We have spoken in the preceding issue about love and its importance. We mentioned that:
· Love is included in every commandment: “Let all that you do be done with love.” (1 Cor
· Love is the object of the commandment: “Now the purpose of the commandment is love.” (1 Tim 1:5)
· Love is greater than any commandment as the Lord said in (Mt
· Love is the commandment on which all the Law and the Prophets hang (Mt
· Love is better than all gifts and miracles, as the apostle after listing all the gifts said, “Yet I show you a more excellent way…” i.e., love (1 Cor
Many will say to the Lord on the Last Day: “Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons… done many wonders…?” And He will declare to them, “I never knew you.” (Mt 7: 22,23) It is not miracles that save, but love.
Any virtue void of love is dead and has no spirit in it. It is not a virtue at all since it has no love.
Love is better than all sciences and knowledge, for the apostle says, “Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies.” (1 Cor 8:1)
So many are the virtues that a believer needs a long program to practice them. Therefore God said that love is sufficient, for it includes all commandments.
If you attain love, you will have attained God.
God is love (1 Jn
If you attain God’s love, you will not fear sin.
In this case sin will not prevail over you nor be able to live within you, because God’s love within is light whereas sin is darkness. Light removes away darkness, because there is no communion between them (2 Cor
Since God is love, and we are in His image and likeness (Gen
If love is not in us we will not be in God’s image, and we will have lost that divine image in which we were created. We also are God’s children, and the child is certainly like the father. If we are like God our Father, love will fill our hearts and will emanate from our eyes, features, actions, and works. People will say: Indeed, these are God’s children, like Him in love. God’s children are manifest (1 Jn
Love is the scale by which our works will be weighed on the Last Day.
Our good works will not be measured by their multiplicity, but by the love implied in them. The time you stand in prayer does not avail, but what avails is the love in your heart while praying. Do you have the emotions of David the Psalmist who said, “Oh, how I love Your law! At is my meditation all the day,” “I will lift up my hands in Your name. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness.” (Ps 119: 97; 63:4) Unless you have such emotions, your prayer will not be acceptable to God or enter into His presence.
What then is the spiritual concept of prayer?
It is not mere words addressed to God, for this is the outer aspect, but the inner and real meaning of prayer is love and longing to God to enjoy His presence. Such love urges you to pray and to speak with God as an expression of love. If such love does not exist, your prayer will be mere words not going into God’s presence. Do we not say in our prayers, “Let my supplication come before You” (Ps 119: 170)? This means that some supplications do not come before God, like that prayer of the Pharisee which was longer than that of the tax-collector, yet he was not justified like the tax-collector (LK 18: 14). The reason was that the Pharisee’s prayer was not acceptable because it lacked God’s love and had only self-love and self-esteem; he said, “I am not like other men… or even as this tax collector.” His prayer had no love to the others, but even condemnation of the tax-collector.
So, we can say that in prayer love is the basis, and words are mere expression. As the tongue speaks, so the heart ought to speak.
The love in the heart, even without words, can be considered prayer; whereas the words of prayer without love are not a prayer. How beautiful are the words of David the Prophet Expression love and longing,” “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God,” “O God, You are my God; early will I seek You; my soul thirsts for You; my flesh longs for You,” “When I remember You on my bed, I meditate on You in the night watches,” “My eyes are awake through the night watches, that I may meditate on Your word.” (Ps 42: 1-2; 63: 1-3; 119: 148)
Unlike David the Prophet were the Pharisees who for pretense made long prayers (Mt
Those were long but unacceptable prayers void of love. Like the Pharisees were those who prayed standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets that they may be seen by men (Mt 6:5). Their aim was love of praise and vain glory rather than love of God. Such a self is not well, for it has no attachment with God, not even at time of prayer! God does not want the lips, but the heart (Mt 15: 8) and says always, “My son, give Me your heart.” (Prov 23: 26)
God wants your heart in prayer full of love to Him and to your neighbor.
He says, “If you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” (Mt 5: 23, 24) Without love God will not accept your gift.
You ought then to mix all your works and your virtues with love.
Whatever you do without love will have no value or importance and will not be God’s work in you. If God works in you, love will work in you, because God is love. Then all your works were be works of love, as the apostle says, “Let all that you do be done with love.” (1 Cor
Even your problems, they ought to be solved with love. Your charity, for instance, will be measured by the love in it.”
The amount you give is not as important as the love and heart emotions with which you give, and which appear in your features, because “God loves a cheerful giver.” (2 Cor 9: 7) So, if a person gives against his will or feels annoyed, embarrassed or forced to give under pressure, without being convinced, or with grumbling, what such a person gives will not be acceptable to God.
There is a difference between a person who gives the poor, and a person who loves the poor and therefore gives them. Who loves is better, even though he has nothing to give, for God looks to the heart before the hand. The most beautiful thing in giving is the pleasure one feels when giving a pleasure not less than that of the one who receives. A mother feels happy when her babe sucks; she gives him love before milk, or gives him both together. It is the same with the person who gives the needy with love and feels happy for giving.
Here is the difference between giving of one’s wealth, and giving of one’s love.
The pleasure which you feel when giving surpasses that of the one who receives. So, when you give, you actually receive, the same as the person who receives what you give, as some writer once said: I watered a bush, but it gave me no word of thanks. However, as it flourished, I flourished as well.
The same applies to the ministry: unless it is done with love, it will not be ministry.
The Lord’s miracles were mingled with love, as in the miracle of feeding the multitude with the five loaves and two fishes: we read that He saw them and was moved with compassion for them and healed their sick (Mt 14: 14); and also He was moved with compassion for them because they were like sleep not having a shepherd (Mk 6: 34). Again in the story of the Good Samaritan, the Lord mentions how the Samaritan had compassion for the wounded man (Lk
In the miracles of raising the dead as well as of healing the sick we see clearly the love of the Lord towards them. Before raising Lazarus, He wept (Jn
The ministry in its essence is to love God and His kingdom and His children and to wish that they love Him and enter His kingdom. Yet the ministry of some people may be mere activities void of love, only much work and production, much administrative work and order, and even routine. Therefore one ought to exert all effort to do something with love, for the Lord said the beautiful words: “… having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.” (Jn 13:1) And He said to them, “No longer do I call you servants… but I have called you friends,” “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in my love,” “I have declared to them Your name… that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them,” “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends” (Jn 15: 9, 13, 15; 17: 26).
The Lord Christ on the cross was a sacrifice of love.
For the redemption He died for us. He took upon Himself our sins and saved us. Behind all this was love. He loved us first and sent His Son a propitiation for our sins (1 Jn