2) Любящий любимого волю исполняет, дабы не опечалить любимого, ибо оскорбление любимого противно любви, и разрушает союз любви. Так сын добрый волю отца своего старается исполнить, жена добрая волю мужа своего, чтобы не оскорбить того, которого естественною любовью любит. Так, кто Христа Сына Божия любит, старается волю Его святую исполнять. Воля Христова в заповедях Его означается, и так, кто Христа любит, старается заповеди Его исполнять, как говорит Он Сам: Кто имеет заповеди Мои и соблюдает их, тот любит Меня (Ин. 14:21). Христова же заповедь есть, чтобы мы любили друг друга, как еще Он говорит: Сие заповедаю вам, да любите друг друга (Ин. 15:17). (Что значит любить ближнего, и каковы плоды любви той, сказано в главе о любви к ближнему в первой книге). И не только друзей и братию свою, но и врагов наших хочет и повелевает нам любить Христос: Любите врагов ваших (Мф. 5:44).

От такой только любви истинно любящий Христа и познается, когда не только друзей, но и врагов своих любит, по учению Его. Ибо любящих себя и язычники и мытари и прочие грешники любят, как говорит Христос: Если вы будете любить любящих вас, какая вам награда? Не то же ли делают и мытари? (Мф. 5:46). Врагов же любить – одной только христианской души, любовью Христовою исполненной, дело есть, как об этом также в главе о любви к врагам в первой книге сказано.

Спросит кто: «Как же мне того любить, который на меня враждует?»

Правда, правильно так отвечает о себе плотской, душевный и невозрожденный человек. Ибо плотскому и самолюбивому человеку это весьма трудно и почти невозможно, но верному и благодатью Духа Святого возрожденному удобно. Вере и любви истинной ничто не неудобно. Если любишь Христа, Который за тебя и меня, врагов, умер, то с охотою и любовью послушаешь то, что Он мне и тебе велит: Любите врагов ваших. Что тебе от того, что враг твой на тебя враждует? Ты на него не враждуй, но смотри, что Христос, любитель душ наших, повелевает, и Его любовью вражду врага твоего преодолевай, чтобы ненавистью ко врагу не разорить Христову заповедь и так заповедавшего не оскорбить, что разоряет любовь. Не будь побежден злом, но побеждай зло добром (Рим. 12:21).

Скажет кто: «Враг ведь худо и беззаконно поступает?»

Правда, но и ты худо и беззаконно будешь поступать, когда не любить, но враждовать на него будешь. Только вражда на грех и на изобретателя его дьявола праведна. Он худо делает, что зло тебе причиняет, но и ты худо делаешь, что злом за зло воздаешь.

Скажет кто: «Сердце мое от него отвращается».

Conquer and persuade your heart by faith and the love of Christ, and do not what your heart desires, but what your faith and the commandment of Christ require of you. Christ commands, He who loves you commands, eternal truth demands it, it pleases His holy will, it is useful for you, although the carnal heart, the thought and the mind of the blind desire the opposite. Therefore, we must do as He wills, and not as our passionate flesh, if we want to love Him. This is also our Christian podvig, that we should do not what our blind flesh wants, but what God's commandment commands.

3) The lover also loves the one whom he loves. Thus, when you love your friend, then for the sake of your beloved friend you love him whom the friend loves. When you love Christ, you must love every person, your friend and your enemy. For Christ so loved all, that He laid down His life for all, friends and enemies, as the Apostle says: Christ died for all (2 Corinthians 5:15). That is why He commands us to love our neighbors, because He loves us as well as our neighbors, so that we not only do no harm to them, but also do every good as we do to ourselves, from this love for our neighbor is also known.

From this it follows that for the sake of Christ, Who loves all, you must also love everyone, if you want to love Christ, and from this it follows that for Christ's sake you will not renounce the hungry to feed, the thirsty to drink, the naked to clothe the naked, the strange to bring into the house, the sick and imprisoned to visit, to comfort the sorrowful, to rejoice over the happiness of your neighbor, over the misfortune to grieve. This is what love for Christ and for your beloved neighbor demands of you. For the fruit of love for one's neighbor is mercy for one's neighbor and benevolence. From this it follows that those who do not love their neighbor do not have love for Christ. But they do not love him, for they do not do him good. Worse than that are those who not only do not do good, but also do evil to their neighbor. Such people, oppressing and embittering their neighbor, persecute and embitter Christ Himself, although they do not notice it. For he who embitters a servant also touches his master, but every man is a servant of God.

4) A lover beware of insulting his beloved. For insult and love for the beloved cannot be together in the lover. Unless the offense is due to ignorance, or some other weakness, and not from intent and will, or when he who loves his beloved insults for his benefit. But such an insult from love happens. As a father insults his son when he beats him, so that he may be in order, so a friend insults his dear friend, exposing his faults. Thus good shepherds insult the people entrusted to them, so that they may have sorrow for God's sake, which produces unfailing repentance unto salvation (2 Cor. 7:10).

In the same way, the Lord Himself, whom He loves, punishes him; but he smites every son whom he receives" (Heb. 12:6). But such an insult as that comes from love is not repugnant to love, it is even a well-known sign and fruit of love. And therefore the word here is not about this offense, but about such as happens from anger of the heart. Christ is offended by every sin as the eternal Truth, and Goodness, and the Treasure of all virtues. For whoever loves Christ guards himself from all sin, and the more he loves Him, the more he guards himself from sin, only in order not to offend or grieve Him, leaving other reasons that can lead away from sin.

5) A lover feels sorry when he offends his loved one himself, or when he sees someone else offended. Thus, whoever loves Christ, when through weakness he sins in something, is contrite, regrets, scolds himself, and with humility and fervent confession of his sin and humiliation and reproach of himself, falls down before Him without hypocrisy, and condemns himself worthy of all punishment. Such a person, even if he was in hell for a crime, would praise God's truth there. Thus the Apostle Peter, the warmest lover of Christ, when he denied Christ and found out his sin, with which he had offended his beloved Teacher, when he went out, wept bitterly (Matt. 26:75). It is hard for a lover to grieve his beloved, and this sorrow cannot exist without his own subsequent sorrow. For true love rejoices with him who rejoices, and weeps with his beloved who weeps (Romans 12:15).

6) He who loves his beloved always bears in his heart, not materially (for it cannot be that a person is in our heart, both body and soul), but spiritually. For love has its place in the heart and is one with the beloved. Thus the son of a father whom he loves, and a friend of his dear friend, although absent, embraces in his heart, why he often remembers him, takes care that something contrary does not happen to him, talks about him, asks and inquires how his beloved is when he is separated from him, and often weeps because he does not see him for a long time. Such an action is noticeable in natural love.