A wise post:

The fathers of the church defined it as this….

The love of a slave….fearful of punishment.

The love of a servant….desiring a reward. and

The love of a son…..desiring only God, irregardless of punishments and rewards.

The fathers teach that all above is genuine faith and acceptable to God, one loves God for fear of hell. one loves God for the desire to gain heaven and glory, finally one loves God for the sake of only God.

Obviously the third is the one to be desired, but as you know, these are stages that one goes through and it is reare if nigh impossible to go from outside of faith to the final level in an instant.

Peace and grace.

Athanasius,servant.

Another view from John Claypool commenting on the famous quote from Bernard of Clairvaux (ps. Athanasius – should that be St. Bernard given his endorsement of that terrible Crusade?):

Four stages of growth in Christian maturity: l. love of self for self’s sake 2. love of God for self’s sake 3. love of God for God’s sake 4. love of self for God’s sake. Bernard of Clairvaux

This fourth step was what shocked me at first, but as I reflected on it I realised the medieval saint was exactly right. The hardest thing about God to love is the fact that he made me, and to come to accept this and love this is the greatest challenge facing most of us.

John Claypool, The Light Within You (See http://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/11408.htm )

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