For if the earth has to suffer either joy or injury, it is simply on people’s account, that they may suffer the joy or the sorrow through the events that happen to their dwelling place, whereby they will rather have to pay the penalty that, simply on their account, even the earth must suffer. When, therefore, God even threatens the earth, I would prefer saying that he threatens the flesh. So likewise, when he makes a promise to the earth, I would rather understand him as promising the flesh; as in that passage of David: The Lord is King, let the earth be glad, meaning the flesh of the saints, to which appertains the enjoyment of the kingdom of God.

If, however, those whom God has accepted and the believers shall attain salvation, it is necessary that those whom God has rejected and the unbelieving should incur the opposite issue, even the loss of salvation. Now here is a judgment, and those who hold it out before us belong to the Creator. Whom else than the God of retribution can I understand by the one who shall beat his servants with stripes, either few or many, and shall exact from them what he had committed to them? Whom is it suitable for me to obey, but him who remunerates? Your Christ proclaims, I have come to send fire on the earth.^[1] That most lenient being, the Lord who has no hell, not long before had restrained his disciples from demanding fire on the churlish village. Whereas he burned Sodom and Gomorrah with a tempest of fire. Of him the psalmist sang, A fire shall go out before him and burn up his enemies round about. By Hosea he uttered the threat, I will send a fire on the cities of Judah;^[2] and by Isaiah, A fire has been kindled in my anger.^[3] He cannot lie. If it is not he who spoke even out of the burning bush, it can be of no importance what fire you insist on being understood.

But you will say, I am a girl delicately reared, and I cannot labor with my hands. Suppose that I live to old age and then fall sick, who will take pity on me?^[1] Hear Jesus speaking to the apostles: Take no thought what you shall eat; nor yet for your body, what you shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they do not sow, neither do they reap or gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them.^[2] If clothing should fail you, set the lilies before your eyes. If hunger should seize you, think of the words in which the poor and hungry are blessed. If pain should afflict you, read, Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities,^[3] and There was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.^[4] Rejoice in all God’s judgments, for does not the psalmist say, The daughters of Judah rejoiced because of your judgments, O Lord? Let the words be ever on your lips: Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there;^[5] and We brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.^[6]

I should not pass over without investigating the significance of the phrases, to love God and to love one’s neighbor. A person who loves God will do the following: obey his command in all respects; observe his laws and precepts; attempt to sanctify himself because God is holy, as is written: Be holy, because I the Lord your God am holy;^[1] fulfill the direction of the prophet: You that love the Lord, hate evil; think of nothing but divine and heavenly subjects, for God is a lover of nothing but holiness, justice and piety; do only what God seems to love.

Let us love, let us love freely and without any strings attached. It is God, after all, whom we love. We can find nothing better than God. Let us love him for his own sake, and ourselves and each other in him, but still for his sake. You only love your friend truly, after all, when you love God in your friend, either because God is in him or in order that God may be in him. That is true love and respect; if we love ourselves for any other reason, we are in fact hating rather than loving. Whoever loves iniquity,^[1] you see—what does he hate? Maybe the man next door, maybe the woman next door? It is his turn to be horrified, for they hate their own soul.^[2] Love of wickedness means love of your own soul. You that love the Lord, hate evil. God is good, what you love is evil, and you love yourself when you are evil; how can you love God, when you still love what God hates?