What is it meant by God is Love?

[Elena321]

I don’t understand this meaning as isn’t love an emotion and isn’t love experienced/expressed by many including Christian,Muslim,Agnostics etc…?

 

[cena]

I don’t understand this meaning as isn’t love an emotion and isn’t love experienced/expressed by many including Christian,Muslim,Agnostics etc…?

From the mutual love between God the Father and God the Son proceeds a new Person the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the mutual love between the Father and Son.
Love means you will the best for the other, putting them before yourself, sacrifice, etc. it is not just an emotion

 

[Elena321]

From the mutual love between God the Father and God the Son proceeds a new Person the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the mutual love between the Father and Son.
Love means you will the best for the other, putting them before yourself, sacrifice, etc. it is not just an emotion

Thanks.Sometimes non Christians do that too so I still don’t understand.
Eg:an Agnostic might help people in a fire to escape but lose his life in the process.
It’s hard for me to understand if God (as Jesus) came to earth and gave His life to teach us to be like Him and love others and sacrifice but some people already “naturally” are that way so what’s the point of Jesus?

 

[cena]

Thanks.Sometimes non Christians do that too so I still don’t understand.
Eg:an Agnostic might help people in a fire to escape but lose his life in the process.
It’s hard for me to understand if God (as Jesus) came to earth and gave His life to teach us to be like Him and love others and sacrifice but some people already “naturally” are that way so what’s the point of Jesus?

Well He had to redeem us, He had to become man and make reparation for anyone to be able to go to heaven. Anyone who does it naturally is being guided by the Holy Spirit whether they know it or not

 

[AndrewRuki]

Peace be with you Brother/sister Elena321.

Let’s just say this :

God has SOOO much love for us, Even though we are sinful, ignorant, selfish, aloof and proud, all we have to do is take one step towards Him and He will Run to us. All He wants to do is Love us.

God has so much love for His children, that He has become the Embodiment of Love. Hence He has Become Love. Hence He IS Love.

Hope this makes sence.

Dominus vobiscum.

 

[Praedicare]

Elena321,

I have come to believe that the sentence “God is love” is about the Trinity. Truly, we can say that God is Relationship: a perfect community, united in friendship. It isn’t the friendship that we humans think of, however; no, it is pure, perfect, absolute, and not entirely understandable to us.

The love of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, in a sense, is a self-diffusive love. God’s Love is always poured out onto His Son, and His Son pours out His own love on His Father, and both Persons are engaged in loving the Holy Spirit and receiving His love. This Love is, again, pure and almost abstractly conceptional to our minds, because we know God needs nothing. None of the Persons of the Trinity can supply something that another Person does not have, for the Three are One God. The only thing the Father or the Son or the Holy Spirit can give to God is… God. Each Person simply entrusts Himself to Himself, and there is ever One Lord: One God.

God is relationship, and God is love, and God is friendship. These really mean nothing to us except in how we come to know them: via other human beings. The Gospel only comes to us via Christians. It’s almost never a voice in a burning bush, or a burst of light from Heaven. We learn from Christians.

Look at the context for the words “God is Love”. Where does the saying come from? The fourth chapter of the first letter of St. John. In that chapter, the Apostle is trying to tell us to stop living in hatred and enmity and violence toward our fellow human beings. We speak about high philosophical concepts like God, light, and love - and then we hate our neighbour, and live in darkness with them. Read 1 John 4:7-12.

John is trying to tell us that the Love we have received from Christ must be communicated. It must be shown to those who are dying, hopeless, in a cruel and godless world. The Gospel of life: the Word of Love, the joy of knowing God! They can only be seen by others if we Christians love one another. We know God is love because He died for us in our human nature. Nothing else can convince us more strongly of God’s charity and mercy and fatherly love toward what He has created. Now, we must show this Eternal Love to those who do not know God. How? By dying for them, and always giving up our will to serve them. It’s about Christ. 1 John 4:7-12!

From the mutual love between God the Father and God the Son proceeds a new Person the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the mutual love between the Father and Son.
Love means you will the best for the other, putting them before yourself, sacrifice, etc. it is not just an emotion

The Trinity is the foundation of why we believe God is love, yes, but I think you’ve made a big mistake. By saying that the Holy Spirit is the mutual love between the Father and the Son, you reduce God to just the Spirit.

