Rom. 13:8-10.
Owe no man anything, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For that which is said, Thou shalt not commit adultery; Thou shalt not kill; Thou shalt not steal; Thou shalt not bear false witness; Thou shalt not lust after any thing; and such other commandments as these are written in this word, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Love does no harm to one's neighbor. So then love is the fulfillment of the law.
(1) This is also an exhortation to the fruits of faith, as the next two were, without St. Paul summarizing everything here in brevity, and finally concluding all the fruits of faith in love. Hard before he had taught how to be subject to the temporal authorities, to give lap, duty, fear and honor to every one to whom it is due; because all power and authority are ordered by God. Then follows this epistle: "Owe nothing to anyone" etc.
(2) Here I leave aside the various glosses of others who have sought here what is said: "Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another. This seems to me to be a simple, bad opinion: You should be guilty, not like men, but like Christians, that your guilt is a free guilt of love, not a guilt of necessity from the law. Thus he shows two kinds of guilt: one that is of the law; the other that is of love. That of the law
The kind is, makes guilty before the people, as a man has to the other right and claim for the sake of guilt. The kind is that, so one gives to the authority lap, duty, obedience, honor etc. For even though a Christian man does not need such things for his own sake, for he is not improved or justified by such works, yet since he must live on earth, he is obligated according to the outward man to make himself even with all others in such and such a debt, and to help keep common temporal order and peace. So Christ also pays the interest as a debt, Matth. 17, 27, even though he had previously agreed with Petro that he was not guilty of such a debt, and would not have sinned before God if he had let it stand.
The other guilt is love, since the Christian makes himself a servant to everyone, as St. Paul says in 1 Cor. 9:19: "Since I was free, I made myself a servant to everyone." This guilt does not demand any man-
No man speaks to another about it, for man and all the world do not know that love is commanded, nor do they understand how each one should serve, be subservient to, and be indebted to the other. This is also evident. For if a man is rich, and only abstains from taking the goods of others, and from dishonoring his wife, and from injuring his body and honor, he is considered righteous in all rights; but if he lives for himself, and is miserly, and lends and gives his goods sparingly, no one helps him, or demands it if it is taken from him, no law punishes him. For the laws that constrain the outward man go only against evil works, that they ward them off and punish them: good works they leave free, and do not constrain them, neither with punishment nor with chastisement, but praise and reward them; as Moshi's law also does.
4 Now St. Paul wants to teach the Christians that they should behave like this against the authorities and everyone, so that no one has a complaint or claim against them, but that they are indebted to him according to external law and rule: that the first debt is not even with them, but also do more than such debt requires, and make themselves debtors without being asked, and serve those who have no right or claim to them. St. Paul also says Rom. 1, 14: "I am a debtor to the Greeks and the Gentiles" etc. Such debt makes a man so skilled that he does more than is demanded of him; therefore he also comes first, and gives to the authorities and to everyone according to outward rule what he should, so that they may not demand any debt from him.
(5) Therefore this speech of the apostle is just as when I say, Be in debt to everyone, that ye may be in debt to no one; be in debt to all, that ye may be in debt to nothing. These ring against each other; but one part looks to love before God, the other to justice and rule before the world. For he who through love makes himself a servant and a debtor to everyone does so much that no one in the world may complain about him; indeed, he does much more than anyone desires: therefore he is loosed by it and remains.
He owes no one anything, just so that he himself owes everyone everything. This is the way the Spirit would speak in other things, as when I say, "Do no good work, that you may do good works; never be pious nor holy, that you may always be pious and holy. And as Paul saith Rom. 12:17, "Think not yourselves wise," it is as he saith also 1 Cor. 3:18, "Whosoever would be wise, let him be a fool, that he may be wise." This is also the way it is said: "Be indebted to everyone, so that you may be indebted to no one;" or, "Be indebted to no one, except you love one another.
