De lege charitatis filiorum.
Two Laws: Fear and Freedom
The sons of God are not without law; they are freed from the law of slavery and fear, yet bound by the law of love and adoption.
So the sons of God are not without law — unless someone thinks otherwise because of what is written: "The just are not under law."✦1 But it must be understood that one law is handed down by the spirit of slavery, in fear; the other is given by the spirit of freedom, in sweetness.2 Under that first law they are not compelled to be sons; and without this other law they are not permitted to be sons. Do you want to hear why the just are not under law? "You did not receive," he says, "the spirit of slavery, again unto fear."✦3 Do you want to hear that without the law of love they cannot be sons? "But you received," he says, "the spirit of adoption as sons."✦4 Finally, listen to the just person confessing both things about himself: that he is not under law, and yet that he is not without law.
The Law Freely Given
Paul's example shows that the righteous are not without law but under the law of Christ, which is freely taken up as a sweet yoke.
"I have become," he says, "one of those who were under the law, as though I myself were under the law — though I was not under the law; and one of those who were without law, as though I were without law — though I was not without God's law, but was in the law of Christ."✦ So it's rightly not said, 'The righteous do not have a law,' or, 'The righteous are without law'; but rather, 'No law is imposed on the righteous' — that is, not as something forced on the unwilling, but freely given to the willing, by which it is sweetly breathed into them.✦ And so beautifully the Lord says, 'Take my yoke upon you' — as if he were saying, 'I do not impose it on the unwilling; but you must take it up, if you wish. Otherwise you will find not rest but labor for your souls.'✦
Love Fulfills and Perfects the Law
Love is a gentle law that fulfills and purifies both servile fear and mercenary desire, ordering all things rightly.
Love, then, is a good and gentle law: it is not only carried lightly and sweetly, but it also makes the laws of servants and hirelings bearable and light — laws it certainly does not destroy, but causes to be fulfilled, as the Lord says: I did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it.✦ It tempers one, adorns the other, and smooths them both. Love will never be without fear, but a chaste fear; never without desire, but an ordered desire. Love therefore fulfills the law of the servant, since it pours in devotion; and it fulfills the law of the hireling, since it orders desire. Moreover, when devotion is mingled with fear, it does not cancel that fear but purifies it. Only punishment is removed — without which one could not exist while the fear was servile; and that fear remains forever, made chaste and filial. For what is read, Perfect love casts out fear — the word 'fear' is to be understood as referring to punishment, which, as we have said, is never lacking in servile fear. This is that figure of speech in which the cause is often put for the effect.✦ Then desire is rightly ordered by the love that comes to meet it, since evil things are utterly rejected, better things are preferred to good things, and even good things are desired only for the sake of what is better.
The Order of Love
Through grace, love is rightly ordered: the body for the soul, the soul for God, and God for his own sake.
Once this has been fully attained through the grace of God, let the body be loved, and all the body's goods loved only for the sake of the soul; the soul for the sake of God; and God, however, for his own sake.5
Read the original Latin
Itaque nec filii sunt sine lege, nisi forte aliquis aliter sentiat propter hoc quod scriptum est: Justis non est lex posita. Sed sciendum, quod alia est lex promulgata a spiritu servitutis in timore; alia a spiritu libertatis data in suavitate. Nec sub illa coguntur esse filii; nec sine ista esse patiuntur. Vis audire quia justis non est lex posita? Non accepistis, ait, spiritum servitutis iterum in timore. Vis audire quod tamen sine lege charitatis non sint? Sed accepistis, inquit, spiritum adoptionis filiorum. Denique audi justum utrumque de se fatentem, et quod non sit sub lege, nec tamen sit sine lege.
Factus sum, inquit, his qui sub lege erant, quasi sub lege essem; cum ipse non essem sub lege: his qui sine lege erant, tanquam sine lege essem; cum sine lege Dei non essem, sed in lege essem Christi. Unde apte non dicitur, Justi non habent legem, aut, Justi sunt sine lege: sed, Justis non est lex posita; hoc est, non tanquam invitis imposita, sed voluntariis eo liberaliter data, quo suaviter inspirata. Unde et pulchre Dominus, Tollite, ait, jugum meum super vos: ac si diceret, Non impono invitis, sed vos tollite si vultis; alioquin non requiem, sed laborem invenietis animabus vestris.
