Now the end of the commandment is love out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned:
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Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
When the promised vision, “face to face,” has come, we shall behold the Trinity—that Trinity which is not only incorporeal but perfectly inseparable and truly changeless—far more clearly and surely than we now behold its image in ourselves. This present vision, through a mirror and in an enigma, as offered to us in this life, belongs not to any one who can perceive in their own mind all that we have here set out by our analysis but to those who see the mind as a reflective image. In this way they are able to relate what they see to the e whose image it is. They reach through their actual vision of the image to a presumptive vision of the original, which cannot yet be seen face to face. The apostle does not say, “We see now a mirror” but “we see now through a mirror.” Those who see the mind as it may be seen, and in it that Trinity of which I have attempted to give a variety of descriptions, yet without believing or understanding it to be the image of God: they are seeing as if in a mir...
Now, you know, I think, not only the nature of your prayer but its object, and you have learned this, not from me but from him who has humbled himself to teach us all. Happiness is what we must seek and what we must ask of the Lord God. Many arguments have been fashioned by many men about the nature of happiness, but why should we turn to the many men or the many arguments? Brief and true is the word in the Scripture of God, “Happy is the people whose God is the Lord.” “The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and sincere faith,” that we may belong to that people and that we may be able to attain to contemplation of God and to eternal life with God. .
When anyone knows the end of the commandments to be charity “from a pure heart, and a good conscience and an unfeigned faith” and has related all of his understanding of the divine Scriptures to these three, he may approach the treatment of these books with security. For when he says “charity” he adds “from a pure heart,” so that nothing else would be loved except that which should be loved. And he joins with this “a good conscience” for the sake of hope, for he in whom there is the smallest taint of bad conscience despairs of attaining that which he believes in and loves. Third, he says “an unfeigned faith.” If our faith involves no lie, then we do not love that which is not to be loved, and living justly, we hope for that which will in no way deceive our hope. .
Faith, hope and charity, those three virtues for whose building up is mounted all the scaffolding of the Bible, are only in the soul that believes what it does not yet see, and hopes and loves what it believes. Therefore there can be love even of One who is not known, if yet he is believed. Doubtless, we must beware lest the soul, believing what it does not see, fabricates for itself an image of that which is not and bases its hope and love upon a lie. Then there will not emerge that “charity from a pure heart and a good conscience and a faith unfeigned, which is the end of the commandment.” .
When all these things have been said and considered, I am unwilling to contend about words, for such contention is profitable for nothing but the subverting of the hearer. But the law is profitable for edification if one uses it lawfully. For the end of the law “is love out of a pure heart, and a good conscience and faith unfeigned.” And our Master knew it well, for it was on these two commandments that he hung all the law and the prophets.
The end of all divine Scriptures is the love for the Being in which we should rejoice and love for the being that can rejoice with us in that love. … Whoever … thinks that he understands the divine Scriptures or any part of them so that it does not build the double love of God and of our neighbor does not understand it at all. Whoever finds a lesson there useful to the building of charity, even though he has not said what the author may be shown to have intended in that place, has not been deceived…. But anyone who understands in the Scriptures something other than that intended by them is deceived, although they do not lie.
Ascend the mountain and see the end. Christ is the mountain; come to him, and from there you will see the end of all perfection. What is the end? Ask Paul, “Now the purpose of this charge is charity, from a pure heart and a pure conscience and faith unfeigned,” and in another place, “love is the fulfillment of the law.” … Therefore, whatever you do, do it for the love of Christ, and let the intention or end of all your actions look to him. Do nothing for the sake of human praise, but everything for love of God and the desire for eternal life.
The end of the commandment. By the precept many understand, as it were by way of a parenthesis, all that is here contained from the 3rd to the 18th verse, where precept is again repeated. We may understand by the commandment, the law of Moses in general, comprehending both the ceremonial part and the moral precepts, which are also the law of nature. The ceremonial part was designed to bring us to Christ by types and figures; and the moral precepts, which were also of the law of nature, or natural reason, were to bring men to observe them by punishments, and so were delivered against wicked criminals, ungodly, who worshipped (in the Greek, lawless men) Sodomites (Witham)
Nothing is so injurious to mankind as to undervalue friendship ; and not to cultivate it with the greatest care; as nothing, on the other hand, is so beneficial, as to pursue it to the utmost of our power. This Christ has shown, where He says, If two of you shall agree on earth, as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of My Father Matthew 18:19; and again, Because iniquity shall abound, love shall wax cold. Matthew 24:12 It is this that has been the occasion of all heresies. For men, because they loved not their brethren, have envied those who were in high repute, and from envying, they have become eager for power, and from a love of power have introduced heresies. On this account Paul having said, that you might charge some that they teach no other doctrine, now shows that the manner in which this may be effected is by charity. As therefore when he says, Christ is the end of the Law Romans 10:4, that is, its fulfillment, and this is connected with the forme...
“Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold.” It is this that has been the occasion of all heresies. For those who do not love their brothers and sisters easily come to envy those in high repute. From envying, they have become eager for power, and from a love of power have introduced heresies. On this account Paul having said, “that you might charge some that they teach no other doctrine,” now shows that the manner in which this may be effected is by charity.