(6) For all these things and the like are said in the two regiments. He who wants to do right good works before God, let him beware of the good works that shine before the world, and by which people think they become pious. And he who wants to be pious and holy, let him beware of holiness in works apart from faith. So, whoever wants to be wise, despise wisdom apart from the spirit, since man and nature deal with it. So, whoever does not want to be indebted to anyone owes everyone everything, so he keeps nothing of his own. With it he is lifted as soon as above all laws which bind only those who have something of their own. For men also say rightly: Qui cedit omnibus bonis, omnibus satisfecit. He who lets his goods go all, has paid everyone. How can he be indebted to anyone if he has nothing of his own, nor can he have anything? But so does love. Therefore it is the best way to be indebted to no one, if a man makes himself indebted to everyone through love: If thou wilt not die, die; if thou wilt not be a prisoner, be a prisoner; if thou wilt not go to hell, enter therein; if thou wilt not be a sinner, be a sinner; if thou wilt be free from the cross, take it upon thyself; if thou wilt overcome the devil, let him overcome thee; if thou wilt compel an evil man, let him compel thee. All this is said that a man must freely surrender and willingly do what God, the devil and men want him to do.
He nowhere adheres to, let everything go and come as it goes and comes. That is why St. Paul also used this way of speaking here: "Owe nothing to anyone" etc. Otherwise he would have left it at that, since he says above, v. 7: "Pray to everyone what you owe."
For he who loves another has fulfilled the law.
(7) We have spoken so often of love and its nature and fruits that it is not necessary to speak of it here. The epistle on the Sunday before Lent will also speak enough about it; therefore we will leave it here and see how such love is commanded by the law of God. So many books and doctrines have been given to instruct men's lives, that there is neither number nor end of them, and there is still no cessation of books and laws, as we see in spiritual and temporal laws, and spiritual orders and estates. And if all these things were still to suffer and be a special grace, when such laws and doctrines were all drawn and acted upon according to the principal law, rule and measure of love; as the holy scripture does, which also gives many and various laws, but draws them all into love and fasts, subjecting them all to love. So that they must all give way and never be law nor apply anything where love is concerned. We read many examples of this in Scripture, and especially Christ himself refers to Matthew 12:4, 5, how David ate the holy shewbread with his companions. For though there was a law that no one should eat such holy bread except the priests, yet love was a free empress over the same law and enforced it among itself, so that it had to give way and cease at the time David was hungry, and had to suffer such a judgment: David is hungry, he should be helped; as love says: Do good to your neighbor where he needs it. Therefore refrain, you law, and do not prevent him from doing such good; but do him good yourself, and serve him in his need, and do not catch him with your prohibition. Item, so he also says there, that one should do good on the Sabbath to the neighbor who needs it, like
The law also forbids doing anything on the Sabbath; but because there is need to help one's neighbor, love should take precedence and the Sabbath should count for nothing.
(8) Now if the laws were thus drawn into love, and if all of them were mastered according to love, it would not matter how many of them there were. For he that would not hear or learn them all might hear and learn some, one or two, in which he might learn the same love that is taught in all. And if he hears and learns them all, he could not recognize love in all of them, but one day he would recognize it in One Law. This rule and way of mastering and understanding the laws is also given here by St. Paul, when he says: "Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another"; item: "He who loves another has fulfilled the law"; item: "All the commandments are written in this commandment: Love your neighbor as yourself"; item: "Love does no harm to your neighbor"; item: "Love is the fulfillment of the law. All the words of this epistle conclude and say that love is master over all laws.
(9) Again, where the laws are taught and practiced without love and apart from love, there is no greater calamity, no greater injustice, no more miserable misery on earth. For there the law is nothing but a plague and destruction. The proverb is true: Summum jus, summa injustitia: The strictest law is the most severe injustice. And Solomon Ecclesiastes 7:17: Noli nimium esse justus: "Be not overly just." Yes, the beam is stuck in our eye and we do not know it, and we deal with it by plucking the speck out of our neighbor's eye: there we make stupid, frightened and despondent consciences without any need or cause, and with great harm to body and soul. And there is great toil and labor, and yet all is lost.
(10) That we prove this with examples: where in the above-mentioned case, when David was hungry, 1 Sam. 21:6, the priest would not have given him the sacred bread, and would have been so blind as to stand on the law, not knowing love, and would have denied him the food, behold, what
What would have become of it? If David had died of hunger and the priest had committed murder for the sake of the law, there would certainly have been nothing else but summum jus, summa injustitia: the most severe right, the most severe wrong. Above this, if you look into the heart of such a foolish priest, you will find the abominable abomination that he makes sin and conscience, where there is no sin and conscience; for he thinks that it is a sin to eat bread, when it is love and a good work. Again, he holds that murder is not sin, that he would cause David to die of hunger, but a good work and service to God.
