but they do not attain the spiritual ones–merely those which are external and befitting of Christians. They clothe themselves with the externals and cover up that first abhorrent life so that people do not notice anything repugnant, even though they are never sorry, repentant, or really humbled before God. Nonetheless, they shine like gold in the eyes of people with those superficial good things. But having already long put old sins out of mind, they have strange presumptions about themselves and love themselves in that which is externally virtuous and visible to people. People praise them for those good superficial things and they do not refuse to accept the praise. Others are different in that they do good things in the body and spirit from a sincere heart of understanding, having living faith within them, rectified by the words of God. This is according to the gift of God, more or less as God has allocated to a person.
We can understand about rays of sunshine, then, that learned people are being spoken of. There are various learned people–learned in pagan literature, in the humanities, in the laws of man, and in the laws of God. Others are learned in the very truth of God because it is studied in order to know God and His truth. But when the Lord God says here about the devil that nothing on earth is his equal that could resist him, a creature without fear, such a cunning devil comes to those academics learned in pagan literature or the humanities and can easily deceive them. And the devil does not only deceive with that pagan learning, but also with God’s teaching–if God Himself does not guard that person. If that person does not attend to it with diligence, no capability will be sufficient and he will be deceived by the devil.
We should also understand about gold, which shines for the eyes of people according to established human learning. It is not hard for the devil to cover himself with that gold like with mud. Because people also clothe themselves with superficial good things, not repenting of sins and not really being founded on the truth, they also do not stand the test against him. When God sees such faithlessness in them, it is His righteous retribution that He permits them to fall into great sins. They have wrought so much evil and have not repented in the same proportion as they previously submitted to wickedness. They have not only done those evil things, but have also carried out other evil things, not repenting of old sins, adorning themselves like good people with virtuous works, and unworthily accepting praise from people. But the devil stamps out that which shone like gold in the eyes of people like mud under his feet. And the last things will be worse than the first for those people. The first sins were overt and the last will be hidden in hypocritical delusion. The first wickedness was wrought through ignorance and the last through veiled cunning. The last repentance will be worse than the first transgression because they cast God aside and accepted his many mercies thanklessly and in vain. Therefore, their repentance will mean a bigger fall and abomination than their sin.
He speaks about those who already live according to true goodness and wisdom–those who are like rays of sunshine and those tried like gold. Because the devil can also deceive such people if God does not preserve them and if they themselves are not cautious and thankful, and because they have grand intellects, he deceives them with heresies the most. An evil and dishonest heart is in man and the devil deceives it better than a person himself. He is able to stir up that filth which lies deeply in the crooked heart, so that it is not enough for it to come to know God’s narrow way and go along it to eternal life, but it inquires after the width and depth of God endlessly. It walks broadly in that which is beyond its strength, pointing the way to every scripture and prescribing laws for all things, but not submitting to the law of truth. And because the devil knows all about people, and that they think things through so little, he is therefore able to serve their hearts with the scriptures they are inclined towards with the kind of deceptions that pertain to him–the pleasing interpretation of their hearts, or an interpretation according
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