As I sat in my house, glorifying the Lord for everything I had seen and reflecting on the commandments—that they are good, powerful, joyful, glorious, and able to save a person’s soul—I said within myself, “I will be blessed if I walk in these commandments, and whoever walks in them will be blessed.” While I was saying these things within myself, I suddenly saw him sitting beside me, and he said, “Why are you double-minded about the commandments I gave you? They are good. Do not be double-minded at all, but put on the faith of the Lord, and you will walk in them, for I will strengthen you in them. These commandments are beneficial for those who are going to repent, for if they do not walk in them, their repentance is in vain. Therefore, you who repent, cast away the evils of this age that wear you down. By putting on every virtue of righteousness, you will be able to keep these commandments and add no more to your sins. Walk, therefore, in these commandments of mine, and you will live to God. All these things have been spoken to you by me.” After he had spoken these things with me, he said, “Let us go into the field, and I will show you the shepherds of the sheep.” “Let us go, Sir,” I said. We came to a certain plain, and he showed me a young shepherd wearing a garment of saffron color. He was tending a great many sheep, and these sheep seemed to be living luxuriously and very self-indulgently. They were cheerful, leaping here and there. The shepherd himself was very cheerful over his flock; his appearance was extremely cheerful, and he ran about among the sheep.
He said to me, “Do you see this shepherd?” “I see him, Sir,” I said. “This,” he said, “is the angel of self-indulgence and deceit. He wears down the souls of the servants of God and turns them away from the truth, deceiving them by evil desires in which they perish. For they forget the commandments of the living God and walk in empty deceits and self-indulgences, and they are destroyed by this angel, some to death and others to corruption.” I said to him, “Sir, I do not understand what ‘to death’ means and what ‘to corruption’ means.” “Listen,” he said. “The sheep you saw cheerful and leaping are those who have been completely separated from God and have handed themselves over to the desires of this age. Among these there is no repentance leading to life, because they added to their sins and blasphemed against the name of God. Such people, therefore, have death. But the sheep you saw not leaping, but feeding in one place, are those who have handed themselves over to self-indulgence and deceit but have not blasphemed against the Lord. They have therefore been corrupted away from the truth. Among these there is hope of repentance, through which they can live. Corruption, then, has hope of a certain renewal, but death has eternal destruction.” Again we went forward a little, and he showed me a large shepherd, almost wild in appearance, wearing a white goatskin. He had a kind of bag on his shoulders, a very hard staff with knots in it, and a large whip. His expression was extremely bitter, so that I was afraid of him; such was his look. This shepherd kept receiving from the young shepherd those sheep that were living wantonly and in self-indulgence, but were not leaping. He put them into a steep place full of thorns and briars, so that the sheep could not free themselves from the thorns and briars but became entangled in them. Entangled there, they grazed among the thorns and briars and suffered greatly as he beat them. He drove them back and forth and gave them no rest; altogether those sheep had no peace.
When I saw them being whipped and afflicted in this way, I was grieved for them because they were being tormented so severely and had no relief at all. I said to the shepherd who was speaking with me, “Sir, who is this shepherd who is so merciless and harsh and has no compassion at all for these sheep?” “This,” he said, “is the angel of punishment. He is one of the righteous angels and is appointed over punishment. Therefore he receives those who have wandered away from God and have walked according to the desires and deceits of this age, and he punishes them as they deserve with severe and various punishments.” “I would like to know, Sir,” I said, “what these various punishments are like.” “Listen,” he said, “to the various torments and punishments. The torments belong to this present life: some are punished with losses, others with deprivation, others with various illnesses, others with every kind of instability, others by being insulted by unworthy people, and others by suffering many other things. For many people, unstable in their plans, undertake many things, and nothing at all succeeds for them. They say that they do not prosper in their undertakings, and it does not enter their hearts that they have done evil works; instead they blame the Lord. When, therefore, they are afflicted with every kind of affliction, they are handed over to me for good discipline and are strengthened in the faith of the Lord, and for the remaining days of their life they serve the Lord with a pure heart. If they repent, the evil works they committed then come into their hearts, and they glorify God, saying that He is a righteous Judge and that each of them suffered justly according to his deeds. From then on they serve the Lord with a pure heart and prosper in all their undertakings, receiving from the Lord everything they ask. Then they glorify the Lord because they were handed over to me, and they no longer suffer any of these evils.”
I said to him, “Sir, explain one more thing to me.” “What more are you asking?” he said. “Do those who live in self-indulgence and are deceived,” I asked, “undergo torment for the same length of time that they live in self-indulgence and deceit?” He said to me, “They are tormented for the same length of time.” “Then they are tormented very little, Sir,” I said. “Those who live in such self-indulgence and forget God ought to be tormented sevenfold.” He said to me, “You are foolish and do not understand the power of the torment.” “If I understood it, Sir,” I said, “I would not have asked you to explain it to me.” “Listen,” he said, “to the power of both. The time of self-indulgence and deceit is one hour, but an hour of torment has the force of thirty days. Therefore, if someone lives in self-indulgence and is deceived for one day, and is tormented for one day, the day of torment has the force of an entire year. Thus for as many days as someone lives in self-indulgence, for that many years he is tormented. You see, then,” he said, “that the time of self-indulgence and deceit is very short, but the time of punishment and torment is long.”
“Still, Sir,” I said, “I have not fully understood the time of deceit, self-indulgence, and torment. Explain it to me more clearly.” He answered me, “Your foolishness clings to you, and you do not want to cleanse your heart and serve God. Take care,” he said, “lest the time be fulfilled and you be found foolish. Listen, then, as you wish, so that you may understand these things. A person who lives in self-indulgence and is deceived for one day, doing whatever he wants, is clothed in great foolishness and does not understand what he is doing. The next day he forgets what he did the day before, for self-indulgence and deceit have no memory because of the foolishness in which they are clothed. But when punishment and torment cling to a person for a single day, he is punished and tormented for as long as a year, for punishment and torment have long memories. Therefore, being tormented and punished for the whole year, he then remembers his self-indulgence and deceit and realizes that because of them he is suffering these evils. Every person who lives in self-indulgence and is deceived is tormented in this way, because although they have life, they have handed themselves over to death.” “What kinds of self-indulgence, Sir,” I asked, “are harmful?” “Every action,” he said, “is an indulgence to a person if he does it with pleasure. Even the quick-tempered person, when he gives full satisfaction to his own passion, indulges himself; and so do the adulterer, the drunkard, the slanderer, the liar, the greedy person, the defrauder, and anyone who does things like these. Each gives full satisfaction to his own sickness and so indulges himself in his action. All these forms of self-indulgence are harmful to the servants of God. Because of these deceits, therefore, those who are punished and tormented suffer. But there are also forms of indulgence that save people. For many, when doing good, take delight in it and are carried along by their own pleasure. This kind of indulgence, then, is beneficial to the servants of God and brings life to a person of this kind. But the harmful forms of self-indulgence mentioned above bring them torments and punishments; and if they persist in them and do not repent, they bring death upon themselves.”