The Impossibility of Independent Living

                                                                                                Vol. XX, No. 3, March 2007

... those who wish to live only to themselves, behave indeed like gods, knowing good and evil (Genesis 3:5). Yet when they are merely their own god, they find that they really belong to the devil.

So we find paradoxically that when we live to ourselves in self-will, then we belong to the devil; while when we are surrendered to "good will," we are enabled to belong to God. This perhaps is the meaning of the text: "The Lord knows them that are His" (2 Timothy 2:19). For about those who are not His, He says: "Truly I never knew you" (Matthew 25:12).

We conclude from this statement that once we belong to the devil by "bad will," we no longer belong to God's kingdom. For no man can serve two masters (Matthew 6:24). But when we pass over by "good will" to belong to God, we cease to belong any longer to the devil.

[Bernard of Clairvaux, writing c. 1128]