Should You Be the Devil

Should you be the devil, or for some rotten reason have the urge to do the devil’s work, there’s actually an easy way.

Yes, you can do the devil’s work and still be loved by the people.

They will say about you, “He makes me feel good about myself,” or “She is such a positive character.”

Later, when their life is in shambles, or after that, when they perish in hell’s flames, they will finally realize that you were doing the devil’s work. But for now, for a time they will seek your company.

How do you do it?

It’s devilishly easy.

To ruin a soul or a nation, give them permission to deduce what’s moral and right from what “feels good.”

“It feels pleasant; therefore it is morally good,” you hiss into their itchy ears.

Once a person is in the habit of deducing morality from pleasant feelings, their life is like a cart racing down the mountain, gaining speed, getting faster, everybody having fun. Until they crash.

Both your everyday life and your spiritual life will be ruined if you deduce morals from what you would like to be true.

The Christian says: It is right, therefore it will one day feel good. The world says: It feels good, therefore it is right.

The Bible warns often enough:

For there shall be a time when they will not endure sound doctrine but, according to their own desires, they will heap to themselves teachers having itching ears.

— 2 Timothy 4:3

Desire first, rules second—that is how you ruin a soul, a life, a nation. That is how the devil attacks the Church from inside.

Even priests and bishops might aim for earthly praise while leading the faithful astray. They will answer for every soul they led astray, on top of their own sins, and if they believed, they would already have reason to fear the flames.

Isaias warns:

Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil: that put darkness for light, and light for darkness: that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.

— Isaias 5:20

This is the one truth, the one piece of advice that will change your life, in the most beautiful way, forever. Do what’s right, and know that it might be as heavenly as hard.

It won’t be easy, oh no. But you will see the beauty through the pain. The martyrs sang praise while the flames burned their flesh. They were not pretending. They were made of the same skin, bones, and sinews as you. But what sang in them was not their own strength.

Shun the company of the heretics and flatterers when they tell you something is good because it feels good. Get out of their cart, before it crashes, before they burn.

Do what’s right because it’s right. Know that your reward will come, in this world and the next. And learn the contentment that will be granted you in doing what is right. No fleeting earthly satisfaction can compare.