Objects of His Love

   One of my favorite verses of Scripture is from the Old Testament book, the Wisdom of Solomon.

For Thou lovest all the things that are, and abhorrest nothing which Thou hast made: for never wouldest Thou have made any thing, if Thou hadst hated it. (Wisd. 11:24)

It is a comforting thought to know that I exist because the Creator of the universe loves me and wants me to be here. He did not create me or anyone else to be hated. He created everyone and everything to be loved by Him. God loves every single individual on this earth and if there is life in other parts of the universe, He loves them, too.

   God's love for us implies that He desires to have a relationship with each of us. He wants us to communicate with Him and He wants to communicate with us. This means that God reveals Himself to us and He actually does that. He reveals Himself to us through nature. St. Paul said,

For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse. (Rom. 1:20, KJV)

King David wrote in the 18th Psalm,

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims the work of His hands. (Psalm 18:1, LXX)

   God also has revealed Himself to us through the writings of His prophets and through His Son, Jesus Christ.

God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds. (Heb. 1:1,2, KJV)

   The Bible, which includes all of those books accepted in the regional Church councils accepted by the Quinisext Council (692 A.D.) in its Second Canon, contains the writings of those prophets. These books of the Bible reveal God to us.

   Jesus Christ, who is God incarnate, of course, also reveals God to us.

   Since we are created to be loved by God, we should spend time knowing God. We need to read the Bible daily and pray frequently. We should try to obey God in our daily lives by keeping His commandments. Jesus said:

He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him. (St. John 14:21, KJV)

St. John the Theologian wrote:

He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. (I John 2:4, KJV)

   Obedience to God is evidence that one knows and loves God. We all sin, however. (I Kings 8:46; Rom. 3:23) So, repentance, therefore, should be the outcome of spending time with God. A person who sees his sinfulness after reading pages of Holy Scripture and does not attempt to abandon his sinful way of living is like a man who looks at himself in a mirror, walks away, and then forgets what he looks like. (James 1:22-24)

   Being objects of God's love, we each have value. No one is worthless. Being objects of God's love, God desires that we know Him and He has revealed Himself to us through nature, the Bible, and His Son Jesus Christ. We should spend time with God in prayer and reading the Bible. We should strive to keep His commandments. Obedience to God's commandments is evidence that we know Him and love Him.

Steve

Purpose

   People often live their lives without any purpose or meaning, not knowing that God created them for a purpose — actually, for several purposes. Having a meaningless existence can result in depression. People need to have something to look forward to, something to hope for, some purpose for living. Otherwise, life can become frustrating. Without a purpose, one might feel as if his life is empty and without value.
   God gives each of us value. To Him, each of us is worth far more than everything else He created. Each human individual is worth more than a sparrow.

Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows. (St. Matt. 10:31)

Each human individual is worth more than the whole universe!

For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world (Greek, kosmos, universe), and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? (St. Matt. 16:26)

God loves everyone whom He made. He created us so that He can love us. He created no one to be hated.

For Thou lovest all the things that are, and abhorrest nothing which Thou hast made: for never wouldest Thou have made any thing, if Thou hadst hated it. (Wisd. 11:24)

   Man is the glory of God. God created him in His glory and commands him to do everything for His glory. (I Cor. 11:7; Isaiah 43:7, LXX; I Cor. 10:31)

The Lord hath not given power to the saints to declare all His marvellous works, which the Almighty Lord firmly settled, that whatsoever is might be established for His glory. (Ecclus. 42:17)

   There are several ways that man can glorify God. Some of these ways are:

1.) Worshiping Him. (Psalm 49:23, LXX; Heb. 13:15)
2.) Abstaining from sexual immorality. (I Cor. 6:13-20)
3.) Bearing the fruit (St. John 15:8):

a.) of the Spirit. (Gal. 5:22,23; Eph. 5:9)
b.) of new converts to Christ. (St. John 4:35,36; Col. 1:6)
c.) of the womb. (Psalm 126:3, LXX; 127:3, LXX)
d.) of good works. (St. Matt. 3:8; 5:16; 7:17,18; Phil. 1:11; Col. 1:10)

   God created everything for Himself. He died and rose again from the dead so that everyone will live their lives for Him and not for themselves. (Col. 1:16; Rom. 14:7-9; II Cor. 5:15)
   God created man to know Him. (St. John 17:3) It is not possible to know God without obeying Him. (I John 2:4) We must continue to obey Him in order to continue to know Him.
   God created man as neither mortal nor immortal, but He created him to be immortal.

