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Origen on Sinners

Tuesday, October 30, 2007. 0 Comments:

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Origen introduces an interesting distinction between those who have sinned and those who are sinners. The element that marks some as sinners and others as only having sinned is their habits. Those who repeatedly sin are sinners; those who occasionally sin are not, though they have still sinned. He uses an analogy of a physician to illustrate this distinction. Just as one who occasionally bandages a wound is not a doctor, so one who occasionally sins is not a sinner.

(Note: the text below has been scanned and converted, so it may have some typos due to the software)


It is one thing to have sinned, another to be a sinner.
One is called a sinner who. bv committing many transgressions,
has already reached the- point of making sinning into a habit
and, so to speak, a course of study. Just as, on the other hand,
one is not called righteous who lias once or twice done some
righteous act, but who continually behaves justiv and keeps
righteousness in use and makes it habitual. For if someone is
unjust in nearly all oilier matters but should carrv out some just
work one or two limes, he will indeed be said to have acted just-
ly in that work in which lie practiced justice; nevertheless he
will not on that basis be called a just man. Similarly it will in-
deed be said that a righteous man has sinned if he has at some
time committed what is not lawful. But lie will not on that ac-
count be labeled a sinner, since he does not hold last to the
practice and habit of sinning. Just as one is not called a physi-
cian who knows how to place a bandage lightly upon the skin of
a head wound, or who can sooth the swelling of an injury with
hot water, even though this seems to belong to tlie art of medi-
cine. Rather one is called a physician who maintains the use
and study and instruction of medical science.

By all this I think it has been sufficiently shown that it is
one thing to sin and another to be a sinner. For it can happen
that all people commit sin, even if they are holy, since "no one
is pure from uncleanness, not even if his life should be one day
long."321 For who is there who does not sin either in deed or in
word or, if one is extremely cautious, at least in thought? There-
fore, as I have said, everyone will deservedly be said to have
sinned, but not all have become sinners, only many.

(Or.Rom.5.5.2-3 (Scheck)

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