He that commits sin is of the devil; for the devil sins from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.
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Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
ye know what he means: by imitating the devil. For the devil made no man, begot no man, created no man: but whoso imitates the devil, that person, as if begotten of him, becomes a child of the devil; by imitating him, not literally by being begotten of him. In what sense are you a child of Abraham, not that Abraham begot you? In the same sense as the Jews, the children of Abraham, not imitating the faith of Abraham, have become children of the devil: of the flesh of Abraham they were begotten, and the faith of Abraham they have not imitated. If then those who were thence begotten were put out of the inheritance, because they did not imitate, you, who art not begotten of him, art made a child, and in this way shall be a child of him by imitating him. And if you imitate the devil, in such wise as he became proud and impious against God, you will be a child of the devil: by imitating, not that he created you or begot you.
Unto this end was the Son of God manifested. Now then, brethren, m...
He who committeth sin is of the devil, because he follows his practices and suggestions. To be of the devil is to imitate the devil. For, as S. Augustine says, "The devil made no Prayer of Manasseh , begat no Prayer of Manasseh , but whoever imitates the devil, is born of him, by imitating him, and not actually by being born of him." He then who sinneth is of the devil as his follower and imitator, and not, as the Manichees dreamed, as being descended from him. There is a similar phrase, Ezek. xvi3 , respecting wicked Jews.
For the devil sinneth from the beginning, not from the first moment of his creation, but shortly after it. And this was the beginning of sin. As S. Augustine says (in loc.) and S. Cyril (Catech. ii.), the devil is the beginning of sin, and the father of the wicked. To which Didymus adds, "He infuses the first suggestions of sin, and lastly he perseveres in his sin," as the Ps. [lxxiv. ult.] says, "The price of them that hate Thee ever rises up."
S. John alludes to...
