Episode Transcript  

One

God is Love 

1 John 4:7 tells us, “God is love.”  What does this mean?

Love is who God eternally is. In the Trinity, the Father gives Himself freely and totally, and in this eternal act, He begets the Son. The Son receives the fullness of divinity from the Father. Since the Father holds nothing back in His giving, the Son is all that the Father is: God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God. And the Father and the Son, together as one principle, give the same fullness of divinity to the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from them. Therefore, the Holy Spirit is also God, equal to the Father and the Son.

So, from the Trinity we learn what love is: love is not merely a feeling, but the free gift of oneself for the good of another.

O.K, that is great. God is love, and that means he probably loves us. But that means we have to do something because this simple truth, “God is love,” comes in the middle of a larger context. The whole passage says this, “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God… Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love… Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” 1 John 4:7–8, 11

The fact that God is love means we cannot remain neutral. We cannot simply stay the way we are. This truth calls us to something wonderful: Heaven is union with God, who is love. And the only way to enter that union is to let Him live in us, love through us, and transform us until we become love.

That’s right: to get to heaven, we must love like God.

Two

Why Don’t We Love Like God?

We are called to union with God by loving like God. Great. But I don’t love like God. Why not? Why do I hold back? Why do I become defensive, selfish, resentful, or afraid?

One reason is that we know we need real human goods: health, family, friendship, meaningful work, love, acceptance, and care. These are good things. But when other people take more than they give, when they demand too much, disappoint us, or fail to appreciate us, we become afraid. We think, “If I keep giving, what will be left for me? If I love like God, won’t I be emptied out and never be happy?”

But here is the truth: no matter how many human goods we have, only God can give us everything we need for happiness. This does not mean we should be naïve, enable abuse, or put ourselves in real danger. But it does mean we do not need to grasp, hoard, manipulate, or withhold love in order to be happy.

When we love and give, we open our souls for God, the Living Water, to pour in and satisfy us. St. John of the Cross says, “Where there is no love, put love, and you will find love.”

That is the Christian answer: put love there, do good for others anyway, and you will be filled by God. 

Three

Envy: Seeing Others as a Threat

A second reason we do not love like God is that we see other people as a threat, as competitors. We think there is only so much good to go around. So if someone else succeeds, we feel diminished. If someone else is praised, we feel overlooked. If they rise, we feel like we fall. That is envy.

Envy is sadness at another person’s good fortune and pleasure when they fall. And envy is deadly because it makes love almost impossible. But envy rests on a lie: the lie that God’s goodness is limited. God is infinite goodness. If one person receives good, that does not mean there is less for me. If another person’s plan seems to be succeeding, that does not mean mine is failing.

God has His perfect plan for you and for every person. And God is able to guide each life to its most perfect end. So trust God and do good. Because the only way you can ruin God’s plan for you is by doing evil to others.

Four

Learning to See Others Correctly

A third reason we do not love like God is very simple: sometimes we just don’t like people. We find them annoying, stupid, self-centered, loud, rude, different, and inconsiderate. Like the young man sitting next to me on the plane, with no self-awareness, who spilled his drink all over my lap at the very beginning of the flight. In that moment, love does not come naturally. So how do we overcome this?

We have to practice thinking correctly. That person is not merely annoying. He is made by God, made in the image of God, loved by God, and called to eternal glory. By grace, he could become such a glorious soul in heaven that, if we saw him now as he will be then, we would be tempted to bow down and worship.

So we need to train ourselves to see people as God sees them. At first, it may feel unnatural. But every virtue begins that way. Practice it, and by grace it becomes a habit. Think good of them. Want good for them. Speak well of them. Do good to them. Then love becomes possible.

Five

Forgiveness 

Finally, what do we do when someone has really wronged us, hurt us, betrayed us, humiliated us, lied about us, or hurt someone we love? First, forgiveness does not mean pretending evil did not happen. It does not mean letting dangerous people keep hurting us. It does not mean being naïve. You may protect yourself. You may remove yourself from danger. You may set boundaries. You may stand up for what is right. Jesus did. When the guard struck Him unjustly, He said, “If I have spoken wrongly, testify to the wrong; but if I have spoken rightly, why do you strike me?”

But we must never return evil for evil. We must forgive. And if I cannot forgive? Then do what Jesus did. Pray, “Father, forgive them.” That prayer is already the beginning of forgiveness. And when we forgive, we become like God. Because God is love. And to enter Heaven, we must become love.

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