God is abiding love. God is love (quotes from the "New Testament")

Word of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill after the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts on Friday of the first week of Great Lent

On March 11, 2011, on Friday of the first week of Great Lent, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia celebrated the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts in the Church of St. Blgv. Tsarevich Demetrius at the 1st Gradskaya Hospital in Moscow. At the end of the divine service, the Primate of the Russian Church addressed the audience with the Primate's Word.

Your Grace, Venerable Vladyka Panteleimon! Dear fathers, brothers and sisters!

I rejoice at the opportunity to perform Divine Service in the first week of Great Lent here, in St. Dimitry's Church, in the community of sisters of mercy, in a community where there are so many children - students of a church high school, in a community that, perhaps, does more work in the city of Moscow mercy than any other Moscow parish.

We conclude the first week of Great Lent and conclude the reading on this week of the great prayer of the Monk Ephraim the Syrian "Lord and Master of my life ...". And when Saint Ephraim, with his inspired words, invites us to ask God for mercy, to ask God for a gift, we remember love: "Spirit ... give love to me, Thy servant."

The word "love" is used in everyday life so often and in such different contexts that modern man is no longer able to clearly understand its meaning. Like many shrines, this word is often defiled and devalued by the power of the devil in human life. But this does not make the very concept of love less significant. As the Apostle John the Theologian tells us, “God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him” (1 John 4:16), and this is an exhaustive definition of love.

Even if only these words were revealed to us, then they would certainly give an opportunity to touch the greatest Divine mystery, but much would remain incomprehensible. The Lord, however, has deigned to reveal to us something more about His life - it is this Revelation of God about Himself that gives us a full understanding of what love is. The Lord sends His Only Begotten Son to offer Himself as a sacrifice for the sins of people (see: John 3:16; 1 John 4: 9). Doesn't send because he has to. Sends not because it is appropriate. It sends not because it makes up for some loss of the logic of the historical existence of the human race, but only because He loves His creation. It is through the Lord Jesus Christ that we learn that love is sacrifice.

But we also learn something very important. God reveals Himself to us as One in essence, but Trinity in Persons. We believe in the Holy Trinity, whose inner law of life is love, which unites three Persons with a single nature. This is an absolute, indivisible and indivisible unity, and therefore we can say that love is unity. The unity of the persons of the Holy Trinity is achieved through internal communication, and therefore we can also say that love is a unity that is achieved through the communication of people.

So love is sacrifice, it is communication and it is oneness. God was pleased to reveal these exalted Divine dogmas in human life, and through the redemptive merits of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, He recreates the image of Divine love in earthly human life. He creates the Church - a community of His followers who, through communion with God and with each other, achieve unity. We gain this unity when we all together perform the sacrament of the Body and Blood of the Savior. Partaking of the Holy Mysteries of Christ, we become one body, we become a community living and existing in the image of God.

But in real life, things are not so simple. Where the Holy Spirit works and where scattered people, different in their position, nationality, age, culture, and language, become one in the image of the Holy Trinity, sin acts at the same time. On the one hand, the Church, while on earth, embodies and expresses this unity in the image of the Holy Trinity; on the other hand, people who are baptized and who are members of the Church very often lack the strength to realize and show the world this unity outside the sacrament of the Church, outside the Holy Eucharist, outside the church, where a life filled with worries and conflicts begins.

In order for us to be able to realize the unity we have acquired in the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist with each other and with God in the life of this world, we must also remember that love is a sacrifice. And if we turn out to be able to give a part of ourselves, sacrifice our time, our attention, our love, our means - sacrifice to those who need it, then we will live outside the temple according to the law of love.

What is happening in this community is very important, because there is a school of sisters of mercy here, here the students of this school learn to understand what it means to give a part of their heart to others, to share their lives with others, to donate something that is needed by themselves. We must remember - and perhaps above all those who take upon themselves the great responsibility of serving mercy - that through this sacrifice that we make to people, God will give us His love.

Mercy is the school of love. The modern world, modern society sometimes asks itself in bewilderment, why in our enlightened age, when almost everyone has an education, when science has reached such heights, we see so much suffering, crimes, family tragedies, human grief. And you don't need to be a philosopher to say: neither education, nor strength, nor power, nor money - everything that is so desirable for a modern person - is incapable of giving people love, incapable of bringing them happiness. And no matter how unfashionable the way of life that you lead in your community is, no matter how skeptically someone looks at you, not sharing your ideals, remember that through the sacrifice that you bring to God, you are given the great grace-filled power of love. It is this power that will help you in life. She will help you create and maintain your families. And if someone is left alone, she will help to avoid feelings of discouragement and direct your attention to the things that are so important - the works of mercy.

