Page 144 - Prayer Book

144
Prayer B o ok
The Loving Way God Knows Us
At this point, we need to highlight the following: God
is entirely free. He is subject to no necessity or obligation.
Everything that exists, exists because it is His will! The
world could have never existed if God had not willed it.
The world exists solely because God freely willed it into
existence. In other words, the world exists because God
loved it! God’s will is identical to His love. Everything
about God is love! As St. John the Theologian says: “God is
love” (1 John 4:16)! His will is always a free will, and thus it
is a will of love. And God had already loved the world be-
fore it was even created! With this free love, God had loved
each of us before we even existed. Each of us is an expres-
sion of God’s loving will! We are each a realization of God’s
love, a personhood of divine love. Therefore, God’s love is
our deepest self !
St. Maximus the Confessor calls these divine wills for
His creation “logoi” (reasons) of beings, that is, the reasons
for their existence. The “logoi” of beings are God’s wills for
all that exists; they are also the meanings of beings, the
reasons for their existence, and the purposes for which
they exist.
However, we must also point out the following: While
we humans are realizations of God’s will, we are free! God’s
will does not bind our existence. This seems paradoxical
but is true! Within God’s will for each of us is our free will,
our ability to be free! This is because God’s will is always
love, a will of love! Since it is a will of true love, it does not
constrain His creations. True love grants freedom to the
beloved! We are free, therefore, and have free will, even this