Unit 5 rem close

Do not enter the land of those who have orphaned themselves from God, who hold wickedness as a possession of demons, from whom they were deprived of the heavenly Father; for the Lord who redeems them from the surpassingly brilliant light out of darkness is mighty. A righteous son will ponder his lips with wisdom, and wisdom will speak with him and remain with him; but the twisted one will fall away from her. If one turns away from evil by the fear of the Lord, he rightly urges us through all of life to turn away from every evil. Every person drunk in wickedness, and the one who from wisdom prostitutes himself into ignorance, will become impoverished from divine grace; and he will not put on the wedding garment—every one who in the demonic night is drowsy with sleep, but instead, wearing his flesh as a ragged and torn garment, he will torment himself with the fire of Gehenna. One of the elders said: the soul is the mother of the mind, speaking of the soul as the passive part of the soul—anger and desire—for through practical virtues he advances the mind into light; for by courage and self-control we acquire wisdom and knowledge of God, which are virtues of anger and desire; he might also say that the mother is the ancient Covenant, which is not to be despised. Here, concerning the teachers, he says of their writings: but those who made them and taught them, and who made the journey toward heaven, he called wanderers; for many have taught, but they did not make their journey toward heaven, because they did not guard it; for the one who converses in walks—that is, who acts and teaches—walks worthily of the calling to which he was called by God.

Sin is like a bowl when it exists only in thought, but when it is carried out in action, it becomes like a cup that holds the deed. The overreaching part, however, is what cooks call the pestle: it strikes many blows against the substance it hits, yet it does not open the place it strikes. To His disciples, the Lord says: Knock, and it shall be opened to you. A mind that receives a foreign thought or teaching will dwell on evil reasoning; but the one who guards himself will inherit life as an inheritance. How dreadful is insensitivity to pain! Then you will say, while being struck in the conscience, that you did not strive to attain the rewards of old age, nor to be freed from torments; they mocked me, 17.225—that is, they insulted me—but I, desiring not to know when the dawn of the soul comes, nor when the recognition of sin arrives. The house of virtues, built with divine wisdom, is constructed and, with understanding, the fear of God and knowledge, is set upright. The one concerning faith, or any of the virtues that are shipwrecked, is an unskilled pilot heading into battle against opposing forces, both in theology and in virtue; but the one who sails with skill in warfare seems to possess the mind on earth that anticipates God’s help, a counseling heart, the heart that does all things with counsel; and it is possible to say the same thing regarding every virtue: for there is also shipwreck concerning temperance, and concerning love, and concerning greed, and concerning every single doctrine, which likewise happens to the catholic and apostolic Church; but if, with skill in warfare, one must fight against the opponents, then our life upon the earth is like a naval battle; for if we wish, we overwhelm them in prayer of the heart and in reason directed toward God, composed and ordered.

If we do not wish to resist, we are swept away like those who drift upon the waters; and if we are also made to war against them, even if their war is great and fierce, it amounts to nothing; we shall fortify ourselves solely by fasting and self-control, and we shall cut them off and their weapons as a spider severs its web; and if we also hearken to the voice of the Lord, wherever two or three are gathered—heart, mind, and soul— they shall agree together in being contained within His bounds, and the Lord will be with us. For all that God does, when we understand it, and all that He teaches, when we put it into practice, in no way transgress His word; the gates of wisdom are the practical deeds, and the contemplation of the mind, through which the wisdom of God enters; they do not turn aside, neither to the right nor to the left, because they reckon themselves to be in councils discerning good and evil; and they counterfeit the good, while they approach the evil. To those who do not wish to be instructed by the wisdom and knowledge of God, through the present death the eternal stands opposed; the foolish one is he who has been sweetened in the wisdom of God, then forsaken it, and now joins himself to folly; therefore he also perished with his sins; but if virtue diminishes wickedness, then wickedness is clearly destroyed by virtue; and this will come to pass in the age to come, until wickedness ceases; for what is defiled will be, instead of corrupted, destroyed; and impurity is destroyed either by practice or by severe chastisement. It is necessary to use this saying toward those who have been deemed worthy of divine things.