For God created man to be immortal, and made him to be an image of His own eternity. (Wisd. 2:23)

However, man sinned and became mortal. The soul is already immortal. It is the body that dies. It is God's desire that everyone's body be resurrected immortal. (St. John 5:28,29; I Cor. 15:51-53; I Tim. 2:4; II Pet. 3:9) Everyone will not though. Most will not enjoy the blessed life that God wants them to have in the afterlife. (St. Matt. 7:13,14; 13:49,50; Rev. 20:12-15)
   God created man a little lower than the angels, but to become equal to the angels. (Ps. 8:5, LXX; Heb. 2:6; St. Luke 20:36)
   God created man to take care of His creation and to rule over it. (Gen. 1:26-28; Ps. 8:6-8; Heb. 2:6-8) God created man to work. (Gen. 2:5; 3:24; Job 5:7, LXX) God's intention is for man to labor at some tasks forever. (Isaiah 65:21,22, LXX)
   God created man to procreate. (Gen. 1:28) I believe that it is God's intention for man to procreate forever. (Psalms 78:13, LXX; 88:4, LXX; 105:31, LXX; 112:9, LXX; 144:13, LXX; 145:10, LXX; Isaiah 11:6-8, LXX; 31:9, LXX; 48:18,19, LXX; 60:21,22, LXX; 65:23, LXX; Wisd. 3:13; Eph. 3:21, NKJV; Heb. 6:13,14,17)
   God created woman for man to be his helper, companion, and support. (Gen. 2:18-24; Mal. 2:14, LXX; Ecclus. 36:24; Tob. 8:6; I Cor. 11:9) 
   Knowing why we are here helps us to have meaning and a purpose in life. When we live our lives for the purposes for which God created us, we no longer live aimlessly. We should strive to do those things which God wants us to do.

Steve

Working Away Sloth

The next sin I wish to deal with is sloth. Sloth is the absence of diligence. It is the absence of attentiveness, effort, and industry. There is spiritual sloth and there is physical sloth. Both are sins.

For attribute click here.

The man who works hard, but never has time for God or church is slothful in his spiritual life. He is lazy, but in a different way from the man who refuses to work. A man can be one who prays, but makes excuses for why he should not work. He might say that he needs to devote himself to spiritual things, which, of course, is true. Such a man is simply trying to justify his slothfulness and is also failing spiritually.

God created man to work. In Genesis, after God had created everything but man, it says regarding the Garden of Eden:

There was not a man to cultivate it. (Gen. 2:5, LXX)

After God created man, He put man in the garden "to cultivate and keep it." (Gen. 2:15, LXX) In Isaiah, there is a prophecy of the afterlife — life in God's kingdom after the general resurrection from the dead. In this prophecy, it says:

They shall build houses, and themselves shall dwell in them; and they shall plant vineyards, and themselves shall eat the fruit thereof. (Isaiah 65:21, LXX)

Further on, it says:

They shall by no means build, and others inhabit; and they shall by no means plant, and others eat: for as the days of the Tree of Life shall be the days of My people, they shall long enjoy the fruits of their labours. (Isaiah 65:22, LXX)

There is this connection between man and the ground. According to Genesis, God created man from the dust of the earth. Man, therefore, must till the soil and grow things. This connection between man and the earth will continue on into the afterlife according to the prophecy in Isaiah. Man will plant vineyards. I think that man will plant other things besides grapes, too.

There is also this connection between man and building construction. Jesus Christ, the Last Adam, was the stepson of a carpenter. (I Cor. 15:45; St. Matt. 13:55) He built houses. According to the prophecy in Isaiah, man will continue to build houses and live in them.

So, man was created for physical work and will continue to work physically after his body has been resurrected from the ground in which it was buried.

