E208 Q215 How did Satan and his angels turn to evil?

Satan and his angels were overcome by envy and pride and rebelled against God. (Isaiah 14:12–15; Ezekiel 28:12–19; 1 Timothy 3:6; Jude 6; Revelation 12:7–12) Support the podcast here

Ambrose of Milan

AD 397

When the Lord Jesus redeemed the human race through his obedience, he reformed justice. The serpent, however, introduced sin through his disobedience, a sin which we are now able to identify as pride, the author of which is the devil, whom the prophet portrayed as saying, “I will seat my throne above the clouds and I will be like the Most High.” Yet he who was so wicked that he would not honor the Lord our God taught his disciples to be even worse. Thus, whereas the devil exalted himself to the degree that he desired to be similar and equal to the Most High, his disciple is signified by the apostle who would become so indignant as to judge himself already similar and equal to God. For it is written, “The man of iniquity and the son of perdition will be revealed, who opposes and extols himself above everything which is called god.” He presumes that he is equal to the teacher, or, in this case, even superior. The Lord said to his disciples, “You will do greater things than these,” to indicate that whereas the serpent acquired more for himself than he gave to others, Christ would give his disciples more to accomplish than even he had done on earth, for he wanted to triumph in his disciples and to deceive the prince of the world.

Augustine of Hippo

AD 430

What does Paul mean by saying “or he may be puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil”? It doesn’t mean he is to be judged by the devil but that he is to be condemned with the devil. The devil, after all, won’t be our judge. He himself fell through pride. Like him, one who has become godless on account of pride will be condemned to everlasting fire. We are to consider carefully, Paul is saying, to whom a position of eminence is given in the church, lest the person being lifted up should through pride fall into the very judgment into which the devil fell.