“Give us the means not to be tempted by the evil devil.”
The master answered and said, “What good is it to you if you do the Father’s will, but you are not given your part of his bounty when you are tempted by Satan? But if you are oppressed by Satan and persecuted and do the Father’s will, I say he will love you, make you my equal, and consider you beloved through his forethought, and by your own choice. Won’t you stop loving the flesh and “fearing suffering? Don’t you know that you have not yet been abused, unjustly accused, locked up in prison, unlawfully condemned, crucified without reason, or buried in the sand as I myself was by the evil one? Do you dare to spare the flesh, you for whom the spirit is a wall surrounding you? If you consider how long the world has existed before you and how long it will exist after you, you will see that your life is but a day and your sufferings but an hour. The good will not enter the world. Disdain death, then, and care about life. Remember my cross and my death, and you will live.” “As for you, when you search out death, it will teach you about being chosen. “I tell you the truth, no one afraid of death will be saved, for the kingdom of death belongs to those who are put to death. Become better than I. Be like the child of the Holy Spirit.” “Be eager to be saved without being urged. Rather, be fervent on your own and, if possible, outdo even me, for this is how the Father will love you.
“Come to dislike hypocrisy and evil intention. Intention produces hypocrisy, and hypocrisy is far from truth.”
-From The Secret Book of James
John Ritto Penniman, Christ Tempted by the Devil, 1818, oil on wood
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