October 26 I Saturday

Jeremiah 9-11

1 Timothy 6

“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”  —1 John 4:7-8

How does knowing the Trinity affect how we live as Christians? There are at least two things we can deduce from the doctrine of the Trinity in light of the fact that we are created in the image of God.

Firstly, having been made in God’s image, we were made for relationship. The mutual interdependence of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit is to be expressed in our interdependence on God and others. We find this in Genesis 1, when God created the world and said each day what He created was “good” until the last day, “it was very good.” Yet, upon closer examination of the creation of man, God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone...” (Genesis 2:18). Having been created in the image of God and part of being good is that it is not good to be alone. God, therefore, made woman because we were made for relationship. If we are not living in wholesome relationships, we are not satisfied as people because we were created for relationships.

Secondly, we were made to love and to be loved because God is love and loving. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit were in a love relationship with each other before they ever created the world. As Jesus tells us, “Father, I want those You have given Me to be with Me where I am, and to see My glory, the glory You have given Me because You loved Me before the creation of the world” (John 17:24). Some people may say that God created humans because He needed someone to love but God has no need inherent within Himself. Before the creation of the world the Father was in love with the Son, the Son was in love with the Father, the Father was in love with the Spirit, the Spirit was in love with the Father, the Spirit was in love with the Son, the
Son was in love with the Spirit. There was a love relationship within the Trinity.

The practical consequences of God being Trinity is that we were made in His image for relationship and we were made to love and to be loved. There was a young man who was internally fighting the fact that he felt he should be single but was falling in love with somebody. He saw it as something to be fought, overcome and get victory over but my advice was, “you were made to love.” We are created for relationship and love––not just in the romantic sense––it is something we should
embrace as a reflection of the Trinity.

Prayer: Lord God, thank You for teaching me that I am made for relationship and love as the Trinity embodies these concepts. May You grow my relationship with and love for others.