Remember that GOD is love: the whole Godhead in the Three, and each Person of the Trinity in unity. If the Holy Spirit is the “bond of love” between the Father and the Son, then the Father is not God and the Son is not God. We can’t say the Holy Spirit is “The Love of God”, exclusively. The Father is Love, and the Son is Love.

In my opinion, this rhetoric about the Holy Spirit being the mutual love of God is just part of the Western apologetic for the Filioque clause, which is a theological matter unrelated to this subject. We should be very careful when talking about the Trinity.

 

[cena]

Elena321,

I have come to believe that the sentence “God is love” is about the Trinity. Truly, we can say that God is Relationship: a perfect community, united in friendship. It isn’t the friendship that we humans think of, however; no, it is pure, perfect, absolute, and not entirely understandable to us.

The love of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, in a sense, is a self-diffusive love. God’s Love is always poured out onto His Son, and His Son pours out His own love on His Father, and both Persons are engaged in loving the Holy Spirit and receiving His love. This Love is, again, pure and almost abstractly conceptional to our minds, because we know God needs nothing. None of the Persons of the Trinity can supply something that another Person does not have, for the Three are One God. The only thing the Father or the Son or the Holy Spirit can give to God is… God. Each Person simply entrusts Himself to Himself, and there is ever One Lord: One God.

God is relationship, and God is love, and God is friendship. These really mean nothing to us except in how we come to know them: via other human beings. The Gospel only comes to us via Christians. It’s almost never a voice in a burning bush, or a burst of light from Heaven. We learn from Christians.

Look at the context for the words “God is Love”. Where does the saying come from? The fourth chapter of the first letter of St. John. In that chapter, the Apostle is trying to tell us to stop living in hatred and enmity and violence toward our fellow human beings. We speak about high philosophical concepts like God, light, and love - and then we hate our neighbour, and live in darkness with them. Read 1 John 4:7-12.

John is trying to tell us that the Love we have received from Christ must be communicated. It must be shown to those who are dying, hopeless, in a cruel and godless world. The Gospel of life: the Word of Love, the joy of knowing God! They can only be seen by others if we Christians love one another. We know God is love because He died for us in our human nature. Nothing else can convince us more strongly of God’s charity and mercy and fatherly love toward what He has created. Now, we must show this Eternal Love to those who do not know God. How? By dying for them, and always giving up our will to serve them. It’s about Christ. 1 John 4:7-12!

The Trinity is the foundation of why we believe God is love, yes, but I think you’ve made a big mistake. By saying that the Holy Spirit is the mutual love between the Father and the Son, you reduce God to just the Spirit.

Remember that GOD is love: the whole Godhead in the Three, and each Person of the Trinity in unity. If the Holy Spirit is the “bond of love” between the Father and the Son, then the Father is not God and the Son is not God. We can’t say the Holy Spirit is “The Love of God”, exclusively. The Father is Love, and the Son is Love.

In my opinion, this rhetoric about the Holy Spirit being the mutual love of God is just part of the Western apologetic for the Filioque clause, which is a theological matter unrelated to this subject. We should be very careful when talking about the Trinity.

“The Fathers of the Church invented a new word to designate the procession of the Holy Spirit. They called it “spiration” or “breathing forth”. The word, of course, is related to “spirit” or “breath”. The reason for this is that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the will or the mutual love of the Father and the Son.”
“The essential activities of any spiritual-personal being are knowing and willing. Scripture tells us clearly, and the tradition of the Church from the beginning bears witness to the belief, that there are three Persons in one God. Scripture indicates, and the Fathers and the magisterium of the Church teach, that the procession of the Son is related to God’s knowing and the procession of the Holy Spirit is related to God’s willing and loving. For this reason the Son is said to be the “wisdom” of God and the Holy Spirit is said to be the “love” or “gift” of God.”
catholiceducation.org/en/culture/catholic-contributions/the-origin-of-the-holy-spirit.html

 

[eazyduzit]

Hi Elena. What it means to me is that everything God does is motivated by His love. See John 3:16. Do not confuse mans love (Eros) with Gods love (agape).

 

[Elena321]

Elena321,

I have come to believe that the sentence “God is love” is about the Trinity. Truly, we can say that God is Relationship: a perfect community, united in friendship. It isn’t the friendship that we humans think of, however; no, it is pure, perfect, absolute, and not entirely understandable to us.