(11) Who can sufficiently tell such abominable, blind, perverse foolishness? For with such a deed he does such evil that the devil could not do worse, namely, by making sin and conscience where there is none, he takes away from man grace, salvation, virtue and God with all his goods; and all this without cause, and also falsely and fraudulently, so that he denies God and condemns him through and through. Again, because he makes a good work and service out of murder and injustice, he puts the devil and lies in God's place, and sets up the highest idolatry that can be, and thus corrupts body and soul: murders the body by hunger and the soul by conscience; makes a devil out of God and a God out of the devil; makes a hell out of heaven and a heaven out of hell; makes sins right, sins out of right. That is, I mean, to become wrong, and the sharpest right the sharpest wrong. This is what Ezekiel means in the 13th Cap. V. 18-23: "Thus saith the Lord; Woe unto them that put pillows for every man under his arms, and pills for every man under his head, to catch souls. And when they have taken the souls of my people, they have quickened them; and they have unjustified me in my people for a handful of barley, and for a morsel of bread, to kill the souls that die not, and to quicken the souls that live not, by their lying unto my people, who hearken unto lies." What else is this said, but that the blind teachers of the law terrify the consciences, and make sin and death,
where there is life and grace; again, life and grace where there is sin and death? And all this over a handful of barley and a morsel of bread, that is, that they who bind such a law so firmly to outward things, eat it up in their hands, like a drink and a morsel of food, and forsake love over it, and bind up their consciences with sins unto eternal death. Therefore follows there:
012 "Because ye have wrongfully grieved the heart of the righteous, whom I have not grieved; and have strengthened the wicked in his doings, that he turn not from his wicked doings, that he might live; ye shall not make vain faces, neither prophesy any more: but I will deliver my people out of your hands, that ye may know that I am the Lord. Behold, this means to afflict the pious hearts: to burden them with sins, where good works are; and to strengthen the wicked: to keep them to good works, where sins are vain. The 14th Psalm, v. 5, also says: "They do not call on the Lord, there they fear," that is, they make conscience and fear, since there should be neither conscience nor fear, worrying that it is sin, which is nevertheless a noble service of God. Therefore he says: "Just when they should call on God and serve him, they fear that it is sin and not worship; and again, when they should fear and it is not worship, they are sure and do not fear. Thus also speaks Isaiah Cap. 29, 13: "They fear me in vain with the commandments of men," etc. that everywhere this perverse people perverts all things: they call on God and fear not, since the devil is; and they call not and fear, since God is.
013 Behold, this is the plague and woe of all them that deal in laws and works, according to their blindness, and know not the law's mind, and their master, love. So we see it also in our poor people, the clergy, and all who follow them, how deep they are, and how hard they hold to their doings: and if all the world should perish, their thing must go on and stand firm, regardless that the body faints or dies, the soul perishes and perishes; after which they think that such murder and perdition is a service of God,
They are not afraid and have no conscience about it, but strengthen themselves in such wickedness that they never turn back from their actions and life. Again, that they would allow such a poor man to save his body and soul, to eat flesh or to be married: there is fear, there is conscience, there is sin and law, death and hell, there one does not call on God nor serve him, and should a body die ten times, a soul go to the devil a hundred times.
14 Therefore see what the world is, what flesh and blood do when they want to do it best; how dangerous it is to handle and govern with laws, yes, how impossible it is to govern and teach souls with laws without great harm, if the spirit and love are not there, which have all laws in their hand with full power. Therefore it is written in Deut. 33:2 that at the right hand of God there is a fiery law. This is the law of love in the spirit, which shall rule all the laws on the left hand or outwardly in the world. And Ex 28:30, the priest must bear on his breast in the bosom urim and thumim, that is, light and fullness, so that the priest should enlighten the law with a right mind, and keep and teach it completely without change.
(15) All kinds of laws, then, should be given, ordained, and kept, not for themselves, nor for works, but only for the exercise of love, which is the right view of the law, as St. Paul says, "He that loveth another hath fulfilled the law"; so that, if it be seen that it is not profitable to the neighbor, but injurious, it should remain. For the same law may at one time be useful to the neighbor, at another time harmful. Therefore it should be according to the neighbor's benefit, and the laws are to be dealt with in the same way as food and clothing and other necessities of life. I must not look to food and clothing, but to the benefit and need of the neighbor who is to be fed and clothed: that I may cease to feed and clothe him when I see that he cannot stand or bear it.
