God is love. Simple. Is this not the central concept of Orthodoxy?

[AureateDawn]

"God is love." - 1 John 4:16

Would you say that this is the central concept of Orthodox Christianity? In my recent struggles, I have found extremes, including in my own perception and thought processes. Whether Orthodox, pagan, spiritual, whatever - people debate details. This extraterrestrial and UFO information vs this. This patristic father said this, another said this. Is gay a choice, were we born with it, what is sexuality at all? I'm OCA but leaning ROCOR, etc. Anything at all, and large deals are made out of small ones.

Everything, everywhere, is so detail oriented! I don't understand it. Why debate, quote, cite, and argue for small details?

To me, God is love. Just... love. Spread love. Love everyone. Make the world to be as close to Heaven as you can. Bring Heaven with you wherever you walk, and love everything.

Everything seems to be simple: Don't sweat the details, live your life to the fullest, love everyone, spread love and peace. Why worry about anything else? Why make life complicated? To me, it all simply boils down to love and joy. Spread these things. Cultivate them. Why the nonsensical details?

 

[Lukaris]

Yes, God is love as St. John tells us in his 1st epistle & St. Paul defines love in 1 Corinthians 13 & that is where the challenge to be loving is in trying to confess our own sins & forgiving the sins of others. I believe we can see the Beatitudes in Orthodox Christians, other Christians, & non Christians, avoid the pitfalls of syncretism, & trust God.

 

[Cappadocious]

To me, God is love. Just... love. Spread love. Love everyone.

What is love?

 

[michaeldimmickjr]

"God is love." - 1 John 4:16

Would you say that this is the central concept of Orthodox Christianity? In my recent struggles, I have found extremes, including in my own perception and thought processes. Whether Orthodox, pagan, spiritual, whatever - people debate details. This extraterrestrial and UFO information vs this. This patristic father said this, another said this. Is gay a choice, were we born with it, what is sexuality at all? I'm OCA but leaning ROCOR, etc. Anything at all, and large deals are made out of small ones.

Everything, everywhere, is so detail oriented! I don't understand it. Why debate, quote, cite, and argue for small details?

To me, God is love. Just... love. Spread love. Love everyone. Make the world to be as close to Heaven as you can. Bring Heaven with you wherever you walk, and love everything.

Everything seems to be simple: Don't sweat the details, live your life to the fullest, love everyone, spread love and peace. Why worry about anything else? Why make life complicated? To me, it all simply boils down to love and joy. Spread these things. Cultivate them. Why the nonsensical details?

2 observations:

1. Details are not a bad thing. Without them, it's easy to create a god that isn't God.

2. Even atheists love.

 

[rusmeister]

You're getting a united answer, Justin.
Most people have the foggiest notion of what "love" is in our time. (Have you read Lewis's "The 4 Loves" yet?) They twist it to mean things that are not love at all, and seek, not a heavenly father, but a senile heavenly grandfather, smiling inanely at whatever people happen to want to do.
Unless love also includes tough love, which needs LOTS of details to deal with what is wrong in us.
The Beatles sang "All you need is love". But they might as well have sang "All you need is air", and most atmospheres known to us are poison. People wind up thinking literally that all you need is oxygen, but even oxygen in the wrong proportions will kill us.

The modern words for "love" are deadly to us unless we acquire the ancient understandings, above all, of agape.

 

[A New Day]

Archbishop Anastasios of Albania:

Always remember that at the Last Judgement we are judged for loving Him, or failing to love Him, in the least person.

Saint John of Kronstadt:

We love everything brilliant on earth: gold, silver, precious stones, crystal, bright clothing - why, then, do we not love the future glory to which the Lord calls us? Why do we not aspire to shine like the sun? 'Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father' Matt. 13:43. It is because we have perverted the nature of our soul by sin, and have attached ourselves to earth instead of to heaven, to corruptible things instead of to incorruptible ones; because we love earthly, transitory, perishable, and seductive splendour. But why is there such a love for everything bright in us? Because our soul was created for heavenly light, and was originally all light, all radiance; thus light is inborn in it, the feeling and desire for light are inborn in it. Direct this aspiration to seeking for heavenly light!

Love does not reflect. Love is simple. Love never mistakes. Likewise believe and trust without reflection, for faith and trust are also simple; or better: God, in whom we believe and in whom we trust, is an incomplex Being, as He is also simply love.