The love of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, in a sense, is a self-diffusive love. God’s Love is always poured out onto His Son, and His Son pours out His own love on His Father, and both Persons are engaged in loving the Holy Spirit and receiving His love. This Love is, again, pure and almost abstractly conceptional to our minds, because we know God needs nothing. None of the Persons of the Trinity can supply something that another Person does not have, for the Three are One God. The only thing the Father or the Son or the Holy Spirit can give to God is… God. Each Person simply entrusts Himself to Himself, and there is ever One Lord: One God.

God is relationship, and God is love, and God is friendship. These really mean nothing to us except in how we come to know them: via other human beings. The Gospel only comes to us via Christians. It’s almost never a voice in a burning bush, or a burst of light from Heaven. We learn from Christians.

Look at the context for the words “God is Love”. Where does the saying come from? The fourth chapter of the first letter of St. John. In that chapter, the Apostle is trying to tell us to stop living in hatred and enmity and violence toward our fellow human beings. We speak about high philosophical concepts like God, light, and love - and then we hate our neighbour, and live in darkness with them. Read 1 John 4:7-12.

John is trying to tell us that the Love we have received from Christ must be communicated. It must be shown to those who are dying, hopeless, in a cruel and godless world. The Gospel of life: the Word of Love, the joy of knowing God! They can only be seen by others if we Christians love one another. We know God is love because He died for us in our human nature. Nothing else can convince us more strongly of God’s charity and mercy and fatherly love toward what He has created. Now, we must show this Eternal Love to those who do not know God. How? By dying for them, and always giving up our will to serve them. It’s about Christ. 1 John 4:7-12!

The Trinity is the foundation of why we believe God is love, yes, but I think you’ve made a big mistake. By saying that the Holy Spirit is the mutual love between the Father and the Son, you reduce God to just the Spirit.

Remember that GOD is love: the whole Godhead in the Three, and each Person of the Trinity in unity. If the Holy Spirit is the “bond of love” between the Father and the Son, then the Father is not God and the Son is not God. We can’t say the Holy Spirit is “The Love of God”, exclusively. The Father is Love, and the Son is Love.

In my opinion, this rhetoric about the Holy Spirit being the mutual love of God is just part of the Western apologetic for the Filioque clause, which is a theological matter unrelated to this subject. We should be very careful when talking about the Trinity.

For the average person,which way in every day life would it make a difference if they believe the Holy Spirit is the mutual love of God?
What does it mean (in practical life) to reduce God to just the Spirit?
I find all this theological stuff confusing/over my head.
Are we meant to pray to God,to Jesus or to the Holy Spirit or alternate according to prayers given?

 

[curtish1947]

Hi,
God is Light it is also said, and it is also written that way. God is love is also written. But what is love and what is light, in God’s view and definition of words?
God seems to define light as information that is correct about Him.
God seems to define love as doing the will of the one you love.
…Curtis/K.

 

[curtish1947]

For the average person,which way in every day life would it make a difference if they believe the Holy Spirit is the mutual love of God?
What does it mean (in practical life) to reduce God to just the Spirit?
I find all this theological stuff confusing/over my head.
Are we meant to pray to God,to Jesus or to the Holy Spirit or alternate according to prayers given?

