Book I, Chapter IV Summary and Analysis

St. John writes of the dangers of spiritual luxury, which is generally the result of one of three different causes and shows itself when a new believer is involved in a spiritual activity, and an impure thought comes to mind. These impure thoughts are a result of the pleasure humans find in spiritual things. The only way the sensual part of man can respond to this pleasure, however, is by remembering sensual pleasure. The devil can put these thoughts into a believer's mind to distract them from worship. Fear of these impure thoughts can cause them to come to a Christian's mind while they are trying to worship. There are several ways spiritual pleasure can cause a man's mind to have impure thoughts. When the spiritual part of a man is pleased, his sensual part...