"Love, and do what you want"

"Dilige, et quod vis fac." "Love, and do what you want."
St. Augustine of Hippo

Saint Augustine, in his commentaries on John's Epistles, writes Dilige, et quod vis fac, "Love, and do what you want."

At first sight, this seems a dangerous piece of advice. Numerous, after all, are the wicked things done in the name of "love." Augustine, though, is not talking about cheap, tawdry imitations of love: he is speaking of a love that desires God above all things and chooses the things of God; a love which treats our fellow men and women in the way that God has established, in a way that is subordinate to love of God and which flows from it.


"Him shall He teach in the way He chooses" (Psalm 25:12). At first, we want the awareness of being guided by God. But then as we grow spiritually, we live so fully aware of God that we do not even need to ask what His will is, because the thought of choosing another way will never occur to us. If we are saved and sanctified, God guides us by our everyday choices. And if we are about to choose what He does not want, He will give us a sense of doubt or restraint, which we must heed. Whenever there is doubt, stop at once. Never try to reason it out, saying, "I wonder why I shouldn’t do this?" God instructs us in what we choose; that is, He actually guides our common sense. And when we yield to His teachings and guidance, we no longer hinder His Spirit by continually asking, "Now, Lord, what is Your will?"

- Oswald Chambers

Even noble loves can lose this priority: to the degree that they stray from the love of God, which is identical with His justice and His law, these loves lose the character of love and decay into pride, self-gratification, lust, greed, or the service of idols. To the degree that the love is truly divine charity, to that degree one's will is guided by the Spirit, and he may do as he pleases, knowing that his actions are guided by God's own will. Hence Augustine's command, Dilige, et quod vis fac.”