a definition of Love
“ This is why charity (the Latin term referring to agape) is defined as the virtue by which we adhere to God as our final end and give ourselves to Him for His own sake. That definition captures the meaning of the ‘all’ in the command to love God with all our hearts; God is highest (i.e. “final”) in the order of ends, and He is highest in that He is not pursued as means to some other end (hence “for His sake”.) So love of God, here, is not referring to a feeling or an emotion or affection. It is the supreme act of the will (and the will’s disposition to this supreme act) to order everything else in one’s life, including oneself, toward blessing and glorifying God, for His sake. When we order our lives to God as our highest end, even higher than ourselves, and do so for His sake, and not fundamentally in order to get something from Him, that is loving God with all our heart. Of course sometimes this requires self-sacrifice and exertion of the will, to say no to evil, and yes to God, much as a married man must sometimes say no to temptation and yes to fidelity to his spouse. But the degree of exertion of the will is not the meaning of the ‘all’ in the command to love God with all our heart. Rather, it is the place of God in the hierarchy of ends in our will.”
http://www.calledtocommunion.com/2011/11/why-john-calvin-did-not-recognize-the-distinction-between-mortal-and-venial-sin/
from 655 http://www.calledtocommunion.com/2013/03/jason-stellman-tells-his-conversion-story/#comment-64279
I’ve addressed this in comment #156 of the “Imputation and Paradigms” thread
As for “a single unified definition of agape,” that’s not a neutral (non-question-begging) question, because what we mean when we say that God is agape is not exactly the same as what we mean when we speak of the infusion of agape, as I explain at the link I just provided. In God, agape is that primary movement of His will toward the universal good which is Himself, both as knowing Himself (i.e. Father) and as known by Himself (i.e. Son), and thus proceeding from both. But in graced creatures, agape is the supernatural infused virtue in our will by which we participate in this same movement of the Spirit, i.e. desiring above all things (or resting in) the universal good illuminated to our intellects by the supernatural light of faith (or beatific vision) to see God with God as God sees Himself for God’s sake, and thus in our will share in the same motion of the Spirit in relation to the Father and the Son, by which movement we in this present life seek to do all in our grace-infused capacities to bring glory and honor to God, to make His Name known and hallowed, and to advance His Kingdom and His will on earth.
from 655 http://www.calledtocommunion.com/2013/03/jason-stellman-tells-his-conversion-story/#comment-64279
I’ve addressed this in comment #156 of the “Imputation and Paradigms” thread
As for “a single unified definition of agape,” that’s not a neutral (non-question-begging) question, because what we mean when we say that God is agape is not exactly the same as what we mean when we speak of the infusion of agape, as I explain at the link I just provided. In God, agape is that primary movement of His will toward the universal good which is Himself, both as knowing Himself (i.e. Father) and as known by Himself (i.e. Son), and thus proceeding from both. But in graced creatures, agape is the supernatural infused virtue in our will by which we participate in this same movement of the Spirit, i.e. desiring above all things (or resting in) the universal good illuminated to our intellects by the supernatural light of faith (or beatific vision) to see God with God as God sees Himself for God’s sake, and thus in our will share in the same motion of the Spirit in relation to the Father and the Son, by which movement we in this present life seek to do all in our grace-infused capacities to bring glory and honor to God, to make His Name known and hallowed, and to advance His Kingdom and His will on earth.
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