Escape for your life from sin!
Escape for your life from sin!¹
We spoke last time about the wars of the demons, and about the grace of God that guarantees for us victory and triumph in these wars… and it remains for me to tell you that the grace of God plays a major role in victory… but the human being also has a duty in this regard.
The first duty of the human being is “escape”… escape from sin… because escape is evidence of the human being’s refusal of sin… and some people understand escape as weakness, and that is an error… because God continually calls us to escape from sin… So look — for example — at God’s call to Abraham — the father of the prophets — when God said to him: Escape from this place and leave your clan and the household of your father… And likewise in the story of “Lot.” We find that the two angels brought “Lot” out of Sodom and said to him: Do not stand in all the plain, and escape for your life!
And this is what we want — that the human being should escape for his life, so that he does not sin… he should escape from every field of sin…
“Joseph the Righteous” was exposed to temptations, but he preferred to go out and to escape, even if his garment was torn…!
And the saints say that the person who lives next to sin is exposed to two wars: a war from the inside, and a war from the outside… whereas the person far from sin is exposed to one war!
And the first thing is that the human being should escape from sin… For in this Paul the Apostle says: “Flee also youthful lusts.” And the Holy Scripture says: “Evil company corrupts good morals”…
And the first Psalm says: “Blessed is the man who does not sit in the seat of the scornful, and does not walk in the counsel of the wicked…”
If you want to live with God, continually escape from sin and from its causes, and do not trust in yourself and in your strength, but continually escape, and search for the place where there are no conflicts… and continually try to keep away from sin… And I recall a story of one of the saints who gave the work of his hands to a porter to sell it… and while he was accompanying him he discovered that he was hot-tempered, so the saint left him the work of his hands and went away… and escaped… imitating the saying of Scripture that says: “Do not accompany a hot-tempered man, and with an angry man do not go”!
“Escape for your life” is a beautiful phrase said by the angel to Lot… “And do not stand in all the plain.”
A human being is supposed to escape for his life and keep away from every cause of sin… because — otherwise — he exposes his will to shaking before these causes… and the spiritual person is the one who always lives in a spiritual atmosphere… and keeps away from the causes of sin… and if he cannot keep away bodily, then at least he must keep away in thought…
And the Apostle says to Christ: We have left everything and followed You!
A human being is supposed to escape from all the causes of sin, and not cling to them… And perhaps a part of this was said by Christ: If your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and cast it from you… and if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and cast it from you.
Distance from sin and from its causes indicates the heart’s inner refusal of it…
And it is required that a human being examine himself… what are the causes that lead him to sin… and is he far from them or close to them… and are they from within himself, or is he far from them??
If these causes are from within, he must uproot them… and if they are from the outside, he must keep away from them and escape from them…!
When “Eve” associated with “the serpent,” the serpent was able to make her fall into sin! And likewise “Samson” — when he associated with “Delilah” — he destroyed his life!
Association with sin is exhausting… for by this association Samson fell… and likewise Adam and Eve fell… and Solomon the Wise also fell when he brought in foreign women!
Escape for your life and escape from the causes of sin!
Escape from the conversation that causes stumbling, and escape from the hearing and reading that cause stumbling… and escape from the friends who do not glorify God, and try to purify the environment in which you live!
It is true that God helps and supports steadfastness and victory in spiritual wars…
But — there is a duty upon the human being — in which he participates with the work of the Holy Spirit in his heart…
Escaping from sin and from its causes requires that the heart be inwardly rejecting sin… and it also requires that the heart be filled with the love of God…!
You must fill your heart with the things that draw you nearer to the love of God, and strengthen in you the refusal of sin…
And in this, the human being has a duty to store up many spiritual things within himself to help him in the time of spiritual war… exactly like “Joseph,” who stored up much grain for the days of famine!
And exactly like “the wise virgins,” who stored up enough oil… And you: Have you stored up grain, and preserved oil… and is your heart full for the days of wars??
The flaw of the human being is that he gives himself spiritual nourishment day by day… without having a store and reserve for the days of weakness!
Store up spiritual things for the days of weakness and lukewarmness and wars… so that you do not allow the devil to attack you while you are in a state of weakness… and without reserve!
And miserable is the person upon whom the devil attacks and finds him without weapon, without spiritual strength, without love for God in his heart, and without inner efforts of refusal and resistance… so he becomes an easy prey for the devil… so that he may destroy him and ruin him!!
We were speaking last time about the explanation of the Vespers Prayer… about the phrase that says: “Deliver us from the tricks of the adversary and nullify his snares set for us…” and grant us in this coming night safety without pain or labor or anxiety or imagination…
Thus we ask God for peace in the day and also peace in the night… for the night also needs prayers… for many people sin at night, and often the darkness of night is a field for amusement and folly and play and uncleanness… and therefore we ask for safety in the night!
And the fact that a human being prays for the night as he prays for the day means that the human being needs help from God in the night and in the day… and often a person’s dreams and imaginations come from the day… and when we ask God to remove imagination from us, we ask God — thereby — to purify the subconscious and purify our mind from every sin, so that the dreams of the night may be pure!
We also ask that there not be wars at night from the demons or from people. For we ask for a night that we may pass in peace and chastity, for a human being’s chastity — just as it is threatened in the day — by looks and thoughts and hearings, so it is threatened at night also…!
And the more the night is pure and chaste, the more a human being can rise from it joyful and rested, praising God… and saying to Him: We thank You, our compassionate King, for You have made us pass this night in peace and brought us to this hour…
May you keep a portion of the Vespers and Midnight Prayers, meditate on their meanings, and pray them!!
-
An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III published in Watani newspaper on 27-8-1972.
For better translation support, please contact the center.
