Caput III. De charitate
The First Commandment of Love
Love stands at the center of God's commands, and Christ himself teaches that loving God with the whole heart, soul, and mind, and loving neighbor as oneself, sums up the entire Law.
In God's commands, love holds the first place, and without its perfection nothing can please God, as the apostle Paul testifies (I Cor. XIII), showing that neither martyrdom, nor contempt of the world, nor the giving of alms can be of any benefit without the practice of love. And so when the Lord himself was asked by a certain scribe which commandment was the greatest, he answered: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.✦ He added also: And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments the whole Law depends, and the prophets (Matth.✦ XXII, 36 seq.)✦ . What he means by 'with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind' is this: God is to be loved with your whole understanding, your whole will, and with all your memory. The love of God consists entirely in keeping his commandments, just as he says elsewhere: If anyone loves me, he will keep my words (Joan.✦
Love Fulfills the Law
Scripture testifies that mutual love marks Christ's disciples, that love fulfills the Law, and that without love and rebirth of water and Spirit one cannot enter God's kingdom, so the believer must learn and keep God's commandments to know that love dwells in them.
(John 14, 23). So Truth himself says elsewhere: 'Everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another' (John 13, 35).✦ (John 13, 35). Likewise the Apostle: 'Love is the fulfillment of the law' (Romans 13, 10).✦ (Romans 13, 10). Likewise John the evangelist: 'We have this commandment from the Lord: whoever loves the Lord — if they are not of water and the Holy Spirit — cannot enter the kingdom of God' (John 3, 5).✦1 (John 3, 5). Let a person learn what God's commandments are, and keep them as best they can; and so let them know that they have the love of God.
A Promise to Name the Commandments
The author promises to set out some of God's commandments by name for his beloved son, so that understanding a few will make the rest easier to grasp.
Some of these I will take care to show your devotion by name, most beloved son, so that once a few things are understood, you may be able to grasp the virtues of others more easily.
Read the original Latin
In praeceptis vero Dei charitas obtinet principatum, sine cujus perfectione nihil Deo placere posse Paulus testatur apostolus (I Cor. XIII), qui nec martyrium nec saeculi contemptum, nec eleemosynarum largitionem, sine charitatis officio quidquam proficere posse ostendit. Inde et ipse Dominus a quodam scriba interrogatus quod esset mandatum maximum, respondit: Diliges Dominum Deum tuum ex toto corde tuo, et ex tota anima tua, et ex tota mente tua. Addidit quoque: Secundum autem simile est huic: Diliges proximum tuum sicut teipsum; in his duobus mandatis tota Lex pendet et prophetae (Matth. XXII, 36 seq.) . Quod vero ait: Ex toto corde, ex tota anima, ex tota mente, id est, toto intellectu, tota voluntate, et ex omni memoria Deum esse diligendum. Dei vero dilectio in observatione mandatorum ejus tota consistit, sicut alibi ait: Si quis diligit me, sermones meos servat (Joan.
XIV, 23). Unde ipsa Veritas alibi ait: In hoc cognoscent omnes, quia mei discipuli estis, si dilectionem habueritis ad invicem (Ibid. , XIII, 35). Item Apostolus: Plenitudo legis est dilectio (Rom. XIII, 10). Item Joannes evangelista: Hoc mandatum habemus a Domino, ut qui diligit Dominum fuerit ex aqua et Spiritu sancto, non potest introire in regnum Dei (Joan. III, 5). Discat homo quae sunt praecepta Dei, et ea custodiat quantum valeat: et sic se cognoscat charitatem Dei habere.
Quorum aliqua tuae ostendere, dilectissime fili, devotioni nominatim curabo, ut paucis intellectis facilius aliorum virtutes intelligere valeas.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Matt.22.37 — And he said to him, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.'
- ↩Matt.22.39-Matt.22.40 — And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Matt.22.40 — On these two commandments the whole Law hangs, and the Prophets.
- ↩Matt.22.36 — Teacher, which commandment is the greatest in the law?
- ↩John.14.23 — Jesus answered him, 'If anyone loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.'
- ↩John.13.35 — By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
- ↩Rom.13.10 — Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
- ↩John.3.5 — Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
Notes
- 1 ↩The Latin 'ut qui diligit Dominum fuerit ex aqua et Spiritu sancto, non potest introire in regnum Dei' is grammatically compressed. The sense is that no one who loves the Lord can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born (or have been born) of water and the Holy Spirit. The relative clause 'qui diligit Dominum' is concessive/conditional in force, and 'fuerit ex aqua et Spiritu sancto' expresses the necessary condition negatively. I've rendered it to preserve the compressed logic while keeping it readable. The Vulgate text of John 3:5 reads 'nisi quis renatus fuerit ex aqua et Spiritu sancto', so this is a paraphrase or alternate citation rather than a direct quotation of the Vulgate.
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