MUSINGS ON LOVE AND LOVING (1)

Continuing from my last post, what is the quintessential nature and essence of love?

To the apostle John, God is Love.[1] But, what does this mean?
 
For me, this means that in the Being of God, there is a dynamic eternal relationship of love and loving among Father, Son and Spirit. This eternal exchange of giving, receiving and responding in love to One Another is within the true Nature and Essence of Who God is, TRIUNE. God’s ThreeOness, ever in loving relationship, One with Another, is the complete and perfect expression of the nature and essence of love. For me, I believe, this is why God is love.
 
As God, Triune, is love, love also Is, arising from the Triune relationship of God. This means that love exists, because, out of and from the ThreeOne relationship of Father, Son and Spirit.  Love is, only because the Triune relationship is genuinely real. Relationships are real and not illusory imaginings, for, relationships have eternally existed in the eternal Triune Being of God.
 
If God is not Triune but only One, then, only self loving, loving of One’s Self  is eternally with and in God. There is no eternal, real and true love for, with and in Another.  However, if God is more than One and yet also One, TRIUNE, as revealed in, through and by the Incarnate Son and Spirit, then, true, real and eternal loving relationships, not only for one’s self but also another is revealed to be inseparable from, and essentially in, the Nature, Essence and Being of God. For me, this eternal relational happening of union and communion within the Triune, is, presently, the best matrix by which I comprehend and relate to God’s ThreeOneness, in loving nature and being.
 
In union, the Three, Father, Son and Spirit are One. In communion, the ONE GOD, is also Three: Father, Son and Spirit.[2]  Drawing from this, we can perceive that the completeness and perfection of love not only requires love to and for one’s self, but also love towards all others. This arises from the Triune loving relationship, in union and communion, jointly and severally, loving One’s self, loving all the Others as much as loving One’s self and loving and receiving love, simultaneously, in similar manner, from all the Others[3]
 
This Triune completeness and perfection of love and loving is the glory of Triune God in eternity: ““Father, those whom you have given to me—I want that those also may be with me where I am, in order that they may see my glory that you have given me because (in that)[4] you loved me before the foundation of the world(i.e.the universe)[5].”[6]
 
Son’s glory was that of loving union and communion with Father in eternity. Son’s desire was to share this glory with us:  “And I do not ask on behalf of these only, but also on behalf of those who believe in me through their word, that they all may be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I am in you, that they also may be in us, in order that the world may believe that you sent me. And the glory that you have given to me, I have given to them, in order that they may be one, just as we are one— I in them, and you in me, in order that they may be completed in one, so that the world may know that you sent me, and you have loved them just as you have loved me”[7].
 
Son, even in Incarnation, remains ever One with and in Father.[8] To see Incarnate Son is to also see Eternal or Everlasting Father.[9] As Isaiah had prophesied:
“For a child has been born for us;
    a son has been given to us.
And the dominion will be on his shoulder,
    and his name is called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
        Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”[10]
 
Spirit is also, in union and communion, jointly and severally, present with Father and Son, in all. For it is in and through Spirit, in union and communion, with Father and Son, in love, that all, including love and loving, happens.[11] Spirit is the Happening of Triune God, through Whom, Triune God, “I Am that I Am”, lovingly happens.[12]  Spirit expresses God to us and in us.[13]



[1] 1 John 4: 8,16. “Ὁ θεὸς ἀγάπη ἐστίν’”

[2] Please refer to my earlier posts on relationships.  See also the Shema in Deuteronomy 6:4 where "the Lord (YHWH) is ONE and Lord (YHWH) GOD (Elohim-Plural) is more than one.

[3] Loving your neighbor as yourself, an expression of love, seen in this light, reveals  and points us to the completeness of love within the Triune relationship.

[4] For me, should be more accurately translated as ”(in) that” - See Strong’s G3754 ὅτι hóti, hot'-ee; neuter of G3748 as conjunction; demonstrative, that (sometimes redundant); causative, because:—as concerning that, as though, because (that), for (that), how (that), (in) that.

[5] Strong's G2889 – kosmos : 3. the world, i. e. the universe

[6] John 17:24 Lexham English Bible (LEB)

[7] John 17:20-23

[8] John10:30, John17:11

[9] John 14:9-11, Isa 9:6

[10] Isaiah 9:6 LEB

[11] Genesis 1:1-3. John 4:24. 1 Corinthians 12:3-6

[12] Read Luke 1:34-35 in conjunction with John 1:14 and we see Spirit’s role and involvement in making the Incarnation, the Word becoming a human being, a true and genuine reality, lovingly happen.

[13] John 14:17 - Statement in a several context. In Christ Jesus, in the joint, Spirit is not only with us but also in us.

i​God is Creator. We are but creatures of creation. There is an infinite and inescapable difference and distinction of nature and essence of being that separates us from God. Even though it is written that God made humankind in his image[1], God remains and is God. We are and remain creatures of creation made in the image of God.
 
As long as this inherent and essential difference, distinction and state of being, between God and us exists, each party CANNOT, in truth and reality, know the other within the context of, and participate in each other’s nature, essence and being. Therefore, humanity, as such, could never have known that God is love, eternally, in nature, essence and being.
 
However, according to John, this state of affairs changed, when, the Word[2], the Son of God[3], Who was and is God[4], became flesh and dwelt in[5] us[6].  He declares: “God is love. By[7] this the love of God is revealed in[8] us: that God sent his one and only Son into the world in order that we may live through him.”[9]
 
To John, the Word, the Son of God, becoming flesh and dwelling in us, was so that God is love, be revealed through the love of God(Incarnate Son) being revealed(through Spirit’s Presence and Happening) in us, “that we might live through him.”  This is the eternal passionate desire, pleasure, purpose and choice of Triune God, for creation and for us, NOW, in Christ, both God and humanity can, in truth and reality, genuinely know the other and participate in each other’s nature, essence and being.
 
