The Church Fathers on the topic of the love of God, man, and our purpose

[sculleywr]

What did the Church Fathers say about love? This thread is a light-hearted, but serious discussion of this.

I'll start it off with this quote by St. Maximos the Confessor

"God, Who is by nature good and dispassionate, loves all men equally as His handiwork. But He glorifies the virtuous man because in his will he is united to God. At the same time, in His goodness he is merciful to the sinner and by chastising him in this life brings him back to the path of virtue. Similarly, a man of good and dispassionate judgment also loves all men equally. He loves the virtuous man because of his nature and the probity of his intention; and he loves the sinner, too, because of his nature and because in his compassion he pities him for foolishly stumbling in darkness."

—St. Maximos the Confessor

 

[seeingeyes]

What did the Church Fathers say about love? This thread is a light-hearted, but serious discussion of this.

I'll start it off with this quote by St. Maximos the Confessor

"God, Who is by nature good and dispassionate, loves all men equally as His handiwork. But He glorifies the virtuous man because in his will he is united to God. At the same time, in His goodness he is merciful to the sinner and by chastising him in this life brings him back to the path of virtue. Similarly, a man of good and dispassionate judgment also loves all men equally. He loves the virtuous man because of his nature and the probity of his intention; and he loves the sinner, too, because of his nature and because in his compassion he pities him for foolishly stumbling in darkness."

—St. Maximos the Confessor

That's excellent.

One of my biggest stumbling blocks to real faith was the gulf between what I thought God was doing and what He expected me to do. I thought that he was just sitting around waiting to zotch all these evil jerks into perdition, giving them enough space to 'tie their own noose' as it were. But then He had the gall to demand that I should love my enemies. I believed that God was telling me to be 'gooder' than He was!

Once I quit avoiding that belief and actually examined it, my whole theology went tumbling. And my Father was there to pick me up.

 

[Lion King]

I'll bite.

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:1-13

 

[sculleywr]

That's excellent.

One of my biggest stumbling blocks to real faith was the gulf between what I thought God was doing and what He expected me to do. I thought that he was just sitting around waiting to zotch all these evil jerks into perdition, giving them enough space to 'tie their own noose' as it were. But then He had the gall to demand that I should love my enemies. I believed that God was telling me to be 'gooder' than He was!

Once I quit avoiding that belief and actually examined it, my whole theology went tumbling. And my Father was there to pick me up.

It is exceptionally hard to do. I can't find the quote, but one church father said we should always consider or own sins to be the worst of all the sin in the world. By thus doing, we will treat all men as if they were better than ourselves.

 

[sculleywr]

I'll bite.

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:1-13

One of my favorite passages, also the hardest to truly apply, though I need it desperately.

 

[sculleywr]

That's excellent.

One of my biggest stumbling blocks to real faith was the gulf between what I thought God was doing and what He expected me to do. I thought that he was just sitting around waiting to zotch all these evil jerks into perdition, giving them enough space to 'tie their own noose' as it were. But then He had the gall to demand that I should love my enemies. I believed that God was telling me to be 'gooder' than He was!

Once I quit avoiding that belief and actually examined it, my whole theology went tumbling. And my Father was there to pick me up.

"Apart from love nothing whatever has existed, nor ever will. Its names and actions are many. More numerous still are its distinctive marks; divine and innumerable are its properties. Yet it is one in nature, wholly beyond utterance whether on the part of angels or men or any other creatures, even such as are unknown to us. Reason cannot comprehend it; its glory is inaccessible, its counsels unsearchable. It is eternal because it is beyond time, invisible because thought cannot comprehend it, though it may perceive it. Many are the beauties of this holy Sion not made with hands! He who has begun to see it no longer delights in sensible objects; he ceases to be attached to the glory of this world."

—St. Symeon the New Theologian


My next quote for today