God's Love Triangle

God, contrary to some reports, is very, very, very happy.

The Father loves the Son, the Son loves the Father, the depths of joy and love and wonder of their love for one another gives rise to the Holy Spirit. God delights in Himself. In fact, God is uppermost in his own affections.

When the Scriptures read that "the joy of the Lord is your strength" there is very little that's more secure or more powerful or real than the joy of the Lord in being Lord. The joy of the Lord has very little to do with us, and a whole heck of a lot to do with how much the Persons of the Trinity delight in one another. God's joy springs from community He has with Himself. Joy throughout the Scriptures is almost always tied to community, and here we see why. God loves being God, he loves the Persons in Himself, and he loves Himself infinitely.

Perhaps this sounds arrogant--after all, if we knew someone who loved themselves infinitely (which some of us do) we wouldn't like that person very much. But consider this: for us to value or love anything more than God is the essence of idolatory. If God loved anything more than himself, even and especially us, it would be the same. It is infinitely great news that God loves Himself more than He loves us. If He loved anything more than Himself He would no longer be God.

Henry Scougal wrote that the worth of a soul is based on what that soul values. The affections of a soul are indicative of how large or good or holy or right that soul is. God loves the only infinite good, that is the measure of the soul of God. He infinitely loves the infinite good, and thus is very, very, very happy. The joy of the Lord will never end, and neither will the joy of those who are joined with Him forever.

Out of the overflow of the delight the Persons of the Trinity have in one another, comes creation. And while God loves Himself the most, He delights to draw us into His joy, His life, His Kingdom. We are never victims of God's delight in Himself, in fact, God goes to great lengths to invite us into His joy (more on that in the days to come).

It is indicative of how far we've fallen that the phrase "love trianlge" is freighted with negative connotations: jealousy, secrecy, lies, accusations, fearfulness. Even in a group of three who are simply friends, it is often the case that insecurity is omni-present.

But in God, there are three Persons and there is no jealousy, no fearfulness, no worry, no fear, no competition except to perhaps out-do one another in love. God is the Love Triangle that is the anti-love triangle. He is the Three Person Relationship that is safe, holy, whole, pure, glorious. God delights to be God, delights in himself; the Persons of the Trinity are deeply glad in one another and deeply and safely rooted in the relationships that they share with one another.

God is a Three Person Being in Perfect Relationship. That a relationship is at the center of all creation and that all creation is essentially relational is fundamental to understanding how the world works, and to understanding how it all goes wrong when sin enters into the picture.