16. if you now have such a fool
If you saw a man who thought to himself, "Food and clothing are good things," and thought no more, but led him on, and took a man before him, and did no more, and always put into him all the bread and beer he could get, and put on him all the clothing he could take, until the man choked and suffocated, and yet still grafting with it and always clothing him without ceasing; and if someone said to him: Stop, you have strangled him; food and clothing are too much for him, and he is now vain in his lost work; but he leads on and says: You heretic, will you refuse good works? Food and drink and clothing is a good thing; therefore one should not stop and cannot make it too much; and always continue with food and clothing: tell me, what would you think of that? Nonsense would not itself be so furious and mad as such a fool. Our clergymen have been just such people now, and they still are all of them, who deal with works and laws, thinking only and with such blindness that it is a matter of works, suffocate body and soul, and do not see that it is a matter of practice of love. So they set works above love, the maid above the wife, so that it is a pity to think, let alone to hear and see, or even to do and suffer.
(17) Now this commandment of love is a short commandment and a long commandment; a single commandment and a great many commandments; it is no commandment and all commandments. It is short and single in itself, and soon grasped by the understanding; but long and many after practice; for it comprehends and masters all the commandments. It is not a commandment at all, if you look at the works; for it has no special work of its own by name: but it is all commandments, because the works of all commandments are and shall be its works. So the commandment of love abolishes all commandments, and yet establishes all commandments; all this because we ought to know and learn, not to keep any commandment, nor to observe any work, except as love requires.
(18) Therefore, since we are not to be on earth without works, nor do we like to be, there must also be various commandments for works to be written; so that love may retain its power and rule over such writers, and
let the works be and take them where it serves them, and let no work remain nor go, if it will. Let us learn this from a carter. He has horses and wagons in the bridle according to his will; if he wanted to be satisfied with the horses in the bridle and did not look at the road, so that he steered the horses, bridle and wagon according to the road, the harness would soon lie in a heap with horse, wagon, bridle and wagoner, and drown in a puddle or fall over a stick and stone: But if he is so wise that he directs the harness along the road, and sees where the road may or may not suffer, he drives right; but who wants to lead straight, that is the wise carter, who wants to direct the road according to the wagon, and the road should go to him as his wagon wants; he will see how well he will hit it.
19 Thus it is when one wants to govern the people according to the law and the work and not the laws according to the people; just as the carter directs the way according to the wagon. Now it is true that the road often goes straight after the cart; but again it sometimes goes crookedly and unevenly, so that it really wants the cart to be crooked and uneven. So it must be that people follow the law and works where they can and where it is good for them; but again, where it is harmful for them, the law should truly bend and give way, and the ruler should be wise, so that he makes room for love and abolishes the works and laws. Therefore also the worldly wise say that prudentia or prudence or modesty, as the clergy call it, is the driver of all virtue and it must master all virtue.
(20) And it was recorded in the book of the ancient fathers that they once met together, and when the question arose among themselves, "What is the noblest work?" and one said this, the other that, one about praying, the other about fasting, St. Anthony decided that among all works and virtues, modesty was the best and a sure way to heaven. But all this was still a childish and worldly sense, from the own and
chosen works. A Christian takes a different and fresher approach, and concludes that neither modesty nor immodesty is valid before God, but only faith and love. But love is the driver and the right modesty in divine good works, which always looks at the neighbor's benefit and improvement; just as modesty in worldly virtues looks at the common benefit and directs the laws according to it. That is enough of it.
(21) Here a question arises: How is it true that love fulfills the law, when love is only the fruit of faith? We have often said that only faith in Christ can destroy sin and make us righteous, and that it is enough for the law. Christ also says in Matthew 7:12, "Whatever you want people to do to you, you do to them, for this is the law and the prophets. This also shows that the love for the neighbor fulfills both the law and the prophets. And Matth. 22, 39. 40.: "Thou shalt love God thy Lord, and thy neighbor as thyself; in these two hang the law and the prophets." Where does St. Paul leave Rom. 3, 31: "We establish the law through faith"? item Rom. 3, 28: "We consider that a man is justified by faith without works of the law"? and Rom. 1, 17: "The just shall live by faith"?
Answer: As we have often said, faith and love must be separated so that faith is directed toward the person and love toward works. Faith removes sin and makes the person pleasant and righteous. But when the person has become pleasant and righteous, the Holy Spirit and love will give him to do good with pleasure. Now it is the nature of the law to attack the person and demand such good works from him, and will not desist unless he has them; so the person cannot do such works without spirit and love; so he is urged by the law to recognize what he lacks, and to think further, namely, that he himself also may first become different, so that he may do enough for the law. For the law does not press so hard upon the person.
