3.1 God's Laws
The Characteristics of Natural Law
Natural law is the law of God. It is the only law truly necessary for human happiness. It shows human beings what they should and should not do, and they suffer only when they depart from it.
God’s law is as eternal and immutable as God.
God cannot prescribe to humankind in one age what would be forbidden in another. God does not err. Human beings must modify their own laws because they are imperfect, but God’s laws are perfect. The harmony that governs both the material and moral universe is founded upon laws that God has established forever.
The divine laws encompass all the laws of nature, because God is the author of all things. Scientists study the laws of matter, whereas moral persons study and practice the laws of the soul.
Human beings can come to understand both the laws of nature and the laws of matter, but a single existence is not enough to do so.
If we consider only the distance separating the primitive person from the civilized one, a few years are very little for acquiring all that belongs to a perfected being. Even the longest life is insufficient, especially when it is cut short, as happens for many.
Among the divine laws, some regulate the movement and workings of inert matter. These are the physical laws, and their study belongs to the domain of science.
Others concern human beings specifically in their relations with God and with one another, encompassing the rules of the life of the body and the soul. These are the moral laws.
The divine laws are not the same for all worlds. Reason tells us that they must be suited to the nature of each world and proportioned to the degree of advancement of the beings who inhabit it.
The Origin and Knowledge of Natural Law
All may know God’s law, but not all understand it. Moral persons and those who desire to examine it understand it best. Nevertheless, all will understand it someday, because such understanding is necessary for progress.
The justice of multiple human incarnations follows from this principle, because in each new existence the human intellect becomes more developed and better understands what is good and what is evil. If everything had to be accomplished in a single existence, the fate of the many millions who die every day in brutality or ignorance would depend simply on being born in conditions that did not enable them to become enlightened.
Before its union with the body, the soul comprehends God’s law according to its degree of perfection, and it preserves an intuitive memory of it after joining with the body. However, human beings’ evil instincts often cause that memory to be forgotten.
God’s law is written in the conscience.
Although human beings carry God’s law in their conscience, they have forgotten and disregarded it; but God has willed that they should be reminded of it.
In every age, individuals have received the mission of revealing the divine law. They are high-order spirits who have incarnated for the purpose of helping humankind progress.
People may also have been led astray by those who were not actually inspired by God and who, out of ambition, regarded themselves as having a mission they did not in fact have. Nevertheless, they were often persons of genius, and great truths could often be found amid their errors.
True prophets are moral persons inspired by God, and they may be recognized by their words and deeds. God does not employ a liar to teach the truth.
The perfect standard that God has offered humankind as a guide and model is Jesus.
Jesus is the highest standard of moral perfection to which humankind may aspire on earth. God offers him as the most perfect model, and the doctrine he taught is the purest expression of God’s law, because he was animated by the divine spirit and was the purest being ever to walk the earth.
If some of those who claimed to teach God’s law have at times led others astray with erroneous principles, it is because they allowed themselves to be dominated by strong earthly sentiments and confused the laws that regulate the life of the soul with those that regulate bodily life. Many presented as divine laws what were really only human laws, created to serve their own passions and dominate others.
The divine, or natural, laws were not revealed to humankind only through Jesus. They are written everywhere. From the remotest times, all who have meditated on wisdom have been able to understand and teach these laws. Though their teachings were incomplete, they prepared the ground to receive the seed. Since the divine laws are written in the book of nature, men and women are able to understand them as soon as they truly seek them. That is why the precepts of divine law have been proclaimed by moral persons in every age, and why their elements, though incomplete or altered by ignorance and superstition, appear in the moral doctrines of all cultures that have emerged from barbarism.
Since Jesus has already taught the true laws of God, the teachings given by the Spirits remain valuable. Jesus’ teachings were often allegorical and given in parables because he spoke according to his time and place, but today the truth must be made intelligible for all. Therefore, it is necessary to explain God’s laws more fully and to elaborate on them, because so few understand them and still fewer practice them. The mission of the Spirits is to awaken eyes and ears, to confound the proud, and to unmask hypocrites who outwardly display virtue and religion in order to hide their inner corruption. The teaching of the Spirits must be clear and free from error so that no one can feign ignorance and so that all may judge it and evaluate it with their own reason. They are charged with preparing the Kingdom of God announced by Jesus. That is why no one should be able to interpret the law of God according to personal passions or to distort the meaning of a law that is entirely love and charity.
Truth has not always been within everyone’s reach, because each thing must come in its own time. Truth is like light: we must accustom ourselves to it little by little, otherwise it dazzles us.
There has never been a time when God allowed humankind to receive communications as complete and instructive as those given today. In ancient times, only a few individuals possessed what they regarded as a sacred science, which they kept as a mystery from others whom they considered profane. From what is known of the laws governing spirit phenomena, those ancients received only fragmentary truths amid an ambiguous and often highly symbolic body of ideas. Nevertheless, enlightened persons today should not dismiss any ancient philosophical system, tradition, or religion, because all contain the seeds of great truths. Although they seem to contradict one another and are scattered among unfounded embellishments, they are much easier to comprehend today thanks to the key that Spiritism has provided. It is a key to an infinite number of things that until now seemed unreasonable, but whose reality has recently been irrefutably demonstrated. Therefore, these materials should not be neglected as subjects of study. They are rich in teachings and may contribute greatly to education.
