transgressed the commandment of the Lord and have fallen out of paradise, is the divine Law which was given to us in writing after that exile. Every man desiring salvation has to fight with the
passions: thrashing and opposing, fighting and being fought against, winning and suffering defeat. And in general, he has to struggle in order to stay within the divine laws of nature.
When we abide by the divine law given to us in the Bible---we are not fornicators, murderers, thieves, liars, gossipers, and are not unjust, proud,
vainglorious, gluttonous, greedy, avaricious, envious, taunting, blaspheming, irascible, peevish,
complaining, hypocritical and so on---then we are in the state natural for us after the Fall.
From
Elder Joseph's
"Epistle to a Hesychast Hermit"
(Chapters XI & XII & Epilogue)
From the book
"Monastic Wisdom"
