Love for God unites us with God

 As Orthodox Christians, holy faith and hope point us to God because they are theological virtues, but they are not perfect like love.  

  While  faith teaches us to know God and awakens in us  the desire to place God as our greatest and perfect good, but it does not go beyond that, hope, on the other hand, makes us confidently expect union with God, to whom all our desires are directed , but   it cannot bring us closer to the essence of our longing and unite us  with Him   .

  No matter how sublime these two theological virtues are, they are still imperfect because  they only show us  God from afar and cannot   unite  us
with him.   However, it is different with love for God, which  constantly leads us  to God,  unites us most  closely with him and makes us possess God, for the Lord says:  If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him  (Jn 14:23).

  And the apostle John claims : "Whoever abides in love abides in God, and God in him"  (1 John 4:16).

  Oh, how great and wonderful is the love of God, for  it brings us  to God and  unites us  with him.  Then we are completely happy because, like the bride in the Song of Songs, we can say:  My beloved is mine, and I am his  (Song 2:16).

  If we were to abound in wealth  and riches, honors, dignity, and other goods that the world bestows upon its servants, what would all of this be compared to the happiness to which   the virtue of love for God leads us ?

  Everything earthly lasts only a short time and cannot satisfy the human heart, but when we possess God, then we possess everything because we enjoy the greatest good that already fills  us  here on earth with comfort and joy, and in the other world  makes us  inexpressibly blessed, because the apostle Paul claims:  What eye has not seen, what ear has not heard, what the heart of man has not conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him  (1 Cor 2:9).

Therefore, we are   completely   unreasonable and unwise Orthodox Christians if we turn our hearts away from God and give them to the world. In doing so, we resemble a foolish child who does not care for precious pearls but instead takes shards of colored glass. 
  Therefore,  if we are reasonable and prudent Christians, then we are obliged  to follow the Saints in Heaven and love God with all our hearts so that God may dwell with us and  make  us  blessed. Amen!