It demands only works and is silent about the person, and makes the person realize by the demand for works how he himself must become a different person. But when faith comes, it makes such a person who can give the works required by the law; this is then called fulfilling the law. Therefore, St. Paul speaks finely and evenly, as the matter itself lies. The law demands works from the person and is also fulfilled with works. So that one cannot really say: Faith fulfills the law; although it prepares and makes the person so that he can fulfill it, because the law does not demand the person, but the works from the person. Although it urges the person and makes him realize that he must become different, he should do such works, because he feels that he cannot do such works. Again, love and works do not make the person different or righteous, but the person must first have become righteous and different, must love and do works; yet they still show and prove that the person has become righteous and different, because such works would not be done if the person were not already without sin and pious.
(23) This is said so that the right kind and quality of the law, faith and love may be known, and that each may be considered its own, and that the sayings of Scripture may be rightly and evenly understood, namely, that faith justifies, but does not fulfill the law; love does not justify, but fulfills the law; the law requires love and works, but does not name the person; the person feels the law, but love does not feel it. For just as before faith the law requires works, and by that very fact is a sign and reveals, and concludes and overcomes, that the person is without faith and not pious: so after faith love fulfills the law, and is also a sign and proves that the person has faith and is pious. So that both law and love are witnesses to the person, whether he is pious or wicked. The law is a witness before faith that the person is not pious; love is a witness after faith that the person is pious. Therefore, the
person the law well before faith, because he does not have what the law requires, although the law does not require the person, but the works; but the works and love do not fill the law, because they themselves are the filling.
(24) Although faith does not fulfill the law, it does so in order that it may be fulfilled, for it acquires the spirit and love in order that it may be fulfilled. Again, though love does not make righteous, yet it proves that in order that the person may be righteous, namely, faith. And summa, as St. Paul himself says here, "Love is the fulfillment of the law"; as if he should say: It is another speech, to be the fulfillment of the law, and to make or give the fulfillment of the law. Love, then, fulfills the law, so that it is itself the fulfillment; but faith, then, fulfills the law, so that it is sufficient for it to be fulfilled. For faith loves and works, as Gal. 5:6 says, "Faith is active through love." The water fills the pitcher, and the pitcher also fills the water: the water through itself, the pitcher through the water. This is what the sophists call in their language: effective et formaliter implere.
(25) Thus faith remains the doer, and love remains the deed. Now the law demands the deed, and thereby compels the doer to become different. Therefore it is fulfilled with the deed, which the doer must do. And with this St. Paul rejects the dreams of the sophists, who speak of love in such a way that they separate outward works from inward favor, and speak: Love is an inward favor and loves its neighbor when it does him good inwardly; but they call works the fruit of love etc. Let this pass. Here you see that St. Paul calls love not favor alone, but favorable good deeds, so that faith and the person remain the doer and fulfiller of the law, as he says: "He who loves another has fulfilled the law," and love is the deed and fulfillment. As he also says: "Love is the fulfillment of the law.
(26) Another question: As the love of one's neighbor is the fulfillment of the law, so we also love God above all things, even above all things.
love your neighbor? Answer: Christ himself resolved this when he said in Matthew 22:39, "Let the other commandment be equal to the first, and make the love of God and the love of neighbor equal. And this is why, first of all, God does not need our works and good deeds, but has directed us to our neighbor, that we do to him what we want to do to him. He is not allowed to do more than to be believed and taken for God. For preaching and praising his glory and giving thanks also happens on earth, so that the neighbor is converted and brought to God. And yet everything is called God's love and is also done for God's love, but only for the benefit and good of the neighbor.
27. on the other hand, God has made the world a fool, and will be loved from now on even under the cross and misery, as St. Paul says in 1 Cor. 1:21: "Because the world through its wisdom did not recognize God in His wisdom, it pleased Him to make the faithful blessed through false preaching. For this reason He gave Himself on the cross in death and misery and laid the same on all His own, so that whoever did not want to love God before, that He gave food, drink, goods and honor, must now love Him in hunger and sorrow, in misfortune and shame, so that all works of love should be directed toward the wretched, needy neighbor. There one should find God and love Him, there one should serve Him and do good, whoever wants to do good and serve Him; so that the commandment of the love of God is completely drawn down into the love of the neighbor.
