Chapter 7 (102): That The One Mandate Is Contained In The Other.—Augustine, In
Distinction XXVI | 117 your God with your whole heart, etc.* Then the just man shall be without sin, because there will be no law warring against his mind; then you shall wholly love God, with your whole heart, with your whole soul, with your whole mind, which is the highest commandment.'
2. QUESTION REGARDING THE REASON FOR THE COMMANDMENT.—
AUGUSTINE, IN THE SAME PLACE. "But why is such perfection commanded to man, since none attains it in this life? Because one does not run rightly without knowing the goal of the race. But how would it be known, if it were not indicated by precepts?"'—Here you have why that precept is given, which cannot be wholly fulfilled here; and yet it is fulfilled in part, namely according to the perfection of [our earthly] way. The perfection of the runner is one thing, that of the one who completes the race another; one who loves God before all and more than all carries out this mandate in the manner of a runner, and yet does not wholly fulfil it.
Chapter 7 (102)
THAT THE ONE MANDATE IS CONTAINED IN THE OTHER.—AUGUSTINE, IN
THE BOOK ON THE TRINITY: "Because there are two precepts of charity, the one is often posed for the other. Nor is this done unworthily, for God cannot be loved without neighbour, nor neighbour without God."! Hence the Apostle says that every mandate of the Law is renewed, that is, contained and fulfilled, in this word: Love your neighbour as yourself" And Christ recalls more especially love of neighbour, saying: / give you a new commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you;> (AUGUSTINE,
ON JOHN:) "where that greater commandment on the love of God appears to have been omitted. But those who well understand find both commandments in each of them. For he who loves God cannot despise him whom
God commands him to love; and what does he who loves his neighbour love in him, except God? That is the love, distinct from all worldly love, which the Lord distinguished, saying: As J have loved you. For what, except God, did he love in us? Not that we had God, but so that we might have him. In the same way, the physician loves the sick; and what does he love in them, except the health which he means to restore, and not their sickness, which he comes to remove? Let us too so love one another that,
"Mt 22.37: Deut. 6,5.
Ch. ROU To 3:
°Augustine, De perfectione iustitiae hominis, c8 n19.
"Ibid.
'Augustine, De Trinitate, bk 8 c7 n10.
Rom. 13, 9.
Ayn, NS Ber