On the feast of the Holy Apostle John the Theologian, Metropolitan Anthony (Pakanich) spoke about the meaning of the main words of Christ’s beloved disciple.
We are all sick because we do not have perfect love in our hearts. But our illness can be cured by the grace of God. Life is given to us in order to be healed from the disease of unlove and to know, to each one to the best of his personal ability, the power of true love, which brings the soul closer to eternity.
“And we knew the love that God has for us and believed in it. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. Love reaches such perfection in us that we have boldness on the day of judgment, because we act in this world as He does. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because in fear there is torment. He who fears is not perfect in love” (1 John 4:16–18).
These 5 phrases can heal anyone who accepts them.
The phrase "God is love" comes from 1 John
First, about the origins of the phrase. It is not just a laconic aphorism, but a fragment of a long argument from the 1st Epistle of John. This man is often called the apostle of love. And the reason for this, not least of all, is this passage:
“Dear ones, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, because God is love!
God showed His love for us by sending His only Son into the world so that through Him we might have life.
Love is not that we loved God, but that God loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Dear ones, if God loves us so much, then we should love each other.
No one has ever seen God, but if we love each other, then God Himself lives in us, and His love in us is perfect. He has given us of His Spirit, and therefore we know that we are in Him and He in us. We ourselves have seen and testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.
Whoever acknowledges Jesus as the Son of God, God abides in him, and that person himself abides in God. We learned and believed that God loves us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.”
(1 John 4:7-16)
The phrase “God is love” is attributed to John the Theologian, he is called the apostle of love, and the eagle symbolizes the height of the flight of his thoughts (painting by Vladimir Lukich Borovikovsky, 1810s). Photo: i.pinimg.com
Here it is important for us to understand that God is love in the literal sense, and not in the metaphorical sense. A bright, strong feeling is a projection of the purest divine energy into our world. How can a feeling like love be equivalent to the personality of God? This is one of those mysteries that the human mind is unlikely to comprehend.
In essence, we are not given the opportunity to comprehend God. But one who is in love can feel God, merge with Him in the unity of mentality and feeling.
“And we knew and believed in the love that God has for us.”
There is nothing stronger than Divine love. Divine love is a healing power, transforming, reviving and saving. It includes all the gospel virtues, all the Divine powers of Christ. She is the alpha and omega of our life, we appeared thanks to her and will go into eternity, merging with her endless stream.
By developing certain virtues in ourselves, improving in righteousness, we grow love in our hearts. The greater our love, the more closely we will be intertwined with the Divine flow.
The Bible teaches that love is the manifestation of God in man
Where does this bright feeling come from? Through the Bible, God speaks about love as a manifestation of the Holy Spirit:
“The fruit of the Spirit is love...”
(Gal. 5:22)
And a person, in order to manifest divine qualities in himself, must act with love in everything and always:
“Let everything be done with love.”
(1 Cor. 16:14)
Formally, this can be compared with observance of the Biblical law, for a loving person acts according to the commandments with all his heart:
“Now this is love, that we should walk according to His commandments.”
(2John 6)
But the commandments are only external. We follow them not for show, but out of a deep understanding that we simply cannot do otherwise: our conscience and faith will not allow us. A loving person sincerely and always shows kindness to the world:
“...love each other constantly with a pure heart.”
(1 Peter 1:22)
Holy Scripture calls the Holy Spirit the source of Christian love. On icons he is depicted as a dove. Photo: i.pinimg.com
Therefore, it is natural for a Christian to love God, his neighbor, the stranger, and all living things. After all, God loved us all without reason or preference. This is how God’s love must manifest itself in us. It is clear that you will not be nice by force.
Seeing the manifestation of the Divine in every person, treating everything with warmth is hard work. And along this path we will inevitably stumble and get burned. But the Bible teaches to forgive, to do good, to show care. So, day after day, we will understand that man is love, for he is a particle of God.
“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because in fear there is torment.”
God, who is love, is terrible to those who shun Him.
