The Gospel’s Commands Are Gentler Than the Law’s

Whoever, then, climbs to this height of the gospel’s perfection is at once raised by the merit of such virtue above every law. He disregards as trivial everything Moses commands, and recognizes that he is subject only to the grace of the Savior, by whose help he knows he has reached that most exalted condition. So sin has no dominion over him, “because the love of God, which is poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us,” shuts out all care for everything else. It can neither desire what is forbidden nor neglect what is commanded, since its whole aim and all its desire are always fixed on the love of God; and it is so far from being caught by the delights of worthless things that it does not even take advantage of the things that are permitted. But under the law, where lawful marriage is kept, the wanderings of lust are restrained and bound to one woman alone, and yet the goads of bodily lust cannot help being strong. It is hard for a fire that is deliberately supplied with fuel to be shut in within set limits, so as not to spread further and burn up whatever it touches. Even if the objection meets it that it is not allowed to blaze beyond those limits, still, even while it is held in check, it is on fire, because the will itself is at fault, and its habit of sexual intercourse hurries it into too swift excesses of adultery. But those whom the grace of the Savior has fired with the holy love of chastity so burn up all the thorns of bodily desire in the fire of the Lord’s love that no dying embers of sin disturb the coolness of their purity. So the servants of the law fall away from the use of lawful things into unlawful ones; the sharers in grace, while they disregard lawful things, know nothing of unlawful ones. [a]

But just as sin is alive in one who loves marriage, so it is also in one who is content merely to pay his tithes and firstfruits. For while he is slack or careless, he is sure to sin in regard to their kind or their amount, or their daily distribution. Since he is commanded to minister tirelessly from what is his to those in need, then even though he may hand it out with the fullest faith and devotion, it is hard for him not to fall often into the snares of sin. But over those who have not set aside the counsel of the Lord, but who give all their property to the poor, take up their cross, and follow the giver of grace, sin can have no dominion. For no faithless anxiety about getting food will trouble the one who devoutly distributes and scatters his wealth, already consecrated to Christ and no longer counted his own. Nor will any grudging hesitation take away the cheerfulness of his almsgiving. Without any thought for his own needs or fear of his own food running short, he is distributing what has once for all been completely offered to God and is no longer counted his own, for he is sure that once he has succeeded in stripping himself as he wishes, he will be fed by God much more than the birds of the air. On the other hand, the one who keeps his goods of this world, or who, bound by the rules of the old law, gives away the tithe of his produce and his firstfruits, or a portion of his income, may to a considerable degree quench the fire of his sins with this dew of almsgiving. Yet however generously he gives away his wealth, he cannot entirely rid himself of the dominion of sin, unless perhaps by the grace of the Savior he gets rid of all love of possessing along with his goods.

In the same way, whoever chooses to pull out, as the law commands, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, or to hate his enemy, cannot fail to be subject to the bloody rule of sin. For while he wants to avenge an injury done to himself by retaliation, and while he nurses bitter hatred against an enemy, he is sure always to be inflamed with the passion of anger and rage. But whoever lives in the light of the grace of the gospel, and overcomes evil, not by resisting it but by bearing it; who does not hesitate, of his own free will, to offer the other cheek also to one who strikes his right cheek, and to give his cloak also to one who wants to go to law with him for his coat; and who loves his enemies and prays for those who slander him: this man has broken the yoke of sin and burst its chains. For he is not living under the law, which does not destroy the seeds of sin. Not without reason the apostle says of it: “A former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness, for the law brought nothing to perfection.” And the Lord says through the prophet: “And I gave them commands that were not good, and ordinances by which they could not live.” He lives instead under grace, which does not merely lop off the branches of wickedness, but tears up the very roots of an evil will.