What are the main Christian commandments and virtues? Are they innate to human nature from birth, or must they be cultivated and nurtured through effort? #

The commandments of the Christian faith, on one hand, present a lengthy list of what is good and should be done, and what is bad and must be avoided. On the other hand, all Christian commandments are summed up in two great commandments from the ancient Old Testament law and one universal principle. Once, a teacher of the law approached the Lord Jesus and asked Him:

“Master, which is the great commandment in the law?”

Jesus replied:

“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
(Matthew 22:36–40)

For a person who loves God, there is no need to explain or prove what should or should not be done. Such a person naturally strives to keep God’s commandments and do what pleases Him. Even those who, without knowing God’s law, love God, fulfill what pleases Him and carry the law within themselves. The Apostle Paul writes about this in his Epistle to the Romans:

“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. For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another.”
(Romans 2:12–15)

Paul echoes this in his Epistle to the Colossians:

“And above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfectness.”
(Colossians 3:14)

Christian morality cannot be reduced to a set of rules and requirements—otherwise, it would not be Christianity but Talmudism. If a person possesses love for God and for people, they instinctively know and understand what to do, accepting the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ without needing a list of rules and prohibitions. However, when love wanes, it becomes necessary to explain basic principles: do not kill, do not steal, do not bear false witness, and so on.

Christian virtues are not innate to humans from birth, although every person, even the most sinful and wicked, carries remnants of the image and likeness of God instilled in humanity at creation. For this image and likeness to bear good fruit, one must be born anew of water and the Spirit (a new birth received in Holy Baptism), deny oneself, die to sin, rise to new life, take up one’s cross, and follow the Lord. What this entails has been explained in other answers.

In any case, this is a dual process. On one hand, it is impossible to be reborn and follow Christ through human effort alone. For man, this is impossible; only by God’s power is this miracle accomplished. On the other hand, without human effort and striving, God does not work such miracles or drag anyone into paradise against their will. Thus, the cultivation of virtues in a person is both a divine miracle and a human effort.

—Priest Mikhail Rodin.