Lesson 192. The Ocean of God’s Love

Very often, in order to picture love in some way, I use the ocean as a comparison. And now I invite you to draw parallels and, while speaking about the ocean, to consider God’s Agape Love. One can notice a great many interesting similarities and laws that vividly describe the hidden attributes of love, making it more understandable.

The Author of the ocean and of love is God Himself. But while the ocean has a specific geographical location and can be found by anyone who travels to it, love is something spiritual, invisible to the eye but discernible by the heart. It dwells wherever God is present, and He is Omnipresent.

The ocean is a single worldwide organism that unites within itself all the waters of our planet and all the seas and gulfs connected to it. The ocean’s total area is about 360 million square kilometers and covers 71 percent of the Earth’s surface.

Love is a single organism that unites within itself the entire infinite expanse of the Universe, together with all the galaxies, worlds, and heavenly beings connected to it. God’s Love covers 100 percent of the Universe.

To me, the world ocean appears as a surface of water visible to my eye. This surface may be calm or wavy. If I put on a mask and dive into the waters of the ocean, I will see that there is life in it, that it has its own animal and plant life, its own laws, and that it holds many discoveries within itself. And the deeper I descend into it, the more diverse becomes the underwater world that exists and has always existed—a world governed by its own order and mysteries, its own features and patterns.

On the surface, love is understood as a pink heart. If I put on the garments of Christ’s righteousness and dive into the ocean of God’s Love, I will discover a new and amazing world of endless revelations, with its own laws, mysteries, and attributes. And the deeper I descend into God’s Love, the closer I become to God. I unravel new mysteries of His character, which have always existed and still exist, and God’s Soul opens to me with Its own features and patterns. I comprehend great and inaccessible things.

The ocean is water that fills the place into which it was released by the Creator. The ocean has a foundation called the bottom, and the water fills the space that it is permitted to occupy, within its boundaries and territory. The water reaches the limits established for it and does not cross them. At times, cataclysms occur within the ocean’s expanses, and then tsunami waves arise and crash upon the land, crushing every obstacle. Afterward, they calmly return to their place.

Love is God’s Spirit, Who is the Essence and Foundation of Love and Who fills the entire expanse of the Universe with Himself. Love has a firm foundation—God’s law—and it fills the place that it is permitted to occupy within the bounds of that territory. It does not go beyond the established boundaries and does not commit lawlessness. Love is limited by the lack of free access to closed hearts, but at times it crashes upon them with waves of God’s blessings, sweeping away everything corruptible and proud, and then quietly returns within the bounds of its dwelling place and waits for new opportunities to reveal itself.

The waters of the ocean are accessible to people, and they can sail upon them and dive into them. They have the opportunity to obtain food and hidden treasures from the ocean’s depths. People are also permitted to study freely the laws of life in the waters, to descend into their depths, to enrich themselves from the ocean’s contents, and to do whatever they desire. But they are unable to subjugate the ocean, make it their subject, or tell it what to do and how to behave. It is subject to its Creator and lives by the laws written for it. People are permitted to study these laws and plan their activities within their bounds.

God’s Love is accessible to all people, and they may freely sail upon its surface, compose songs about it, and call it by different names. They may descend into its depths and obtain from them nourishment for themselves and their neighbors, giving its waters to one another. They are given the opportunity to search out hidden treasures in the depths of Love and make them the possession of their souls, enjoying them and sharing them with all who desire them. People are also permitted to study freely the laws of Love and of life within this expanse. Through the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, every inhabitant of Earth may freely descend into the ocean of God’s Love and be enriched by its contents, doing with it whatever the soul desires. But people cannot subjugate Love or tell it how it should behave. It submits to the One Who is this Love, yet it is presented to us in the form of written laws that it very much desires to inscribe upon human hearts so that it may plan its activity within their bounds.

The waters of the ocean are in motion. They can change form and, as vapor and rain, reach those parts of the Earth that are inaccessible to raging waves. Underwater and atmospheric currents evenly distribute the ocean’s warmth and cold to their appointed regions of the planet, warming its surface and establishing a particular climate in the various zones of the Earth. They very skillfully bypass desert places and are constant in their movement and influence.

Love is in motion. It changes its form and, through good deeds, mercy, and grace, through kind words and the influence of loving hearts, distributes its warmth to places where the Word of God cannot enter. It creates a loving atmosphere, a kind climate, and friendly surroundings. And where waves of happiness cannot crash down, Love quietly brings peace to thirsty and seeking hearts, skillfully bypassing the proud and haughty, the envious and cruel. It is constant in its influence and very powerful in those who receive it.

There are entire regions of the planet where the waters of the world ocean have been transformed into vast expanses of ice. In these places there is practically no life; nothing grows there, except that certain species of animals live there and survive by eating one another. And the closer life is to the equator, the richer and more diverse the ocean world becomes. It is very friendly toward those who study it, but it fears those who pollute and destroy it. In the world ocean there are entire zones where the waste of human activity and industry floats. There, tons of garbage and industrial waste deprive every living thing of life. Chaos and death reign in these regions of the ocean. The thirst for gain and human greed leave their repulsive traces upon the surface of the water in the form of garbage and oil waste. The ocean groans in pain and calls for retribution, and it will come upon those who destroy the Earth.

Because lawlessness abounds, the love of many grows cold. There are entire regions of the planet where God’s Love has grown cold, and nothing good grows there. People begin to devour one another in their beautiful homes; they begin to seek sensual pleasures, destroying those like themselves, and through their influence they infect all who live on Earth, offering them the fierce wine of their fornication. The closer life is to God, the more diverse and interesting it becomes. God is very friendly toward those who study Love, but very strict with those who poison life. Love groans beneath the burden of sin and has appointed the time of its end.

1. Did you learn anything new from this lesson?

2. Is the comparison presented in this lesson a fitting one?

3. Do you have your own images and ideas of God’s Love? Can you share them?

4. Why did God decide to make His Love boundless?

5. Why is law necessary if it places limits on absolute freedom? Can Love exist outside the law?

6. What does lawlessness lead to?

7. Is it possible to comprehend the depth of God’s Love in this life?

8. Please read Genesis 1:2, 9–10; 6:17; 7:11–12, 17–19; Job 38:8–11; 1 Chronicles 16:32; Psalm 65:7; Ecclesiastes 1:7; Matthew 8:27; 15:25; Mark 4:39–41; Luke 21:25 in the light of our lesson.