The Great Letter

VII.1 As those who desire to become imitators of Christ, we exhort you to peace with one another, mutual submission, and good service to one another. If possible, we ought even to prepare ourselves to die for our neighbor, having as pattern and example the Lord, who cooperates with you in every good thing, according to the saying: "For those who love God, all things work together for good." [Rom. 8:28] Thus through love, simplicity, freedom from pretension, and modesty, "the bond of peace" may be preserved in the brotherhood, in the one body and Spirit of Christ [Eph. 4:3-4], as we submit to one another in the fear and love of Christ.

VII.2 Therefore everyone who wishes to be established in such dispositions should always and above all strive in his heart, seeking it from God, to possess continually the holy love and fear of God, which constitute the first and great commandment. Through constant and uninterrupted remembrance of the Lord and heavenly desire, let each person daily increase and enlarge this love according to his progress through grace. For only through great diligence and labor, care and struggle, can we acquire love for God, which by the grace and gift of Christ takes visible form within us. As it is said concerning Wisdom: "If you seek her as silver and search for her as for treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God." [Prov. 2:4-5 LXX] Having acquired divine love in this way, we are then able easily to fulfill the second commandment, the commandment of love for our neighbor. [Matt. 22:37-40]

VII.3 For what is first must be placed first and cared for as first; the second, which follows it, must then be carried out in its proper order. If someone were to neglect the great and first commandment, the love of God—which is formed from the inward good disposition and conscience, joined to sound thoughts concerning God and, of course, with the help of divine grace—and were instead to hurry to the second commandment, concerning himself only outwardly with service to others, it would be impossible for him to carry out even that second commandment in an uncorrupted and pure way.

VII.4 For a corrupt method of understanding, which searches for meaning apart from remembrance of God, love of God, and the seeking of God, makes the fulfillment of the divine commandments burdensome and grievous. It produces in the soul murmuring, sadness, and complaint against service to the brothers; or else, through self-conceit and pride, it causes a person to fall away from righteousness and to regard himself as worthy of every honor, as great, and as having reached the heights of obedience to the commandments.

VII.5 When a person prides himself on the thought that he does good and keeps the commandments, he sins, because he judges himself and does not receive the One who judges in truth. Only when, according to Paul's word, "the Spirit of God bears witness with our spirit" [Rom. 8:16] are we truly worthy of Christ and children of God—not when, filled with self-conceit, we justify ourselves. For "it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends." [2 Cor. 10:18] If a person does not guard remembrance of God and is outside the fear of God, he necessarily seeks glory and hunts for the praise of those whom he serves. Such a person proves himself unbelieving and is reproved by the Lord: "How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that is from the only God?" [John 5:44] He resembles one who cleans the outside of the cup and dish while inwardly he is full of plunder and every form of greed. [Matt. 23:25] But if the mind itself and the whole disposition of the soul are continually absorbed in contemplation of God and longing for him, then through remembrance of the good and the love of God a person continually adorns his thoughts, and they become true, reverent, and pious.

VII.6 This is attained through much struggle and labor of the mind, because the adversary in every way hinders the mind in the good. He does not want the mind, through remembrance of the good, to be lifted upward by love, but rather to be enticed by earthly desires and to dedicate all its free choice to them. When the mind dedicates itself wholly to remembrance of God and the love of God, this becomes the defeat and death of the evil one. And from remembrance of God and love of God there always follows pure love for the brother. Likewise from them are born true simplicity, gentleness, humility, blamelessness, goodness, prayer, and all the other holy commandments, which are fulfilled in their true fullness only through the one, unique, and first commandment: the love of God.

VII.7 With much struggle and with hidden and invisible labor we must continually give ourselves to the examination of thoughts. We must always exercise the weakened faculties of our soul in discerning good and evil, continually reviving them by the diligence of the mind and compelling them to hasten toward God, so that, according to Paul's word, we may become "one spirit with the Lord" [1 Cor. 6:17], continually cleaving our mind to him.

VII.8 This hidden struggle, continual meditation on the Lord, and labor by night and day must accompany our fulfillment of the commandment. We must practice it when we pray, when we serve, when we eat, when we drink, and whenever we do anything, so that every good work of virtue may be done by us for the glory of God and not for our own glory. Every observance of the commandments is sanctified when it is carried out by us in purity of heart through unceasing remembrance of the Lord, the fear of God, diligence, and love for God. Only then do we stand outside the power of the evil one, who is accustomed to defile and soil the commandment of God. In this way the whole requirement of the commandments becomes light and accessible to us, because love for God makes the commandments easy and weakens the difficulty of fulfilling them. Thus through our love for God all the other commandments become light, accessible, and simple.

VII.9 As has been said, the whole earnest warfare of the adversary is directed toward one thing alone: to draw the mind away from remembrance of God, from the fear of God, and from love for the Lord. Therefore he uses every earthly enticement to lead a person away from the true good toward what only appears to be good. Whatever good a person does, the evil one desires to defile and stain it, striving to mix into the commandment the later-sown seed of vainglory, self-conceit, murmuring, or something similar, so that the good may not arise solely because of God and the person's good zeal. Therefore every Christian must possess much knowledge and the power of spiritual discernment, so as to recognize the snares and artifices of the evil one and to separate himself completely from evil.

VII.10 So that it may not seem that we say these things merely from ourselves, let us set forth testimony from holy Scripture. It is written that Abel offered to God from the firstborn of his sheep and from their fat, while Cain brought a gift from the fruits of the earth. God looked upon Abel's gifts, but did not accept Cain's offering. [Gen. 4:3-5] From this we learn that if some good work is done carelessly, negligently, or for some vain purpose, it will not be pleasing to God; but if it is done according to the will of God, with diligence, watchfulness, faith, and for God alone, it will be acceptable to him. Likewise the patriarch Abraham gave a tithe from the best of the spoils to Melchizedek, priest of God Most High, and thus received his blessing. [Heb. 7:1-6; Gen. 14:17-20]

VII.11 By these sayings the Spirit, revealing the higher spiritual sense of Scripture, indicates that the best, richest, and first elements of our whole nature—the mind itself, the conscience itself, our right understanding itself, the loving power of the soul itself, and, in general, the firstfruits of our entire human nature—must always and above all be offered to God as the sacred sacrifice of the heart, as a tithe from the best spoils and as the firstfruits of right thoughts. Along with this we must continually give ourselves to remembrance of God, meditation on him, and love for him. Only in this way can we daily grow and advance in divine love, while the divine power of Christ assists us. The burden of the righteousness of the commandments will appear light to us when we fulfill them purely and blamelessly, if the Lord himself, through faith and love, joins us to himself by our longing for him and by our good desire for all his commandments.