St Theodoros the Great Ascetic

If God is love, he who has love has God within himself.

If love is absent, nothing is of the least profit to us (cf. 1 Cor. 13:3); and unless we love others we cannot say that we love God. For, writes St John, ‘If a man says, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar’ (1 John 4:20). And again he states: ‘No man has ever seen God. If we love one another, God dwells in us, and His love is perfected in us’ (1 John 4:12).

From this it is clear that love is the most comprehensive and the highest of all the divine blessings spoken of in the Holy Scriptures. And there is no form of virtue through which a man may become akin to God and united with Him that is not dependent upon love and encompassed by it; for love unites and protects the virtues in an indescribable manner.

St Theodoros the Great Ascetic