Prosperity and Adversity Both Serve the Good

For Job’s patience brought no gain to the devil, even though the devil’s trials made Job a better man. It brought gain only to Job himself, who bore them bravely. Nor was Judas granted freedom from eternal punishment because his act of betrayal contributed to the salvation of the human race. For we must look not at the result of the deed but at the purpose of the one who does it. So we must always hold fast to this statement: evil cannot be brought on a person by anyone else unless he has let it in through his own laziness or weakness of heart. The blessed apostle confirms this view of ours in a verse of Scripture: “But we know that all things work together for good to those who love God.” By saying “all things work together for good,” he includes everything alike, not only the things that are fortunate but also those that seem to be misfortunes. The apostle tells us in another place that he himself passed through these, when he says: “By the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left,” that is, “through honor and dishonor, through evil report and good report, as deceivers and yet true, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as needy and yet making many rich.” [a]

All the things, then, that are thought fortunate and are called those “on the right hand,” which the holy apostle names honor and good report, and also those counted misfortunes, which he plainly means by dishonor and evil report and places “on the left hand,” become “the armor of righteousness” to the perfect man, if he bears them bravely when they are brought on him. For as he fights with them, he uses the very weapons with which he seems to be attacked. Protected by them as by bow and sword and a strong shield against those who bring these things on him, he secures the advantage of his patience and goodness. By means of the very weapons his enemies hurl at him to kill him, he wins a grand triumph of steadfastness. This holds only if he is not lifted up by success or cast down by failure, but always marches straight ahead on the king’s highway. He must not swerve from that state of calm to the right hand, as it were, when joy overcomes him, nor let himself be driven, so to speak, to the left hand when misfortunes overwhelm him and sorrow takes control. For “Great peace have those who love your law, and for them there is no stumbling block.”

But of those who shift about with the nature and the changes of whatever happens to them, we read: “But a fool changes like the moon.” For just as it is said of those who are perfect and wise, “To those who love God all things work together for good,” so of the weak and foolish it is declared that “everything is against a foolish man.” He gets no profit from prosperity, and adversity does not make him any better. For it takes as much goodness to bear sorrows bravely as to be moderate in prosperity, and it is quite certain that one who fails in one of these will not hold up under the other. But a person can be overcome more easily by prosperity than by misfortunes. Misfortunes sometimes restrain people against their will and make them humble, and through a most healthy sorrow they cause them to sin less and make them better. Prosperity, on the other hand, puffs up the mind with soothing but most destructive flattery, and when people feel secure in the prospect of their happiness, it dashes them to the ground with a still greater destruction.