Читать книгу The Jewish Religion, Ethically Presented - Henry Pereira Mendes - Страница 11
ОглавлениеDUTY TO OUR GOD; OR GOD’S LOVE FOR US AND OUR LOVE FOR HIM.
Third verse of the Shema’:
And thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart,
and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
1. God loves us. Therefore we must love Him.
2. His love provides everything for our happiness. He made the beautiful earth in which we live. He gives us parents and friends to love and take care of us, food for our nourishment and work for us to do.
3. Because He loves us with such great love, we must love Him in return “with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our might,” and we must teach others to love Him.
4. To love God “with all our heart” means to love Him so dearly that we are happy only when we feel that we possess His love. And when, if we do wrong, we are unhappy until we ask His pardon and thus obtain His love again.
5. We are happy when we do what is right, and unhappy if we do what is wrong. This feeling tells us whether we possess His love or not.
6. We must therefore always try to please Him, in order to deserve His love, and never to displease Him, lest we lose it.
7. To love God “with all our soul” means to love Him so sincerely that we will willingly die sooner than do what He forbids us.
8. To love Him “with all our might” means that we must use all our powers to serve Him and do His will.
*9. “His will be done” is a pious prayer. When we do His will and not ours, then we prove that we love Him with all our heart.
10. We love God with all our heart when we give Him a whole-hearted and not a half-hearted love.
11. For a half-hearted love will mean a half-hearted obedience.
12. Those who give up their lives for the sake of religion, or in order to perform God’s will, are called Martyrs.
13. If so many of our ancestors gave up their lives for the sake of religion, ought not we to be willing to give up convenience or earthly gain for God’s sake?
14. Love is proved by sacrifice. That is, we prove our love for anyone by the sacrifices we are willing to make for him or her.
15. The strength of our love for God is proved by the greatness of the sacrifices we are willing to make for Him.
GOD’S LOVE FOR US.
1. The Lord thy God loveth thee.—Deut. xxiii, 5.
He loveth the stranger.—Deut. x, 18.
Yea, He loveth the peoples.—Deut. xxxiii, 3.
With everlasting love, I love thee.—Jerem. xxxi, 3.
OUR LOVE FOR GOD.
2. And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might.—Deut. vi, 5.
I love the Lord.—Psalm cxvi, 1.
And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee but to revere the Lord thy God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, to keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes which I command thee this day for thy good?—Deut. x, 12-13.
3. What can I render unto the Lord for all His benefits toward me?—Psalm cxvi, 12.
9. Do thou unto us whatsoever seemeth good unto Thee.—Judges x, 15.
Let the Lord do to me as seemeth good unto Him.—II. Sam. xv, 26.
11. To love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.—Deut. xi, 13.
14. Now, therefore, I pray thee, let thy servant abide instead of the lad a bondman to my lord, and let the lad go up with his brethren.—Genesis xliv, 33.
O my son, Absalom, my son, my son, Absalom! Would to God I had died for thee, Absalom, my son, my son!—II. Sam. xviii, 33.