Hi,
To me the theological stuff is very confusing. It also seems to be quite unneccesary. At least that is in my experience.
In order of your questions now, to believe in any errors of God is acceptable until God or someone else you trust shows you an error of yours. Then it is up to you to accept or reject the new information, as all information about God from humans is not accurate, usually.
It is not possible Biblically to reduce God to just a spirit, since Jesus. I see God as this, Three totally separate people with one common job to do, God, but each of these separate poeple have identical motivations in them, because they are from the exact same components. Those components are Father Son and Holy Spirit.
The anology in us, in humans, made in God’s own image, is our Materna/Paternal personality, and our Little girl/Litte boy personality and also our male working part of us/our female working part of us.
Reiterating the last item, you are maternal sometimes. You are a little girl some of the time. You also work some of the time. Our children differ from us, in that they are made of two parents and acutally genetically possibly many other people in our histories.
God though, the job, may have once existed in merely one entity, and we are told that entity is only spirit, which is similar in thoughts to energy only, but energy with a total personality. Now, maybe God wanted to exist in companionship. May, not did. May. If He did, then certainly begetting a son, from his own father in himself and from his own child withing himself and from his own power or working self, maybe what He did. Thus His son would be exactly like Him in all ways. For the Holy Spirit although implied, it is possibly very identical in terms of content, but I am less sure of this. I jsut treat The Holy Spirit as really a brother of Jesus, not a characteristic, as Jesus seems to be saying He very much a separate person, like He is.
Theologians and Philosophers seem qjuite unable to talk in ways that are understandable to everyone else. Plus they seem to talk in unproven man made theories. As a result they seem unwilling to want to talk in practical everyday terms, which is and has never been a requirement for all the researchers I have worked with. Only a few there, are unwilling or unable to teach to the uneducated in their fileld, even comples ideas. Furthermore, if God decides to let a person know Him historically, Philosophy does not seem to be important to God.
As far as prayers go, if you think of God as a job, done by three people identically always, then whether you pray to Jesus The Holy Spirit or God The Father is okay. You can if you wsh see how God, said to pray. Jesus is also God, and when asked here on earth He said to pray in a certain way. He both told us to go in private and pray, so no one knows you are praying, where what we do in private will be rewarded by The Father, I think, in public. but, He also told us to pray in the fashion we know of now, as The Our Father.
Other prayers from time to time have been given to us by God, through others. Faustinal has some. There is an old prayer found in fifty AD, to Saint Joseph.
I know of someone’s prayer life. I can tell you of his which I know, but I can not tell you of mine, as that is illegal in God’s world. He does a rosary a day, because it looke like Mary asked for that one day, and never ever took that request back. He goes to Mass frequently and gives those masses awasy to others. It works he said. He does the three o’clock Divine Mercy hour. He gives Jesus an hour a week in Eucharistic Adoration, if there is no where tht eucharistic adoration exists, he frequents any church with the eucharist in it, and spend an hour with Jesus because Jesus asked that one day. He said He gets lonely being in all the churches in the world and could we not just give him one hour a week.
I imagine everyone has a different prayer life from that person, as it seem to me that has a different pryaer life.
I am sorry that I can not disclose my prayer life publically. I have heard though that Jesus is so grateful, that what ever you do is pleasing to Him. Maybe that helps.
…Curtis/K.
Does that help.

 

[Praedicare]

Theological stuff is always necessary. If we don’t know what we believe in, we will worship pretty much anything. We must be clear about who God is. If we don’t know what is the relationship between the Father and the Son, we can easily fall into many errors. Theologians throughout the centuries have worked very hard to make sure that we don’t believe the Father or the Holy Spirit died on the Cross, or that Jesus is a mere creature. It took a lot of searching in the Scriptures and decision-making, often with a lot of big, confusing words.

Theology is simply reading the Scriptures in light of ancient Tradition, and obeying the authority of the Church. It is essential, or we wouldn’t know anything. Please do not listen to the mindset that says all theology is man-made. That idea is from the Devil. With that said, however, we must admit that Theology can also grow far beyond its limits. We can easily place “God” under a microscope - at which point He is no longer truly God, but a scientific phenomenon. I fell into that trap a little bit in my post above. Please forgive me.

So, imagine that we reduce God just to being the Holy Spirit: suddenly, we don’t have a God who is Communion within Himself. We have Allah or YHWH alone. If this is our God, we have no reason to give ourselves up for our brothers and sisters. The only God who inspires men to die for their enemies is the Blessed Trinity. The Trinity is the model of all true Love: complete union in self-giving. The Father pours His whole being into the Son, the Son into the Father, and the majestic outpouring and infinite joy and eternal love is all given to - and given by - the Holy Spirit. There is no distinction: God is one, God is Three.

Remember that we are made in the image of God. The Trinity thus shows us that we need each other to be truly human. The Trinity shows us that a human life lived in isolation, loneliness, and emptiness loses its humanity. This is a huge practical implication!

