The Purpose of Refraining away from Sin?

[aezoryte]

Greetings brothers and sisters in Christ.

According to a parable few weeks back, the late vineyard workers receive the same amount of payment from their generous master as those who work full time, and God has told the on-time workers not to be envious of those who are late.

God loves us and he always forgives us. Even if we sin again and again he will forgive us too. My questions is as follows: what is the point of refraining away from sin if we know we will always be forgiven each time we commit a sin and repent? Lets take fornication as an example. If each fornicator is forgiven everytime he/she commits it and repent later, how is he/she different from someone who actually tried his/her best to avoid the sin and heed God’s words?

According to the parable above, there’s no rewards or extra blessing for those who avoid the sin, and in fact they receive the same amount of generosity of those who commit the sin. So my question again: Whats the point of refraining from the sin if we know we will be forgiven anyways when we repent versus trying our best to refrain from sinning?

Thank you and may God bless you.

 

[Fr.Charles_Grondin]

Do we do the right thing because its the right thing or do we do the right thing only because we think we’ll get rewarded for it?

The basics of our faith teach us that doing the right thing is its own reward:

I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.

• John 10:10

Imagine a father and son. The son leaves the father and doesn’t talk to him for decades. Right before the father dies, the son reconciles with his father. They embrace, cry tears of joy and fully reconcile. It is indeed a joyous moment to celebrate. However, what about all those lost years? All those memories and experiences that never happened. Even though the end result is the same (a happy relationship) it is clearly better to have maintained the relationship throughout the decades.

Take your example of someone who “sleeps around” his entire life. He never had the chance to experience what its like to love someone unconditionally and be loved unconditionally by them. Though he repents in the end, his life up to that point has been empty and hallow.

Sins lead us away from the things in life that bring true fulfillment and joy. Sin is often its own punishment, dragging our life into the mud and hobbling us from achieving better things.