Interesting Thought

"Love God and do whatever you like." - St. Augustine

In doing my reading today, I came across this phrase from St. Augustine. Isn't it interesting? "Love God and do whatever you like." Sounds like a license to do just about anything we can imagine. It almost sounds like Augustine is giving us permission to sin.

However, we know that Augustine wasn't telling the believers that they could do evil in the world. In fact, the opposite is true. What Augustine was communicating here is that if we REALLY love God, we will want to do the "right" things.

What are the right things? Well, the right things are those actions (physical, mental, spiritual) that are pleasing to the Father. Augustine calls us out. If we really love God, we will naturally do the things that He would find pleasing. If we really love God, then every thought and action would be focused on Him. If we really love God, we won't be able to do anything that would go against His ways. We would live lives of worship!

Now, the truth is that none of us have this down yet. But, each day we are called to give it the old college try. We are called to become more and more like Christ. The nearer we draw to Him, the more we will resemble who we truly are intended to be in Him.

So, "love God and do what you like!"