Those who strive for God are not afraid of any misfortunes or illnesses. He is healed by his faith: all wounds, mental and physical, are healed like oil by His warmth and care, and they are inexhaustible. We simply do not use God’s love, we ignore it, we rely only on ourselves, we do not allow Him to act in our lives, we do not give Him the joy of communicating with our soul, we remove His all-powerful, comforting hand. Life without God is torture.
You need to love yourself and everyone around you equally.
Many places say that you need to love your neighbor. And we often understand this idea very narrowly, as if we should kill our mother, father, other relatives, a couple of close acquaintances, and everything else is superfluous.
And a person may not care about himself. You need to love your neighbors, not yourself
This is how Christians mistakenly become spineless people-pleasers in order to cultivate love in themselves. But love is not a specific, but a universal feeling. A person who does not love someone, much less himself, is not able to project love into the world. He simply doesn’t know or feel the real her. Jesus Christ said unequivocally:
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; just as I have loved you, let you also love one another.”
(John 13:34)
Jesus Christ taught that a person should treat everyone and everything with love.
Who is this neighbor? The parable of the Good Samaritan shows us that a non-Christian, an ideological enemy, or anyone else in general can be considered such. It doesn't even have to be a person. An animal is no worse, as the Bible teaches.
Neighbor is not a genealogical or geographical position. A neighbor is someone with whom you are currently interacting.
“You have heard that it was said: Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you: love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who use you and persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father in heaven, for He makes His sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward will you have?”
(Matt. 43:46)
Therefore, it is important for a person to love his brother, himself and his friend equally. and the enemy, and all living things in the world. It's hard, but it's an ideal we should strive for. And a bias in one direction or the other will lead to either compliance or selfishness. And neither one nor the other is the Christian way.
For the soul...(What helps you live)
About love and its dangers. METROPOLITAN ATHANASIY OF LIMASSOL JUNE 30, 2014
Love is a great, but also a very dangerous force, because it can raise a person to the Throne of God, but it can also destroy if handled carelessly. That is why the holy fathers say that love is the greatest virtue, but prudence stands above all virtues, because it guides love, directing it in the right direction. The last and most perfect fruit of the Holy Spirit, the pinnacle of all His fruits, the ultimate goal of human life in God is love.
Today everyone is talking about love. Everyone defends love, it is now in fashion - like world peace. And although both are visibly absent in modern life, they are turned into slogans. There is nothing bad here - let everything be at least that way, in words. But Love in the Gospel understanding of this word, the Love that Jesus Christ, the apostles and the Church reveal to us, is not just a human emotion.
When we say that we love another person, our spouse, our friends, students, or all people, this love is a human emotion that is naturally inherent in our nature. Man is created this way. If God is Love, as the Apostle John the Theologian tells us (1 John 4:7–8), then man, created in the image and likeness of God, by Grace can possess what God has by Nature. Thus, we can consider that man is love by grace. God is Love, but love is not God. And here there is a huge difference between the teachings of the Church and various philosophical and ideological movements. For us, God is a Person Who is Love. And love is not God, is not Personality.
The modern world constantly deifies love, turning it into an idol. That’s why we hear so often now: “All you need is love! Love! Be loved! Love is above all!” But at the same time, we completely forget that God is Love. It is God who is our goal, i.e. what we should be looking for. Having found God, a person also finds true Love - through a connection with Him. In God there is love, and joy, and peace, all that the Apostle Paul calls the fruits of the Holy Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23). When a person has at least a little love, a little joy, a little peace, then if it comes from God, he feels the fullness of his being. He doesn't feel like there's anything missing in his life. And despite the fact that we always want more, we do not have a feeling of incompleteness. When the law of the Holy Spirit, His Grace, operates in us, we begin to feel all His fruits in ourselves, and above all, love.
But this should also be treated prudently, not forgetting that the main goal of our life is God, and nothing else. That is, the goal is not joy, not peace, not love, not long-suffering, kindness, self-control and other fruits of the Spirit, but God Himself. All of the above are the results of our connection with God, which at the same time are the prerequisites for this connection. That is, to achieve God we need to improve in love, abstinence, and patience. But when we comprehend God, then all this appears naturally as a consequence of the feat that we performed in the fight against sin.