Now, it seems that everyone is anxious to know what this means for human beings. I guess abstract theological concepts don’t inspire us. For me, just knowing that God is a family* within Himself* changes everything. Somehow, every relationship we have on Earth becomes vastly important. If God IS Love - in His very Being - then all self-giving, self-outpouring, self-sacrifice, mercy, kindness, and familial love we humans do is literally a participation in God. We live the divine life of God if we do those things. We are assured of communion with Eternity Himself, if we love our neighbours and die for them - in little ways and in big ways. That’s the practical implication.

The most important thing about “God is love” is just the fact that He loves us, and He isn’t a distant clockwork mechanic or even an evil deity. We have to believe that God actually cares for us - not because He randomly decided to, but because God IS Love.

 

[hazcompat]

ENCYCLICAL LETTER
DEUS CARITAS EST
OF THE SUPREME PONTIFF
BENEDICT XVI
TO THE BISHOPS
PRIESTS AND DEACONS
MEN AND WOMEN RELIGIOUS
AND ALL THE LAY FAITHFUL
ON CHRISTIAN LOVE

Introduction

1. “God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him” (1 Jn 4:16). These words from the First Letter of John express with remarkable clarity the heart of the Christian faith: the Christian image of God and the resulting image of mankind and its destiny. In the same verse, Saint John also offers a kind of summary of the Christian life: “We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us”.

We have come to believe in God’s love: in these words the Christian can express the fundamental decision of his life. Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction. Saint John’s Gospel describes that event in these words: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should … have eternal life” (3:16). In acknowledging the centrality of love, Christian faith has retained the core of Israel’s faith, while at the same time giving it new depth and breadth. The pious Jew prayed daily the words of the Book of Deuteronomy which expressed the heart of his existence: “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your might” (6:4-5). Jesus united into a single precept this commandment of love for God and the commandment of love for neighbour found in the Book of Leviticus: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself” (19:18; cf. Mk 12:29-31). Since God has first loved us (cf. 1 Jn 4:10), love is now no longer a mere “command”; it is the response to the gift of love with which God draws near to us.

ewtn.com/library/ENCYC/b16deuscaritas.HTM

Peace

 

[curtish1947]

Theological stuff is always necessary. If we don’t know what we believe in, we will worship pretty much anything. We must be clear about who God is. If we don’t know what is the relationship between the Father and the Son, we can easily fall into many errors. Theologians throughout the centuries have worked very hard to make sure that we don’t believe the Father or the Holy Spirit died on the Cross, or that Jesus is a mere creature. It took a lot of searching in the Scriptures and decision-making, often with a lot of big, confusing words.

Theology is simply reading the Scriptures in light of ancient Tradition, and obeying the authority of the Church. It is essential, or we wouldn’t know anything. Please do not listen to the mindset that says all theology is man-made. That idea is from the Devil. With that said, however, we must admit that Theology can also grow far beyond its limits. We can easily place “God” under a microscope - at which point He is no longer truly God, but a scientific phenomenon. I fell into that trap a little bit in my post above. Please forgive me.

So, imagine that we reduce God just to being the Holy Spirit: suddenly, we don’t have a God who is Communion within Himself. We have Allah or YHWH alone. If this is our God, we have no reason to give ourselves up for our brothers and sisters. The only God who inspires men to die for their enemies is the Blessed Trinity. The Trinity is the model of all true Love: complete union in self-giving. The Father pours His whole being into the Son, the Son into the Father, and the majestic outpouring and infinite joy and eternal love is all given to - and given by - the Holy Spirit. There is no distinction: God is one, God is Three.

Remember that we are made in the image of God. The Trinity thus shows us that we need each other to be truly human. The Trinity shows us that a human life lived in isolation, loneliness, and emptiness loses its humanity. This is a huge practical implication!

Now, it seems that everyone is anxious to know what this means for human beings. I guess abstract theological concepts don’t inspire us. For me, just knowing that God is a family* within Himself* changes everything. Somehow, every relationship we have on Earth becomes vastly important. If God IS Love - in His very Being - then all self-giving, self-outpouring, self-sacrifice, mercy, kindness, and familial love we humans do is literally a participation in God. We live the divine life of God if we do those things. We are assured of communion with Eternity Himself, if we love our neighbours and die for them - in little ways and in big ways. That’s the practical implication.

The most important thing about “God is love” is just the fact that He loves us, and He isn’t a distant clockwork mechanic or even an evil deity. We have to believe that God actually cares for us - not because He randomly decided to, but because God IS Love.

