# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_November 1861_S342
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

342 Report on the Law.

that the poor man should eat with me, and not that I should eat with the
poor man, or take from my house and give it to strangers. A Christian can
indeed do this too, even toward his enemy — even though a Jew or a heathen
would not do the same toward his enemy. This is what he means when he
says: Give to everyone who asks you; but the one who has no need cannot
truly beg — he can only be a rogue. Being in want" (that is, being needy)
"is likewise of many kinds. Sometimes a man needs a very great deal, and
more than that, for his own useless and shameful extravagance. Such
people the devil may well provide for enough. Christ speaks to his own
Christians, who are called to suffer with him and who use the life of
this world for that eternal life to come, each according to his station;
as he says, Luke 12:29: Be not of doubtful mind.. It is said: Habentes
victum — for the body's need we should all have enough, and none should
let another go without, not even an enemy, as St. Paul says, 1 Tim. 6:8:
God gives us all abundantly enough for our use, etc... Second, of lending
one must speak just as has been said of giving. First, that a Christian
should lend, not only to a friend, but also to an enemy, as the Lord says,
Matt. 5:46 and Luke 6:34: If ye lend only to your friends, what
extraordinary thing do ye? Do not even the ungodly lend to one another, so
that they may receive as much again? Second, that one should lend to the
needy, and not to the rogue or the lazy man, or the glutton, as was said
above concerning giving; of which Sirach says, ch. 29:4: Some think that
what they borrow is simply found; they do not intend to give it back
again. Such lazy rascals abuse this commandment of Christ and rely on the
fact that one is obliged to lend; therefore one should lend them nothing.
Third, that one should lend in such a way that one still has enough to
lend tomorrow, or a year from now, as well. Otherwise the proverb holds
true: If you do not give it back to me, then I cannot lend it to you
again — that is, I must simply refuse, because I no longer have it to
lend.. Again, the children of Adam are so bitter that, were they to lend
even a turnip stalk to one who had offended them, they would sooner give
him everything the soldiers curse with, and yet they still wish to be
called Christians and go to the Sacrament. Therefore let everyone examine,
according to his own conscience, when, where, how much, and to whom he
should or must lend or give. In this matter no other measure can be set
than the neighbor's need and the Christian love which God has commanded
us to show our neighbor — as we would wish the same shown to us by others
in like case, whether we were their friends or their enemies. Such
lending is indeed neither hard nor impossible, so that the Sophists had
no cause here to alter our Lord's commandment and turn it into their own
notions, which they call Consilia, or counsels of perfection; for reason
itself teaches us that one should do to another what one would wish to
have done to oneself by another, as the Lord himself says in the same
place, Matt. 7,