The Evangelical Universalist Forum

is it written that the devil is not able to do good works

now ?

thank you for your help

for a literal personal devil, which many are happy to believe in, i guess they might argue that he is the “father of lies”, and therefore what he begets is deception, never a good thing.

but it might be possible to suggest that his plans will have been anticipated by God and accomodated into His own plans, so therefore the devil would do good indirectly.

as to it being, written…well i think there are indirect statements, but i can’t think of a specific one.

i don’t believe in a personal devil, or rather i’m skeptical of one. i think the dark side of human nature is enough to explain the evil in the world, and that the Bible uses a tool called personification to describe this human tendency.
so for me, the question is easily answered by how the Bible urges us to not give into that dark nature and instead do good works, in which case i’d argue that the devil nature cannot do good works, but our other nature, when empowered by God, can.

to be honest, both views end up with God having to accomodate our (or the devil’s) evil acts and bring good out of them.
the classical view of a personal devil that is a fallen angel would probably argue that he could do good works at one point, but fell.

i don’t really know what you’re asking here, so this is my best attempt to answer, sorry if it isn’t helpful

When Jesus did good, he was accused of being empowered by the devil. Jesus replied that a kingdom divided against itself will fall. If the devil did good, he would self-destruct. ie. the devil is incapable of doing good.

As John noted, what fellowship can there be between light and darkness?

thank you