“The leaders of any given evil heresy also attempt to interpret their writings, but their purpose is to harm their followers and deny that truth which is in accordance with piety, using the words of the Spirit against the Spirit. The words of the gospel of grace are lofty and suitable for mature ears and minds, but these words too our God-bearing Fathers softened in their own mouths, making them appropriate for those of us who are less than perfect, just as mothers devoted to their children chew solid food and render it serviceable and easy to take for babies still at the breast. The moisture in their mothers’ mouth is nourishment for the children, and the thoughts in the hearts of our God-bearing Fathers are suitable food for souls that listen and obey The mouths of evil, disreputable men, however, are full of deadly poison which, when mixed with the words of life, makes even them lethal for careless listeners.”
St. Gregory Palamas
Homily 34, On the Holy Transfiguration of Our Lord and God and Savior Jesus
The descendants of Esau were spurned [by God] because he was a fornicator and a defilement
(Rom. 9:13). Rehoboam lost the greater part
of the kingdom because his father Solomon was a womanizer more than anyone else (3 Kg. 11:1). If Solomon died without losing any part of the
kingdom, this was due to David, who cleansed the sin he had committed with streams of tears and with other works of repentance (3 Kg. 11:10-11).
The Apostle again commands us, my brothers, to flee from fornication (1 Co. 6:18). If Sampson had fled from it, he would not have fallen into the hands of Delilah (Jdg. 16:4-21).
If the Jews who were being led by Moses, their
commander and lawgiver, had avoided it, they would not have offered sacrifices to Baalpeor
(Num. 25:1-3). If Solomon had evaded it, he would not have become estranged from the Lord, Who had rendered him a wise king (3 Kg. 11:7-8).
Do you see how the passion of fornication pushes a person even to impiety? If it wasn't for this passion, the beauty of Susanna would not have
fooled and defeated the elders in Babylon
(Dan. 8). If Holofernes, this wretched fellow, hadn't first allowed Judith’s sandal to allure his eye and previously permitted her beauty to captivate his soul (Jdt. 16:9), he wouldn't have ended up dead with his head cut off (Jdt. 13:8). This is why Job states: “I have made a covenant with my eyes, and I will not look upon a virgin”
(Job 31:1). How much more should this apply to an immodest woman, whether she be single or married.
Doesn’t the Law of Moses itself order for the bride who is found not to be a virgin to be stoned to death (Dt. 22:20-21)?
Doesn’t it also order for the daughter of any priest, if she profane herself through fornication, to be burnt with fire1(Lev. 21:9)?
It is written:
“There shall be no harlot from the daughters of Israel, and there shall be no fornicator from the sons of Israel” (Dt. 23:17). Furthermore, the scriptures state that the Jewish people
“desecrated themselves through fornication”
with the daughters of Moab (Num. 25:1), and as a consequence twenty three thousand men were killed by the sword in one day.
This is why the great Apostle Paul announces to
us, “Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand”(1 Cor. 10:8). Such are the
penalties of fornication prior to the Mosaic Law,
during the time of the Law, 1 St. Gregory Palamas
is not suggesting that the Law of Moses be implemented; for with the coming of Christ, the shadow of the Law came to an end and has been replaced by the Gospel of Grace. Rather, he wants to make known to us how serious the sin of fornication is in the eyes of God. and which the Law prescribes.
Either preserve God-pleasing chastity, beloved brothers, or God-given matrimony ... Avoid the honey that drips from the lips of fornication, because it has the custom of smearing lustful
death, which is the separation from God.
As the Prophet David says, “
Thou hast destroyed everyone who fornicates from Thee” (Ps. 72:27).
If anyone has fallen into any of fornication’s filth, may he return and distance himself from it, and may he cleanse himself with repentance. For thus saith the Lord: “Shall he who falls not arise? He who turns away, shall he not return?” (Jer. 8:4).
Thus, it is necessary for the person whose body has become a temple of God through the Holy Spirit, and within whom the Spirit of God dwells (1 Co. 6:19), to hasten toward the acquisition of purity and chastity, and away from fornication and every impurity, so that we may delight eternally with the incorrupt Bridegroom [Christ] in the heavenly and immaculate bridal chambers. Amen.
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Do not fornicate, lest you become a "member of an harlot" (1 Cor. 6:15) instead of a member of Christ, and so you are not severed from the
divine body, deprived of the heavenly inheritance, and cast into Hell.
We have been commanded to crucify our body along with its desires (Gal. 5:24). However, we fall into the same [carnal sins], on account of
which "the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience" (Eph. 5:6).
Even though we have been ordered to mortify our "bodily members which are upon the earth"(Col.3:5), we do not execute this directive. Shouldn't we tremble the apostolic warnings, decisions, and counsels that have been voiced? "If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy" (1 Cor. 3:17).
And elsewhere,"This you should know: that no fornicator, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God." (Eph. 5:5). And
again, "For this is the will of God: your sanctification, that you should abstain from fornication...
For God has not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness" (1 Th. 4:3-7). Who could adequately compile all the commandments that the Apostles and prophets have given us concerning this topic? What does the Apostle Paul order to them who live with modesty, and who for this reason are found amongst the members of Christ? "I wrote to you in an epistle," he says, "not to keep company with fornicators" (1 Cor. 5:9). Since they
themselves are not ashamed, he advises others to avoid keeping company with them in order to
make them feel ashamed: "If any man that is called a brother [i.e., a Christian] is a fornicator ... with such a person do not even eat" (1 Cor. 9:11). Do you see that whoever rolls in fornication is a
general defilement to the Church, and for this reason everyone must avoid him and keep him distanced? St. Paul himself handed over to Satan the fornicator from Corinth, and he did not recommend for anyone to show him love or to
receive him until he displayed the necessary and satisfactory repentance (1 Cor. 5:5). Therefore, definitely save your soul, dear brothers, from all the present and future evils [of fornication].
St. Gregory Palamas
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