has no boundaries or barriers; for it there is no cause that could serve as a pretext for enmity. When we accidentally or perhaps even deliberately see a sinning brother, we must not turn away from him, remembering that we are Christians and that in Christianity the fundamental principle is love. If we are scandalised by a sinning brother, if we lack the strength to bear that scandal, we must recall the words of the Apostle Paul: “Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity… beareth all things” (1 Cor. 13:4–7). We can show our love, like Christ, only toward the sinner, when we extend to him the hand of brotherly help, for Christ’s Church needs not only the righteous but also sinners: by the righteous she shines, and sinners she saves. For the Church sinners are even more necessary than the righteous. The Apostle Paul writes of this: “Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary: and those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour” (1 Cor. 12:22–23). Those members of the Church about whom we think that they are sinful are dearer to her, and those about whom we think that they are dishonourable we must honour the more.
At the beginning of the report I mentioned the Old-Testament church in which Pharisaism reigned. From the Christian point of view the latter is completely condemned, for in it is precisely that leaven which is contrary to the Gospel. The Pharisees, boasting of their righteousness (which in reality they did not possess), looked with contempt upon sinners, abhorred them, and often cast them out of the assembly. Christ, however, did not act thus. To all with meekness and humility He said: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
The wrong view of some members of the Church concerning fraternal sins has led them into the sin of Pharisaism, for they allow themselves to watch the lives of others in order to find their shortcomings and consider themselves more righteous than those who, in their opinion, “sin.” These our brethren, fighting against tea-drinking and similar sins and not mentioning a word about mortal sins, may fall under the following condemnation of the Lord Jesus Christ: “Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness” (Matt. 23:24–28).
It is very easy to be whited sepulchres containing stinking bones within: for this one need only look upon one’s brother from the Pharisaic point of view, see in him some shortcoming in the sense of sin, and say that this man is a sinner, he is worse than I, and I must not be together with him, must not have him as my brother. Such phenomena, to our sorrow, are observed among us. Perhaps none of us would dare to say literally that he is better, more righteous than others, yet this will not save us from Christ’s reproach and from the Pharisaic leaven, for we manifest the like not in word but in deed: those who separate themselves from sinners and on this account even create separate societies clearly consider themselves far better and purer than others. And therefore, even if they do not openly call themselves righteous, indirectly they still fall under the same measure.
There are divisions because of sins — not many, but they exist all the same. Where there are no divisions, those who consider themselves more righteous insist at all costs that others also appear righteous in their eyes, and there are often cases where they set their personal convictions as an unchangeable law for others. This too is unconditional Pharisaism, which again is exposed by Christ: “For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers” (Matt. 23:4).
We all before the face of the law are sinners to a greater or lesser degree, for our infirm flesh wages constant war with the spirit; it falls every hour, is enticed, and always strives to commit some sin; and were it not for divine grace upon us, “no flesh should be saved,” and together with it the soul would perish. But God in His unspeakable goodness toward the human race has granted us repentance, by means of which we cleanse our sins. “Great is the power of repentance, for it makes us white as snow and whitens us as wool,” says St John Chrysostom.
“Who can boast that he hath a clean heart, or who will dare to say that he is pure from sins?” says the Wise Solomon (Prov. 20:9), and Jesus son of Sirach confirms: “Reprove not a man that turneth from sin, remember that we are all worthy of punishment” (Sirach 8:5).
Christ’s teaching on this was the same, and when the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman taken in adultery, He did not condemn her, did not say to her that she was lost, but turned His attention to those who, considering themselves pure, had brought the adulteress. Christ did not hasten to reproach the sinner but, as though unwilling even to offend her with a glance, “stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground.” Yet the Pharisees were not satisfied with this and demanded an answer. “So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her” (John 8:7). The divine Word — Christ God — did not condemn the sinner but said to her: “Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.”
Adultery is a direct violation of the rules (58th rule of Basil the Great), yet Christ did not condemn the adulterous woman, did not deliver her to Satan, but said to her “Neither do I condemn thee.”
I have been told that the nature of sins differs: some sins are visible, others secret, and that visible sins, even if they be minor, must be pursued far more strictly than those sins committed in secret. Such a notion is mistaken and cannot serve as justification for persecutors of visible sins, for when Christ said “Judge not,” He unquestionably had in mind visible sins and not secret ones, since the latter no one can judge because they are committed “in secret.” Therefore all who watch over a brother’s sins themselves sin and are even condemned by Christ Himself, who said: “And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye” (Matt. 7:3–5). The Apostle Paul also writes: “But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ… So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God” (Rom. 14:10, 12).