Good and Evil
Morality is the rule of good conduct; in other words, it is the ability to distinguish between good and evil. It is founded on the observance of God’s law. Human beings act rightly when they do everything for the good of all, for then they obey God’s law.
Good is everything in harmony with God’s law, whereas evil is everything that departs from it. Thus, doing good conforms to God’s law, while doing evil violates it.
Human beings have within themselves the means to distinguish between good and evil when they believe in God and desire to know God, who has given them intelligence to discern one from the other.
Jesus said, “Do unto others what you would want them to do unto you.” That sums up everything. Obey it, and you will never go wrong.
The rule of good and evil, which may be called the rule of reciprocity or solidarity, does not apply only to one’s conduct toward others. In matters concerning oneself, natural law is also a safe guide. When you eat too much, it harms you. That is God letting you know how much you truly need, and when you exceed it, you are punished. The same applies in all things. Natural law sets the limit of human needs, and when that limit is exceeded, suffering follows. If human beings always listened to the voice that says, “Enough,” they would avoid most of the ills they accuse nature of causing.
Moral evil may be found in the very nature of things because spirits are created simple and ignorant. God leaves men and women free to choose their own path, and if they choose the evil one, their pilgrimage will be longer. If there were no mountains, human beings would not understand that they can ascend and descend; if there were no rocks, they would not understand that hard objects exist. The spirit must acquire experience, and to do so it must know both good and evil. That is why there is a union of spirit and body.
Different social positions create needs that are not the same for everyone, but this fact does not invalidate the unity of natural law, which applies to all. Such differences exist in nature itself and are in accord with the law of progress.
The conditions of a person’s existence change according to time and place; hence the different needs and social positions corresponding to those needs. Since this diversity belongs to the order of things, it conforms to God’s law, which nonetheless remains one in principle. It therefore falls to reason to distinguish between real needs and fictitious or conventional ones.
Good and evil are absolute for everyone. God’s law is the same for all, but evil depends especially on the will with which it is done. Good is always good, and evil is always evil, whatever a person’s position may be. The difference lies in the degree of responsibility.
Cannibals who yield to their instinct when they eat human flesh are guiltier in proportion to how much they know of what they ought to do.
Circumstances give good and evil a relative seriousness. People frequently commit wrongs that are still reprehensible even when they arise from the social position in which society has placed them; however, responsibility depends on the means available for understanding good and evil. Thus, the enlightened person who commits a simple injustice is guiltier in God’s sight than the primitive person who obeys natural instincts.
Evil is no less evil because it may seem necessary, but that necessity disappears as the soul is purified in passing from one existence to another. Then people become guiltier when they commit evil because they understand it better.
The evil we commit frequently results from the position in which others have placed us. Responsibility for evil thus falls upon the one who has caused it. Those who are led into evil by the position in which others have placed them are less culpable than those who made them commit it. All will suffer the penalty not only for the evil they have done, but also for the evil they have caused.
Those who do not do evil themselves, but who take advantage of the evil committed by others, are as though they had committed it themselves. By taking advantage of it, they participate in it. Perhaps they would have recoiled before the deed itself, but once it was done, if they took advantage of it, it was because they approved of it and would have committed it themselves if they had dared or been able.
The desire for evil may be as reprehensible as evil itself. There is virtue in willingly resisting the desire for evil when one wishes to commit it, especially when there is an opportunity to satisfy that desire. But if a person refrains only because the opportunity did not arise, that person remains culpable.
To be pleasing to God and to ensure our future condition, it is not enough simply not to do evil. All must do good to the best of their ability, for all will answer for the evil that has resulted from the good they failed to do.
There is no one who cannot do good; only selfish persons never find an opportunity. It is enough to come into contact with others in order to do good, and everyday life offers that possibility to anyone not blinded by selfishness. Doing good does not mean only being charitable, but also being as useful as possible whenever help is needed.
The surroundings in which certain people live are a main reason many become involved in vice and crime, but even then it is the result of a trial chosen by the spirit in a state of freedom. It wished to expose itself to temptation in order to have the merit of resisting it.
When individuals are immersed in an atmosphere of vice, evil becomes an attraction, but not an irresistible one, because even in such an atmosphere great virtue may still be found. There are spirits strong enough to resist and, at the same time, charged with exerting a good influence on their fellow beings.
The merit of the good one does lies in its difficulty. There is no merit in doing good if it requires no self-denial and costs nothing. God takes more notice of poor persons who share their only piece of bread than of the rich who give only what is superfluous. Jesus taught this in the parable of the widow’s mite.
The Divisions of Natural Law
The whole of God’s law is not contained solely in Jesus’ maxim of loving one’s neighbor. That maxim certainly sums up humankind’s duties toward one another, but its application must still be shown, because otherwise those duties will be neglected, as indeed they often are. Moreover, natural law covers all the circumstances of life, and this maxim refers to only one aspect of it. People need precise rules. General and overly vague precepts leave too much room for interpretation.
The division of natural law into ten parts includes the laws of worship, labor, reproduction, preservation, destruction, society, progress, equality, liberty, and finally the law of justice, love, and charity. The division of God’s law into ten parts comes from Moses and embraces all the circumstances of life, which is the essential point. One may follow that division, although, like any classification system, it contains nothing absolute. Such systems always depend on the point of view from which a subject is considered. The last law is the most important, because through it human beings can advance farthest in the spiritual life: it sums up all the others.