[ 14 ] “It is not up to me to say whether the well-known examples of
goodwill that you have just presented one after the other are actions
motivated by spiritual goodwill or not. There is one thing I can do, how-
ever. These examples of goodwill should contain something spiritual. I
can state what that spiritual something must be like if they are to be
earthly forms of spiritual goodwill.
“Those actions are spiritual if they are done with judgment based on
a love for justice. That is, as we practice goodwill we check to see whether
we are acting on the basis of justice. We use our judgment to tell.
“It is possible for us to do harm through our good deeds. It is also
possible for us to do good through apparently evil deeds. For example,
we do harm through a good deed if we give a needy robber money to buy
a sword, even if the robber while begging doesn’t say that that is what the
money is for; or if we bail the robber out of prison and point the way to
the forest, saying to ourselves, ‘It is not my fault if the robber steals. I
have helped another human being.’
“For another example, if we feed some lazy person and protect him
or her from being forced to labor for work, and we say, ‘Stay in a room at
my house. Lie in bed. Why wear yourself out?’ we are encouraging lazi-
ness. Likewise if we give dishonest friends and relatives of ours jobs in
high places from which they can practice all kinds of malice. Surely any-
one can see that these acts of goodwill are not done with any love for jus-
tice or with any judgment.
[ 15 ] “On the other hand, we can also do good through actions that
look bad. Take for example a judge who lets a criminal go because the
criminal is crying and pouring out devout words, praying for the judge to
grant a pardon because the criminal is the judge’s neighbor. The judge
would be performing an act of goodwill by imposing the penalty estab-
lished in the law, because this would stop the criminal from doing any
further harm and being a threat to the community; and the community
takes precedence as a form of the neighbor. It would also prevent the
scandal that might arise if the judge decided to let the criminal go.
“Surely everyone knows that servants benefit if their masters punish
them for doing something evil, and children benefit as well when their
parents punish them for the same reason.
“Something similar is also good for the people in hell, all of whom
love doing evil. It is good for them to be kept locked in prisons and to be
punished when they do something evil. The Lord allows this for the sake
singke
(singke)
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