Leo Tolstoy: "The One Commandment" (1909) | Audiobook read by Daniel Che + 11Labs

What was originally conceived as a "short note" "on the commandment of love" eventually expanded into a full essay comprising 10 chapters and an "Appendix". The essay is preceded by Gospel epigraphs from the First Epistle of John (4:8, 12): "God is love," and "If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us."

Returning to a longstanding polemic (dating back to his essays of the 1880s and his letter to M.A. Engelhardt) regarding the "impossibility of fulfilling the commandment of love because it points to an unattainable ideal," Tolstoy refutes the fallacy and falseness of such an assertion. He once again strives to convince his readers of the possibility and absolute necessity of fulfilling the primary, single Gospel commandment: love.

He employs a precise comparison: "To acknowledge the impossibility of fulfilling the commandment of love on the grounds that it presents an unattainable ideal, and to thereby permit deviations from the demands of love and substitute the fulfillment of this commandment with others, is akin to what a traveler armed with a compass would do if, having decided that proceeding in the straight direction indicated by the compass is impossible due to mountains and rivers in his path, he were to stop following the shortest, direct route shown by the compass and instead began to guide his journey by other considerations, independent of the compass's readings."

Such, Tolstoy argues, "is the reasoning that since a person cannot achieve the complete fulfillment of the commandment of love, which entails total self-denial, he must therefore recognize other divine commandments, the observance of which partially substitutes the fulfillment of the commandment of love." And for many, this serves as a justification for failing to observe the single Gospel commandment.

The concluding lines of the essay sound resolute and firm: "This is untrue. It is a deception, a deception that ruins human lives by leading them away from the true life." Tolstoy is convinced: "Fulfilling the commandment of love, which consists of continually habituating oneself to a loving life in deeds, words, and thoughts, is not only possible, but it is the only kind of life that grants a person perpetual, absolute freedom and unceasing good."