Hearing the above, perhaps my brethren will object that I am defending the aforementioned new sins and desire that they be present in our church. I bear witness before God that I am far from the thought of wishing this sinful seduction to become customary and enter the ordinary course of life. I would be very glad if we all unanimously fought against all possible vices and weaknesses. But I have said that our striving to achieve the best possible life is in practice not realised, and if we sometimes fiercely attack our brethren, wishing them to be better, nevertheless we see no progress in perfection — on the contrary, day by day our life grows worse; we clearly feel that temptations, despite visible resistance, stubbornly conquer their place and already reign in full force. Why does this happen? In my view all sinful thoughts, temptations, and vices nest among us because we ourselves are guilty of it, we ourselves watch very poorly over ourselves and do not fight our own passions. We do not set ourselves the aim of removing the beam from our own eye, but for some reason all want to pull the mote out of our brother’s eye. Of course we will never succeed in removing the mote from our brother’s eye, for in this case we act clumsily, and meanwhile the beam sticking in our own eye remains in place. And therefore we not only fail to attain the good goal but go ever farther and farther into the thickets of lawlessness, and perhaps the time is near when love in us will dry up completely.
I hope that this pious Council will not condemn me for what I have spoken for the benefit of the Church and will supplement the deficiencies of my report with its own knowledge.
In conclusion I say the following:
1) Our truly Christian, pious Pomor Church holds the Gospel, Apostolic, and Holy-Patristic teaching unchangingly and preserves the covenants of the Church in the same spirit in which the ancient Apostolic Church held and preserved them; she has all the church rules for her guidance and has never rejected a single one of them or considered it unnecessary; in our Church there have been no individual persons who deliberately distorted the teaching of the Apostolic Church and introduced into her any malicious teachings contrary to it. If there have been and now are individual persons who violate the rules and live unchristianly, in this they bring repentance to their spiritual fathers, and none of them defends the sinful deed he commits; moreover, in every such sinner there exists the consciousness that he himself will answer for what he has done. In our Church there are no sinners who would defend lawlessness and consider it not a sin. Therefore, even if there are sinners in the Church, she cannot on that account be heretical, for the following reason: “One thing is sin, another is impiety. Sin comes from the infirmity of a faithful person, for whom repentance lies ready and cleansing by the blood of Christ; impiety, however, is voluntary apostasy from piety, which is also called heresy. Not only do such persons not repent of their impiety, but they advance in pride, like Satan himself” (Commentary on Ps. 1).
2) If Christ’s Church is a ship for the storm-tossed (sinners), if she is one body though with various members (the righteous and sinners), if the purpose of her founding was salvation for the sinful, then in no case and in no way can we censure or condemn our brethren, even if they be great sinners; otherwise we shall be like the proud Pharisees and together with them be condemned by Christ Himself, who said: “Judge not, that ye be not judged.”
3) In order to establish truly Christian life in the Church, in order to have peace and love among ourselves, it is necessary to perfect ourselves — but only in such a way that each watches only over himself, examines his own actions, and strives for the better; at the same time the Pharisaic spirit must be completely removed from the Church, and various reproaches, quarrels, disagreements, and condemnations of one’s neighbour must find no place in her at all. Let all look upon the sinner with meekness and love, and if he has fallen, let him be immediately restored: the burden of his sin all Christians must bear according to their strength, just as Christ bore all our transgressions. “Nothing is more shameful for a Christian than not to save others, for the limit of Christianity is to desire the salvation of one’s brethren and to forgive neighbours their transgressions” (Chrysostom, Homily 20 on Acts).
This, my dear brethren, I have said not to undermine piety, not to destroy it, but to build it up. Let none of you think that I wish to compel the Council to indulgence toward sin, to weakness. No! I desire only justice in judging fraternal sins, for with my own eyes I see how far our “zealots not according to knowledge” have strayed from the Gospel path, I see that Christ’s Church, thanks to these “zealots,” is not being strengthened but shaken, that in her there reign not peace and love but pride, haughtiness, and self-love. Is it not time for us to cease spying on our brother’s deeds? Would it not be better to acknowledge that “in iniquities we were conceived, and in sins did our mother bear us” (Ps. 50:7)? Watching over our brother’s sins we may fall under the following words of St John of the Ladder: “Hear me, all ye evil ones who search out others’ sins: for by whatever judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged, and in whatever ye reproach your neighbour, in the same shall ye yourselves fall” (Word 10).
In my view it would be best of all for us to apply to ourselves the words of the holy Apostle Paul: “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ” (Gal. 6:1–2).
“For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matt. 6:14–15).
Amen.
Published by the Brotherhood of Zealots of Old Orthodoxy in the name of the holy hieromartyr Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage.
Publishing House “Third Rome,” Moscow, 2000.