On Virtue

“Virtue may be defined as an activity of the whole person in conformity with love of God and love of neighbor.”

~ Benjamin W. Farley, In Praise of Virtue (Grand Rapids, Mi.: Eerdmans, 1995), 160.

The Worth & Excellency of a Soul

“The worth and excellency of a soul is to be measured by the object of its love.”

~ Henry Scougal, The Life of God in the Soul of Man (Harrisburg, Va.: Sprinkle Publications, 1986), 62.

Which Kind of Love Builds What Kind of City?

“We see then that the two cities were created by two kinds of love: the earthly city was created by self-love reaching the point of contempt for God, the Heavenly City by the love of God carried as far as contempt of self. In fact, the earthly city glories in itself, the Heavenly City glories in the Lord. The former looks for glory from men, the latter finds its highest glory in God. . . . In the former, the lust for domination lords it over princes as over the nations it subjugates; in the other both those put in authority and those subject to them serve one another in love, the rulers by their counsel, the subjects by obedience. The one city loves its own strength shown in its powerful leaders; the other says to it God: ‘I will love you, my Lord, my strength.’

Consequently, in the earthly city its wise men who live by men’s standards have pursued the goods of the body or of their own mind, or of both. . . . In the Heavenly City . . . man’s only wisdom is the devotion which rightly worships the true God. . . .”

~ Augustine, The City of God, quoted by David Naugle in Reordered Love, Reordered Lives (Grand Rapids, Mi.: Eerdmans, 2008), 52-53.

The Deep Meaning of Happiness

For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen (Romans 11:36).

“If God is the proper reference point for all aspects and things in life, then God gives them their true meaning and puts them in the proper order in our lives. This grand union of God, ourselves, and the whole cosmos in a sacred synthesis of rightly ordered love constitutes the deep meaning of happiness.”

~ David K. Naugle, Reordered Love, Reordered Lives (Grand Rapids, Mi.: Eerdmans, 2008), 23.

Religious vs Christian Obedience

“You can run from God either by breaking his rules or by keeping them. The difference between the religious person and the true Christian is that the religious person obeys God to get control over God, and to get things from God, but the Christian obeys just to get God. Religious persons obey to get leverage over God, to control him, to put him in a position where they think he owes them. Therefore, despite their moral and religious fastidiousness, they are actually attempting to be their own saviors. Christians, who know they are only saved by grace and can never control God, obey him out of a desire to love and please and draw closer to the one who saved them.”

~ Timothy Keller, Paul’s Letter to the Galatians: Living in Line with the Truth of the Gospel (Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2003), 38.

No One Says it Like John Piper

“Disinterested benevolence toward God is blasphemy. If you come to God dutifully offering him the reward of your fellowship instead of thirsting after the reward of his fellowship, then you exalt yourself above God as benefactor and belittle him as the needy beneficiary—and that is blasphemy. The only way to honor and glorify the all-sufficiency of God is to come to him for the pleasure of knowing and being loved by him.”

~ John Piper, “Love: The Labor of Christian Hedonism“

C. S. Lewis ~ On the Dangers of Love

“Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket — sake, dark, motionless, airless — it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation.”     

~ C. S. Lewis, The Four Loves (New York, NY: Harcourt, 1960), 123.