"Suppose that a believer who once was pleasing to God
becomes full of wickedness and commits grievous sins that exclude him from the
kingdom. I will not allow even a person like that to despair, although he may
have grown old practicing his unspeakable wickedness.
"Now if the wrath of God were a passion, a person might
well despair of quenching the flame that his many sins kindled. However,
because the divine nature is passionless, God never punishes nor takes
vengeance with wrath, but with tender care and much lovingkindness. So we
must be of much good courage and trust in the power of repentance.
God does not punish for his own sake even those who have
sinned against him, for nothing can harm that divine nature. Rather, to our
advantage he acts to prevent our perverseness from worsening by our habitually
neglecting him. Even a person who places himself outside the light inflicts no
loss on the light. But shut up in darkness, he suffers the greatest loss
himself. Similarly, he who habitually despises that almighty power, does no
injury to the power, but inflicts the greatest possible injury on himself. And
for this reason God threatens us with punishments—and often inflicts them—not
as avenging himself, but by way of drawing us to himself."
