The Trinity (Part 2)

Yesterday I blogged about what we could confidently affirm from Scripture concerning the Trinity. Today the question amounts to what does it really matter? What’s the purpose of thinking about the Trinity? How does this add value to my Christian experience?

I believe that love is the essence of God. It is the foremost of all the attributes and characteristics of God. From his love springs forth the perfections and attributes of God. Love describes the inner life of God. It is the reciprocal self-dedication of the trinity. Before creation, the Trinity existed in perfect relationship of love. One might say that love describes the community within God.

Because of God’s perfect self love, he is free to love his creation. Love is the motive for redemption. We experience God’s love through Christ, and are empowered to love him in return. Not only are we able to receive and respond to God’s love, we are able to receive and respond to one another’s love.

So when Jesus gave the second commandment that we are to love our neighbors as ourselves, he was not just laying down a suggestion for ethical behavior. He was inviting us to experience the kind of perfect love that the Trinity shares in the midst of itself. God models for us the very practice he intends for us to implement in our daily living.

I think the Trinity is not so much about eggs and water as much as it is understanding something about God’s love within himself and beyond himself. To apply the doctrine of the trinity is to go back to those two commands Jesus offered: Love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. That’s part of the take away from studying the Trinity.