Who are more strange to us than the evil spirits, separated from the lot of the heavenly fatherland? What else is our honor but to have been created in the image and likeness of our Creator, though we are made in bodies of slime? And who else is more cruel but that rebel angel who through pride smote himself with the punishment of death and who, though himself lost, has deliberately brought death on the race of humankind? He, therefore, gives his honor away to strangers, who, being created in the image and likeness of God, devotes the span of his life to the commands of the malignant spirits. He, too, gives his years to the cruel, who expends the span of the life which he has received obeying the will of an adversary who dominates him for evil. .
For who are more alien to us than evil spirits, who are separated from the lot of the heavenly country? And what honor is ours, though made in bodies of clay, that we are yet created after the image and likeness of our Maker? Or who is more cruel than the apostate angel, who has both afflicted himself with the pain of death through pride, and still, though lost himself, brought death to the human race? He who, being made after the image and likeness of God, gives his honor to aliens therefore devotes the seasons of his life to the pleasures of evil spirits. He also surrenders his years to the cruel one who spends the space of life accorded him after the will of the ill-domineering adversary.
Do not give your honor to others, etc. Do not subject the honor by which you were created in the image of God to the wills of unclean spirits, nor waste the granted time of living according to the will of the cruel adversary. For whoever succumbs to any crime, is surely enslaved to the dominion of malignant spirits.
[AD 604] Gregory the Dialogist on Proverbs 5:9