During intense persecution by the Jews at the time, the true Christians loved their enemies and prayed that God would have mercy on them. They would rather face death than deny Jesus Christ. This is the love that Christ taught His followers to have.
If we have a love for the truth, we will refrain from speaking any falsehood. Hermas, being a man of God, was releasing lies that were going without challenge by his hearers; they accepted his teaching as truth. Hermas lamented for the falsehoods he spoke and questioned if he could even be saved. The angel of repentance was teaching him to correct his errors by speaking the truth.
Love is manifest in our suffering of martyrdom, our works, and teachings (written and oral). We are to love God through our obedience; we cannot simply profess our love, as Jesus said there are those who only worship with their lips. The fulfillment of the Torah (Law) is love. There are those who are obedient out of fear of punishment, but on the other hand there are those who will fulfill the Torah out of love.
The existence of all creation cannot be truly measured or comprehended by any human thought or intellect. The heretics have put boundaries on something that cannot be measured.
The sea is a picture of the world, the Torah and the Prophets are the rivers of living waters that nourishes the sea, the world. The different types of islands are the different types of churches, ones that protect people from the wrath of the sea and judgments of God by the doctrines of truth. As opposed to the islands or churches that are heretical and not lovers of truth.
The seventh day, in the days of creation, foreshadows the consummation at the end of the age, as it was different than all the other days. Also how man is perfected on the sixth day.
The days of creation show the harmony and peace God always intended us to live in. God created all things to show us a parable of how we are to be in harmony with Jesus Christ. This is the manifestation of God’s government on the earth, when the heavens and earth are subject to Him in peace.
Explains what Paul had suffered leading up to his martyrdom and how Peter was martyred.
Only the heretics believe that the we only need to open our mouth to confess. Just confessing with your mouth is the belief of a hypocrite. Our confession is without our works, our deeds. There are death bead confessions before you die to confess, it is not acceptable to the Lord. We confess to be in God by walking out the commandments.
There are those, who out of their foolish and irrational behaviour make martyrdom out to be as if it is some type of competition. We should not be afraid to face death, however we are to take care of ourselves and not purposely come to our perceptions lest we become an accomplice to our own death.