Читать книгу Love Is Like Fire - Peter Riedemann - Страница 10

LET US LOVE GOD

LET US LOVE GOD; for he loved us first and sent his Son into the world, through whom he has made us holy and sanctified us to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices pleasing to him through Jesus Christ. This is the love of God: that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. But whoever says he loves God and does not keep his commandments is a liar. In such a person there is no truth, for whoever loves God remains in God and God in him. We recognize that we remain in God and he in us if we keep his commandments.

The chief of all God’s commandments is, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one. You must cleave to him, serve him, and love him with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul, and all your strength.” So to love God is the fulfillment of all his commands, and to love him with all my powers is to honor him with all my works and to give him praise. This means that in all I do and want to do, I look first to see whether I seek to increase God’s praise in it. If I find that he will be praised by a deed, I joyfully carry it out for God’s sake, regardless of the consequences for me. Where that is not so – where I do not find God’s praise in it – it is useless work. I should leave it undone in order that God’s name not be profaned in my work (regardless of who becomes my enemy because of it), and so that what I do may be done or left undone in God.