Works of Love

By a strange self-contradiction, the self-deceived person may even think that he is being sympathetic with the unhappy one who has been deceived. But if you carefully take note of his consoling words and therapeutic wisdom, you will recognize love by its fruits: by the bitterness of the mockery, by the acridity of the sensibleness, by the poisonous spirit of distrust, by the biting cold of callousness—that is, it will be recognizable from the fruits that there is no love within.

True, there is a flower called the flower of eternity, but...there is also a so-called everlasting flower that like perishable flowers blooms only at a certain time of the year—what a mistake to call the latter a flower of eternity! Yet in the moment of blossoming it is very deceptive. But every tree is known by its own fruit...and the love that Christianity speaks of is known by its own fruit—that it has within itself eternity’s truth...What perishes blossoms, and what blossoms perishes, but [Christian love] cannot be sung about—it must be believed and it must be lived.

Yet when we say that love is known by its fruits, we are also saying that in a certain sense love itself is hidden and therefore is known only by its revealing fruits...The life of thought is hidden; the expression of it is the manifestation.

Where does love come from?...There is a place in a person’s innermost being; from this place flows the life of love, for “from the heart flows life.” But you cannot see this place; however deeply you penetrate, the origin eludes you in remoteness and hiddenness. Even when you have penetrated furthest in, the origin is always still a bit further in...it is love’s desire...[that] its hidden life...may remain a secret, that no one inquisitively and brazenly will force his way in...to see that which he cannot see anyway without forfeiting, because of his curiosity, the joy and blessing of it.

Love’s hidden life is in the innermost being, unfathomable, and then in turn is in an unfathomable connectedness with all existence. Just as the quiet lake originates deep down in hidden springs no eye has seen, so also does a person’s love originate...more deeply in God’s love...In the same way the life of love is hidden...its hidden life is in itself motion and has eternity within itself. Just as the quiet lake, however calm its surface, is actually flowing water, since there is the gushing spring at the bottom—so also love, however quiet it is in its concealment, is flowing nevertheless.

Yet this hidden life of love is recognizable by its fruits—indeed, to be able to be known by its fruits is a need in love.

“Let us not love in word or speech but in deed and truth"...In one person’s mouth the same words can be so full of substance...and in another person’s mouth they can be like the vague whispering of leaves...But you should not...hold back your words...because this can be the unloving committing of a wrong, just like withholding from someone what you owe him...When the heart is full, you should not...[button] your lips. You should let the mouth speak out of the abundance of the heart...But one...should know by...the fact that there are only leaves, that love has not reached its full growth. 

There are, of course, works that in a particular sense are called works of love. But even giving to charity, visiting the widow, and clothing the naked do not truly demonstrate or make known a person’s love, inasmuch as one can do works of love in an unloving, yes, even in a self-loving way, and if this is so the work of love is no work of love at all...But here again it holds true that there is nothing, no “thus and so,” that can unconditionally be said to demonstrate unconditionally the presence of love or to demonstrate unconditionally its absence.

It is true that no hypocrite has ever deceived anyone who in fear and trembling before God was afraid of himself. But the one who is busily occupied tracking down hypocrites...had better see to it that this is not also a hypocrisy...But without willing...the person whose love truly bears its own fruit will expose [or at least shame] every hypocrite who comes near him...and the loving person [may] not even be aware of this...The best defense against hypocrisy is love...in all eternity it has nothing to do with hypocrisy...[Love] secures the loving one against falling into the hypocrite's snare

To defraud oneself of love is the most terrible, is an eternal loss, for which there is no compensation either in time or in eternity...the one deceived [by humans] is still related to love, and the deception is only that the love was not where it was thought to be, but the self-deceived person has locked and is locking himself out of love...the self-deceived person has prevented himself from winning the eternal. Indeed, what has the person actually lost who, because of his love, became a victim of human deception if it turns out in eternity that love remains, whereas the deception has ended!