Love is Action, Not Reaction

St. Isaac of Ninevah (6th Century) makes a very astute theological observation about God.  St. Isaac’s basic premise is that God is love, and everything God does is an extension of the Divine love.  God’s actions toward human beings and God’s activities in creation cannot be inconsistent with God’s very nature.

God by definition of God’s nature is not altered by time or change, so God is forever acting toward creation, not reacting to it.  Human behavior, including sin or rebellion against the will of God, does not change God.  The Father, Son and Holy Spirit continue to love their creation because that is their very nature.  The mystery of course is that we exist in time and God does interact with us.  God is not an impersonal force, but in a manner beyond our comprehension, takes into account what we do with the free will God has bestowed on us.  God has created the universe with quantum uncertainty.  These are factors God deals with in God’s eternal being – they all are part of creation as God intended it and as God loves it.  And the mystery deepens for God in Christ enters into creation in the incarnation, subjecting Himself to time and space.  None of this changes God’s nature or the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity.

St. Isaac ponders:

“But we know that everyone is agreed on this, that there is no change, or any earlier and later intentions, with the Creator: there is no hatred or resentment in His nature, no greater or lesser (place) in His love, no before or after in His knowledge. For if it is believed by everyone that the creation came into existence as a result of the Creator’s goodness and love, (then) we know that this (original) cause does not ever diminish or change in the Creator’s nature as a result of the disordered course of creation.”

(Isaac of Ninevah, The Second Part: Chapters IV-XLI, p 161)

Adam naming the animals

Because we exist in space and time and are temporal, mortal beings we experience God’s love within our human experience and interpret it as love or justice or anger or grace or judgment.   Our experience of the Divine is real, yet tempered by our created, mortal natures.  We may gain glimpses into the Divine Life, but our understanding of it is shaped and limited by our own limits, and by the limits language imposes on our ability to conceive and explain.

God’s love is not diminished by God’s interaction with us nor by God’s ability to condescend to our limited understanding.  We experience God within our capabilities of understanding and articulation.  This does not change the love of God or the God who is love.

2 thoughts on “Love is Action, Not Reaction

  1. Pingback: Creating Positive Energy | The Blog of Bryon Lape

  2. Pingback: How can we prepare for the Kingdom of God | Bijbelvorser = Bible Researcher

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