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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from A treatise on Good Works by Dr. Martin Luther: of its own choice easily and gladly. Therefore take your enemies,
the ungrateful, and do good to them; then you will find how near
you are to this Commandment or how far from it, and how all your
life you will always have to do with the practice of this work.
For if your enemy needs you and you do not help him when you can,
it is just the same as if you had stolen what belonged to him,
for you owed it to him to help him. So says St. Ambrose, "Feed
the hungry; if you do not feed him, you have, as far as you are
concerned, slain him." And in this Commandment are included the
works of mercy, which Christ will require at men's hands at the
last day.
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