“Man was created to know God; not only to believe in Him and to hope in Him, but to know Him and so to love Him and to serve Him. Knowledge of God is the aim and goal of man’s life, the purpose of his creation by God.” (Father Thomas Hopko)
“…only those who love God are known by Him (1 Cor 8:3). Such “knowledge” does not refer to God’s ability to see a man’s heart. Rather, it describes God’s disclosure of Himself to a man, when He invests that person with divine energies…tangible love for others is part of righteousness. And active love for others grows out of our life in Christ. United to Christ, who is true knowledge, we come to know the love of God for ourselves, and the Lord leads us in turn to love others so that we may attain peace.” (Dynamis 7/25/2019, 4/2/2020)
“…love is the condition for knowledge. It’s not that I know in order to love, but rather: I love in order to know…Consider, for example, Paul’s remarkable prayer for the Christians at Philippi in the opening section of his letter to them: “And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God” (Phil. 1:9–11).” .” (James Smith)
“…thought moved with love becomes the power of reason, it connects with the object of knowledge and leads to true knowledge. The will that is birthed from love becomes conscientious, a good will that can become the source of truly Christian, heroic actions. The imagination stops being cold, stops being a vain and apathetic game, comes alight with spiritual fire and begins truly to see and to create.” (Ivan Ilyin)
“You don’t have to know much. All you have to know is that you love Jesus, and that He is your Truth…Head knowledge, of course, is not to be disdained….We are called to love the Lord our God not only with all our heart and all our soul and all our strength, but with all our mind as well (Mk. 12:30), and thus we have no excuse for deliberately spurning the spiritual resources given to us out of laziness. But a merely cerebral approach to the Faith, one devoid of love for Jesus, is not sufficient. Love for Christ is foundational, and our intellectual and theological pursuits are meant to serve and further this love. If you know a lot, that is wonderful. But it still remains true that the Lord of heaven and earth revealed His salvation to babes, to those who approach Him in trust and simplicity of heart (Lk. 10:21). Pure hearts are what is needed in order to be saved and to see God, not big brains. You may not know much. You only need to know that you love Jesus. And on the Last Day, that may be all you need to know.” (Fr. Lawrence Farley)
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