As the Son is God, and in Him all fullness of Deity dwells[10], in becoming flesh, He is now abiding, resting, in us. Jesus affirmed this when he said: “Abide in me, as I abide in you.”[11] We are called to rest in Him even as he has, in becoming a human, already rested and is resting in our humanity, in us. Even as the Son is in us, in the man Christ Jesus, we are also in him, in and through his humanity. As in him all fullness of Deity dwells bodily, in and through him, his humanity, we can now really partake and truly participate, in living and abiding, in genuine eternal love in the Eternal. For “in the person of Jesus Christ the Divine and human natures are united, so that He is truly and properly God and truly and properly man.”[12]
 
This genuine living in the Eternal is, I believe, what John 17:3 refers to: “Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”[13] This living in the Eternal is living eternally, growing eternally in loving relationships: Not only getting to know and be in a love relationship with God (Father, Son and Spirit), but also with one another, in and through the man Jesus Christ.
 
Only at that first Christmas, in and through the man Christ Jesus, we were given by grace, the revelation of the truth and reality of love being the Nature, Essence and Being of God, Father, Son and Spirit, Triune.[14]
 
Humanity, in the man Christ Jesus, now resides within the Triune Being of God. In and through this man, Triune God has given humanity the privilege to be the Bride of Christ. As such, we, individually and jointly (as Bride of Christ) have become the focus and centre of Father, Son and Spirit’s Triune eternal embrace of love and loving. Humanity, in and though Incarnate Son, is now joined to, jointly and severally living in, the Nature, Essence and Being of Triune God.


[1] Genesis 1:27 “So God created humans in his image. In the image of God he created them. He created them male and female.” 1599 Geneva Bible.

[2] John 1:1, John 20:28

[3] John 3:16, 1John 4:9

[4] John 1:1

[5] John 1:14 Greek ἐν en See Strong’s G1722 : In the Incarnation, isn’t he in His person not only residing among us but also residing in our humanity? Or else, how could all that is His, including his death and resurrection be ours also,  except in our joint(union) and severalness(communion) to each other?

[6] Greek ἡμῖν hēmin –us, (denoting more than one), in context, referring to the whole of humankind.

[7] Greek ἐν en “literally –‘in’” See Strong’s G1722.
 

[8] Greek ἐν en See Strong’s G1722

[9] 1 John 4:8b, 9 Lexham English Bible. My reading on 1 John 4:8b, 9 above is that: “God is love. In this (God being love, or in God and love) the (Triune) love of God is revealed in us (when the Word became flesh(a human being) and dwelt(resided, rested, lived ) in us(in and as our humanity), that we(our humanity) might live through him.

[10] Colossians 2:9 “because in him all the fullness of deity dwells bodily.” Lexham English Bible. Resides permanently bodily - See Strong’s NT 2730: κατοικέω

[11] John 15:4, 9

[12] Salvation Army Doctrine 4.

[13] John 17:3 Lexham English Bible

[14] ibid 11, John 1;1, Ibid 1, John 14:9

​As such, to separate humanity, us, from the love of Triune God in Christ Jesus, is now tantamount to severing the Oneness of the Triune God - an impossibility.
 
But, lest we forget, this love and loving had an immeasurable, unfathomable sacrificial cost, to and for Triune God.
 
Triune God had to change in order to accommodate humanity, jointly and severally into Triune Nature, Essence and Being. Father, through Spirit’s happening[1], had to send Son[2] to become human through the happening of Spirit.
 
Son, God, equal with God,[3] “did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross. “[4]
 
Triune love and loving did not abandon Son to be alone as a man. Through Spirit, Father was always with him[5], always one with him,[6] though it was only Son who became human. Even when Son felt abandoned and forsaken at Calvary’s cross, God, Father and Spirit, love, did not abandon or forsake him. Triune Oneness was jointly with Son at the cross, even though it was only Incarnate Son hanging and dying at the cross.
 
This is not even the whole of love for us, but such is love, that we may know the love of God in and for us and that God is love.
 
No wonder, Paul could write: “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will affliction or distress or persecution or hunger or lack of sufficient clothing or danger or the sword? Just as it is written: “On account of you we are being put to death the whole day long; we are considered as sheep for slaughter.” No, but in all these things we prevail completely through the one who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” [7]
 
Such being the case, “What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? Indeed, he who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also, together with him, freely give us all things? Who will bring charges against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies. Who is the one who condemns? Christ is the one who died, and more than that, who was raised, who is also at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.”[8]
 
This is the reason why we can be assured that to those who love God: “all things work together into[9] good,”[10] “to those who are called according to His purpose,”[11] and in all things, “we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”[12]
 
Following Paul: ““For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with might through his Spirit in the inner man, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”[13]
 
In Christ in God, this is where we are, in the Here, Now, Today, ever being embraced, by and within the love and loving Being of Triune union and communion.
 
Experience Triune God.

​Enjoy love and loving.




[1] Luke 1:35

[2] John 17:21,25

[3] John 1:1, Philippians 2:6

[4] Philippians 2:6-8

[5] John 8:29

[6] John 10:30, John 17:11

[7] Romans 8:35-39 LEB

[8] Romans 8:31-34 LEB

[9] Greek εἰς eis- into See Strong’s G1519

[10] Romans 8:28 WYC

[11] Romans 8:28 RSV

[12] Romans 8:37 RSV

[13] Ephesians 3:14-19 RSV