What is it meant by God is Love?

[hazcompat]

Saint Hilary De Trinitate
Book IV

1. When the world was complete and its inhabitant was to be created, the words spoken concerning him were, Let Us make man after Our image and likeness. I ask you, Do you suppose that God spoke those words to Himself? Is it not obvious that He was addressing not Himself, but Another? If you reply that He was alone, then out of His own mouth He confutes you, for He says, Let Us make man after Our image and likeness. God has spoken to us through the Lawgiver in the way which is intelligible to us; that is, He makes us acquainted with His action by means of language, the faculty with which He has been pleased to endow us. There is, indeed, an indication of the Son of God, through Whom all things were made, in the words, And God said, Let there be a firmament, and in, And God made the firmament, which follows: but lest we should think these words of God were wasted and meaningless, supposing that He issued to Himself the command of creation, and Himself obeyed it,—for what notion could be further from the thought of a solitary God than that of giving a verbal order to Himself, when nothing was necessary except an exertion of His will?—He determined to give us a more perfect assurance that these words refer to Another beside Himself. When He said, Let Us make man after Our image and likeness, His indication of a Partner demolishes the theory of His isolation. For an isolated being cannot be partner to himself; and again, the words, Let Us make, are inconsistent with solitude, while Our cannot be used except to a companion. Both words, Us and Our are inconsistent with the notion of a solitary God speaking to Himself, and equally inconsistent with that of the address being made to a stranger who has nothing in common with the Speaker. If you interpret the passage to mean that He is isolated, I ask you whether you suppose that He was speaking with Himself? If you do not understand that He was speaking with Himself, how can you assume that He was isolated? If He were isolated, we should find Him described as isolated; if He had a companion, then as not isolated. I and Mine would describe the former state; the latter is indicated by Us and Our.

ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf209.toc.html

Peace

 

[hazcompat]

Saint Basil the Great
De Spirito Sancto

Chapter X.

Against those who say that it is not right to rank the Holy Spirit with the Father and the Son.
24. But we must proceed to attack our opponents, in the endeavour to confute those “oppositions” advanced against us which are derived from “knowledge falsely so-called.”924
It is not permissible, they assert, for the Holy Spirit to be ranked with the Father and Son, on account of the difference of His nature and the inferiority of His dignity. Against them it is right to reply in the words of the apostles, “We ought to obey God rather than men.”925
For if our Lord, when enjoining the baptism of salvation, charged His disciples to baptize all nations in the name “of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost,”926 not disdaining fellowship with Him, and these men allege that we must not rank Him with the Father and the Son, is it not clear that they openly withstand the commandment of God? If they deny that coordination of this kind is declaratory of any fellowship and conjunction, let them tell us why it behoves us to hold this opinion, and what more intimate mode of conjunction927 they have.
If the Lord did not indeed conjoin the Spirit with the Father and Himself in baptism, do not928 let them lay the blame of conjunction upon us, for we neither hold nor say anything different. If on the contrary the Spirit is there conjoined with the Father and the Son, and no one is so shameless as to say anything else, then let them not lay blame on us for following the words of Scripture.

ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf208.toc.html

Peace

 

[hazcompat]

The Holy Spirit,
Gift of God’s Love
by St. Augustine
There is no gift of God more excellent than this. It alone distinguishes the sons of the eternal kingdom and the sons of eternal perdition. Other gifts, too, are given by the Holy Spirit; but without love they profit nothing. Unless, therefore, the Holy Spirit is so far imparted to each, as to make him one who loves God and his neighbor, he is not removed from the left hand to the right. Nor is the Spirit specially called the Gift, unless on account of love. And he who has not this love, “though he speak with the tongues of men and angels, is sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal; and though he have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and though he have all faith, so that he can remove mountains, he is nothing; and though he bestow all his goods to feed the poor, and though he give his body to be burned, it profiteth him nothing.”

How great a good, then, is that without which goods so great bring no one to eternal life! But love or charity itself,–for they are two names for one thing,–if he have it that does not speak with tongues, nor has the gift of prophecy, nor knows all mysteries and all knowledge, nor gives all his goods to the poor, either because he has none to give or because some necessity hinders, nor delivers his body to be burned, if no trial of such a suffering overtakes him, brings that man to the kingdom, so that faith itself is only rendered profitable by love, since faith without love can indeed exist, but cannot profit. And therefore also the Apostle Paul says, “In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith that worketh by love:” so distinguishing it from that faith by which even “the devils believe and tremble.” Love, therefore, which is of God and is God, is specially the Holy Spirit, by whom the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, by which love the whole Trinity dwells in us. And therefore most rightly is the Holy Spirit, although He is God, called also the gift of God. And by that gift what else can properly be understood except love, which brings to God, and without which any other gift of God whatsoever does not bring to God? . . .

