1 I said to him, “Sir, listen to a few words from me.” “Say what you wish,” he said. “People, Sir,” I said, “want to keep the commandments of God, and there is no one who does not ask the Lord to be strengthened in His commandments and to obey them; but the devil is hard and overpowers them.” 2 “He cannot,” he said, “overpower the servants of God who put their hope in Him with their whole heart. The devil can wrestle with them, but he cannot defeat them. If, then, you resist him, he will be defeated and will flee from you humiliated.⁠a But many,” he said, “are completely empty, and fear the devil as if he had power. 3 Suppose someone fills jars with good wine, and among these jars a few are completely empty. That person comes to the jars, but does not examine the full ones, for they know they are full; instead, they check the empty ones, fearing they might have turned sour. For empty jars soon turn sour, and the taste of the wine is spoiled. 4 So the devil also comes to all the servants of God to test them. So those who are complete in the faith resist him strongly, and he leaves them, not finding a place where he can enter. Then he goes on to the empty ones, and, finding a place, he enters, and does what he wants in them, and they become his slaves.