Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/1595

1595 Fulfilling the commandment of neighbourly love without love....

September 3, 1940: Book 25

The commandment of neighbourly love certainly obliges you to do deeds which are of service to your neighbour, yet if you only accomplish these deeds without feeling love for your neighbour you are certainly making an effort to comply with the divine commandment and this will be credited to you as good will, however, such deeds lack redeeming strength. It is more a consequence of the fact that you fear God but not that you love Him.... that you certainly recognise His power but not His love, kindness and mercy.... A mighty Lord you will fear, but a loving, kind and merciful Lord, on the other hand, you will love with all the intimacy of your heart. And so you only recognise God as the Lawgiver, you respect His commandment, but you do not hear the voice of love in this Word, which only wants to let the strength flow to you by admonishing you to love. Love is the only way in which you can gain possession of the most precious thing, the strength from God; thus you must first try to awaken this feeling in yourselves, you must regard your neighbour as your brother who has emerged from the same as you yourselves.... You must bear his suffering and sorrows in mind and feel with him, and now try to reduce this suffering for him.... You must fulfil the divine commandments because your heart impels you to do so, and you must always think of yourselves in the same situation, then you will have compassion for your neighbour and try to improve his fate or help him carry it. And then the strength from God can flow to you, you will receive the love you give back a thousandfold, for ‘with the measure you use, it will be measured to you....’ And being allowed to receive God's love makes life easy for you, and you will then want to give with full hands to the one who suffers in body and soul. However, you must always kindle love in yourselves.... and do everything of your own free will, not just in order to fulfil your duty. For every work accomplished with love awakens love in return, and only then will a person have a redeeming effect, when love becomes active in him.... Amen

Translated by Sven Immecke