12 - Love and Justice: The Two Commandments | God's Love and Justice

The Ten Commandments call on us to love God with all our heart and to love our neighbor as ourselves (Matthew 22:36-40). But how is this to be understood?

We can look at the commandments from the perspective of truth (as creatures) or falsehood (as God). The truth is that we have to take love before we can give it. The idea of loving out of ourselves comes from the error of wanting to be God ourselves. Our abilities are not the source of our needs. Just as breathing does not contain oxygen, the ability to love does not contain love itself.

Evil does not arise from the desire to break laws, but from an inner self-deception. Selfishness results from the misunderstanding that we can do something for ourselves. We mistakenly believe that we have to give something to God or our neighbor. This deception leads to overload and dissatisfaction. Loving God with all our heart means taking from him. Loving our neighbor means passing on the love we have received from God. Love and justice are inextricably linked: Those who live God's love act justly. Injustice arises where God's love is lacking.

In order to become righteous, the lie “I am God” must be replaced by the truth “I am a creature”. The parable of the Good Samaritan teaches us to examine our connection to God. In the twelfth part of the series “God's love and justice”, we explore these topics in detail.