This means that the faithful must guard and activate the three theological virtues and must avoid sins which are opposed to them.Faithbelieves in God and rejects everything that is opposed to it, such as, deliberate doubt, unbelief, heresy, apostasy, and schism.Hopetrustingly awaits the blessed vision of God and his help, while avoiding despair and presumption.Charityloves God above all things and therefore repudiates indifference, ingratitude, lukewarmness, sloth or spiritual indolence, and that hatred of God which is born of pride.
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2083. Jesus summed up man's duties toward God in this saying: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind."1This immediately echoes the solemn call: "Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God is one LORD."2
God has loved us first. the love of the One God is recalled in the first of the "ten words." the commandments then make explicit the response of love that man is called to give to his God.
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2084. God makes himself known by recalling his all-powerful loving, and liberating action in the history of the one he addresses: "I brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage." the first word contains the first commandment of the Law: "You shall fear the LORD your God; you shall serve him.... You shall not go after other gods."5God's first call and just demand is that man accept him and worship him.
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2085. The one and true God first reveals his glory to Israel.6The revelation of the vocation and truth of man is linked to the revelation of God. Man's vocation is to make God manifest by acting in conformity with his creation "in the image and likeness of God":
There will never be another God, Trypho, and there has been no other since the world began . . . than he who made and ordered the universe. We do not think that our God is different from yours. He is the same who brought your fathers out of Egypt "by his powerful hand and his outstretched arm." We do not place our hope in some other god, for there is none, but in the same God as you do: the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.7
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2086. "The first commandment embraces faith, hope, and charity. When we say 'God' we confess a constant, unchangeable being, always the same, faithful and just, without any evil. It follows that we must necessarily accept his words and have complete faith in him and acknowledge his authority. He is almighty, merciful, and infinitely beneficent. Who could not place all hope in him? Who could not love him when contemplating the treasures of goodness and love he has poured out on us? Hence the formula God employs in the Scripture at the beginning and end of his commandments: 'I am the LORD.'"8
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2087. Our moral life has its source in faith in God who reveals his love to us. St. Paul speaks of the "obedience of faith"9as our first obligation. He shows that "ignorance of God" is the principle and explanation of all moral deviations.10Our duty toward God is to believe in him and to bear witness to him.
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2088. The first commandment requires us to nourish and protect our faith with prudence and vigilance, and to reject everything that is opposed to it. There are various ways of sinning against faith:
Voluntary doubt about the faith disregards or refuses to hold as true what God has revealed and the Church proposes for belief. Involuntary doubt refers to hesitation in believing, difficulty in overcoming objections connected with the faith, or also anxiety aroused by its obscurity. If deliberately cultivated doubt can lead to spiritual blindness.
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2089. Incredulity is the neglect of revealed truth or the willful refusal to assent to it. "Heresy is the obstinate post-baptismal denial of some truth which must be believed with divine and catholic faith, or it is likewise an obstinate doubt concerning the same; apostasy is the total repudiation of the Christian faith; schism is the refusal of submission to the Roman Pontiff or of communion with the members of the Church subject to him."11
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2090. When God reveals Himself and calls him, man cannot fully respond to the divine love by his own powers. He must hope that God will give him the capacity to love Him in return and to act in conformity with the commandments of charity. Hope is the confident expectation of divine blessing and the beatific vision of God; it is also the fear of offending God's love and of incurring punishment.
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2091. The first commandment is also concerned with sins against hope, namely, despair and presumption: By despair, man ceases to hope for his personal salvation from God, for help in attaining it or for the forgiveness of his sins. Despair is contrary to God's goodness, to his justice - for the Lord is faithful to his promises - and to his mercy.
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2092. There are two kinds of presumption. Either man presumes upon his own capacities, (hoping to be able to save himself without help from on high), or he presumes upon God's almighty power or his mercy (hoping to obtain his forgiveness without conversion and glory without merit).
Acesse nossos estudos biblicos:
What is the meaning of being “blameless” according to the 2 Peter 3:14 passage?
The Creation of the Universe and Man: What Does the Book of Genesis Teach Us? (Genesis 1:1-31)
Joseph’s story: How did God use Joseph’s story to fulfill his purposes?
What is the message of Isaiah’s heavenly vision of the Lord’s glory revealed in Isaiah 40:1-31?
How is the humility and grace of God manifested in the Christian’s life, according to Psalm 138:6-7?
What is the importance of persevering in the faith, according to 2 John 1:8?
