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Thread: The Journey towards Love

  1. #901
    Quote Originally Posted by TER View Post
    Do not say that you are the temple of the Lord, writes Jeremiah (cf. Jer. 7:4); nor should you say that faith alone in our Lord Jesus Christ can save you, for this is impossible unless you also acquire love for Him through your works.

    As for faith by itself, ‘the devils also believe, and tremble.’ (Jas. 2:19)

    - St. Maximos the Confessor
    This is horribly wrong. This is the opposite of Christianity. The Bible, in so many places and so many ways, declares that there is no amount of works that can save you. This is the religion of the world. All the world's religions say that man must do good works to be saved. Christianity says that it is only Christ's perfect works that can save, and a man is saved by fully trusting in Christ's works for salvation.

    Don't be misled by these worldly Pharisaical liars who say that man must do works to be saved.

    As for the verse in James, the demons believe God is one. Well, that is not saving faith. Monotheism alone is not saving faith. The reason the demons aren't saved is because they believe in the wrong propositions. Jews or Muslims are not saved either, because monotheism alone is not saving faith. Saving faith is something that is Christocentric.



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  3. #902
    'I believe in one Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.’ Do you believe that all Orthodox Christians are members of one and the same body, and that therefore we must all ‘keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace,” must care for one… another, help one another? Do you believe that the saints are likewise members of the one body of Christ – that is, of the Church, and are our brethren, interceding for us before God in heaven? Do you respect every Christian, as a member of Christ, as His brother according to human nature? Do you love everybody as yourself, as your own flesh and blood? Do you generously forgive offenses? Do you help others in need, if you yourself have means? Do you teach the ignorant? Do you turn the sinner from the error of his ways? Do you comfort those who are in affliction? Faith in the Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church inspires, obliges you to do all this; and for all this you are promised a great reward from the Head of the Church – our Lord Jesus Christ.

    - St. John of Kronstadt
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    'These things I command you, that you love one another.' - Jesus Christ

  4. #903
    To love Christ means not to be a hireling, not to look upon a noble life as an enterprise or trade, but to be a true benefactor and to do everything only for the sake of love for God

    - St. John Chrysostom
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    'These things I command you, that you love one another.' - Jesus Christ

  5. #904
    God is loving to man, and loving in no small measure. For say not, I have committed fornication and adultery: I have done dreadful things, and not once only, but often: will He forgive? Will He grant pardon? Hear what the Psalmist says: How great is the multitude of Your goodness, O Lord!

    Your accumulated offenses surpass not the multitude of God’s mercies: your wounds surpass not the great Physician’s skill. Only give yourself up in faith: tell the Physician your ailment: say thou also, like David: I said, I will confess me my sin unto the Lord: and the same shall be done in your case, which he says immediately: And you forgave the wickedness of my heart.

    - St. Cyril of Jerusalem
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    'These things I command you, that you love one another.' - Jesus Christ



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  7. #905
    What is perfection in love? Love your enemies in such a way that you would desire to make them your brothers … For so did He love, Who hanging on the Cross, said ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.' (Luke 23:34)

    - St. Augustine of Hippo
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    'These things I command you, that you love one another.' - Jesus Christ

  8. #906
    If you find that there is no love in you, but you want to have it, then do deeds of love, even though you do them without love in the beginning. The Lord will see you desire and striving and will put love in your heart.

    - St. Ambrose of Optina
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    'These things I command you, that you love one another.' - Jesus Christ

  9. #907
    “Love covers a multitude of sins,” (I Pet. 4:8). That is, for love towards one’s neighbor, God forgives the sins of the one who loves.

    - St. Theophan the Recluse
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    'These things I command you, that you love one another.' - Jesus Christ

  10. #908
    When a man’s intellect is constantly with God, his desire grows beyond all measure into an intense longing for God and his incisiveness is completely transformed into divine love. For by continual participation in the divine radiance his intellect becomes totally filled with light; and when it has reintegrated its passable aspect, it redirects this aspect towards God, as we have said, filling it with an incomprehensible and intense longing for Him and with unceasing love, thus drawing it entirely away from worldly things to the divine.

    - St. Maximos the Confessor
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    'These things I command you, that you love one another.' - Jesus Christ

  11. #909
    ..without love, the works of virtue are not praiseworthy or profitable to the man who practices them, and the same is true of love without works. St. Paul makes this fully clear with reference to works when he writes to the Corinthians, 'If I do this and that, but have no love, it profits me nothing' (cf. I Cor. 13:1-3); and with reference to love the disciple especially beloved by Christ writes, 'Let us not love in word or tongue but in action and truth' (I John 3:18).

