439. XIII. In the exercise of charity a person avoids attributing merit to deeds, so long as he believes that all good is from the Lord.

To attribute merit to deeds executed to gain salvation is ruinous; for evils lie hidden in this of which the doer is quite unaware. Among these are denial of God's influence and working on people, trust in one's own powers in matters concerning salvation, faith in oneself and not in God, self-justification, salvation by one's own strength, the cancelling of Divine grace and mercy, the rejection of reformation and regeneration by Divine means; in particular they detract from the merit and righteousness of the Lord God the Saviour, since they claim these for themselves. Moreover they have constantly in view the reward which they regard as their first and last aim; they drown and kill love to the Lord and love towards the neighbour. They are totally ignorant of and unable to feel the pleasure of heavenly love, which is free from all idea of merit; all they feel is self-love. Putting the reward first and salvation second, so that salvation is for the sake of the reward, turns the order upside down; and such people plunge the interior desires of their minds in the self (proprium), and in the body they befoul them with the evils of the flesh. That is why in the sight of the angels good done to gain merit looks like rust, and good not done to gain merit like purple.

[2] The Lord teaches in Luke that good is not to be done to gain merit:

If you do kindnesses to those who do them to you, what credit is that to you? Rather love your enemies, and do kindnesses, and lend without expecting any return. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked, Luke 6:33-36.

We learn in John that a person can do no good which is essentially good, except from the Lord:

Remain in me, and I in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it remains part of the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me, because without me you can do nothing, John 15:4-5.

And elsewhere:

A man cannot take anything, unless it is given him from heaven, John 3:27.

406. ¹ III. Every person taken singly is the neighbour who is to be loved, but he should be loved according to the quality of his good.

Man was not born for his own sake, but for the sake of others; that is, so that he should not live for himself alone, but for others. Otherwise no society could hold together, nor could there be any good in it. The common saying goes, that each person is his own neighbour; but the doctrine of charity teaches us how we ought to understand this. It means that each person should procure for himself the necessities of life, such as food, clothing, somewhere to live and many other things demanded by the society in which he lives. These he should procure not only for himself, but for his people; and not only for the present, but also for the future. For unless a person provides himself with the necessities of life, he is not in a position to exercise charity, being in want of everything.

In what way, however, each person ought to be his own neighbour can be seen from this analogy. Everyone ought to provide his body with food; this is the first consideration, but for the purpose of having a healthy mind in a healthy body. Everyone ought also to provide his mind with the food it needs, such things as fall within the domain of intelligence and judgment, but in order that he may as a result be in a position to be of service to his fellow citizen, his community, country, the church and so the Lord. Anyone who does this provides well for himself for ever. This shows plainly what is first in time, and what is first in purpose; and it is this which all else has in view. This is also like someone building a house: first he lays the foundations, but the purpose of the foundations is the building of a house, and the purpose of the house is to be somewhere to live. Anyone who thinks being his own neighbour comes first or takes the leading position is like someone who regards the foundations as the purpose rather than having somewhere to live; when in fact this is the first and last purpose in building, and the house with its foundations is only a means to this end.

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