Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/6384

6384 Commandments of love.... cold love....

October 24, 1955: Book 68

God's will is to fulfil the commandments of love.... And it is precisely these commandments which people oppose, for their nature does not allow them to deny themselves anything for the sake of their fellow human beings.... God knows that people's nature lacks love, but He also knows that there is no other path to beatitude than through love.... And that is why He gave the commandments of love for God and neighbour, which admittedly also have to be fulfilled voluntarily if they are to promote maturity of soul. God knows that the commandments can be fulfilled because the spark of love was placed in every human being's heart when he was embodied as a human being.... Every human being has this divine spark of love within himself, thus it is not impossible for anyone to ignite it.... Every human being can be good if he wants to be.... And 'being good' means practicing love, being helpful towards fellow human beings and doing everything that is pleasing to God, Who Himself is love. But the human being must be stimulated to do this, which happens through the commandments of love. Every person could certainly feel within himself how he should behave, he could also walk right on earth without commandments because the spark of love glows within him.... Yet selfish love is still very strong in the human being, and this selfish love has therefore been contrasted with the commandments of love, so that the human being can now decide freely.... For this is his test of earthly life, to choose the divine or the God-opposing. Because people are influenced by the adversary, there must also be a counter-influence so that the human being need not succumb to the adversary's influence. But God's adversary has great power, especially in the time of the end.... For he knows how to stir up selfish love in people more and more and portray the divine commandments as inappropriate, so that people no longer pay attention to the latter but do everything in order to satisfy their selfish love. Love has grown cold among people.... Although it glows in every person's heart it will not be ignited into a flame which consumes everything that comes within its reach.... And it will be completely smothered the closer it gets to the end.... And then God's adversary will have won his game insofar as he will have succeeded in pushing the souls away from God, Who Himself is love.... For these souls, because they are without love, are endlessly far away from God. But he himself has achieved nothing other than that these souls, which he believes to have won, are snatched from his power again and banished anew in the form.... The divine commandments of love can prevent this if the human being respects them.... if he fights against self-love in order to be able to fulfil God's commandments.... if he first does something in order not to violate the law, even if he is not yet filled with the inner urge to practice love.... But strength is supplied to the willing person, and what he first does under the pressure of a commandment he will soon do voluntarily and with a joyful heart, because love is strength which fills him ever more. For this reason people should take notice of God's will, they should be given the word of God which only ever preaches love, which emphasizes the divine commandments as the most important.... because it is extremely important that they are fulfilled or they would not have been given by God.... Yet He wants to help people who still have little love within themselves, who are still strongly afflicted with self-love.... He wants to show them the path to beatitude, and that is why He gave people the commandments of love, for He knows people's weakness, their deficiency and their inner urges.... But He also knows how He can remedy all these weaknesses.... Love must be practiced on earth, and anyone who does not do it voluntarily must be encouraged to do so by commandments so that he unites himself with God, Who is love Himself, so that he becomes free from the adversary whose unkindness tore him and his followers into the abyss....

Amen

Translated by Doris Boekers