That is, we can be nervous and angry, but at the same time we should not allow sin - hatred or cowardice - to enslave us. And we fight sin, trying not to do or say what we don’t want and what is contrary to our nature. This struggle helps us draw closer to God. She is a means, an instrument, a step on the path to Him. But when a person meets God, then everything that he previously had to fight for becomes natural for him. A person stops being nervous, irritated, and angry. All this goes away - one after another. Mental resources begin to activate naturally, and a person, controlling this process, succeeds in spiritual struggle. Let's take anger for example. This feeling is very important for a person, because it is strong, it shows the strength of the soul. Therefore, you need to have anger in yourself, but this feeling must be dispassionate. You cannot direct anger at your neighbor, because in this case love will be destroyed. Anger must be directed against our own sins so that we have the opportunity to establish ourselves in purity, truth, faith, and connection with God.
When you are angry, you cannot forget. You need to direct anger towards sin, passions, and not towards your neighbors. And a spiritual person is not a person without feelings, who never gets angry, who is neither cold nor hot. He is one whose all mental powers - including anger - are active, but he activates them in a dispassionate way. And love, one might say, is the greatest, most powerful force of the human soul. Therefore, it must also be handled carefully, activating this power in the right, dispassionate way and thereby sanctifying it. If you handle this feeling with the help of passions, then there is a danger of turning the object of love into an idol. In this case, a person gives himself completely to what (or whom) he loves, because it is precisely such surrender that is a sign of love. And the object of love becomes your idol. It could be a spouse, children, or some kind of ideology, teaching, mental work, social status, science, wisdom, wealth, youth... All this - being very relative in itself - can easily turn into an idol.
If we love someone with passion, then sooner or later problems appear in the relationship. The reason is that we have not yet had time to cleanse ourselves of our passions, and when love arises, carnal lust immediately begins to speak in us. After this, if our mind does not begin to control the body, we will almost certainly plunge into the abyss of passions, and it will take much effort for us to overcome sin and again become free, dispassionate in relation to the object (or objects) of our love. Love is a great, but also a very dangerous force, because it can raise a person to the Throne of God, but it can also destroy if handled carelessly. That is why the holy fathers say that love is the greatest virtue, but prudence stands above all virtues, because it guides love, directing it in the right direction. Lack of judgment can lead to huge problems that at first seem harmless because they are accompanied by good intentions, but then make life incredibly difficult.
Let me give you an example. Guided by love, we rush to help another person who has some kind of problem (personal, professional, family, etc.). But in the absence of prudence, we forget, firstly, that, without being dispassionate, we can easily lose control of ourselves and make a mistake in solving a problem, and secondly, that the other person is also not dispassionate. Here you can object: “So what? I’m fine, I don’t feel anything like that.” Yes, you don't feel it, but the other person? What do you know about his feelings? Can you see his inner world, his desires and possibilities? Thinking that you love him, you strive to listen, to help him in his difficulties, to share his cross with him, but then everything changes, and love changes.
An example of such reckless love is often the blind (and thereby destructive) love of parents for their children. Such love does not give the parent the opportunity to be reasonable towards the child and thereby set any restrictions on him. After all, creating restrictions during upbringing is painful for both parents and children. Usually a child does not like being limited in something. He is small, he wants to play, run, he doesn’t want to study, do this or that. And when he is deprived of something, he protests, he cries. Restrictions are painful for a child while he is small and does not understand much. In turn, it is also difficult for parents to see their child cry, and therefore, out of love for the child, they themselves eliminate the restrictions: “Okay, don’t cry, we will buy you what you want!” Just do not cry!" And what is the result?
The child begins to understand that as soon as he starts crying, the mother immediately gives in and allows him to do whatever he wants. That is, even if a ban is initially placed on the child, when he starts crying, this ban is immediately lifted. And all this comes from great parental love. After all, it is love that makes us give in again and again. We are ready to die for the one we love. By constantly doing what pleases another, we are ready to turn into a rag that can be trampled on: “What do you want? Tell me - and I will do it! I'll give you whatever you want!
