Is the body the element of sin in man?

Is it the cause of all sin? And is it solely responsible for sins, so that we can call it the “body of sin”? Does it sin alone, while the soul is unjustly blamed, as it “lusts against the body” (Galatians 5:17)? And if that is the case, why did God create the body? If the body were inherently evil, God would not have created it. We can observe that after God created man from body and soul, He looked at everything He had made, and it was very good (Genesis 1:31). Thus, He did not create the body as an element of sin. Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of Eden with their bodies, free from sin, in simplicity, purity, and innocence, before sin entered the world. We cannot say that the body initiated sin! Indeed, there was a forbidden fruit that was eaten. But before the eating came the desire for divinity, the desire for knowledge, and doubt in God’s words. (These are all errors of the soul.) The serpent’s temptation was clear: “You will not surely die”—here was the doubt. And also the lure of divinity: “You will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5). It was the soul that desired divinity and knowledge, and it led the body to eat the fruit to attain all this. At the very least, we can say: The fall of the first man was a fall of both body and soul together. The two united in one act, which was the breaking of God’s commandment. Unfortunately, most people only speak of the sin of the body, which picked and ate the fruit. They forget the internal factors that drove it to this, which were errors of the soul. Thus, the soul can sin just as the body can. We cannot say that the body sins alone. Indeed, the first sin known in the universe was a sin of the soul. We refer to the sin of Satan, who is a spirit without a body, as he was an angel. Scripture says, “He makes His angels spirits” (Psalm 104:4). Satan fell into the sin of pride when he said, “I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will make myself like the Most High” (Isaiah 14:13-14). The first sin was pride, which is a sin of the soul. This was followed by Satan’s stubbornness, opposition, and causing others to stumble, as he caused other angels to fall with him and then caused humanity to stumble. All these were sins of the soul without the body. Satan also fell into the sin of envy, as we say in the Divine Liturgy, “The death that entered the world through the envy of the devil, You have destroyed.” Satan—being a spirit—fell into the sin of lying, as he lied to Eve. The Lord said of him that he is a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44). Thus, the soul can sin without the body. Not all sins of the soul are its submission to the body. No, there are sins in which the soul alone may fall. The body may join it in these sins. But for Satan, all the aforementioned sins were sins of the soul alone. So we cannot say that the body is the cause of all sin. There are many errors of the soul. The body, without the soul, cannot sin. An example is a dead body. The soul gives it life and participates with it in sin by submitting to it. In the sin of murder, for example, do you think only the body attacked, struck, and killed? Or was it the sins of the soul, such as hatred and violence, that drove it to do so? Cain’s soul fell before he killed his brother with his body. Because we know of the sins of the soul and spirit, we pray in the Liturgy saying: Purify our souls, bodies, and spirits. We say that we partake for the purity of our souls, bodies, and spirits. Thus, the soul can be defiled just like the body. This is why we say in the Third Hour Prayer: Purify us from the defilement of the body and the spirit. So, it is not only the body that sins; the soul sins as well. This is why both are punished together in eternity. The body alone is not punished. If the soul were strong, it would not fall into its own sins, nor would it submit to the body and participate in its sins. The harshest description given to the soul in the Bible is “unclean spirits” or “evil spirits” (Matthew 10:1). This was said about the spirits of angels who fell. It can certainly be said about the souls of wicked humans. The problem with the body is that it is material, and so it is fought by material and bodily temptations. Therefore, the opportunities for its fall are greater, as it has more fields of battle than the soul. However, the body is not necessarily subject to materialism; it can rise above it. It can, as a body, live in a spiritual manner. As happens with the body during fasting, spiritual vigil, asceticism, and renouncing materialism, and in its labor for righteousness and the salvation of others. For all this and similar things, we honor the bodies of the saints. These bodies struggled for the Lord, suffered for His sake, lived in purity, and triumphed in the battles of the enemy, participating with the soul in all aspects of worship. Not only do we honor them, but God Himself, who allowed a dead man to rise when he touched Elisha’s bones (2 Kings 13:21). From God’s honor for the body, He made it a temple of the Holy Spirit. The Apostle said, “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit?” (1 Corinthians 6:19). Can we call this temple of the Holy Spirit the “body of sin”? Far from it! The Apostle also said, “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?” (1 Corinthians 6:15). These bodies are thus holy. This is why the Apostle said: Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s (1 Corinthians 6:20). We can glorify God with our bodies as well as with our souls. The marks of the Lord Jesus appear in our bodies, so that the life of the Lord Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies (2 Corinthians 4:10). The body we receive from the Lord in baptism is not the body of sin. The Apostle says, “For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ” (Galatians 3:27). God will honor this body when He raises it in glory. When it is raised incorruptible, a spiritual, luminous body, its nature will be transformed into the likeness of the body of His glory. Indeed, the greatest honor for the body is that Christ took a body. If the body were inherently evil, an element of sin, Christ would not have taken a body of the same nature as ours and blessed our nature through it. The body can sin, and it can also live in purity. Likewise, the soul. Let us not forget that when the body—though material—overcomes the pull of material things and lives in a spiritual manner, this is a great achievement for which God will never forget its labor of love. So let us glorify God in our bodies and in our souls, which belong to God.