Bernard of Clairvaux

Since God IS love, it only makes sense that seeing his love for us would drive us to love, since he is love. It seems as though nothing else could ever enable us to love anyone or anything, except for God, because without God we wouldn't even know what love is. Knowing that God loves me pushes me to love him because of how powerful he is. God is so big that I should be scared when I'm in his presence. We are supposed to fear God, but he is love and he is perfect, therefore, he gives us peace and comfort when we are in him. His characteristics draw me in to him and give me no other choice but to love him. When we are truly in God, love is in us. This should compel us to love everyone else because God's love is perfected in us when we are in him. His loving us when he has all the power to crush or accept us entitles us to love people and not punish them because God has loved us in that way. We have to be sure that we understand how huge God's love for us is, so that truth can transform our hearts and lives, otherwise it would be very easy to only "love" God because of what he can do for us. Ultimately, we need to try our best to persistently live in the third degree of love; "so that we now love God, not for our own sake, but for himself," and to do that we must love God for who he is and understand the way that we are supposed to live in order to show our love for him through everything that we do.