I think that a man who must command everyone to love him, and then punish them if they do not, is afraid that he is unlovable. Why should a God be any different?

And if the God who declares you must love him is afraid he is unlovable, then he is not all-knowing in the traditional sense, as what would be the point of commanding people to love you if you already know if they do or do not and if they will or not?

I would think that an all-knowing God would also know that people cannot make themselves love someone they don’t love any better than they can laugh at a joke they don’t find funny, or enjoy eating food that they find distasteful.

Or, what if it’s true and we all really must love God after all? What kind of God takes any pleasure in being loved by those who love him under his own command rather than of their own free will and pleasure? The Church loves to spend lots of time talking about free agency, and what a wonderful gift it is from our Heavenly Father, but much less time talking about what we are commanded to do with it freely.

As Alan Watts has pointed out, and I’m paraphrasing him here, we are caught in a kind of double-bind if we are required to do that which will only be acceptable if we do it voluntarily.