444. The reason why, when a moral life is at the same time spiritual, this is charity, is that the practices of a moral life and a charitable one are the same. Charity is willing good to the neighbour and as a result dealing well with him; and this too is the concern of a moral life. The spiritual law is the one prescribed by the Lord:

Everything you wish people to do to you, do the same to them; this is the Law and the Prophets, Matthew 7:12.

This same law applies universally to moral life. But it would take a great many pages to list all charitable deeds and compare them with the deeds prescribed by a moral life, so merely six commandments of the second table of the Ten Commandments can serve as an illustration. It is plain to anyone that they are the commandments of moral life; and it may be seen above (329-331) that they also contain everything to do with love towards the neighbour. Charity fulfils all these commandments, as is clear from the following passage of Paul:

Love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, You are not to commit adultery, You are not to commit murder, You are not to steal, You are not to be a false witness, You are not to covet, and any other commandment there may be, these are all summed up in this phrase: You are to love your neighbour as yourself. Charity does not do evil to the neighbour; it is the fulfilment of the law, Romans 13:8-10.

[2] If anyone's thinking comes solely from the external man, he cannot fail to be surprised that the seven commandments of the second table were delivered by Jehovah on Mount Sinai amid such miraculous circumstances, when those same rules were enjoined by the laws of the civil legal system in every kingdom upon earth, including therefore Egypt, which the Children of Israel had just left; for no kingdom can last without them. But the fact that they were delivered by Jehovah, and written by His finger on two stone tables, caused them to be not only the commandments of the civil community, and so of natural moral life, but also the commandments of the heavenly community, and so of spiritual moral life. Thus to break them would not only be acting against one's fellow men, but also against God.

329. The Ten Commandments contain everything to do with love for God and everything to do with love towards the neighbour.

Eight of the Ten Commandments, the first, second, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth contain no mention of love for God and love towards the neighbour. They do not tell us that God is to be loved, nor that God's name is to be kept holy, nor that the neighbour is to be loved, nor that he should be treated honestly and uprightly; they merely say 'There is not to be any other God before my face; you are not to take the name of God in vain; you are not to commit murder; you are not to commit adultery; you are not to steal; you are not to bear false witness; you are not to covet what is your neighbour's.' In general, they prescribe that evil is not to be willed, thought or done, either against God or against the neighbour. The reason why we are not commanded to do what is directly the work of love and charity, but only to avoid doing their opposites, is that in so far as a person shuns evils as sins, so far does he will the good actions of love and charity. It will be seen in the chapter on charity [Chapter 7] that the first point of love for God and love towards the neighbour is not to do evil, and their second point is to do good.

[2] There are two contradictory loves, the love of willing and doing good, and the love of willing and doing evil. The latter love is the love of hell, the former the love of heaven. The whole of hell possesses the love of doing evil, the whole of heaven possesses the love of doing good. Now since human beings are by birth prone to evils of every kind, and from birth on they tend towards the pursuits of hell, being unable to enter heaven unless they are born again, that is, regenerated, the evils which belong to hell must first be removed, before a person can will the good deeds which belong to heaven. For no one can be adopted by the Lord, until he has parted with the devil. The manner in which evils are removed and a person is brought to do good will be demonstrated in two chapters, those on Repentance [Chapter 9] and Reformation and Regeneration [Chapter 10].

[3] The Lord teaches in Isaiah that evils must first be removed before the good deeds performed by a person become good in the sight of God:

Wash yourselves, purify yourselves, remove the wickedness of your works from before my eyes; [cease to do evil;] learn to do good. Then if your sins were as scarlet, they will become white as snow; if they were red like purple, they will be like wool, Isaiah 1:16-18.

There is another passage like this in Jeremiah:

Stand in the gate of Jehovah's house, and there proclaim this word.

Thus spoke Jehovah Zebaoth, the God of Israel: make your ways good, and your works also. Put not your trust in lying words, saying, This is Jehovah's temple, this is Jehovah's temple, this is Jehovah's temple (that is, His church). Will you, after stealing, murdering and committing adultery and swearing falsely, then come and stand in my presence in this house, upon which my name is written, and say, We were carried away, when you do all these abominations? Has this house become a robbers' cave? Behold, even I have seen it, this is the word of Jehovah, Jeremiah 7:2-4, 9-11.

[4] We are also taught in Isaiah that before washing or purification from evils, prayers addressed to God are not heard:

Jehovah says, Woe to the nation that sins, the people weighed down with iniquity. They have banished themselves back again; from which place when you spread out your hands, I hide my eyes from you. Even though you pray time and again, I do not hear, Isaiah 1:4, 15.

The person who keeps the Ten Commandments and shuns evils is attended by love and charity; this is proved by the Lord's words in John:

Jesus said, He who has my commandments and does them, he it is who loves me; and he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I shall love him and show myself to him; and we shall make our dwelling with him, John 14:21, 23.

Commandments there mean especially the Ten Commandments, which state that evil actions are not to be done nor longed for, and that thus a person's love for God, and God's love for him, follow, just as good does when evil has been removed.