 

[curtish1947]

Theological stuff is always necessary. If we don’t know what we believe in, we will worship pretty much anything. We must be clear about who God is. If we don’t know what is the relationship between the Father and the Son, we can easily fall into many errors. Theologians throughout the centuries have worked very hard to make sure that we don’t believe the Father or the Holy Spirit died on the Cross, or that Jesus is a mere creature. It took a lot of searching in the Scriptures and decision-making, often with a lot of big, confusing words.

Theology is simply reading the Scriptures in light of ancient Tradition, and obeying the authority of the Church. It is essential, or we wouldn’t know anything. Please do not listen to the mindset that says all theology is man-made. That idea is from the Devil. With that said, however, we must admit that Theology can also grow far beyond its limits. We can easily place “God” under a microscope - at which point He is no longer truly God, but a scientific phenomenon. I fell into that trap a little bit in my post above. Please forgive me.

{{{Sorry, I have to reduce something, because my post and your quote are above the limit by 500 words or so. I am responding to your entire post. So I deleted a section of your original post to do that here.}}}

Now, it seems that everyone is anxious to know what this means for human beings. I guess abstract theological concepts don’t inspire us. For me, just knowing that God is a family* within Himself* changes everything. Somehow, every relationship we have on Earth becomes vastly important. If God IS Love - in His very Being - then all self-giving, self-outpouring, self-sacrifice, mercy, kindness, and familial love we humans do is literally a participation in God. We live the divine life of God if we do those things. We are assured of communion with Eternity Himself, if we love our neighbours and die for them - in little ways and in big ways. That’s the practical implication.

The most important thing about “God is love” is just the fact that He loves us, and He isn’t a distant clockwork mechanic or even an evil deity. We have to believe that God actually cares for us - not because He randomly decided to, but because God IS Love.

Hi,
Now that is fairly clear, wording wise. Thank-you. Theologically you said it is important. Sure, but please; is not being able to translate Theological words, or Philosophical words and ideas neccessary?
I like your post a lot, because it is clear and does not attempt to tell me I must learn your language before I can learn from, think, feel or talk to you. Esoteric, is not there. Neither is pedantic.

And since I like so much of your post, I have little to coment on.

You said something similar to: God is family to Himself, and that to me is beautiful. It also borders on, or is your mechanism for understanding God at this time in your life, and as such is not to be messed with by me or anyone esle who is human.

To me since this is nicely personal, I never knew God. I searched for Him. I never gave up. I listened to everyone and everybody. People everywhere talked to me about religion. Only the church people refused to answer my questions. They still do that by merely quoting from their education.
Quoting from my or your education, then expecting the listener to become educated exactly like you, is pedantic. At least it is that way in and unconsious way. The resulting tech talk also referred to as Esoteric language, that is a large obstacle to overcome, by laity and parishioners.

So, in effect church people refuse to talk to their parishioners, thus failing the command to Peter of Feel My Sheep.

                           85%. Eigthy five percent. 25% Twenty five percent.

The above numbers represent to me some earlier work. The smaller number is the amount of correctness in the second most accurate church there is about God. The Larger number the 85% number is the number one church in accuracy. It too has error.

All of that work was done, without Theological or Philosophical words training or insights. So, after my search for really much of my whole life then, this is what I have found.

(Please Know that I know that anything I have done, is really God causing me to do this work. As said, that is in everything here. This is God, and not me who caused me to do 12 years of work on the Bible. This is God, not me who chased me. This is God, not me. I really did not search for Him, He called me.)

So, when I read things like the information about Galileo, I find the church using the exact same set of words to describe their final decisions, that are in print form 1616 or so, as they do now about knowing what is in the Bible and what is not there.

It is sad and stunning to me, that in Genesis, under Subdue The Earth, the Blessing from God is not understood as “Do Science. I command it. My blessings are a command” Thus the seem to have been afraid to do what God told them. Yet, Theology and Philosophy are said to be the tools to understand Religion and God. That is a total inference. In there is the implied statement, that you cannot understand Religion without that. It is also implied that we who have it are correct. You who have it are not. Yet, they made that big blunder.
In Mark 9, 38-42 roughly there is much there as Jesus talked to the then Bishops of that time. One of the things He said not to do, was to make others angry who know less than you do. He also said that if they are not against us, they are for us. He also forbade us who know much from commanding others who know little to anger them by forbidding their inaccuracies. IF THAT is so, then how did the Inquistion happen in any form?
…Curtis/K.