    - St. Gregory Palamas
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    'These things I command you, that you love one another.' - Jesus Christ

  12. #910
    An old man was asked, 'How can I find God?' He said, 'In fasting, in watching, in labors, in devotion, and, above all, in discernment. I tell you, many have injured their bodies without discernment and have gone away from us having achieved nothing. Our mouths smell bad through fasting, we know the Scriptures by heart, we recite all the Psalms of David, but we have not that which God seeks: charity and humility.

    - The Desert Fathers
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    'These things I command you, that you love one another.' - Jesus Christ

  13. #911
    And this is love, that we walk after His commandments. This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it." Divine Truth is contained and found in the commandments of the Gospel. Divine love gives us will, strength, and perseverance for we walk after the [divine] commandments, for we walk after His commandments in them and with them. Our love -- as much towards the Lord Christ as towards men -- consists of living according to the commandments of Christ. For at the end, everything comes back to this double commandment: the commandment of love of God and one's neighbor. This is why the holy Evangelist recalls all the commandments to a single one: This is the commandment, That ... you walk in it [love]. We now know that the entire Gospel of Christ is contained in the single commandment on love: he who lives in love lives in Christ God. Thus, he who fulfills the Gospel of God is deserving of heaven and earth.

    - St. Justin Popovich
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    'These things I command you, that you love one another.' - Jesus Christ

  14. #912
    Christ's words that the 'first will be last, and the last will be first' (Mt.19:30) refer to those who participate in the virtues and those who participate in love. For love is the last of the virtues to be born in the heart, but it is the first in value, so that those born before it turn out to be 'the last.'

    - St. Mark the Ascetic
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    'These things I command you, that you love one another.' - Jesus Christ



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  16. #913
    For him who is perfect in love and has reached the summit of dispassion there is no difference between his own and another's, or between Christians and unbelievers, or between slave and free, or even between male and female. But because he has risen above the tyranny of the passions and has fixed his attention on the single nature of man, he looks on all in the same way and show the same disposition to all.

    - St. Maximos the Confessor
    +
    'These things I command you, that you love one another.' - Jesus Christ

  17. #914
    He who loves God consciously in his heart is known by God (cf. I Cor. 8:3), for to the degree that he receives the love of God consciously in his soul, he truly enters into God's love. From that time on, such a man never loses an intense longing for the illumination of spiritual knowledge...

    - St. Diadochos of Photiki
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    'These things I command you, that you love one another.' - Jesus Christ

  18. #915
    He who loves the Lord has first loved his brother, because the second is a proof of the first.

    - St. John Climacus
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    'These things I command you, that you love one another.' - Jesus Christ

  19. #916
    He who says that he loves the Lord but is angry with his brother is like a man who dreams that he is running.

    - St. John Climacus
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    'These things I command you, that you love one another.' - Jesus Christ

  20. #917
    He who truly loves God, is devoted to His holy will; and no matter what might befall him, he accepts everything, as from the hand of God, with the firm faith that all this serves to his spiritual benefit. For the soul that is devoted to God, the misfortunes that befall it in this life serve as steps leading it up to perfection.

    - St. John Climacus
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    'These things I command you, that you love one another.' - Jesus Christ

  21. #918
    Is it possible to love God, and not your brother?
    Or love your brother, and not God?
    All modern revolutions have ended in a reinforcement of the power of the State.
    -Albert Camus

  22. #919
    Love does not depend on time, and the power of love continues always. There are some who believe that the Lord suffered death for love of man but because they do not attain to this love in their own souls, it seems to them that it is all an old story of bygone days. But when the soul knows the love of God through the Holy Spirit, she feels without a shadow of a doubt that the Lord is our Father, the closest and dearest of fathers, and there is no greater happiness than to love God with all our mind, with all our heart and with all our soul, according to the Lord’s commandment, and our neighbor as ourself.

    And when this love is in the soul, everything rejoices her, but when it is lost sight of, man cannot find peace, and is troubled, and blames others as if they had done him an injury, and does not realize that he himself is at fault: he has lost his love for God and has accused, or conceived a hatred for, his brother. Grace proceeds from brotherly love, and by brotherly love is grace preserved; but if we do not love our brother, then the grace of God will not come into our souls.

    - St. Silouan the Athonite
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    'These things I command you, that you love one another.' - Jesus Christ

  23. #920
    The Lord is always waiting for us to unite ourselves with Him in love; but instead, we drift further and further away from Him. We know that there can be no life without love. This means that there is no life without God, for God is Love. But His love is not according to the understanding of the world. The love that the world gives us consists of suffering and enslavement, because the spirits of evil interfere with it. There is a little bit of love, but mostly it is just enslavement.

    - Elder Thaddeus
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    'These things I command you, that you love one another.' - Jesus Christ



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  25. #921
    The perfect person does not only try to avoid evil. Nor does he do good for fear of punishment, still less in order to qualify for the hope of a promised reward.

    The perfect person does good through love.

    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.