St. Evagrios the Solitary said that we are supposed to do physical work for two reasons: to not be a burden to others and to have something so that we can give to those in need. He wrote:

Provide yourself with such work for your hands as can be done, if possible, both during the day and at night, so that you are not a burden to anyone, and indeed can give to others, as Paul the Apostle advises. ("Outline Teaching on Asceticism and Stillness in the Solitary Life," by St. Evagrios the Solitary, The Philokalia, vol. 1, p. 35)

St. Paul wrote:

For you remember, brethren, our labor and toil; for laboring night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, we preached to you the gospel of God. (I Thess. 2:9, NKJV)

He said that we should follow his example as he followed Christ's example.

Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ. (I Cor. 11:1, NKJV)

So, one reason for working is to not be a burden to anyone as St. Paul taught in this passage from I Thessalonians. If we obey the apostle's command to imitate him, we will do the same. In his second letter to the Thessalonian Christians, he told them:

For you yourselves know how you ought to follow us, for we were not disorderly among you; nor did we eat anyone’s bread free of charge, but worked with labor and toil night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, not because we do not have authority, but to make ourselves an example of how you should follow us. For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat. (II Thess. 3:7-10, NKJV)

St. Paul also wrote:

Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need. (Eph. 4:28, NKJV)

This is the other reason the apostle gives for working: "to have something to give him who has need." He also said in this verse, "working with his hands what is good." So, we are to be employed doing honest work.

Man was also created for spiritual work, too. In Isaiah it says that God created man for His glory. (Isaiah 43:7) In the 49th Psalm, it says:

The sacrifice of praise will glorify Me. (Psalm 49:23, LXX; Psalm 50:23, Hebrew)

Worship is one way to glorify God and one of the reasons for which God created man. We must pray and we must worship our Creator. God created man for Himself. (Col. 1:16)

There are other spiritual activities that we should be practicing. Some of them are fasting, reading the Bible, and obeying the teachings of the Bible. We need to seek to understand how the Church interprets the Bible, too. The Church is "the pillar and ground of the truth." (I Tim. 3:15)

Sometimes, laziness or sloth is caused by malnutrition. People might feel lethargic due to insufficient amounts of B vitamins and protein in their diets. From what I have read, vitamin B-12 is the energy vitamin.

Also, vegetarians need to be careful that they get enough protein from the foods they eat. Plants have incomplete proteins. Anyone who abstains from meat needs to be eating beans and grains, such as wheat, corn, and oats. Beans have part of the protein and the grains have the other part. From what I have read, rice has a lesser degree of protein than wheat, corn, and oats. That is to say, the proteins in rice are more incomplete than those in the other grains mentioned. Nuts also have incomplete proteins. They also need to be supplemented with beans and grains so that one can get complete proteins in one's diet.

To work away sloth, we need to work. We need to work so that we are not a burden to others and so that we can have something to give to those in need. God created us to do physical work and spiritual work. We need to pray, worship God, fast, read the Bible, seek to understand how the Church interprets the Bible, and obey the teachings of the Bible. We need to make sure that we eat foods with sufficient amounts of the nutrients our bodies need. Otherwise, we will feel lethargic.

Steve

Bibliography

The Philokalia, volumes 1-4, compiled by St. Nikodimos of the Holy Mountain and St. Makarios of Corinth, translated by G.E.H. Palmer, Philip Sherrard, and Kallistos Ware, Faber and Faber, London, UK, copyright 1979 The Eling Trust

What Could Have Been

Let us think about what life would have been like, if man had never sinned against God. According to the Genesis account, God created man in His own image after His likeness. He made man in two genders, male and female. He placed them in a garden. The man's job was to till the ground. (Gen. 2:5) His wife's function was to be his companion, helper, and support. (Gen. 2:18; Mal. 2:14; Tobit 8:6; Ecclesiasticus 36:24) Both of them were responsible for taking care of God's creatures. (Gen. 1:28; Psalm 8:6; Wisdom 9:2) God also told them to "Increase and multiply." (Gen. 1:28, LXX)

If they had abstained from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and had partaken of the Tree of Life, they would have had sexual relations with each other without experiencing any sinful lusts. The wife would have become pregnant many times and would have borne children. Blessed Augustine wrote:

In Paradise, however, if sin had not preceded, there would not have been, indeed, generation without union of the sexes, but this union would certainly have been without shame; for in the sexual union there would have been a quiet acquiescence of the members, not a lust of the flesh productive of shame. Matrimony, therefore, is a good, in which the human being is born after orderly conception; the fruit, too, of matrimony is good, as being the very human being which is thus born; sin, however, is an evil with which every man is born. (On Marriage and Concupiscence, Book II, chapter 37, by Blessed Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D., vol. 5, p. 298, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series)

If man had never sinned, people would still continue to have sex and women would still be getting pregnant.

