Envy and the Deception of Satan

Demand the most wicked thing. He who seeks the more wicked thing is able to see what sort of thought opposes him with what sort of labor; he is found a craftsman in wrestling against error, but in all your noetic labors, if he should fail in any, the one who has seized this enters in its place. Remember to preserve the heart by the mindfulness of labors, lest the forgetfulness of the superior care, having seized it, deliver it to the captivity of the thoughts; for the forgetfulness of captivity leaps upon evil, so that, once the mind is stolen by it, this evil may readily enter in, the mind being stolen from God and distanced from memory, and sinning indifferently through the external senses; for such a one is unable to discipline hearing and tongue, because he has released the love-charm of labors from the outward senses. He who loves to listen to the one who blames so-and-so — the two work together with two complicit spirits; for evil-hearing becomes a partner of accusation, and they love one another unto the ruin of the heart.

Chapter 17. Bar your ears from slanders, so that you may not sin doubly with them, accustoming yourself to a terrible passion, and not restraining them from tongue-pain. The lover of mockery plunders the soul of the superior ones, digging through a rotten hearing with slanders; but he who flees the neighbor’s insulting tongue also puts his own insult to flight; he who provides pleasant ears to the mocker milks the venom of the beast into his ears. Let your ear not taste this bitter antidote, lest perhaps you also mix such a thing for another; do not bewitch your ear with slanders, so that, having been sold to passion, you may not serve through many sufferings; for one passion of the many, finding a place in you, brings in other things also to the same fold; then the ruler is enslaved by a multitude of evils, when, yoked to passion, he unyokes the labors. He who tries to search out the thoughts of others does not search out his own actions in deed; do not mock the one who has died as if he lived carelessly, so that you may not become a bitter judge of the dead from habit of the living. Do not let those who stumble exalt you with a vainglorious thought as a judge, but attend to yourself with a sober thought, and be a tester of your own actions. Groan as one stumbling, and do not puff up as one standing upright; be unobserved and do not boast, so that you may not clothe yourself in evil as an ornament. For some, unable to be known out of reverence, hastened, even if...

So that evil may be known in this way: others, having increased in envy, use accusations as grazing animals, and they belittle those standing firm in virtues. Some, gossiping about trivialities around you, shroud a noble life, not so that they might mourn trivial faults with toil, but so that they might shadow the reputations of the vainglorious.

But do not be beautified by the one deceiving you, nor be delighted by being deceived; for if he touches upon the serious merely for a name, he works not for God, but for men. Do not speak with boldness to the one living only for appearance, even if he sends a great name for this. He is a friend for the sake of a face, and time becomes his accuser.

Chapter 18. Beware of acquiring a friend to spy, so that you may find a cover for your own faults, and hide the envy existing in you rather than the envier. When your own friend, being diminished by your praises regarding your labors, turns toward envy, as if to hurl words of vainglory against your labors to those around you, so that he might shadow the glory running about you with his own limbs, then do not be moved by his malice, so that you may not siphon a bitter venom into your soul. For this is the work of Satan, to set him on fire with envy and to consume you with bitterness.

Rather let us humble ourselves, and let us lead such people in honor by enduring them, and by the table the thought made savage by zeal. Do not reproach the friend with zeal as if from another person, so that, by reproaching him as if from a different mouth, you might make yourself appear innocent and exalt yourself as blameless. For this is a transformation of Satan, of one seemingly reproaching the Most High from a face, so that, by reproaching his own envy toward God as if from another mouth, he himself is considered faultless.

Do not desire to have the brother as a slave, seeking to catch the fault of this one, so that you may not be found a fellow-worker with Satan. He who has faulted, and says others are faulting, or says ‘let him not fault if he is faulting,’ does so so that he may not be the only one fallen into evil, which is, first of all, from the fall of the devil, this also a work. But let him be one repenting of the strange works he has done; recognizing the lamentation of sorrow over them, he shall also embrace the primary stillness of labors, which appears to him as the manifold contemplation of virtues. Let him who is still in tongue be manly according to the thoughts; for the courage of the soul is not...