Saint John Chrysostom:

Even if we have thousands of acts of great virtue to our credit, our confidence in being heard must be based on God's mercy and His love for men. Even if we stand at the very summit of virtue, it is by mercy that we shall be saved.

Saint John of Kronstadt:

A man who is wrathful with us is a sick man; we must apply a plaster to his heart - love; we must treat him kindly, speak to him gently, lovingly. And if there is not deeply-rooted malice against us within him, but only a temporary fit of anger, you will see how his heart, or his malice, will melt away through your kindness and love - how good will conquer evil. A Christian must always be kind, gracious, and wise in order to conquer evil by good.

Saint Clement of Alexandria:

His actions are not motivated by desire for personal benefit, so he does not have personal advantage as his aim. But as soon as he has realized the beauty of doing good, he does it with all his energies and in all that he does. He is not interested in fame, or a good reputation, or a human or divine reward.

Saint Makarios:

'He among you who wants to be first and pre-eminent, let him be the last of all and the servant and slave of all' cf. Mk. 9:35, not inviting any glory, honor or praise from the brethren for his service and conduct. He serves the brethren with complete goodwill, with love and simplicity, not with outward show and with an eye to gaining popularity, but regarding himself as a debtor in everything.

Saint Basil the Great of Caesarea:

Love of God is not something that can be taught. We did not learn from someone else how to rejoice in light or want to live, or to love our parents or guardians. It is the same – perhaps even more so – with our love for God: it does not come by another's teaching.

For this reason, as by God's gift, I find you with the zeal necessary to attain this end, and you on your part help me with your prayers. I will try to fan into flame the spark of divine love that is hidden within you, as far as I am able through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Saint Augustine of Hippo:

It is by running along the road of true love that we can reach our heavenly homeland.

Without love, everything we do is useless. We are wasting our energies if we do not have love, which is God.

Human beings only become perfect when they are overflowing with love.

One can believe in the right way, but without love one cannot attain eternal happiness.

Love is so strong that without it neither prophecy nor martyrdom avail.

Love is the sweet and saving food without which the rich are poor, thanks to which the poor become rich.

Enlarge your love to the size of the world if you want to love Christ, since the members of Christ are to be found all over the world.

Only those who have the perfection of Christ's love are able to live together. Those who are without it continually upset one another and their anxiety is a misery to the others.

and finally Saint John of Kronstadt:

Let others mock at you, oppose you, when you are under the influence of any passion; do not be in the least offended with those who mock at or oppose you, for they do you good; crucify your self-love and acknowledge the wrong, the error of your heart. But have the deepest pity for those who mock at words and works of faith and piety, of righteousness; for those who oppose the good which you are doing... God preserve you from getting exasperated at them...

 

[A New Day]

You're getting a united answer, Justin.
Most people have the foggiest notion of what "love" is in our time. (Have you read Lewis's "The 4 Loves" yet?) They twist it to mean things that are not love at all, and seek, not a heavenly father, but a senile heavenly grandfather, smiling inanely at whatever people happen to want to do.
Unless love also includes tough love, which needs LOTS of deals to deal with what is wrong in us.
The Beatles sang "All you need is love". But they might as well have sang "All you need is air", and most atmospheres known to us are poison. People wind up thinking literally that all you need is oxygen, but even oxygen in the wrong proportions will kill us.

The modern words for "love" are deadly to us unless we acquire the ancient understandings, above all, of agape.

wow. Amen

 

[ArmyMatt]

You're getting a united answer, Justin.
Most people have the foggiest notion of what "love" is in our time. (Have you read Lewis's "The 4 Loves" yet?) They twist it to mean things that are not love at all, and seek, not a heavenly father, but a senile heavenly grandfather, smiling inanely at whatever people happen to want to do.
Unless love also includes tough love, which needs LOTS of deals to deal with what is wrong in us.
The Beatles sang "All you need is love". But they might as well have sang "All you need is air", and most atmospheres known to us are poison. People wind up thinking literally that all you need is oxygen, but even oxygen in the wrong proportions will kill us.

The modern words for "love" are deadly to us unless we acquire the ancient understandings, above all, of agape.

this is true. most confuse infatuation with love, and they are not the same. love, at least the best definition I have heard, is doing to the highest good of the other at the sacrifice of the self. it is NOT, some warm and generic feeling of goodness.