Due to our fallen condition, sex has acquired a bad stigma. People have trouble imagining sex without thinking about the sin and shame that all too often accompanies it. When God created sex, He did not create sin. Through its abuse and misuse, however, sex has become sinful, but actually it is holy and was never intended by God to be done in any sinful way. Sex in and of itself is not evil.

There is an ancient heresy — the heresy of the Encratites. They taught that sex and procreation are evil. Another heretic named Marcion of Pontus taught the same thing. By teaching that sex and procreation are evil, these heretics are essentially saying that God created sin when He created sex and commanded our first parents to sin when He told them to procreate. What these heretics were teaching is, of course, not true.
There would be no doctors and no health insurance. There would be no need for life insurance.

There would be no abortion clinics. Women would conceive and joyfully give birth to their children. They would experience no pain in childbirth. Women experience pain in childbirth now because of the Fall in Paradise. (Gen. 3:16)

If man had never sinned, women would be giving birth to babies and experiencing no pain in childbirth. There would be no need for hospitals or doctors to deliver babies. For attribute click here.

Now, people pass mortality on to their children. If man had never sinned, the reverse would be true. Instead of passing mortality on to their offspring, the couple would have been passing immortality on to them. Their offspring would have contracted heterosexual unions among each other and would have had children of their own. All the posterity of man would be immortal. Death and funerals would never have existed among humans.

If man had never sinned, women would still be giving birth to babies. Instead of passing mortality on to their offspring, they would be passing immortality on to them. Children would grow up at a much slower rate than they do now.

Having immortal children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and other descendants, it would have been possible for someone to spend time doing things with someone who is twenty, thirty, a hundred, or even a thousand generations removed from him.

Children would probably grow up to full maturity at a slower rate. In Isaiah it says that in the afterlife a youth will be a hundred years old.

Neither shall there be there any more a child that dies untimely, or an old man who shall not complete his time: for the youth shall be a hundred years old, and the sinner who dies at a hundred years shall also be accursed. (Isaiah 65:20, LXX)*

After reaching a certain age, they will stop aging. The same would have been true for children if man had never sinned. I think that they would develop faster intellectually and emotionally than they would physically. For example, if man had never sinned, a child might have the mind of a thirty year old and the body of a six year old.

There would be schools for the children and post-secondary schools for adults. People would have forever to study a new discipline and learn it. Many people would be multi-skilled and adept at doing many different things. A man could be a poet, song-writer, electrician, civil engineer, and farmer within the first thousand years of his existence. During the next thousand years, he could be learning other trades.
 

If man had never sinned, there would still be schools for children.

Instead of populating only this planet, we would be populating distant planets in distant galaxies. Mars would not be a dry desert planet. We would have had sufficient time to transform it into a beautiful Paradise with plants and animals from Earth. We, likewise, would have done the same thing with other planets in our solar system.

If man had never sinned, Mars would not look like this. Photo courtesy: NASA.

Instead, Mars would look more like this. For attribute click here.

There would still be genealogical records kept. There would be birth certificates and records of heterosexual unions. Marriage would not exist. (St. Matt. 22:30) The system used for contracting heterosexual unions would be the same system that the angels have. (We really do not know what that system is. We can only speculate about it.)

Snakes would have legs. God cursed the snake and took away its legs after the Fall of Man. (Gen. 3:14)

Man and all animals would be vegetarians. They would live in peace with each other. Originally humans and animals ate only vegetables, fruits, and nuts. (Gen. 1:29,30) Sometime after man had sinned, people and some animals became carnivores. (Gen. 9:2,3)

There would be no prisons. No one would be committing any crimes. There would be no armies. No one would want to go to war with anyone.

People would outlive the usefulness of their homes and would have to replace them with new ones periodically.

A thousand years would not seem like such a very long time to anyone. People would live so long that time would not mean that much to them.

Work would be easier and not toilsome. A man would not have to produce food to stay alive and he would not eat bread "in the sweat of his face." (Gen. 3:19)

People would enjoy worshipping God. Church attendance would almost always be at one hundred percent.

