TEACHINGS ABOUT CHARITY

No one can know what good is, good understood in a spiritual sense, unless he knows what love towards the neighbour and love to God are; and no one can know what evil is unless he knows what self-love and love of the world are. Neither can anyone within himself acknowledge and therefore know what truth composing faith is unless he knows what good is and is governed by it; nor can anyone know what falsity is unless he knows what evil is. No one therefore can engage in self-examination unless from the two kinds of love that go with good he knows what good is, and from good what truth is, and unless from the two kinds of love that go with evil he knows what evil is, and from evil what falsity is.