On Loving God XIV:37 39
On Loving God XIV:37
Spirit of liberty335 by which your sons are acting, which bears witness to my spirit that I, too, am one of your sons,336 that there is just one law for both of us, that I must also be as you are in this world.337 For those who follow what the Apostle says: "May you owe nobody anything unless it be to love one another,"338 without a doubt they are as God is in this world, neither slaves nor hirelings but sons.
XIV. 37. The sons are not without a law, unless a different meaning is given the text: "Laws are not made for those who are good."339 It should be realized that a law of fear prom ulgated by a spirit of slavery340 differs from that of gentle ness given by a spirit of liberty. Sons are not obliged to obey a law of fear and they cannot exist without that of liberty.
Do you wish to know why there is no law for those who are good? It is written: "But you have not received the spirit of servitude in fear."341 Do you wish to hear that they are not without the law of charity? "But you have received the spirit of the adoption of sons."342 Yet listen to the just man affirm ing of himself that he is not under the law, yet he is not lawless,
"I have become," says he, "as if I was bound by the law with those who are bound by the law, although I am not bound by the law; and as if I was not bound by the law with those who are not bound by the law, although I am not without the law of God but bound by that of Christ."343 It is not, there fore, right to say: "The just have no law," or "The just are without a law," but that "Laws are not made for those who are good,"344 meaning they are not imposed on them un willingly but, inspired by goodness, they are given freely to those who accept. Hence the Savior says so fittingly: "Take my yoke upon you,"345 as if he said: "I do not impose it on the unwilling, but take it on you who desire it; otherwise, you will find toil instead of rest for your souls."
335. 2 Cor 3:17.
336. Rom 8:14, 16.
341. Ibid.
342. Ibid.
337. 1 Jn 4:17.
338. Rom 13:8.
339. 1 Tim 1:9.
340. Rom 8:15.
343. 1 Cor 9:20-21.
344. 1 Tim 1:9.
345. Mt 11:29.
On Loving God XIV:38—XV:39
38. The law of charity is good and sweet. It is not only borne gaily and easily, it also makes the laws of the slave and the hireling bearable, for it does not destroy them but fulfills them, as the Lord says: "I have not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it."346 It tempers the slave's law and sets the hireling's in order, making both lighter. Charity will never be without fear but it will be a chaste fear; never without cupidity but it will be in order. Charity obeys the slave's law when it imparts devotion; it obeys the hireling's when it sets desires in order. Piety mixed with fear does not destroy fear; it chastens it. The punishment alone is taken away, without which fear could not exist while servile. But chaste and filial fear remains forever.347 When one reads: "Perfect charity drives away fear,"348 this must be understood of the punish ment which is inseparable from servile fear; it is a figure of speech in which the cause is given for the effect. Cupidity in turn is set in right order by the arrival of charity, which moves one to reject evil altogether and prefer what is better to what is good, desiring what is good only on account of what is bet ter. When this state is fully achieved, the body and all its good things are loved only on account of the soul, the soul on ac count of God, and God on account of himself.
XV. 39. Since we are carnal349 and born of concupiscence of the flesh, our cupidity or love must begin with the flesh, and when this is set in order, our love advances by fixed degrees, led on by grace, until it is consummated in the spirit,350 for "Not what is spiritual comes first, but what is animal, then what is spiritual."351 It is necessary that we bear first the like ness of an earthly being, then that of a heavenly being.352 Thus man first loves himself for himself because he is carnal and sensitive to nothing but himself. Then when he sees he can not subsist by himself, he begins to seek for God by faith353 and to love him as necessary to himself. So in the second degree of love, man loves God for man's sake and not for God's sake.
346. Mt 5:17. 350. Gal 3:3.
347. Ps 18:10. 351. 1 Cor 15:46.
348. ljn 4:18. 352. 1 Cor 15:49.
349. Rom 7:14. 353. .Heb 11:6.