 

[Robert_Sock]

LOVE comes in layers, with each layer containing a higher-ordered form of love that take on new meaning for the proceeding layer. Only in at the more superficial layers, such as those we tend to experience in this world are there emotions attached to love. God is the deepest order of love; something that is humanly incomprehensible, as God is this LOVE, which is void of all emotions.

Even here in this world we can begin to experience LOVE in unemotional ways.

True love represents that end state of existence that all other virtues function to achieve. In a more general sense our religion is the struggle to perfect our love – our religion being the worship of the God of LOVE. Once our hearts become purified, and we seek only love, then all we need is faith!

Love needs to transcend our immediate experience; love needs to transcend the self. Love needs to “think” long term; love needs to be the everlasting. It is God who truly sees long term, and it is God who is everlasting; it is God who is the master of planning and perfecting love, and it is God who is LOVE in the everlasting.

 

[cena]

For the average person,which way in every day life would it make a difference if they believe the Holy Spirit is the mutual love of God?
What does it mean (in practical life) to reduce God to just the Spirit?
I find all this theological stuff confusing/over my head.
Are we meant to pray to God,to Jesus or to the Holy Spirit or alternate according to prayers given?

Both Jesus and the Holy Spirit is God.

 

[curtish1947]

LOVE comes in layers, with each layer containing a higher-ordered form of love that take on new meaning for the proceeding layer. Only in at the more superficial layers, such as those we tend to experience in this world are there emotions attached to love. God is the deepest order of love; something that is humanly incomprehensible, as God is this LOVE, which is void of all emotions.

Even here in this world we can begin to experience LOVE in unemotional ways.

True love represents that end state of existence that all other virtues function to achieve. In a more general sense our religion is the struggle to perfect our love – our religion being the worship of the God of LOVE. Once our hearts become purified, and we seek only love, then all we need is faith!

Love needs to transcend our immediate experience; love needs to transcend the self. Love needs to “think” long term; love needs to be the everlasting. It is God who truly sees long term, and it is God who is everlasting; it is God who is the master of planning and perfecting love, and it is God who is LOVE in the everlasting.

Hi,
I don’t suppose your comments are anything but unproven human theories. You wrote this: ““LOVE comes in layers, with each layer containing a higher-ordered form of love that take on new meaning for the proceeding layer. Only in at the more superficial layers, such as those we tend to experience in this world are there emotions attached to love. God is the deepest order of love; something that is humanly incomprehensible, as God is this LOVE, which is void of all emotions.””

Once upon a time, in my life, I had a liking for people that would change. Originally I was like most everyone else, I was in to me and what was best for me, but probably concerned about others, for some reason or another.

One day this changed. Then I liked people in an Agape way. I could not get enough of their stories. As I was in a job that caused me to be working with people for 12 hours a day or so, life was great then. When I realized the change, there was a decision to make. I made that decision, I liked being this way and it contnued.

One day it turned to love, not like. I didn’t want to tell anyone.

In three days the inability of not telling everyone was too great and I fessed up. I said to them: "I like you all, but there has been a change. My like for you has changed to love. It is not the kind of love where I want to date you Steve, or to date you either. (I said that to the woman there.) It is just a love of you.

In a month that would change, from and Agape type of love to one far greater. When it had reached it’s peak. I knew what it was. Also then, I knew this I could not share. I had no way to tell them it was the way God Loves.

Later like in a lot of things for me with God, I was asked to pass this on. I passed it on when God wanted me to, but I still remember that kind of love. It is the way God loves.

‘Here is a short description of that, assuming this can be put into words only. God loves as though the person before Him is the only person in existence, and He loves everyone else at the same time, in this way. Always for what the other person needs.’

Your point was that God, at least God the Father uses an emotionless love. You also said it is impossible to comprehend. You did not say, that if God gives you the ability to comprehend it then, you will. He did, and I do.

I have on a few occasions, felt the Love of God The Father. I have seen the colors of it on two occasions, once for a girl and once (for His Own Son), each was different, and each is full of emotion. Now as this is ~feelings with content and colors with content also~ I will give you what I can, but the point is that you will feel and you will know the way God loves, if like in my case He gives that to you. It is far from incomprehensible. It is far from not emotional.

