Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/1501

1501 Ten commandments.... justification of the legislation....

July 3, 1940: Book 24

The commandment to love God and one's neighbour comprises all the commandments that God made known to mankind through Moses, and thus man observes each of these ten commandments if he fulfils the great commandment to love God and one's neighbour. It is extremely important to be informed about the origin of these ten commandments, because there are so many speculations about them that can easily lead us to doubt divine love. At that time, conditions among fellow human beings were all too characteristic of their lack of love. And the one God was no longer remembered; the inclination to the world, the love of mammon, of all earthly pleasures was indescribably great, and they respected neither their fellow man's property nor what they owed to their God and creator. They surrendered themselves willlessly to satan's power and paid homage to everything that was his share. And God brought terrible misery upon the people who had forgotten Him, forcing them to repent. They regocnized their low spiritual state and therefore asked God for help from their physical and spiritual affliction. God then made His will known through Moses in a form that illuminated all the details in order to clearly show the people the wrongness of their way of life. The legislation at Sinai was so obvious that even the most hardened sinner regocnized the power and greatness of God and now had to regocnize God's will, which demanded a deep inner conversion from him. He gave His laws through Moses with an iron voice, through which He harshly illuminated people's way of life and reproached them for their sinful behaviour. For this did not correspond in the slightest to the divine requirements, and mankind was so blinded at that time that every commandment had to be given to them in order to make them realize their wrongdoing. What contributed to their physical well-being they took for themselves without a second thought, without considering the well-being of their fellow human beings, and thus they did not acknowledge the eternal deity through their behaviour.... they did nothing to please God, but everything to harm their neighbour and seek their own advantage. The spiritual low became so obvious that God took pity on them and sent them news of His power and omnipotence and of His love, which demanded the same from His creatures.... And Jesus Christ taught the same on earth, He placed love for God before everything else and added love for one's neighbour as confirmation of love for God to this greatest commandment, and thus anyone who respects these two commandments, which every person's purpose in life should be to fulfil, will fulfil the divine will....

Amen

Translated by Doris Boekers