E
Eucharisted
Guest
God is Love, and we are made in His Image and Likeness. In order to be human and to please God, therefore, we must love God and love one another. To be human and to please God is the same thing, because it is by love that we accomplish such a task.
Now, when we sin, we cut ourselves off from God. We no longer abide in Love, nor dose Love abide in us. Without Love, whatever good we do we do apart from God, and so, it is nothing. Good cannot be anything, it cannot be good, if it is done apart from Goodness, and God is Goodness. He is Love, Mercy, Justice - in a word, Goodness Itself.
God is compelled to forgive us sinners, being Mercy Itself, so He calls us back to Himself. He cannot forgive us - that is, purify us of sin - if we do not want to be purified, because, it takes an open heart to receive His Mercy. He has given us the gift of free-will, after all.
If we do not accept God’s Mercy, but persist in sin, than we live apart from God, and because God is the only One who can prepare us for Heaven, if we reject Him that means we reject Heaven, and so, we choose Hell. But God has created us for Heaven, just as He created us to love, and it is precisely because He created us for Heaven that He created us to love, that He created us in His Image and Likeness. Love is the way to Heaven.
Hence, God commands us to love not only because it is just - for He is God and King – but also because He created us for Heaven and wishes to see us in Heaven. Now, Heaven is total and unending happiness - something which we cannot imagine yet we all long for. God has essentially and truthfully created us, than, to make us happy, truly happy, forever.
Love is self-gving and self-receiving, it gives love and receives love, and this is why God comamnds love. God is both Justice and Mercy. Hence, it cannot be said that He commands love solely out of selfishness, nor can it be said He commands love solely out of self-exhaustion. He commands love both because He deserves love and because He desires to make us happy.
Now, when we sin, we cut ourselves off from God. We no longer abide in Love, nor dose Love abide in us. Without Love, whatever good we do we do apart from God, and so, it is nothing. Good cannot be anything, it cannot be good, if it is done apart from Goodness, and God is Goodness. He is Love, Mercy, Justice - in a word, Goodness Itself.
God is compelled to forgive us sinners, being Mercy Itself, so He calls us back to Himself. He cannot forgive us - that is, purify us of sin - if we do not want to be purified, because, it takes an open heart to receive His Mercy. He has given us the gift of free-will, after all.
If we do not accept God’s Mercy, but persist in sin, than we live apart from God, and because God is the only One who can prepare us for Heaven, if we reject Him that means we reject Heaven, and so, we choose Hell. But God has created us for Heaven, just as He created us to love, and it is precisely because He created us for Heaven that He created us to love, that He created us in His Image and Likeness. Love is the way to Heaven.
Hence, God commands us to love not only because it is just - for He is God and King – but also because He created us for Heaven and wishes to see us in Heaven. Now, Heaven is total and unending happiness - something which we cannot imagine yet we all long for. God has essentially and truthfully created us, than, to make us happy, truly happy, forever.
Love is self-gving and self-receiving, it gives love and receives love, and this is why God comamnds love. God is both Justice and Mercy. Hence, it cannot be said that He commands love solely out of selfishness, nor can it be said He commands love solely out of self-exhaustion. He commands love both because He deserves love and because He desires to make us happy.