"Lord and Master of my life, spirit ... grant me love, Thy servant." Let us ask the Lord to strengthen our strength and help us to accept this great gift, containing a particle of Divine life, and through this gift with our heart and mind, feel and accept God, who is love. Amen.

About Love for God and Neighbor - Natalia Belyanova specially for "Orthodox Life". Together with her husband, priest Sergiy Belyanov, they have been together for 20 years and for about 10 years they have been publishing the children's Orthodox magazine Kapelki.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." (John 1.1)
IN THE BEGINNING THERE WAS THE WORD ... and THE WORD WAS GOD!

Good, kind words can transform a person - transform in the literal sense of the word.
There is such a holiday - "The Transfiguration of the Lord." When Christ revealed Himself to His disciples in His glory, He miraculously transformed into bright silvery robes, radiating an amazing Divine glow.
If the gospel "The Word is God" is true, then the word is truly capable of changing and transforming. Literally. For some, it might be a matter of faith. Whoever at least once felt how a word can affect a situation, life circumstances, change a person or inspire (however, how to humiliate and offend a person ...), will never be able to be indifferent to words, consider them "empty sound". If a person does not think, does not understand, or does not feel the physical action of the words we utter, this does not mean that the words do not affect him. Most likely, such a person is either simply not observant, or not thoughtful, or, perhaps, a callous heart, which is called "petrified in soul."
The influence of words on pure souls - on children - is especially noticeable. Children perfectly feel the Word and words. Do adults need this? Of course you do.

Do you need words of love at all? Of course! Words of kindness, words of love and warmth, support and approval, in the best Divine understanding of their meaning, are needed by everyone, regardless of age, education and spiritual development.

"God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him." (John 4:16)
GOD = WORD = LOVE

Of course, if words are spoken in vain, are not confirmed by deeds, actions, feelings - then such words do not have the power. This already refers to the sin of idle talk. But this is a separate topic.
For me, “speaking” and “confirming words with deeds” are the same thing. I try to keep it that way, as far as I can, in a Christian way. This is constant, continuous work. This is a search. This is the way. On which, it happens, and stumble, and get lost ... But it is still - a joyful and necessary path. One elder said that virtue is of two kinds - innate and acquired; both are good, both are good for man.
This is true. Any habit (good or bad), over time, becomes our second nature, a way of life. Good habits are for the benefit of the person himself and those around him.

Saying words of love, support and approval as often as possible is very important! For this, a person is given a language. We, as God's creatures, were created by Him in order to live, glorifying God - both in words and deeds. But words of love cannot come from us that are addressed only to God and not addressed to our neighbor. It’s not in God's way. In confirmation of this, there are two basic Commandments given by the Lord Jesus Christ: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. The second, similar to it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and the prophets are established on these two commandments ”(Matt. 2: 37-40).

TO SPEAK (or not to speak) FIRST?

Yes, talk. Let everyone be the first, let our words of love be heard by our neighbors - parents, old people, grandparents, husband, wife, children, others. If you love when your neighbors smile - speak up! The more you give, the more you fill up. In this human strength is strengthened, wisely arranged by God, the family is strengthened, happiness is acquired. The Gospel says: "Love your neighbor as yourself." We are told to love, not accept and expect. If not scooped up from a water source, it will become silted up, clogged with dirt and may dry out. And the man? The most complex mechanism in its structure is unique, subtle, inimitable, brilliant, like God's creation.
Love for a person is fullness and happiness, the power of God Himself, when we become a PART of Him Himself. Can a unique human “source” of words and speech be silent? In several chapters of the Gospel, different evangelists repeat one important thought: "A good man takes out good from a good treasure, and an evil man takes out evil from an evil treasure, for out of the abundance of his heart he speaks of his mouth" (Luke 6:45). Like this. The heart is not filled with anything - and there is nothing to say.
Simple words addressed to your neighbor: “I love you”, “what a good you are”, “the best”, “hug”, “miss”, “wait”, “very, very, very,” “very, very, very much "… etc. - it's as simple and as important as adding salt and spices to food to make it tastier and healthier.