Life, in general, would be much more blissful if man had never sinned.

Steve

* "The sinner who dies at a hundred years shall also be accursed." I have thought about this part of this verse and I think that it means that the unrighteous who are resurrected will spend a hundred or more years with the resurrected righteous. After spending a hundred years with them and seeing the blessedness of the life they could have had if they had followed Christ, they will die the second death spoken of in Revelation. (Rev. 20:11-15) St. John Chrysostom calls it a "deathless death." In the second death, people will be tormented in body and soul in Gehenna forever. Their souls will still be joined together bodies, though.

Bibliography

Ante-Nicene Fathers, edited by Alexander Roberts, D.D. & James Donaldson, LL.D., volumes 1-10, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, Massachusetts

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, edited by Philip Schaff, D.D., LL.D., volumes 1-14, Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., Peabody, Massachusetts

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, edited by Philip Schaff, D.D., LL.D. & Henry Wace, D.D., volumes 1-14, Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., Peabody, Massachusetts

The Creation of Man

I have written about the creation of the universe and the creation of angels. Now, it is time to discourse on the creation of man.

God created man "a little lower than the angels" (Psalm 8:5, LXX; Heb. 2:7) in His image and likeness. (Gen. 1:26) God created man with a material body and an immaterial soul. (Gen. 2:7) Both the body and the soul have substance. The body is made of matter. The soul is made of a substance that is not matter. Originally, God created man neither mortal nor immortal.

For man had been made a middle nature, neither wholly mortal, nor altogether immortal, but capable of either; so also the place, Paradise, was made in respect of beauty intermediate between Earth and Heaven. (To Autolycus, Book II, chapter 24, by St. Theophilus of Antioch, 115-181 A.D., vol. 2, p. 104, Ante-Nicene Fathers)

It was God's intention, however, that man would become immortal. In the Wisdom of Solomon it says:

For God created man to be immortal, and made him to be an image of His own eternity. (Wisdom 2:23)

Although God made man "a little lower than the angels," His intention was that man would one day become equal to the angels. (St. Luke 20:36)

God made man in His image. God has free will and He gave man a free will when He made him. To have the image of God means to have a free will. God made man after His likeness. To have the likeness of God means to be virtuous like God.

Now this being the case, He creates with His own hands man of a visible nature and an invisible, after His own image and likeness: on the one hand man’s body He formed of earth, and on the other his reasoning and thinking soul He bestowed upon him by His own inbreathing, and this is what we mean by “after His image.” For the phrase “after His image” clearly refers to the side of his nature which consists of mind and free will, whereas “after His likeness “means likeness in virtue so far as that is possible. (An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, Book II, chapter 12, by St. John of Damascus, 645-750 A.D., vol. 9, part 2, p. 30, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)

God created man to be loved by Him. (Wisdom 11:24) God created man for His glory.

I will say to the North, Bring; and to the South, Keep not back; bring My sons from the land afar off, and My daughters from the ends of the Earth; even all who are called by My name: for I have prepared him for My glory, and I have formed him, and have made him. (Isaiah 43:6,7, LXX)

God created man to govern His creation. (Gen. 1:28; Psalm 8:6; Wisd. 9:2)

God created man to have existence and to exist forever.

For He created all things, that they might have their being. (Wisd. 1:14)

Who is like Me? Let him stand, and call, and declare, and prepared for Me from the time that I made man for ever. (Isaiah 44:7, LXX)

Although people die, there will come a day when all who have died will arise from the dead.

Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation. (St. John 5:28,29)

It is God's intention, then, that man always have existence as body and soul. Everyone will live forever as body and soul, but not everyone will enjoy the blessedness of God's kingdom throughout all eternity.

In some of my future blogs, I will talk about the Fall of Man and God's plan for redeeming man.

Steve

Bibliography

Ante-Nicene Fathers, edited by Alexander Roberts, D.D. & James Donaldson, LL.D., volumes 1-10, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, Massachusetts

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, edited by Philip Schaff, D.D., LL.D., volumes 1-14, Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., Peabody, Massachusetts

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, edited by Philip Schaff, D.D., LL.D. & Henry Wace, D.D., volumes 1-14, Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., Peabody, Massachusetts