(28) With this the slippery and flying spirits are prevented and the maal put away, who seek God only in great, glorious things, strive for His greatness and drill through heaven, and think to serve Him and to love Him in such honest things; in the meantime they miss Him, and let Him pass here below on earth in the neighbor, where He wants to be loved and honored. Therefore they will hear on the last day, Matth. 25, 42: "I was hungry and you did not feed me" etc. For this reason he has taken the divine form and has taken the servant form.
that He might draw down our love toward Himself and set it on our neighbor; so we leave them here and gape at heaven in the meantime, and want to pretend to great love and service of God.
For that which is said, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not lust; and if there be any other commandment more, it is written in this word, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
(29) As love is the chief of all laws, it has been said enough that it includes all such commandments in the sum: because it does not care more than to be useful and harmless to its neighbor, it learns very finely how it is useful and harmless from the fact that it sees how a man loves himself, and does himself good and harmless, so that it does the same to another; therefore let us now consider the same commandment and see how masterfully and perfectly it is set. It attracts four things: the first, the person who is to love, since it says, "You yourself shall love," that is, the best, closest and noblest person that one can bring to the work; for no one will be able to fulfill God's law for another, each one will have to fulfill it for himself, as St. Paul says Galatians 1:2. Paul says Gal. 6, 5: "Every man shall bear his own burden"; 2 Cor. 5, 10: "We must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive in his own body what he has deserved, whether good or evil." Therefore it is said, Thou, thyself, shalt love. Not, let another love for thee. For although one can and should ask for another, that God may be gracious to him and help him, yet no one will be saved unless he has fulfilled God's commandment for himself. Therefore, it is not only for someone to ask that he remain unpunished, as the indulgence bulls*) claim, but rather that he become pious and keep God's commandment.
30 The other is the noblest virtue, namely, love; for he does not say, "You shall feed, water, and clothe your neighbor," etc., which are also good works; but, "You shall love him. The love
*) "Ablaßbuben" [f g]. D. Red.
but is the head, the fountain and common virtue of all virtues. Love feeds, waters, clothes, comforts, asks, solves, helps and saves. What shall we say? Behold, it gives itself body and life, goods and honor, all its strength, inwardly and outwardly, for the need and benefit of its neighbor, both enemy and friend, retaining nothing lest it serve another. Therefore no virtue is to be likened to it, and no special work may be painted or named for it, as is done for the other individual virtues, such as chastity, mercy, patience, meekness etc. Love does all kinds of things, and also suffers death and life and all kinds of things, even for the enemy, so that St. Paul says here: "All the commandments are written in the word as one sum: Love your neighbor.
The third is the most noble workshop and the most precious friend to love, which is the "neighbor. He does not say: You shall love the rich, the powerful, the learned, the holy. No, free love and the most perfect commandment does not divide itself into several persons, but there is no respect for the person. For this is what the false carnal love of the world does, which looks only at the person and loves as long as it has benefit and hope; where benefit and hope are over, love is also over; but this commandment demands free love toward everyone, regardless of who he is, whether he is an enemy or a friend; for it does not seek benefit or good, but gives and does benefit and good. Therefore it is most active and powerful toward the poor, the needy, the wicked, sinners, fools, the sick, and enemies; for there it finds to endure, to suffer, to bear, to serve, and to do well, all hands full, always enough, all places ready.
(32) And let us note here how this commandment makes us all equal before God, and abolishes all distinctions of status, person, office and works. For since the commandment is given to all and every man, a king and prince (if he is otherwise a man) must confess that the poorest beggar and leper is his neighbor and nothing less in the sight of God; so that he is not only obliged to help him, but also, according to this commandment, to serve him with all that he has and is able. For if he is to love him, as here
God commands, so it follows, that he should prefer the beggar to his crown and whole kingdom, and if the beggar needs it, he should also give his life for him; for he owes him love and must let him be his neighbor.
33 Is not this a fine and noble commandment, which makes such unequal men so fine and equal? Is it not a marvelous comfort that a beggar has such splendid servants and lovers, that his poverty must be served by such a rich king? his stench and wounds must be subjected to such a beautiful crown and sweet smell of royal splendor? How strange it would be if we were to see kings and princes, queens and princesses serving poor beggars and lepers, as we read of St. Elizabeth? And even if this were to happen, it would still be a very small thing, if it were held against Christ; for he has set this example and commandment so high that no one will ever equal him. For he is a King of honor above all kings, even the Son of God himself: nor does he make himself like the worst sinners, serving them, that he may die for them also. Now if ten kings served one beggar, it would be a great thing; but what would it be against Christ's service? They would have to be ashamed, and still say that their thing was not worth looking at.