“But let your word be: yes, yes; no no; and what is beyond this is from the evil one. "
According to the Bible, at the very beginning, as soon as human history was born, people spoke a little differently. Ancient old man Adam speaks simply. “And the man said, Behold, this is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she will be called wife, for she was taken from her husband. " (Bible, 2, 23). Everything. But even in such words, one can hear poetry and a warm, tender attitude towards his wife. Why are these words included in the Bible? Apparently, these were important words: "yes, yes."
Then people were just beginning to master speech, come up with new names and words. Since then, man has become more developed, more refined, in the gospel way - new. Today speech has developed incredibly, both oral and written. Perhaps, today, to start speaking in a simplified way means - to return to the old and exhausting.
The modern world sets new goals, dictates new conditions for communication, more and more displacing God and filling the voids with material. This is noticeable even in the field of linguistics. Our contemporaries, as never before, need warm and kind words. It is a physical, life-giving necessity - to introduce into your speech the Word of God, the words of God-Love! This is the direct responsibility of the person. The vital need for balance and harmony, for strengthening the power of God in each of us, for strengthening and increasing love! A vital necessity in the Name and Glory of the Lord, in confirmation of love for our neighbor - so that we all feel HAPPY!

Vitaly, thank God for your desire to know the Truth.

To answer the question, I propose to look at the context of the message, where the indicated thought occurs. And further we will study the material within the frame of the passage from the letter of John.

Let's look at the context of 1 John chapter 4

7 Beloved! let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
8 He who does not love has not known God, because God is love.
9 The love of God for us was revealed in the fact that God sent His Only Begotten Son into the world so that we could receive life through Him.
10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
11 Beloved! if God so loved us, then we must also love one another.
12 No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, then God dwells in us, and His love is perfect in us.
13 That we abide in Him and He in us, we learn from the fact that He has given us of His Spirit.
14 And we have seen and testify that the Father sent the Son as the Savior of the world.
15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
16 And we have come to know 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.
17 Love reaches such perfection in us that we have boldness on the day of judgment, because we act in this world as He did.
18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has anguish. The one who fears is imperfect in love.
19 We love him because he first loved us.
20 He who says, “I love God,” but hates his brother is a liar: for he who does not love his brother whom he sees, how can he love God whom he does not see?
21 And we have from Him such a commandment that he who loves God should love his brother also.
1st John 4

LOVE

No Apostle spoke about love as often as John did.

All his messages are filled with a call to love.

There is a story that when John was old and very weak, they brought him to church, and he, preaching, always said:

“Children, love each other. This is the Lord's commandment. "

In the above passage, John returns to his favorite theme of love as the leading theme of the epistle. He insists that salvation by the grace of Christ does not absolve us from the obligation to obey Christ's commandments.

The main commandment of Christ is love.

• We know Christ if we keep His commandments (2: 3).
• “He who says:“ I have known Him, but does not keep His commandments, he is a liar, and there is no truth in him ”” (2: 4).
• And whatever we ask, we will receive from Him, because we keep His commandments (3:22).
• And His commandment is that we ... love one another (2:23).
• He who keeps His commandments abides in Him (3:24).
• And we have from Him such a commandment that he who loves God should love his brother also (4:21).
• For this is love for God, so that we keep His commandments (5: 3).

1. Love is from God (4.7)

All love comes from God, who is love Himself. As the English commentator AE Brook put it: "Human love is a reflection of a certain Divine essence." We are closest to God when we love. Clement of Alexandria once said the amazing thing that a true Christian "exercises himself to become God."

• He who abides in love abides in God (4.16).
• Man was created in the image and likeness of God (Gen. 1.26).

God is love and, therefore, in order to be like God, and to be what he, in fact, should be, a person must also love.

2. Love is associated with God in two ways.

Only by knowing God, you can learn to love, and only the one who loves can know God (4,7.8).

Love comes from God and love leads to God.

3. God is known by love (4.12).

We cannot see God because He is Spirit, but we can see what He does.
We cannot see the wind, but we can see what it can do. We cannot see electricity, but we see its action.

The influence exerted by God is love. When God dwells in a person, a person is convicted of the love of God and the love of people. God is known through His influence on this person. Someone said, “A saint is a person in whom Christ lives again,” and the best demonstration of the existence of God is not a series of proofs, but a life full of love.

