The Lord said that He would come and " give to every oneaccording to his work. " (Rev. 22:12) Obviously people'sactions differ, and so therefore will their punishment. Even onearth, the Lord said in the Sermon on the Mount: " Andwhoever says to his brother, 'Raca!'# shall be in danger of thecouncil. But whoever says, 'You fool!' shall be in danger of hellfire." (Matt. 5:22). From this it is clear that punishment differswith the difference in degree of the offence. St. Augustinealso made this observation.Concerning this difference in degree of sin, and the Church'sattitude towards it, St. John said: " There is sin leading todeath. I do not say that he should pray about that.All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading todeath." ( 1 John 5:16-17) So, a sin that does not lead to death,can be prayed for, so that the one who has committed it shouldbe given life. Sins which do not lead to death come under theheadings of unintentional sins, sins of ignorance and sins ofnegligence.Obviously there is a great difference between theunintentional sin, and the sin which is carried out with fullintent and determination. Just as there is a big differencebetween sins of ignorance and those committed in fullknowledge. God's justice requires that the punishmentshould be in proportion to the crime.Sins are actually alike in that they exclude one from theKingdom of Heaven, but even those who go to hell sufferdifferent degrees of torture, which is why the Lord said,referring to all the cities which rejected Him and rejected thefaith and rejected His disciples: " Assuredly, I say to you, it willbe more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in theday of judgment than for that city!" (Matt. 10:15)The words 'more tolerable... than' prove the difference inpunishment based on the difference in offence.The difference in sin can be clearly observed from the practicalpoint of view. The person who commits adultery in his mind,for instance, is not like the person who commits the act ofadultery, for the latter, by doing so, has defiled his own bodyand that of someone else too. And the person who commits theact of adultery, is not the same as someone who commits aviolent rape, which is that much, more offensive. And adifferent case again would be that of someone who commitsadultery with a relative whom the law has forbidden him tomarry. (Lev. 20)A person who wishes to do something violent, but doesn't do it,and just keeps it in his mind, is not the same as someone whoactually carries out his violence in physical or verbal form, whoactually does harm to another person and, by his action, causesothers to stumble. The one who only thinks about stealing, isdifferent from the one who actually steals by force.At this point, though, sin becomes multiple or compound,which means that it consists of a number of sins together.The punishment for a multiple sin is greater because it does notrank as a single sin, but as a collection of sins. Someone whoinsults a person will have committed the sin of insulting, butsomeone who insults his father or mother, will have added tohis sin of insulting, another sin which is that of breaking thecommandment to honour your parents. Thus his sin is acompound one, and accordingly his punishment will be harsher.The Bible says in the law of Moses: "If anyone curses his fatheror mother, he must be put to death and his blood will be on hisown head." (Lev. 20:9).Likewise, someone who hit someone else, to whom he was notrelated, used to be subject, after being judged, to the rule, "aneye for an eye; a tooth for a tooth." (Lev. 24:19-20). Butsomeone who hit his father or mother used to be stoned andan even harsher stoning was given for sins committedagainst anything sacred.If someone sins on a holy day, such as a day of fasting, forexample, or a day of taking communion, is held to havecommitted a worse sin, therefore the punishment was moresevere for the sins of the sons of Eli the Priest (1 Sam. 2).May The Lord Blessdaniel2macarius