Love God...

[Hammster]

Love God and do what you want. Or variations thereof. It’s a quote attributed to Augustine. (We don’t need links to the original. I only want to discuss the phrase.)

True? False?

Let the discussion commence.

 

[GOD Shines Forth!]

True? False?

True...

"...assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness."

—Ephesians 4

Yes, after that I’d say you could "do as you please".

 

[RichardY]

True. (Although I was tempted to say false). False to the do what you want part(fear).

EDIT: True. For what I should do, but don't. Working on it god willing.

Matthew 22:36
36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

Perhaps also Fear God The Father, in which you have your being.

Genesis 4:7 If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.

 

[RichardY]

Fear is the mind killer? - Dune.

 

[TheSeabass]

John 14:15
If ye love Me, keep MY commandments
or
If ye love Me, do what YOU want.

 

[mcarans]

If the love of God is genuine then what the person wants will align with what God wants.

 

[Hammster]

John 14:15
If ye love Me, keep MY commandments
or
If ye love Me, do what YOU want.

Do those who love God want to keep His commandments?

 

[TheSeabass]

Do those who love God want to keep His commandments?

One does not love God unless/until one keeps His commandments.

Matthew 15:8-9 'precepts of men' is men doing as THEY want. One saying he loves God but does not keep His commands is just giving 'lip service' about his love for God,

 

[Hammster]

One does not love God unless/until one keeps His commandments.

Matthew 15:8-9 'precepts of men' is men doing as THEY want.

So you don’t want to keep His commandments? I’m confused as to your point.

 

[TheSeabass]

So you don’t want to keep His commandments? I’m confused as to your point.

To love Christ means keeping His commands. Man doing as he wants to is not love for Christ.

 

[Hammster]

To love Christ means keeping His commands. Man doing as he wants to is not love for Christ.

So you don’t want to keep His commandments?

 

[fhansen]

Love God and do what you want. Or variations thereof. It’s a quote attributed to Augustine. (We don’t need links to the original. I only want to discuss the phrase.)

True? False?

Let the discussion commence.

True! That's the gospel properly understood. That's how God fulfills the New Covenant. Implicit in Augustine's thought is the understanding that this love is the "righteousness of God", a righteousness He's planned man to have from the beginning, which comes by Him placing His Law in our minds and writing it on our hearts. (Jer 31:33)

Agape, God's love, the "love that fulfills the law'. (Rom 13) This is what faith is intended to lead to, this is what man's justice consists of, this is how God justifies IOW. And this is why Paul could say, "...if I have a faith that can move mountains but have not love, I am nothing." And this is why the Greatest Commandments are what they are and why the Church can correctly teach, "At the evening of life we shall be judged on our love", quoting a 16th century believer.

Man has always had the obligation to be righteous and this doesn't change with the New Covenant. Love is how that obligation is finally fulfilled, the right way. This is what God has been steering man towards ever since He created us. Faith is not a license to escape from that obligation; rather it's the means to fulfill it.

 

[royal priest]

Love God and do what you want. Or variations thereof. It’s a quote attributed to Augustine. (We don’t need links to the original. I only want to discuss the phrase.)

True? False?

Let the discussion commence.

Just when I think that I am loving God, I look into the mirror of His law and discover that I am still not. "Oh, miserable wretch that I am. Who shall deliver me from this body of death?"

 

[Strong in Him]

Love God and do what you want. Or variations thereof. It’s a quote attributed to Augustine. (We don’t need links to the original. I only want to discuss the phrase.)

True? False?

Let the discussion commence.

True.
In my experience, if someone loves God they will want to be with him, serve him and do as he did. They will not want to sin - though we still live in a fallen world, may be weak or lured into temptation.

People told me for years that God loved me; it was all head knowledge because I didn't believe, or accept, it. Since being brought to a place of understanding, where the Lord enabled me to believe and receive it, things have changed massively.

 

[Strong in Him]

To love Christ means keeping His commands. Man doing as he wants to is not love for Christ.

You've missed the first part of the quote:
Love God, and do as you want.

How do we love God?
We love because he first loved us, 1 John 4:19.
We respond to God's amazing love and grace by realising that he accepted us completely and gave his life for us while we were godless sinners. Look at the cross, 1 John 3:16; THAT'S how much he loved us, and because he did so, we can love him.
If we receive his Agape love we will be able to love as he loved us, John 13:34.
If we have been born again, are in Christ and have a new nature, 2 Corinthians 5:17, we won't want to please ourselves at all.

 

[Tree of Life]

John 14:15
If ye love Me, keep MY commandments
or
If ye love Me, do what YOU want.

Why will we keep his commandments if we love him? Isn't it because we want to?

 

[Tree of Life]

Love God and do what you want. Or variations thereof. It’s a quote attributed to Augustine. (We don’t need links to the original. I only want to discuss the phrase.)

True? False?

Let the discussion commence.

It's not meant to be a theologically precise statement.

As far as theological precision goes, it is not very useful in itself to clear up all confusion. As a matter of fact, it can make things more confusing. But that's kind of the point of the statement, isn't it? It's more of a riddle. It's jarring to hear because we wouldn't normally say "do what you want" in relation to Christian obedience. Isn't obedience about resisting what we want in order to do what God wants? But the more you think about it, the more you see that it is true. If we love God, then we will want to obey him. If we don't want to obey him, it's because we don't love him.

In that way it resembles an eastern koan or wisdom saying which is meant to get you to stop and think.

 

[TheSeabass]

So you don’t want to keep His commandments?

????????

 

[TheSeabass]

Why will we keep his commandments if we love him? Isn't it because we want to?

one cannot love God without keeping His commandments.

keeping commandments = love

 

[Tree of Life]

one cannot love God without keeping His commandments.

keeping commandments = love

Can one keep his commandments without loving him?