By Fr. John Romanides
God also loves the devil. There is no chance the devil will be saved however. God loves everyone. The issue is not about if God loves me, then I will be saved. The issue is if one undergoes therapy, which is necessary in order to be found in a state of illumination, so that, when found before the vision of the glory of God, we will see the glory of God as light and not as eternal fire and outer darkness.
The devil had no law in his sight. He is not one who makes war, as we today make war, when we say things like "you know the Treaty of Lausanne says...." The devil does not recognize any regulation of good conduct in his battle against people. For this reason it is very difficult for anyone to become an Orthodox theologian. The first concern of the devil is for us not to hear the name of Christ, nothing about the name of Christ. If by a mistake of the devil, we hear of Christ and begin to take interest, well, then he changes tactics. As long as he loses that battle, he has other strongholds. He makes war elsewhere.
There are people who think that when they have noble intentions, such as when they see a poor person and have compassion, these are human sympathies that exist. And when we have good feelings, we say that they are inspired by God. Yes, but good feelings can be inspired from the devil also. Inspirations are many. In the patristic tradition, the only nondelusional feeling that can exist in humans, is when the very Holy Spirit prays within man.
Source: From the new book of Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos titled Emperical Dogmatics.
Translated by John Sanidopoulos