Bona itaque lex charitas, et suavis: quae non solum leviter suaviterque portatur, sed etiam servorum et mercenariorum leges portabiles ac leves reddit, quas utique non destruit, sed facit ut impleantur, dicente Domino: Non veni legem solvere, sed adimplere. Illam temperat, istam ornat, utramque levigat. Nunquam erit charitas sine timore, sed casto: nunquam sine cupiditate, sed ordinata. Implet ergo charitas legem servi, cum infundit devotionem: implet et mercenarii, cum ordinat cupiditatem. Porro timori permista devotio ipsum non annullat, sed castificat. Poena tantum tollitur, sine qua esse non potuit dum fuit servilis; et timor manet in saeculum saeculi castus et filialis. Nam quod legitur, Perfecta charitas foras mittit timorem; poena intelligenda est, quae servili, ut diximus, nunquam deest timori, illo scilicet genere locutionis, quo saepe causa ponitur pro effectu. Deinde cupiditas tunc recte a superveniente charitate ordinatur, cum mala quidem penitus respuuntur, bonis vero meliora praeferuntur, nec bona nisi propter meliora appetuntur.
Quod cum plene per Dei gratiam assecutum fuerit, diligetur corpus, et universa corporis bona tantum propter animam, anima propter Deum, Deus autem propter seipsum.
Scripture echoes
- ↩1Tim.1.9 — knowing this, that the law is not laid down for the righteous, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers
- ↩Rom.8.15 — For you did not receive a spirit of slavery again to fear, but you received a spirit of adoption, in which we cry, "Abba, Father."
- ↩Rom.8.15 — For you did not receive a spirit of slavery again to fear, but you received a spirit of adoption, in which we cry, "Abba, Father."
- ↩1Cor.9.20-1Cor.9.21 — And I became to the Jews as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to those under the law as under the law — not being myself under the law — that I might win those under the law. 1Cor.9.21 — To those outside the law I became as one outside the law—though I am not outside God's law but am under Christ's law—so that I might win those outside the law.
- ↩1Tim.1.9 — knowing this, that the law is not laid down for the righteous, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers
- ↩Matt.11.29 — Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
- ↩Matt.5.17 — Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill.
- ↩1John.4.18 — There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears has not been perfected in love.
Notes
- 1 ↩Quoted scriptural span: Justis non est lex posita. Candidate source: 1 Tim 1:9 or a Pauline formulation echoing the theme of the righteous and the law.
- 2 ↩The contrast between the two laws — one of servitude/fear, the other of freedom/sweetness — is central to the chapter's argument about the law of love.
- 3 ↩Quoted scriptural span: Non accepistis spiritum servitutis iterum in timore. Candidate source: Rom 8:15 (Vulgate: Non enim accepistis spiritum servitutis iterum in timore).
- 4 ↩Quoted scriptural span: Sed accepistis spiritum adoptionis filiorum. Candidate source: Rom 8:15 (Vulgate: Sed accepistis spiritum adoptionis filiorum).
- 5 ↩The cum with the perfect subjunctive (assecutum fuerit) is rendered temporally ('once…has been attained'); a causal or concessive reading is also possible. The autem on Deus is rendered as a mild corrective ('however'), marking the shift to God as the final end.
On Loving God companion
Fourteen days is a start. Love grows by daily practice.
Continue with a short daily portion of historic devotion in the free Chosen Portion app.
Bernard argues love of God deepens through repeated, ordinary acts of devotion — the daily portions in Chosen Portion are precisely that repeated practice.
- Finish the plan, then keep a 10-minute daily devotional habit
- Read classics like Bernard's in plain modern English, one portion a day
- Track which of the four degrees you are practicing, week by week