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Commandment to love one's neighbour.... self-love....

The commandment of neighbourly love should put a stop to self-love, for this is the death of the soul. A person is only allowed to love himself to a small degree, i.e. he should be careful with God's gift of grace insofar as he protects his life from wanton harm and does everything that preserves this life, because it is not given to him without purpose. However, as soon as he loves himself excessively he does not fulfil his actual purpose of earthly life, for self-love does not ennoble the human being but degrades him. But love for one's neighbour must inevitably reduce self-love, and that in the same measure as love is practiced for one's neighbour. And since the human being has the opportunity to practice neighbourly love in the most extensive way, he will soon be able to surpass self-love many times over, yet it always requires an overcoming to do good to the neighbour if love has not yet kindled into a bright flame in the human being's heart. And that is why God gave the commandment of neighbourly love, because the person who has love within himself does not need the commandment. But where self-love still predominates, man must be stimulated by the commandments to fight against the former, he must first be accustomed, so to speak, to pay less attention to himself for the sake of his fellow human beings. If he forces himself into active neighbourly love, even if initially without an inner drive, love will nevertheless soon ignite in him and he will then carry out the works of love out of an inner drive to help and please.... And then self-love diminishes and yet he does the greatest work of love in himself, for he saves his soul without selfish thoughts, for he practices love for the sake of love and goodness.... And thus love for God also grows in him, which is expressed in love for his neighbour.... For loving God with all your heart means keeping His commandments, and His commandments demand love.... love for everything God has created, but in an unselfish way, for selfish love only seeks self-interest and is therefore not divine love. And if the human being does not fight selfish love he will constantly go backwards in his development, for divine love will then remain alien to him, but this alone will bring him redemption. Ego love wants to possess everything, however, it only seeks earthly goods and thus hinders the development of the soul, for only the giver will also be allowed to receive. But anyone who loves himself more than his neighbour will not want to hand out anything and therefore will not be able to receive anything either. But since God measures according to the human being's will to give, he must first be urged to give through commandments, and as he now complies with the commandments he will also be considered by God. And thereby he is slowly educated to love activity, which can then also become more and more unselfish the more the human being fights self-love. And only then will he also recognize the blessing of neighbourly love, because it makes him all the more happy the more it is the instinct of his heart. And the more the human being awakens to life, whereas self-love causes him to fall prey to spiritual death.... Love must be practiced if the spirit is to come alive in the human being. And this is why God gave him the commandments, for the human being is constantly in danger of losing himself to the opposing force if love for himself prevails, whereas he comes ever closer to God the more he gives himself up, thus overcomes self-love, for love for his neighbour earns him God's undivided love which seizes him and unites with him and makes him the most blissful being on earth and one day in eternity....

Amen

ZAPOVED LJUBEZNI DO BLIŽNJEGA.... SAMOLJUBJE....

Samoljubje mora biti zaustavljeno preko zapovedi Ljubezni do bližnjega, ker je le to za dušo smrt. Človek mora sebe ljubiti samo v majhni meri oz. on mora v tem pogledu pazljivo ravnati z darom Božje milosti tako, da on ščiti svoje življenje pred tem, da ga namerno oškoduje in da naredi vse, da bi ohranil to življenje, ker mu le ta ni dan brez razloga. Toda čim on samega sebe prekomerno ljubi, on ne uresničuje dejanskega namena zemeljskega življenja, ker samoljubje človeka ne obogatí, ampak ga vleče navzdol. Torej Ljubezen do bližnjega mora neizbežno zmanjšati samoljubje, in sicer v enaki meri, v kateri je prakticirana Ljubezen do bližnjega. Ker pa ima človek možnost, da Ljubezen do bližnjega prakticira na najbolj obsežen način, bi on kaj hitro lahko večkratno prehitel samoljubje; vendar pa, da bi bližnjemu storil dobro, je vedno potrebna borba (premagovanje samoljubja), ko Ljubezen v srcu človeka še ni prižgana v jasen plamen. Zaradi tega je Bog dal zapoved Ljubezni do bližnjega, ker človeku, ki ima v sebi to Ljubezen, ta zapoved ni potrebna. Vendar pa mora tam, kjer še vedno prevladuje samoljubje, človek preko zapovedi prejeti spodbudo, da bi premagal to prvo, in se mora na nek način najprej privaditi, da zaradi bližnjega manj pozornosti daje sebi. Če on samega sebe prisili na aktivno Ljubezen do bližnjega, celo če je to na začetku brez notranje spodbude, pa se bo v njemu vendarle kmalu prižgala Ljubezen, in on bo potem preko notranje spodbude izvajal dela Ljubezni, da bi pomagal ter osrečil.... Potem se samoljubje zmanšuje; vendar pa on na sebi uresničuje največje delo Ljubezni, ker rešuje svojo dušo, toda brez sebičnih misli, ker prakticira Ljubezen zaradi Ljubezni in zaradi dobrega.... In v njem obenem tudi raste Ljubezen do Boga, katera prihaja do izraza (se izraža) v Ljubezni do bližnjega.... Namreč ljubiti Boga z vsem srcem pomeni čuvati Njegove zapovedi (1 Janez5:3), Njegove zapovedi pa zahtevajo Ljubezen.... Ljubezen do vsega, kar je ustvarjeno od Boga, toda na nesebičen način, ker jaz-Ljubezen vedno zahteva za lastne koristi, in zaradi tega ni Božanska Ljubezen. Če se človek ne bori proti samoljubju, bo on nenehno nazadoval v razvoju, ker bo Božanska Ljubezen zanj ostala tuja, ker mu edino ona prinaša odrešenje. Jaz-ljubezen želi vse posedovati; ona teži edino k zemeljskim dobrinam in zaradi tega preprečuje duševni razvoj, ker bo edino tisti, ki daje (daruje), obenem tudi prejel. Vendar pa vsak, ki ljubi sebe bolj kot bližnjega, ne bo želel ničesar dati (podariti, razdeliti) in zato tudi ne bo mogel niti prejeti. Ker pa Bog meri v skladu s človekovo voljo za dajanjem, potem mora on najprej preko zapovedi prejeti spodbudo za dajanje; in kakor sedaj upošteva te zapovedi, tako bo on ravno tako vzet v poštev (bo oskrbljen) od Boga. In preko tega se bo on počasi privadil na dejavnosti (aktivnosti) Ljubezni, katera pa potem ravno tako lahko postane vse bolj nesebična, kolikor bolj on premaguje samoljubje. On šele tedaj prepozna blagoslov Ljubezni do bližnjega, ker ga le ta osreči, kolikor bolj ona prejme spodbudo iz srca, in toliko bolj se človek prebuja v življenje, medtem ko samoljubje naredi, da človek pade v duhovno smrt.... Ljubezen mora biti prakticirana, da bi duh v človeku postal živ. In zaradi tega mu je Bog dal zapovedi, ker je človek, če prevladuje samoljubje, vedno v nevarnosti, da se izgubi na nasprotni strani, medtem ko se on vse bolj približuje Bogu, kolikor bolj se odreka samega sebe tako, da premaguje samoljubje, ker mu Ljubezen do bližnjega prinaša nerazdeljeno (enotno, enovito) Božjo Ljubezen, katera ga zajema in se združuje z njim ter naredi, da je najbolj blaženo bitje že na Zemlji, kakor tudi nekoč v večnosti.

AMEN