Page:The Net of Faith.pdf/467

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(:The Church having lost the capacity for patience and long-suffering has lost also God. Authority based on compulsion and the love of Christ are incompatible terms. The state sovereignty does not admit the possibility of standing under the moral judgment of od. But he who obeys God needs no other authority. "Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.":)

For the deeds of faith consist in loving God and one's neighbor, and the fulness of the law is love; the secular authority cannot produce this love by its sword, but it descends from above from the Father of Lights into the hearts of good will to whom it is a delight to love God and to do His will and obey His commandments.

Judge for yourself, how can state authority approach those who are bound by the divine commandment not to resist evil in times of adversity, but to offer the other cheek when the one is struck, to leave revenge to God and not to return evil for evil, to love their enemies and to do good to them, to give them food and drink when they are hungry and thirsty, and to  Rom. 13:10.