4. The love of God was revealed to us in Jesus Christ (4,9).

In Jesus we see two aspects of the love of God.

a) This is unconditional love. God in His love could sacrifice His only Son with which nothing can compare.

b) This love is completely undeserved. It is not surprising that we love God if we remember all His gifts to us, even before Jesus Christ; it is amazing that He loves such poor and rebellious creatures like us.

5. Human love is a response to the love of God (4.19).

We love because God loved us.

His love makes us want to love Him as He first loved us, and our fellows as He loves them.

6. There is no fear in love; when love comes, fear goes away (4,17.18).

Fear is the feeling of someone who is awaiting punishment. As long as we see in God the Judge, the King, the Lawgiver - in our heart there is only room for fear, for from such
We can only wait for God to be punished. But when we came to know the true nature of God, love swallowed up fear. All that remains is the fear of disappointing His love for us.

7. The love of God is inextricably linked with the love of man (4,7.11.20.21).

As the English commentator Dodd put it beautifully: "The forces of love make up a triangle, the apexes of which are God, me, and a neighbor." If God loves us, then we must love one another. John explicitly declares that a person who claims to love God, but who hates his brother, is a liar. There is only one way to prove your love for God - to love the people He loves.

There is only one way to prove that God resides in our hearts - to constantly show love for people.

GOD IS LOVE

In this passage we come across perhaps the greatest characteristic of God in the entire Bible — God is love. It's amazing how many new paths this phrase opens up and how many questions it answers.

1. It explains the act of creation.

Sometimes we just start wondering why God created this world. Disobedience and complete lack of reciprocity on the part of a person constantly disappoints and oppresses Him. Why did He need to create a world that brings nothing but troubles and worries?

There is only one answer to this - creation was an integral part of His very nature. If God is love, then He cannot exist completely alone.

It takes someone to love to love and to be loved.

2. It provides an explanation for free will.

True love is free mutual feeling.

If God were only law, He could create a world in which people would move like automata, having no choice. But, if God created people like that, He could not have any personal relationship with them. Love must necessarily be a free reciprocity of the heart, and therefore God, in a conscious act of self-restraint, endowed people with free will.

3. It provides an explanation for the phenomenon of providence.

If God were just reason, order and law, He could, so to speak, create the universe, "start it up, set it in motion and leave it."

There are things and appliances that we buy only to put them somewhere and forget about them; the most attractive thing about them is that they can be left and they will work on their own. But precisely because God is love, for
His act of creation was love.

4. She explains the phenomenon of atonement.

If God were only law and justice, He would simply leave people with the consequences of their sin.

A moral law comes into play - the soul that has sinned will die, and eternal justice will inexorably pay punishment. But the very fact that God is love meant that He wanted to find and save what was lost. He had to find a remedy for sin.

5. She gives an explanation of the afterlife.

If God were just the Creator, people could live out the short period of time they should have and die forever.

An early extinguished life would be like a flower withered too early by the cold breath of death. But the very fact that God is love is proof that the accidents and problems of life are not the last word, and that love will balance this life.

THE SON OF GOD AND THE SAVIOR OF HUMAN BEINGS

Before moving on from this passage to the next, note what it says about Jesus Christ.

If [John] truly says that God is love, then the devil must be hatred. So, as he who has love has God, so he who has hatred feeds the devil in himself.

The ascetic word: prologue.

Schmch. Dionysius the Areopagite

and we have come to know and believed in the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him

Why, after all, theologians sometimes prefer to call Him [God] Love Desire [έρωτα] and Love [άγάπην], and sometimes Desired and Beloved [έραστόν και άγαπητόν]? Because of one thing He is the cause, so to speak, the producer and the progenitor, the other He is.

About the names of God.

Schmch. Cyprian of Carthage

and we have come to know and believed in the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him

Those who do not want to be united in spirit in the Church of God cannot be with God.

On the unity of the Catholic Church.

Venerable John Cassian

and we have come to know and believed in the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him

The virtue of love is so exalted that the blessed apostle John calls it not only a gift from God, but also God, saying: God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.

Interviews.

Venerable Maxim the Confessor

and we have come to know and believed in the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him

Many have said a lot about love, and you will find it among some of Christ's disciples, if you look; for they alone had true Love, the teacher of love, of which it is said: If the Imam is a prophecy, and we have all the secrets and all the mind, love is not the Imam: there is no benefit to me(1 Cor. 13: 2-3). He who has acquired love has acquired God Himself; for God is love.

