BENEDICT DE SPINOZA: Theological-Political Treatise

Faith and philosophy
(5) Worship of God and obedience to Him consist solely in justice and charity,
or in love of one’s neighbour.
(6) All who obey God in this rationale of living, and only they, are saved; 178
those who live under the sway of pleasures are lost. If people did not ¢rmly
believe this, there would be no reason why they should obey God rather than
their own pleasures.
(7) Finally, God forgives the repentant their sins; for there is no one who
does not sin, and therefore if this were not clearly established, all would despair
of their salvation and would have no reason to believe that God is merciful. But
anyone who ¢rmly believes that God forgives men’s sins with the mercy and
grace with which he directs all things and is more fully inspired with the love of
God for this reason, truly knows Christ according to the spirit, and Christ is
within him.
[11] No one can fail to recognize that all these things absolutely need to
be known, so that all men without exception may be able to love God by
command of the Law explained above, for if any of these is removed, obedience
too is gone. But what God, or the exemplar of the true life, is, e.g.
whether he is ¢re or spirit or life or thought, etc. is irrelevant to faith, as are
questions about the manner in which he is the exemplar of the true life: for
example, is it because He has a just and merciful mind or is it because all
things exist and act through Him and therefore we understand them
through Him and see what is true, right and good through Him Whatever
one’s views on these questions, it makes no di¡erence.
Furthermore, it has nothing to do with faith whether one believes that
God is everywhere in essence or in potential, whether He governs all
things from liberty or from the necessity of nature, whether He issues
edicts like a prince or teaches them as eternal truths, whether man obeys
God of his own free will or by the necessity of the divine decree, or whether
reward of the good and punishment of wrongdoers takes place naturally or
supernaturally. It makes no di¡erence, I contend, with regard to faith how
anyone understands these questions and others like them, provided no one
draws conclusions with an eye to having greater licence for wrongdoing or
becoming less obedient towards God.
Indeed everyone, as we have already said, must adapt these doctrines
of faith to his own understanding and to interpret them for himself in
whatever way seems to make them easier for him to accept unreservedly
and with full mental assent. For, as we have pointed out, faith was once
revealed and written according to the understanding and beliefs of the
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