Love, in principle, is characterized by such a desire - to completely surrender to another person, and then endlessly continue to give him everything he wants. After all, after we give ourselves completely to someone, how can we not give that person everything else - for example, money, etc. - while love exists? Yes, such a desire really comes from love. But it is prudence that can put everything in its place here and set the necessary boundaries, thanks to which the fire of love will not burn either you or your loved one, and you will not become like electrical appliances that break down at the first thunderstorm. After all, if you give your loved one more than he can bear, it will later harm him and destroy him. A person cannot bear this load - he will break, like an electrical appliance, and will no longer be able to function.
This is why love is a dangerous movement of the human heart, no matter how beautiful and perfect it may be. But it really is the most perfect, most precious component of our existence. It is love that constitutes our “I”, since we are created in the image and likeness of God, and God is love. God, loving us, did everything for us - He even gave Himself up to death to show how great His love for man is. Therefore, we must do the same. And we are ready to sacrifice ourselves for those we love.
One young woman, having become a mother, told me: “For the first time I understood what it means to be ready to die for another person, because now I can die for my child.” I probably couldn’t even die for my husband. I love him and tell him that I love him to death, but if his hour of death really comes, I don’t know if I can die in his place. Maybe yes, maybe not. And I can die for a child, I’m ready for that. Something stronger than love for life appeared in me.
And indeed it is. This is the nature of the parental instinct - and in mothers it is probably even more developed than in fathers. We see this even in animals. Have you ever seen a hen in the village who has just hatched chicks? If a person approaches them, she attacks him like a wild animal. She will attack both a dog and a cat if they approach her chickens. This is what parental instinct is.
Thus, our nature, united with love, helps us to overcome ourselves. But a person here needs another greatest virtue - prudence - not to limit his love, but to use it correctly. You definitely need to be able to handle love correctly, because if a person “cleaves” to something before God, he will start to have problems. Spiritual problems. And this is dangerous.
At the same time, when a person begins to live in spiritual achievement and re-sets all priorities; when he tries to get rid of all past “toxins” so that there is no longer a place for enmity, hatred, grumbling in his life; when he becomes meek, patient, forgiving, kind, then there is a danger that he can cling with his heart to his own “I”. By getting rid of spiritual “toxins”, from the rust that sins and vices emit, a person truly becomes beautiful. But contemplating our new “I” - beautiful, harmonious, reminiscent of classical Italian music, in which there is no place for any dissonance - we can become so attached to our “I” that we begin to admire it, just as we admire some things or people .
This is the difference between ordinary, secular love and love for God. And here poor Christians often make mistakes, getting confused in the commandments. When I ask people what is the most important commandment, they always answer: “Love thy neighbor.” This is the answer of the absolute majority, and first of all – children. “No, not this one,” I tell them in response. And in one lyceum a schoolboy answered my question like this: “Be fruitful and multiply!” This is my favorite commandment. I also like the one that says that people who are sick and traveling don’t have to fast. Also a good commandment.
But the very first commandment is “Thou shalt love the Lord Thy God.” It was the commandment to love Him with all our hearts that God gave us. And love for one's neighbor is already the result of this first commandment. And everything else is the result. And God gave us this first commandment in order to use it to show the correct “direction” of our love, which should be addressed primarily to Him. And everything that a person lives by must first of all come from his love for God. Even marriage, even your beloved spouse and children - everything that is now elevated to an absolute and turns into an idol. But all this should only contribute to our living connection with God. It doesn’t help and the connection is broken. Translation by Elizaveta Terentyeva
Love is cultivated not by mind, but by actions
The Bible would not say enough about God and love if it limited it all to an abstract appeal. Yes, you need to love, that’s clear. But how to teach yourself to love?
Sitting and straining your mind, waiting for a call from your heart, will not help. Love is cultivated through actions, not through thoughts. You need to try for the benefit of yourself and your neighbors:
“...let us begin to love not in word or tongue, but in deed and truth.”
(1 John 4:7)
An example of such an act is given by God Himself:
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
(John 3:16)
Christ showed an example of true love when he died for the sins of others (Crucifixion. Christ on the Cross, Mary and John,” Albrecht Altdorfer). Photo: muzei-mira.com
But it’s also useful to look back at your state of mind from time to time. Aren't we proud? Are we denying mercy to someone?
