Page 215 - Built For God Handbook (Annotated and Explained Edition) - The Christian Edition of the Tao Te Ching - The New Evangelization - Pope John Paul II

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Throughout human history, fear and love have interacted with each other
like partners in an awkward dance, with one or the other sometimes leading.
For those who try to please many idols or try to reach God through human
effort, fear will be predominant. Suffering and death will appear as fearful
enemies. For those who believe in a God who is love and only love, as well
as an impartial, compassionate judge, suffering can have a profound
purpose, and death welcomed as a passage into a total union with God. For
them, perfect love casts out all fear.

Those whose faith is weak will naturally tend to take control of their own
lives, to decide for themselves what is right and wrong (the original sin of
Adam and Eve) and be the arbitrators of their own lives. The result will
actually be discord, chaos, difficult relationships, and suffering caused by
their own actions, the effects of which will become their own punishment.
That reality is reflected in the saying, “We are not punished for our sins, we
are punished by them.”

b
a 2 Timothy 4:6-8; 1 Corinthians 4:5; Psalm 96:13; Romans 14:1-12;
Matthew 7:1-5.