Chapters about love.

Venerable Justin (Popovich)

and we know and believe in love, even if God has for us. The God of Love is, and abiding in love, abiding in Bose, and God abiding in him

We have come to know the love of God through Christ the Savior. Before that, we did not know false, true and true love. Only with the Savior did we know that righteous love consists in saving people from sin, death, and the devil. Before Christ, there were legends and stories about the love of God. But in reality, through Him (Christ), true love entered our human world for the first time. We have known and believed in true love. After all, who else could we, the miserable slaves of death, sin and the devil, believe if not the One who freed us from the threefold, all-destructive and all-destructive power of sin, death and the devil? The Savior showed us that God is Love, and only through love and love He dwells in a person and saves him from death, sin and the devil, and thus gives him the strength to live by love, according to the commandments of God. Before the coming of the God-man Christ and the salvation that He brought into the world, it was impossible to indicate and prove that God is Love. Now everyone can explore and prove this truth with their personal experience, their personal life. God dwells in man in love and saves him in love. Likewise, a person in love abides in God and in love is saved.

The holy Evangelist John presents here the greatest and most accurate gospel of the New Testament: God is Love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.

Interpretation on the 1st Council Epistle of the Holy Apostle John the Theologian.

Blzh. Augustine

and we have come to know and believed in the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him

The Holy Spirit, whatever He may be, is something common to the Father and the Son, and this common is consubstantial and eternal. And, if you like it to be called friendship, let it be called, but it is more appropriate to call it love. And it is also essence, for God is essence, and God is love.

When our consideration came to love, which in the Holy Scripture is called God, then the Trinity began to manifest itself little by little, namely the Trinity of the Lover, the Beloved and Love.

About the Trinity.

Blzh. Theophylact Bulgarian

and we have come to know and believed in the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him

Ishodad Mervsky

and we have come to know and believed in the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him

We have never seen Scripture speak of God in this way. We will give the word its proper and proper meaning. After all, [John] calls God love so that we seek the One Who is love and from Whom came the word about the commandment of love.

We have collected some quotes from the "New Testament", which tells about God, about who He is. And also about His attitude towards people and humanity.

By the words of Christ himself

“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another; how I loved you, so do you love each other. By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another. "(John 13: 34-35).

“Righteous Father! and the world did not know You; but I have known You, and these have known that You sent Me. And I have revealed Your name to them and will reveal that the love with which You have loved Me will be in them, and I in them. "(John 17: 25-26).

Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest; take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and lowly at heart, and you will find rest for your souls; for my yoke is good, and my burden is light(Matthew 11: 28-30).

You have heard that it is 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 offend you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Heavenly Father, for He commands His sun to rise over the wicked and the good and sends rain on the righteous and unrighteous.(Matthew 5: 43-45).

He was given the book of the prophet Isaiah; and He, opening the book, found the place where it was written: The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me; for He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor, and sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, to the blind, to release the tormented to freedom, to preach the Lord's favorable year.(Luke 4: 17-19).

In the words of the apostles

« We know love in the fact that He laid down His soul for us: and we must lay down our souls for the brothers "(1 John 3:16).

“Beloved! we will love each other because love is from God and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love has not known God, because God is love... God's love for us was revealed in the fact that God sent His Only Begotten Son into the world so that we could receive life through Him. In this is love, that we did not love God, but He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved! if God so loved us, then we must also love one another. No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, then God abides in us, and His love is perfect in us. "(1 John 4: 7-12).

“And we have come to know 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... There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because in fear there is anguish. The one who fears is imperfect in love. Let us love Him because He first loved us "(1 John 4: 16-18).

“But love consists in our doing according to His commandments. This is the commandment that you heard from the beginning, that you should follow it "(2 John 4: 16-18).

"But God proves His love for us by the fact that Christ died for us when we were still sinners."(Rom. 5: 8).

"So that you, rooted and confirmed in love, may comprehend with all the saints that latitude and longitude, and depth and height, and understand the love of Christ that transcends understanding, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God"(Eph. 3: 18-19).

"Above all, put on love, which is the totality of perfection."(Col. 3:14).

“Love is longsuffering, merciful, love does not envy, love is not exalted, is not proud, does not rage, does not seek its own, does not get irritated, does not think of evil, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices in the truth; Covers everything, believes everything, hopes everything, endures everything. Love never ends"(1 Cor. 13: 4-8).