“Love is long-suffering, it is kind, love does not envy, love is not arrogant, is not proud, does not act rudely, does not seek its own, is not irritated, does not think evil, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; covers all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
(Corinth. 13:4-7)
Love between a man and a woman is another aspect of the manifestation of divine love
But it would be wrong to limit love only to mercy, compassion, and care. Love is a complex feeling. We manifest it differently. There is love for a mother, there is for a friend, there is even for a favorite thing.
We still have a sweater knitted by our deceased grandmother. Is it a mistake to say that this thing is priceless to us? This is love for the grandmother, but it is projected onto the object. And how many such objects we have in our lives! Love for different objects has different manifestations.
Love has different gradations: from passion and affection to spiritual warmth.
In this sense, it is useful for us to look back at the Eastern traditions, where love is divided into levels - from lower to higher. The highest ones are love for God, and the lowest ones are all kinds of passions. That is, this is also love, but on its own plane.
Actually, the relationship between a man and a woman themselves can be expressed in different ways: for some it is more of a friendly relationship, for others it is a spiritual union, and for others it is an ardent passion.
But it rarely comes down to just one thing. Usually there is always a mixture of feelings in different proportions. And it would be hypocrisy to say that Christianity is somehow reprehensible about, for example, passion. The Song of Songs sings with poetic rapture a man's admiration for a woman's beauty:
“Oh, how beautiful are your feet in sandals, eminent daughter!
The rounding of your hips, like a necklace, is the work of a skilled artist; your belly is a round cup in which the fragrant wine does not run dry; your womb -
a heap of wheat surrounded by lilies; Your two breasts are like two kids of goats, the twins of a chamois; your neck is like a pillar of ivory; your eyes are the lakes of Heshbon, which are at the gates of Bathrabbim;
your nose is the Tower of Lebanon, facing Damascus; your head is like Carmel, and the hair of your head is like purple; the king is fascinated by your curls.
How beautiful you are, how attractive, beloved, with your cuteness! This figure of yours is like a palm tree, and your breasts are like bunches of grapes.”
(Song of Songs 7:2–8)
Illustration for the book of the Song of Songs, which celebrates the attraction of a man and a woman to each other (woodcut by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, 19th century)
The Lord intended this for us. In a full-fledged relationship, there should be plenty of everything: passion and spirituality. Then the union will be harmonious. If there is a bias in one direction, problems are inevitable.
As for condemning intimate life, the Bible has always condemned only sexual relations outside of marriage. As for the relationship between a man and a woman in general, the Holy Scriptures have always treated them with special warmth:
“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for her.”
(Eph. 5:25)
Love permeates everything in our world
It may seem that the idea “God is love” places love too high. There is this feeling within family relationships, romantic, friendly. But there is so much more in the world besides this! Creativity, work, social sphere. Where is the love?
Christianity itself does not deeply explore this question, but other people who reflect on spiritual topics answer this question quite successfully.
Jesus Christ is sometimes portrayed as the good shepherd, who, out of love, is willing to spend his energy searching for and saving the lost sheep. The sheep is a symbol of sinful man
It is appropriate to quote on this matter the reasoning of Neale Donald Walsh, the author of the world-famous Conversations with God. He wrote that any human act has at its core only two reasons:
- Love; we are very strongly attached to something, we are drawn to it, we are ready to try for it;
- fear; we don’t want something very much and are ready to make efforts to avoid it.
For example, a person can work because he likes this work (love), or because he is afraid of starving without money (fear). There are still people who work mindlessly because “that’s the way it should be,” but here too, fear lies at the root—fear of public opinion.
However, Neil Dalnald Walsh goes further and says that in reality everything is driven only by love, and fear is only its consequence
In fact, if we are afraid, it is only because we love:
- fear of public opinion - we love it when people recognize us;
- fear of getting sick - we love to be healthy;
- fear of death - we love to live;
- fear of censure - we love it when people praise.
As a result, logic leads us to the fact that the Biblical formula “God is love” capaciously and accurately describes everything that exists in our world and how one should act in it.
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