The Devil Has Only Fear

He said to me: “Put away from yourself every evil craving, and clothe yourself with the craving that is good and honorable. Once you are clothed with this one you will hate the evil craving, and you will bridle it however you wish. For evil craving is wild, and it is tamed only with difficulty. It is a terrible thing, and by its wildness it eats people up — and a servant of God worst of all, if he falls into it and has no sense. It eats up everyone who does not have the clothing of good craving on him, but is mixed up with this age. These it hands over to death.” [a]

“Then what are the works of evil craving, sir, that hand people over to death? Tell me, so that I can keep away from them.” “Listen, then, to the works by which evil craving kills the servants of God.”

“First of all is the craving for another man’s wife or another woman’s husband, and for extravagant wealth, and for many pointless dishes and strong drink, and many other foolish luxuries; for every luxury is foolish and empty for the servants of God. These, then, are the evil cravings that kill the servants of God. This evil craving is the devil’s daughter. So a person must keep away from evil cravings, so that by keeping away you may live to God. But all who are mastered by them and do not stand against them will die in the end, for these cravings are deadly.” [c]

“You, then — clothe yourself with the craving for righteousness, and arm yourself with the fear of the Lord and stand against them. For the fear of God lives in good craving. If evil craving sees you armed with the fear of God and standing against it, it will run far away from you and will not show itself to you again, because it is afraid of your weapons. So when you have won, and have been crowned for your victory over it, go to the craving for righteousness, hand over to it the prize you have received, and serve it as it wishes. If you serve good craving and submit to it, you will be able to master evil craving and make it submit to you however you wish.”

“I would like to know, sir,” I said, “in what ways I am to serve good craving.” “Listen,” he said. “Do righteousness and virtue, truth and the fear of the Lord, faith and gentleness, and whatever good things are like these. If you do these, you will be a servant of God who pleases him, and you will live to him. And everyone who serves good craving will live to God.” [e]

So he finished the twelve commands, and said to me: “You have these commands now. Walk in them, and urge those who hear you to make their repentance pure for the rest of their lives. Carry out carefully this service I am giving you, and you will accomplish much. You will find favor among those who are going to repent, and they will be persuaded by your words; for I will be with you, and I will make them listen to you.”

I said to him, “Sir, these commands are great and good and glorious, and able to gladden the heart of anyone who can keep them. But I do not know whether they can be kept by a human being, because they are very hard.” He answered me: “If you settle it with yourself that they can be kept, you will keep them easily, and they will not be hard. But if it has already come into your heart that they cannot be kept by a human being, you will not keep them. And now I tell you: if you do not keep them but let them slide, you will not have salvation — and neither will your children or your household, since you have already decided for yourself that these commands cannot be kept by a human being.”

He said all this to me in great anger, so that I was thrown into confusion and was very much afraid of him; his form had changed, so that no one could stand up under his anger. But when he saw me completely shaken and confused, he began to speak to me more considerately and more cheerfully, and he said: “You fool — senseless and double-minded! Do you not see how great and strong and marvelous the glory of God is? He created the world for the sake of man; he put all his creation under man, and gave him all authority to have mastery over everything under heaven. So if man is lord of all God’s creatures and has mastery over them all, can he not master these commands too? He can. The man who has the Lord in his heart can master everything, and every one of these commands.” [f]

“But for those who have the Lord on their lips while their heart is hardened, and who are far from the Lord, these commands are hard and rough going. So you who are empty and lightweight in the faith, put your Lord in your heart, and you will know that there is nothing easier than these commands, nothing sweeter, nothing gentler.”

“Turn back, you who walk in the commands of the devil — the harsh, bitter, wild, shameless ones — and do not be afraid of the devil, for there is no power in him against you. I will be with you: the angel of repentance, who has mastery over him. All the devil has is fear, and his fear has no sinew in it. So do not be afraid of him, and he will run from you.”

I said to him, “Sir, listen to me for a moment.” “Say what you want,” he said. “A person is eager, sir, to keep God’s commands, and there is no one who does not ask the Lord to be given strength for his commands and to submit to them. But the devil is hard, and he tyrannizes over them.” [j]

“He cannot tyrannize over the servants of God,” he said, “not over those who put their hope in him with their whole heart. The devil can wrestle against them, but he cannot throw them. So if you stand against him, he will be beaten, and he will run from you in disgrace. But all who are partly empty,” he said, “are afraid of the devil, as though he had power.”

“When a man has filled a great many jars with good wine, and among those jars a few are partly empty, he comes to the jars and does not bother looking at the full ones — he knows they are full. He looks at the partly empty ones, afraid they have gone sour; for partly empty jars go sour quickly, and the delight of the wine is gone. That is how the devil comes to all the servants of God, to put them to the test. All who are full in the faith stand against him strongly, and he goes away from them, having no place to get in. So then he goes to the partly empty ones; and finding a way in, he goes into them and does whatever he wants in them, and they become his slaves.”

“And I, the angel of repentance, say to you: do not be afraid of the devil. For I was sent,” he said, “to be with you who repent with your whole heart, and to make you strong in faith.” [m]

“So trust God, you who because of your sins have given up on your life, and who keep adding to your sins and weighing your life down. If you turn back to the Lord with your whole heart, and do what is right for the rest of your days, and serve him rightly according to his will, he will heal your former sins, and you will have power to master the works of the devil. As for the devil’s threats, do not be afraid of them at all: he has no more strength in him than the sinews of a dead man. So listen to me, and fear the one who can do everything, both save and destroy. Keep these commands, and you will live to God.”

I said to him, “Sir, I have now been made strong in everything the Lord requires, because you are with me; and I know that you will cut down all the power of the devil, and that we will have mastery over him and prevail over all his works. And I hope, sir, that I can keep these commands you have given me, if the Lord makes me strong.” “You will keep them,” he said, “if your heart becomes pure toward the Lord. And all will keep them who cleanse their hearts of the empty cravings of this age, and they will live to God.”