Wherefore, if Holy Scripture proclaims that God is love, and that love is of God, and works this in us that we abide in God and He in us, and that hereby we know this, because He has given us of His Spirit, then the Spirit Himself is God, who is love. Next, if there be among the gifts of God none greater than love, and there is no greater gift of God than the Holy Spirit, what follows more naturally than that He is Himself love, who is called both God and of God? And if the love by which the Father loves the Son, and the Son loves the Father, ineffably demonstrates the communion of both, what is more suitable than that He should be specially called love, who is the Spirit common to both? For this is the sounder thing both to believe and to understand, that the Holy Spirit is not alone love in that Trinity, yet is not specially called love to no purpose.

On the Trinity XV. 18.32, 19.37.
Electronic text (c) Copyright EWTN 1997.

ewtn.com/devotionals/pentecost/pent9.htm

Peace

 

[curtish1947]

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.

Hi Cena,
You wrote: “The Holy Spirit comes from the mutual love between God the Father and God the Son.”
That is certainly one way to try and understand God. In doing that, it makes sense, as there is so little written about The Holy Spirit, in a personal way.
When I have encountered The Holy Spirit, He was every bit distinct from the other two.
When I have encontered Jesus, He is bit distinct from the other two.
When I have encountered The Father, He is every bit distinct from the other two.
When I have encountered God, I can not tell the three of them apart. I use logic only.

Yes, these are all personal experiences, and yes they have all been tested by The Catholic Church. I was assinded a tester, an inquisitor general maybe. They call that a Spiritual Director. He asked me what I would like to know. I would like to know if a set of things that happened to me, is God. After he calmed down, he asked me why I wanted to know. I told him, because with God it is too important to get it wrong.
(Up to this point I kept most of this a secret) In short after he decided to help me, he uttered these words that are binding on me for eternity for what I presented to him: “I do this for a living This is The Holy Spirit” The above is my personal experiences with God, and The Holy Spirit is not missing physically from God, nor is He not a separate personal, person really.

Before my posting here, the above three comments from saints are every bit a help and can help you understand how God is also. The Holy Spirit (Now I am understanding) from the work of Theologians and even eventually from your own work, wil show you that to treat the idea of The Holy Spirit as a result of The Father’s love and The son’s love is a natural thought. Only when you go further, Biblically maybe, does it become obvious that the concept of Him being a separate person, also doing the job of God as I refer to that, become more sure.
Theologians and saints are I think similar, that with the information found in the Bible, and with the information passed on to us from the time of Jesus, they both tell us that The Holy Spirit is a separate person from the other two, again being God separately or together, but still doing the job of God. (Again also, that is how I try to handle the concept of God apart from the three of them.)
I am most sorry if I was hurtful or blunt. I tried not to be. Your opening statement is acceptable, but actually not correct. It is always acceptable and if you need to believe that now do that. God really does not care about your errors in these matters, He cares about you.
…Curtis/K.

 

[cena]

Hi Cena,
You wrote: “The Holy Spirit comes from the mutual love between God the Father and God the Son.”
That is certainly one way to try and understand God. In doing that, it makes sense, as there is so little written about The Holy Spirit, in a personal way.
When I have encountered The Holy Spirit, He was every bit distinct from the other two.
When I have encontered Jesus, He is bit distinct from the other two.
When I have encountered The Father, He is every bit distinct from the other two.
When I have encountered God, I can not tell the three of them apart. I use logic only.

Yes, these are all personal experiences, and yes they have all been tested by The Catholic Church. I was assinded a tester, an inquisitor general maybe. They call that a Spiritual Director. He asked me what I would like to know. I would like to know if a set of things that happened to me, is God. After he calmed down, he asked me why I wanted to know. I told him, because with God it is too important to get it wrong.
(Up to this point I kept most of this a secret) In short after he decided to help me, he uttered these words that are binding on me for eternity for what I presented to him: “I do this for a living This is The Holy Spirit” The above is my personal experiences with God, and The Holy Spirit is not missing physically from God, nor is He not a separate personal, person really.

Before my posting here, the above three comments from saints are every bit a help and can help you understand how God is also. The Holy Spirit (Now I am understanding) from the work of Theologians and even eventually from your own work, wil show you that to treat the idea of The Holy Spirit as a result of The Father’s love and The son’s love is a natural thought. Only when you go further, Biblically maybe, does it become obvious that the concept of Him being a separate person, also doing the job of God as I refer to that, become more sure.
Theologians and saints are I think similar, that with the information found in the Bible, and with the information passed on to us from the time of Jesus, they both tell us that The Holy Spirit is a separate person from the other two, again being God separately or together, but still doing the job of God. (Again also, that is how I try to handle the concept of God apart from the three of them.)
I am most sorry if I was hurtful or blunt. I tried not to be. Your opening statement is acceptable, but actually not correct. It is always acceptable and if you need to believe that now do that. God really does not care about your errors in these matters, He cares about you.
…Curtis/K.

Yes, he is a separate person, sorry if that was unclear. I think I see what you’re saying, thank you

 

[curtish1947]

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…?