(34) From this, then, see what the world is, how far it is not only from Christ's example, which is intemperate, but also from this commandment. Where are they that know and understand this little word, which is called "neighbor," when the natural law, even as this commandment, is written in the heart of every man? For there is no one who does not feel and confess that it is right and true, since the natural law says Matth. 7, 12: "What you do to yourself and leave for yourself, do and leave for another; the light lives and shines in all men's reason, and if they would look at it, what would they do with books, teachers, or any law? They carry a living book with them in the bottom of their hearts, which would tell them abundantly enough what they should do, leave, judge, accept and reject. Now it is just as much said:
Love your neighbor as yourself; as: What you want done to you etc. For every man feels that he wants to be loved and not hated; so he also feels and sees that he owes the same to another. That is, to love another as thyself. But the evil air and love darken such light and blind man, so that he does not look at such a book in his heart and does not follow such a bright commandment of reason; therefore one must fight and drive him back with outward commandments, books, sword and force, and remind him of his natural light and put his own heart before his eyes. It does not yet help, nor do they see such light; but evil desire and love prevent them from heeding it, and yet they must abstain from the deed from without, forced by sword and law.
(35) The fourth is the most noble example, for these are fine doctrines and commandments, which also give examples. Now this commandment gives a living example, that is, of thyself: for this example is more noble than all the examples of the saints; for they are past and now dead, but this example lives without ceasing. For every man will ever have to confess that he feels how he loves himself: for he feels how fiercely he cares for his life; how diligently he looks after his body with food, clothing, and all goods; how he flees death and avoids all misfortune. Now this is the love of thine own self, which thou seest and feelest. Now what does this commandment teach you? To do likewise that which thou doest unto thyself, that thou mayest esteem his life and limb as thine own. Behold, how could he have given thee a nearer, more living, and more powerful example, which is so deep in thyself, yea, thyself, even as deep as the commandment is written in thine heart?
How will you fare before God if you do not love your neighbor? Then your own conscience will condemn you, which finds such a commandment described in it, and the whole of life will testify against you as an example, that you have not also done so to others, as your own life has taught you so powerfully, more than all the saints' examples. How will the clergy in particular fare?
with their singing, praying, frocks, plates, masses and such jugglery! I will keep silent, as they never keep this commandment. This is what I say: When will they have so much space and time before their monastic swarming that they will once see this commandment in their hearts and become aware of the example in their own bodies, or read it in external books or hear it preached? O poor, wretched people! Do you think that God will throw to the winds this commandment of his, so deeply and brightly written in the heart, so finely and clearly exemplified with his own body, in addition to so many external writings and words, for the sake of your robe and plate, and pay attention to what you yourself have invented and done in the meantime?
Oh, how the whole world has so shamefully turned away from this fine, mighty commandment, in which the person, the work, the example and the workshop are so masterfully presented, and is playing such a horrible game against it! For the whole custom and course is that we now have other persons set up in our place, monks and priests are to be pious for us and pray that our person does not have to go up itself. Instead of the noblest virtue, love, we have devised our own works; instead of our neighbor we have put wood and stones, clothes and food, also the dead souls and saints in heaven: these we serve, there we deal with, that is our workshop, in which we practice ourselves. Instead of the noblest example, we take the legends and works of the saints, want to be like the outward examples, and leave in place that which our own body and life present to us and exemplify God's commandment; in which we would have more to follow and practice than we are always able, and even if we were able to do everything, we would still not be like Christ.
Love does not harm its neighbor. So now love is the fulfillment of the law.
(38) Since the Ten Commandments forbid harm and damage to one's neighbor, saying, "Thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not commit adultery," etc., the apostle follows the same speech, saying that love keeps these things and does not harm anyone. But not only does it harm no one, but it also harms everyone.
well. For this is also called suffering, when I leave my neighbor in suffering, if I can help him, even though I have not brought him into it. For if he hungers and I do not feed him, if I can, it is the same.
as much as if I let him die of hunger. So henceforth in all harm and suffering of the neighbor is to be understood. How the love of the law is fulfillment, we have heard above.