The Trinity, The Beatles, and Love Love Love

Practical Theology Of Worship Series

Trinity

This post is a continuation of the epic Practical Theology Of Worship Series.

Before launching a Genesis to Revelation study of worship, let’s consider the prequel, “the beginning before the beginning.”

What was God like before anything existed?  Before He spoke forth and “created the heavens and the earth …” ?

Consider these descriptions …

1. God is. God exists. A dominant theme of the biblical account is that God simply IS. His self-disclosure is proclaimed in Exodus 3:14  “I AM WHO I AM”, and confirmed in Revelation 1:8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega–the beginning and the end ... the one who is, who always was, and who is still to come, the Almighty One.

2. God is eternal. God is the king “eternal, immortal, invisible” I Timothy 1:17. Eternal means  “ lasts for all time without beginning or end; is unaffected by the passage of time; seems to go on for ever or recur incessantly; and exists everlastingly.”

3. God is love (1 John 4:8). The apostle Paul describes love, as “patient, kind, not proud or rude … love will last forever” (1 Corinthians 13:4). God is immutable, he does not change, he is the same “yesterday, today and forever”  (Hebrews 13:8).

4) God is One. “the Lord is one” Deuteronomy 6:4, Mark 12:29

5) God is Three.

• The Father is God. (1 Cor 8:6 et al)
• Jesus the Son is God. (John 1:1 et al))
• Holy Spirit is God. (1 Cor 6:19)

6) God the Father is uniquely different from God the Son and both are uniquely different from God the Holy Spirit. (Luke 3:21-22) All three comprise one God with one nature, which is love. Three distinct roles with three unique attributes and personalities, all have one nature,  which is love.

God is Three united in One, all in love. 

Got it?

Ok let’s make this simple. Or not.

You know The Beatles song “All You Need Is Love” ?

[tentblogger-youtube r4p8qxGbpOk]

Let’s run with that. Hit the play button and read along.

God is love.

Love can not exist without relationship, without beings being in love. Every lovelorn member of the Lonely Hearts Club gets this. Right?

You can not love all by yourself, in the singular. You can not say “I’m in love” unless you have somebody to love. Love only occurs in the plural,  among more than one. The one who loves (the lover) must have an object (the beloved one) to love (the action of love).

God is a relationship.

Father, Son and Holy Spirit are in a love relationship within themselves (aka The Godhead).

God the Father (lover) loves God the Son (beloved) in the Spirit (the action of love) ;  Jesus the Son (Lover) loves the Father (beloved) in the Spirit (the action of love) ; God the Holy Spirit (Lover) loves the Father (beloved) and the Son (beloved) in the Spirit (the action of love).

It’s a endless cycle of “Love Love Love”. Perfectly unselfish and self-giving.  There is no competition, no envy, no power struggles. They defer one to the other. Father, Son , and Holy Spirit are the purest, most holy, most intimate expression of communion possible.

God is a community.

“The eternal love of the Father for the Son, the Son for the Father, and of both for the Holy Spirit makes heaven a world of love and joy because each person of the Trinity seeks to bring joy and happiness to the other two.”  Systematic Theology, p199, Wayne Grudem

Ta da, there you have it! It’s all about love.

Now the Trinity makes sense.

Or it doesn’t.

It is a mystery, you know.

Question: How do you understand the Trinity?