Hi,
Has your question been answered yet? You wrote isn’t love an enotion…? Maybe and maybe it is the way the Bible seems to describe love, and that is an action.
Love Biblically from what I read there, is “Doing the will of”
Love consists of this, it is said Not that you have loved, but that you have been loved.
Translated it is: Doing the will of the one you love consists of this, Not that you have done the will of, but that your will has been done.
Love God and love your neigbor as yourself translates to this. Do the will of God, and do the will of your neigbor as you do the will of yourself.

You wrote …isn’t love… expressed by many… Yes, doing the will of others is done by a lot of people.
The point is that love, as it seems to me Biblically, is doing the Will of the one or the thing that you love.
So, if that defintion is inserted into your original heading it would read this way. Re: What is meant by God is Doing the Will of the ones He loves?
The answer might be that secretly in our hearts, we want to be okay with God, or that we want eternal life, and God doing our will in both areas, sent His Only Son, to do our will.
How’s that?
…Curtis/K.

 

[Elena321]

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

Does that then mean people of other religions or non religious who love (I mean sacrificial love not romantic love) abides in God and God abides in him/her?

 

[Elena321]

Hi,
Has your question been answered yet? You wrote isn’t love an enotion…? Maybe and maybe it is the way the Bible seems to describe love, and that is an action.
Love Biblically from what I read there, is “Doing the will of”
Love consists of this, it is said Not that you have loved, but that you have been loved.
Translated it is: Doing the will of the one you love consists of this, Not that you have done the will of, but that your will has been done.
Love God and love your neigbor as yourself translates to this. Do the will of God, and do the will of your neigbor as you do the will of yourself.

You wrote …isn’t love… expressed by many… Yes, doing the will of others is done by a lot of people.
The point is that love, as it seems to me Biblically, is doing the Will of the one or the thing that you love.
So, if that defintion is inserted into your original heading it would read this way. Re: What is meant by God is Doing the Will of the ones He loves?
The answer might be that secretly in our hearts, we want to be okay with God, or that we want eternal life, and God doing our will in both areas, sent His Only Son, to do our will.
How’s that?
…Curtis/K.

Thanks.

 

[curtish1947]

Does that then mean people of other religions or non religious who love (I mean sacrificial love not romantic love) abides in God and God abides in him/her?

Hi,
Yes.
…C/K.

 

[hazcompat]

Does that then mean people of other religions or non religious who love (I mean sacrificial love not romantic love) abides in God and God abides in him/her?

Catechism of the Catholic Church
605 At the end of the parable of the lost sheep Jesus recalled that God’s love excludes no one: “So it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.” He affirms that he came “to give his life as a ransom for many”; this last term is not restrictive, but contrasts the whole of humanity with the unique person of the redeemer who hands himself over to save us. The Church, following the apostles, teaches that Christ died for all men without exception: “There is not, never has been, and never will be a single human being for whom Christ did not suffer.”
The Church and non-Christians
839 "Those who have not yet received the Gospel are related to the People of God in various ways."325
The relationship of the Church with the Jewish People. When she delves into her own mystery, the Church, the People of God in the New Covenant, discovers her link with the Jewish People,326 "the first to hear the Word of God."327 The Jewish faith, unlike other non-Christian religions, is already a response to God’s revelation in the Old Covenant. To the Jews “belong the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises; to them belong the patriarchs, and of their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ”,328 "for the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable."329
840 And when one considers the future, God’s People of the Old Covenant and the new People of God tend towards similar goals: expectation of the coming (or the return) of the Messiah. But one awaits the return of the Messiah who died and rose from the dead and is recognized as Lord and Son of God; the other awaits the coming of a Messiah, whose features remain hidden till the end of time; and the latter waiting is accompanied by the drama of not knowing or of misunderstanding Christ Jesus.
841 The Church’s relationship with the Muslims. "The plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator, in the first place amongst whom are the Muslims; these profess to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful God, mankind’s judge on the last day."330
842 The Church’s bond with non-Christian religions is in the first place the common origin and end of the human race:
All nations form but one community. This is so because all stem from the one stock which God created to people the entire earth, and also because all share a common destiny, namely God. His providence, evident goodness, and saving designs extend to all against the day when the elect are gathered together in the holy city. . .331
843 The Catholic Church recognizes in other religions that search, among shadows and images, for the God who is unknown yet near since he gives life and breath and all things and wants all men to be saved. Thus, the Church considers all goodness and truth found in these religions as "a preparation for the Gospel and given by him who enlightens all men that they may at length have life."332

844 In their religious behavior, however, men also display the limits and errors that disfigure the image of God in them:
Very often, deceived by the Evil One, men have become vain in their reasonings, and have exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and served the creature rather than the Creator. Or else, living and dying in this world without God, they are exposed to ultimate despair.333
845 To reunite all his children, scattered and led astray by sin, the Father willed to call the whole of humanity together into his Son’s Church. The Church is the place where humanity must rediscover its unity and salvation. The Church is “the world reconciled.” She is that bark which “in the full sail of the Lord’s cross, by the breath of the Holy Spirit, navigates safely in this world.” According to another image dear to the Church Fathers, she is prefigured by Noah’s ark, which alone saves from the flood.

Peace