Shepherd of Hermas 58

1“Since,” I say, “sir, I have not understood at all about the time of deception and indulgence and torment, make it more clear to me.”

2He answered me and says, “Your foolishness is persistent, and you are unwilling to cleanse your heart and to serve God. Watch out lest the time be fulfilled, and you be found foolish. Listen then,” he says, “as you desire, so that you may understand these things.

3“The one who indulges himself and is deceived for a single day and does what he wants has clothed himself with much foolishness and does not perceive the deed he is doing; for on the next day he forgets what he did the day before. For indulgence and deception have no memory because of the foolishness with which he has clothed himself. But when punishment and torment cling to a person for one day, he is punished and tormented for up to a year; for punishment and torment have great memory.

4“So, being tormented and punished the whole year, he remembers the indulgence and the deception, and he knows that because of them he suffers evil things. Every person who indulges himself and is deceived is tormented in this way, because, though having life, they have handed themselves over to death.”

5“What indulgences, sir,” I say, “are harmful?”

6He says, “Every deed is an indulgence to a person, whatever he does with pleasure. For even the hot‑tempered man, by giving his own passion its fill, indulges himself; and the adulterer and the drunkard and the slanderer and the liar and the greedy person and the defrauder and the one doing things like these gives his own disease its fill; he therefore indulges himself in his act. All these indulgences are harmful to the servants of God. Therefore, because of these deceptions, those who are punished and tormented suffer.

7“But there are also indulgences that save people; for many, by doing good things, indulge themselves, being carried along by their own pleasure. This indulgence, therefore, is beneficial for the servants of God, and it secures life for such a person; but the harmful indulgences previously mentioned procure torments and punishments for them; and if they persist and do not repent, they procure death for themselves.”