    —St. Clement of Alexandria
    +
    'These things I command you, that you love one another.' - Jesus Christ

  26. #922
    Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.

    The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not kill, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this sentence, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

    Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

    —Romans 13:8-10 (by St. Paul, the Beloved Apostle of Jesus Christ)
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    'These things I command you, that you love one another.' - Jesus Christ

  27. #923
    “But I say to you,” the Lord says, “love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, pray for those who persecute you.” Why did he command these things? So that he might free you from hatred, sadness, anger and grudges, and might grant you the greatest possession of all, perfect love, which is impossible to possess except by the one who loves all equally in imitation of God.

    – St. Maximus the Confessor
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    'These things I command you, that you love one another.' - Jesus Christ

  28. #924
    He who has love in Christ must observe the commandments of Christ. The binding power of the love of God - who is able to set it forth? The radiance of His beauty - who can voice it to satisfaction? The sublimity to which love leads up is unutterable. Love unites us with God, love covers a multitude of sins; love endures everything, is long-suffering to the last; there is nothing vulgar, nothing conceited, in love; love creates no schism; love does not quarrel; love preserves perfect harmony. In love all the elect of God reached perfection, apart from love nothing is pleasing to God. In love the Master took us to Himself. Because of the love which He felt for us, Jesus Christ Our Lord gave His Blood for us by the will of God, His Body for our bodies, and His soul for our souls.

    - St. Clement of Rome
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    'These things I command you, that you love one another.' - Jesus Christ

  29. #925
    A certain monk told me that when he was very sick, his mother said to his father, “How our little boy is suffering. I would gladly give myself to be cut up into pieces if that would ease his suffering.” Such is the love of God for people. He pitied people so much that he wanted to suffer for them, like their own mother, and even more. But no one can understand this great love without the grace of the Holy Spirit.

    - St. Silouan the Athonite
    +
    'These things I command you, that you love one another.' - Jesus Christ

  30. #926
    I also maintain that those who are punished in Gehenna are scourged by the scourge of love.

    Nay, what is so bitter and vehement as the torment of love?

    I mean that those who have become conscious that they have sinned against love suffer greater torment from this than from any fear of punishment.

    For the sorrow caused in the heart by sin against love is more poignant than any torment.

    It would be improper for a man to think that sinners in Gehenna are deprived of the love of God.

    Love is the offspring of knowledge of the truth which, as is commonly confessed, is given to all.

    The power of love works in two ways. It torments sinners, even as happens here when a friend suffers from a friend.

    But it becomes a source of joy for those who have observed its duties.

    Thus I say that this is the torment of Gehenna: bitter regret.

    But love inebriates the souls of the sons of Heaven by its delectability.

    - St. Isaac the Syrian
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    'These things I command you, that you love one another.' - Jesus Christ

  31. #927
    Christians, have we understood the great responsibility that we have taken on before God through baptism? Have we come to know that we must conduct ourselves as children of God, that we must align our will with the will of God, that we must remain free from sin, that we must love God with all our hearts and always patiently await union with Him? Have we thought about the fact that our heart should be so filled with love that it should overflow to our neighbor? Do we have the feeling that we must become holy and perfect, children of God and heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven? We must struggle for this, so that we may not be shown unworthy and rejected. Let none of us lose our boldness, nor neglect our duties, nor be afraid of the difficulties of spiritual struggle. For we have God as a helper, who strengthens us in the difficult path of virtue.

    - St. Nektarios of Aegina
    +
    'These things I command you, that you love one another.' - Jesus Christ

  32. #928
    Such are the souls of the saints: they love their enemies more than themselves, and in this age and in the age to come they put their neighbor first in all things, even though because of his ill-will he may be their enemy. They do not seek recompense from those whom they love, but because they have themselves received they rejoice in giving to others all that they have, so that they may conform to their Benefactor and imitate His compassion to the best of their ability; ‘for He is bountiful to the thankless and to sinners’ (cf. Luke 6:35).

    - St. Peter of Damascus
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    'These things I command you, that you love one another.' - Jesus Christ



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  34. #929
    The Lord loves all people, but He loves those who seek Him even more. To his chosen ones the Lord gives such great grace that for love they forsake the whole earth, the whole world, and their souls burn with desire that all people might be saved and see the glory of the Lord.

    - St. Silouan the Athonite
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    'These things I command you, that you love one another.' - Jesus Christ

  35. #930
    A certain monk told me that when he was very sick, his mother said to his father, "How our little boy is suffering. I would gladly give myself to be cut up into pieces if that would ease his suffering." Such is the love of God for people. He pitied people so much that he wanted to suffer for them, like their own mother, and even more. But no one can understand this great love without the grace of the Holy Spirit.

    - St. Silouan the Athonite,
    +
    'These things I command you, that you love one another.' - Jesus Christ

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