Evil Thoughts and Resisting Them
Question:
Is every evil thought that passes through my mind considered a sin?
How do evil thoughts come, and how can I prevent their coming?
Answer:
Not every evil thought that passes through your mind is considered a sin. There is a difference between the war of thoughts and falling by thought:
The war of thoughts is when an evil thought insists on you while you do not accept it, and you work with all your effort and with all your heart to drive it away, but it may remain for some time. Its remaining is not by your will; therefore, it is not counted as a sin. Rather, your resistance to it is counted to you as righteousness.
Falling by thought, however, is your acceptance of the evil thought, your delight in it, your keeping it, and perhaps your inventing new images for it…
Falling by thought may begin from a wrong desire in your heart, or from something stored in your subconscious mind. Or it may begin as a war from the enemy from outside, which you first resist, then surrender to and fall, and your fall develops…
Or you may fall in thought for moments, accept it, then return and awaken to yourself, regret it, and resist it, and it flees.
To the extent that you resist the thought, you gain authority over it, so it flees from you or does not dare to fight you. And to the extent that you surrender to it, it gains authority over you and dares to fight you…
The helm of the war is in your hand, not in his. The thought tests your pulse, and according to your condition it fights you. The Lord Christ said, “The ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me” (John 14:30). But you—when Satan fights you, can he find something in you that belongs to him?!
The thought tests your heart: is there in it something that resembles it? And “like is attracted to like.” Or can a resemblance be found?
If your heart is inwardly very faithful, does not betray its Master with these thoughts, does not open an entrance to them, does not deal with them, and does not accept them, then the thoughts flee from it, and the demons abandon it…
But if the heart is lax with thoughts, then they dare to attack it.
There are evil thoughts that enter a pure heart because of its laxity with them.
And there are evil thoughts that come out of an evil heart because of its impurity.
That is, there are evil thoughts that come from outside, and others from inside.
Evil thoughts that come from outside—their example is the serpent’s war against Eve.
Eve was pure in heart. But because of her laxity with the serpent, the thoughts entered her heart and were transformed into lust and into action.
As for evil thoughts that come from inside, concerning them the Lord said, “The evil man, out of the evil treasure of his heart, brings forth evil” (Luke 6:45).
Thoughts may come from the heart, from stored lusts. And they may come from the subconscious mind, from stored images, ideas, and news…
From this inner store, thoughts come out at any stimulation and for any reason. So be careful that what is stored in you is pure.
However, thoughts that come out of the mind are less powerful.
They are less powerful than thoughts that come out of the heart, because those that come out of the heart are mixed with emotion or lust, and therefore they are stronger.
Thus, a person can easily drive away thoughts that come out of the mind. But if he keeps them or is lax with them, they may move to the heart and become stirred by its emotions, and thus grow stronger…
Therefore, just as a person must guard his heart, he must also guard his mind, and guard the line connecting the mind and the heart…
“Above all guarding, guard your heart, for from it are the issues of life” (Proverbs 4:23).
If the war of thoughts comes to you while you are pure in heart and fervent in spirit, it will be a weak war, and you can escape from it. But if it comes to you while you are in a state of spiritual lukewarmness, or “because lawlessness has abounded,” your love for the Lord has grown cold, then the war will be violent and escape will be difficult… Therefore, “pray that your flight may not be in winter.”
Guard your thoughts so that nothing enters them to disturb your purity. Also guard your senses, for the senses are gates for thoughts…
Guard your sight, your hearing, your touch, and the rest of the senses. For what you see and what you hear, you may not prevent your mind from thinking about and reacting to. Therefore, caution is better.
And if something improper enters your hearing or sight or thought, do not let it penetrate deeply within you. Let its passing be fleeting…
Passing things do not have a strong effect. But if they penetrate deeply, they settle in the subconscious mind and extend their roots to the heart, and may reach stages of emotional involvement…
Forgetting is one of God’s blessings to man; by it, passing thoughts and what passes through the senses can be erased…
But thoughts that you allow to enter your depths settle in your inner being, connect with the conscious and the unconscious, and are not easily forgotten. They may be a cause of wars of thoughts, doubts, and dreams, a source of desires and emotions, and a beginning of long stories…
However, the subject of thoughts may need from us another return…
An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III – Al-Keraza Magazine – Seventh Year (Issue Six), February 6, 1976.
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