Another time, I felt the Love of Jesus and it was totally stunning, yet clearly Jesus and no other. That incident took hours to get over, but for edification, it happened to teach me something, that I am still working on.

One experiment is worth a thousand expert opinions or a thousand philosophical theories it is said. When using that idea, it has worked. I works when no one knows any answers and the answer is wanted, but everyone is in the talking stage only. No tests have been done yet.

Hopefully there is some theory of Philosophy, or Theology to almost match what I just posted as an experience of mine.

…Curt/K.

 

[curtish1947]

Both Jesus and the Holy Spirit is God.

Yes both Jesus and The Holy Spirit are God. Also The Father is God. Thank-you for saying that. It needed to be said here. That is Christian, but it is Christian because it is Biblical and therefore said that way, in the Bible. It is the Bible, primarily that we get all of Catholicism from and it has the highest authority even over the Catechism, the Pope, Saints. No one is allowed to change anything later, that is in the Bible. At least that is my total understanding of the hierarchy of what is true. (God, Bible, Tradition, Saints, ex-catherdra, The Pope, Cardinals, Bishops, Priests then us. That is roughly the order I use to see who is right and who has to be listened to on conflicting ideas.)
…Curt/K.

 

[cena]

Elena321,

I have come to believe that the sentence “God is love” is about the Trinity. Truly, we can say that God is Relationship: a perfect community, united in friendship. It isn’t the friendship that we humans think of, however; no, it is pure, perfect, absolute, and not entirely understandable to us.

The love of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, in a sense, is a self-diffusive love. God’s Love is always poured out onto His Son, and His Son pours out His own love on His Father, and both Persons are engaged in loving the Holy Spirit and receiving His love. This Love is, again, pure and almost abstractly conceptional to our minds, because we know God needs nothing. None of the Persons of the Trinity can supply something that another Person does not have, for the Three are One God. The only thing the Father or the Son or the Holy Spirit can give to God is… God. Each Person simply entrusts Himself to Himself, and there is ever One Lord: One God.

God is relationship, and God is love, and God is friendship. These really mean nothing to us except in how we come to know them: via other human beings. The Gospel only comes to us via Christians. It’s almost never a voice in a burning bush, or a burst of light from Heaven. We learn from Christians.

Look at the context for the words “God is Love”. Where does the saying come from? The fourth chapter of the first letter of St. John. In that chapter, the Apostle is trying to tell us to stop living in hatred and enmity and violence toward our fellow human beings. We speak about high philosophical concepts like God, light, and love - and then we hate our neighbour, and live in darkness with them. Read 1 John 4:7-12.

John is trying to tell us that the Love we have received from Christ must be communicated. It must be shown to those who are dying, hopeless, in a cruel and godless world. The Gospel of life: the Word of Love, the joy of knowing God! They can only be seen by others if we Christians love one another. We know God is love because He died for us in our human nature. Nothing else can convince us more strongly of God’s charity and mercy and fatherly love toward what He has created. Now, we must show this Eternal Love to those who do not know God. How? By dying for them, and always giving up our will to serve them. It’s about Christ. 1 John 4:7-12!

The Trinity is the foundation of why we believe God is love, yes, but I think you’ve made a big mistake. By saying that the Holy Spirit is the mutual love between the Father and the Son, you reduce God to just the Spirit.

Remember that GOD is love: the whole Godhead in the Three, and each Person of the Trinity in unity. If the Holy Spirit is the “bond of love” between the Father and the Son, then the Father is not God and the Son is not God. We can’t say the Holy Spirit is “The Love of God”, exclusively. The Father is Love, and the Son is Love.

In my opinion, this rhetoric about the Holy Spirit being the mutual love of God is just part of the Western apologetic for the Filioque clause, which is a theological matter unrelated to this subject. We should be very careful when talking about the Trinity.

The Holy Spirit comes from the mutual love between God the Father and God the Son. That’s probably a better way to phrase that. I have a question, why do we say God the Father created the world when the whole Godhead did, and why is wisdom attributed to God the Son if the whole Godhead is wise? I am confused why we give individual roles to the Divine persons when all three persons share the attributes.