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 true and wholly for God, and that we love God with our whole hearts. But spiritual contentment and a joyful spirit die out in a person who does not have such good works, because he cannot delight himself in God or have an innocent heart. Truth itself gives a person freedom and solace, and if a person does not have works, then he does not have the truth within him.

That is why it is particularly necessary that we should have the good works, that we place our hope in the God of all power and in His fathomless mercy, and that we perfect that hope and demonstrate the truth through the pursuit of good works. When the devil defeats a person in this area and extinguishes hope in him, he does not have it either according to good works or God’s mercy. Being suffocated with confusion, evil thoughts and idleness enter and await some betterment that he is not sure will come. He wants to have hope in God even though he has good works, but when he cannot have hope in the infinite God, he will not conceive of laboring for good works. The more he moves away from hope, the more he constantly enters into greater confusion. That is why hope within him does not surround him on that side. Instead, he destroys and smothers it, neglecting good works and faltering in them. Though he had hope at the very beginning he smothers it there. But the good works that we can have enliven us so that hope is greater and stronger. Hope harmonizes with God, lifts our hearts up to Him, and leads us into greater endeavors for good works. Therefore, the devil will not be able to strike the head with a mortal wound if the head is tightly shielded with a helmet.

Then the apostle says:

Then the apostle commands us to take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. The apostle commands us to take a weapon for this grievous battle and to hold it in readiness so that, when the devil would want to draw near from some side, we would immediately stretch the sword out towards him. God’s word is rejected these days and there are few people who correctly understand it–His sword of the Spirit for this battle–and remember it. That is why it will not be enough that a learned person (a priest or prelate) knows scripture. A simple person in this battle must know and understand it himself, just as a person must have his own sword in a physical battle and cannot rely on that of his friend. The enemies will strike just as cruelly at him as at his friend. His friend, having a sword in hand, will repel them, but the other man will be defeated, not having a sword or anything to defend himself with. That is why everyone must know and understand God’s word himself. God Himself will command the one who has that sword so that he readily meets that tyrant, the devil, with God’s word in every temptation. One is also without a sword if he knows and remembers God’s word, but does not comprehend it. It is a horror when someone knows scripture and does not understand it. The devil has made swords for himself against such a person because of that ignorance of scripture, and wounds him more seriously than if he was completely ignorant, not knowing anything. We see that evil before our eyes, how the devil has cut many people up with that sword much worse than through ignorance.

The apostle says great things here, calling God’s word a sword. I believe that those people in Ephesus to whom he wrote these words were attentive to God’s wisdom and His light, and could make themselves safe with that sword and cut off the cunning devil’s temptations. Otherwise, he would have written in vain to blind and fleshly people. The human mind does not hesitate to take itself far away in scripture and will not stop until it searches the entire Bible and gets to know various scriptures. Some scriptures there appeal to the mind and the heart fearlessly lays hold of them according to its own will without the fear of God. It then goes into dark depths somewhere according to that scripture, not seeing daylight again. The devil does not sleep through that but makes a sword for himself out of that scripture and