How does "love your neighbor" or love your enemies 'apply in ones life? How does one live that out? Is it by mocking and slandering Protestants? Just asking..LOL
“Love your neighbor” applies the same way any other commandment does. We try, we fail, we try again; we try to acquire a “habit of virtue.” I’ve explained my view that the basis of the commandment is that man is made in the image and likeness of God and the more we know and love God, the more readily we recognize that image in our neighbor. Granted, some people make it harder than others. But because we don’t do it perfectly is not an excuse to stop trying.
Not sure specifically what you refer to by “mocking and slandering Protestants,” but if you mean my observation that Calvinists seem to hate humanity, it’s the culmination of reading countless posts of the “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” type (atypical even of Edwards‘ work, or so I was taught) and the apparent unwillingness of Calvinists on this thread to explain how they understand the commandment to love you neighbor: I got one answer of “charitable works” (unspecified, but I assumed, asked and wasn’t answered, on lines of almsgiving). You yourself seemed to say it’s impossible to keep perfectly so we’re not bound by it and anyway the Gospels are properly OT. At least that’s what I got out of it. If I misunderstood you, you might try again.
I guess what I was asking was how to reconcile the commandment (the second greatest) with the doctrine of Total Depravity, because it seems to me they can’t be reconciled.
God is Love, yet He smote His Son on the cross with His wrath. Do catholics understand God is not one dimensional but is a combination of attributes.. God is Holy, righteous, goodness, wisdom, sovereign, infinite , faithful, self sufficient, immutable, justice , wrath , and mercy Omnipresent , and omnipotent etc When we try to limit God to one attribute, we steal His glory from Him.. For he is all in all
I think we have to distinguish between God in Himself and God in relation to His creatures. You omit (I assume an oversight) the Oneness of God, and I think this must refer not only to the fact that there is only one God (albeit Triune) but also the oneness in the sense of “wholeness” or “integrity” of God. God-in-Himself is one, and we are told by Scripture that He is Love, understood by Christians to mean because of the love among the Persons of the Trinity. He is immutable (more later). That He is all-good, all-powerful, all-knowing, all-just and all-merciful -- well, there’s more to say about these, but not directly relevant here.
But I think it’s wrong to include “wrath” as an attribute of God. I don’t see how it can be done without violating His “integrity” and His immutability. It makes it sound as if God has phases, like the moon, the “inconstant moon.” Wrath comes into play at all only in relation to His creatures. Do you see the Trinity as having occasional brawls? Or is this when the Father “pours out His wrath on the Son“? My best understanding is that the “wrath of God” is how those who reject God perceive Him -- God does not deceive; men deceive themselves.
Evil in the world is a mystery, and suffering in the world (pre-eminently in the Crucifixion) remains a mystery, regardless of how much you dislike the word, because we do not and cannot understand or comprehend them here below.
Protestants I know actually have little interest in position in heaven... You haven’t seen the posts screaming, “EVERYONE’S EQUAL IN HEAVEN”? I thought there was at least one on this thread; I know they’ve appeared on others.
You remember well. If God is unchangeable then he cannot be a moody individual subject to passions as described in anthropomorphic terms. Early Christian apologetics explained the OT language—describing essentially a Jewish version of Zeus—as "necessary" for "simple" people to relate to easier.
However, theologically, they never ascribe to God a change of mood, or passion (such as jealousy, anger, envy, etc.), because ontologically God is perfect and never changes. in addition to that, God reveals himself to the Church as Love and what else can love give but blessings!?
To ascribe anger to God is to admit that he is not in control, that he is frustrated, which is ontologically incompatible with a perfect divine being. Therefore, there is never a time when things do not God his way, so he continues to shine his radiance on the faithful and the unfaithful equally, and sends his blessings to the righteous and the unrightoeus.
To the faithful who hope in and love God, they are soothing, and to those who hate God they burn like fire. Nothing irks those who hate someone more then to find that the person they hate offers a loving gift in return.
Thus, in the Eastern tradition, God is Love and love doesn't change; how we experience God depends on our relationship with him.
As for our enemies, the love Christ commands the faithful feel for them has to do with the fact that even our enemies are created in God's image. The faithful are reminded to remember that even the enemies can be restored to the likeness of God and be saved by him.
As Adam's descendants, all humans are related and the life we have is the same life God gave to Adam. We are to approach each human being with that in mind even if they are our enemies, who have been misled and are kept in the darkness; which is why Jesus said "Father, forgive them for they don't know what they do."