To love him

Contrition

But as soon as people begin to love God, things will be completely different.  Whereas before they were sorry for their sins because they were afraid of going to Hell, now they are sorry for them just because they love God and their sins displease God.  This sorrow, caused by love of God, is called contrition.

Loving, joyful service

Now they will try hard not to sin because they cannot bear to do anything displeasing to God.  Now they cannot do too much for God, and whatever they do will seem as nothing at all.  All they want is to please God, and the more they love God, the more generous they will be to God with their time and money and work.  And everything they do for God will be done gladly, and their religion will be a joy to them because God is a joy to them.  There we have the difference between love and fear.  “Love does not serve God because He is terrible, but because He is good; love does not fear Him as a Master, but loves Him as a Father”. (2) As St John tells us, “…perfect love casts out fear…” (NRSV, 1 John 4:18).  And so, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, instead of obeying God as fearful slaves, we can have the glorious freedom to serve and obey him as his loving children.

Reverence

As we learn to love God, our fear of God changes into reverence which will be shown by the way we think and speak of him, the way we behave in his House, the way we say our prayers and make our Communion, until, as our love for God grows, the very idea of irreverence will seem impossible.

There is one thing more than anything else which can arouse our love for God, and that is the Crucifixion.  For the Crucifixion shows how much God loves us to die like that for us.  So St John says, “We love because he first loved us” (NRSV, 1 John 4:19).

It is all summed up in the hymn, ‘My God I love thee’ (3)