25424 Aldine-Westfield, Spring, TX. 77373

PETITIONS AND THANKSGIVING:

God’s will for our congregation Various friends, relatives and co-workers

Our nation, leaders and military The spread of the good news

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO: Grace Cruthirds (7^th), Margaret Weisner (7^th), Bryce Mearns (16^th),

Joe Reynolds (23^rd), and Gayla Landrum (28^th)

THE TRINITY

“May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2 Corinthians 13:14).

If ever there was a doctrine that was difficult to grasp, it is the doctrine of the Trinity or the Godhead. To say it in other ways, we are looking at Deity, at God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The best illustration that I know of on this subject - and it is only an illustration - is that of the triangle, each side representing one member of the Godhead, and the middle the unity of God. In churches of Christ, this doctrine has not been emphasized much, and has also been misunderstood, especially as we deal with the Holy Spirit. Difficult as it is however, it does affect how we see several other key aspects of scripture.

In Genesis 1:26-27, God speaks saying “Let us make human beings in our image, in our likeness.” In Genesis 11:7 God says “Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” Who is the “us” of these texts? There is communication within the Trinity in these texts though we do not understand the concept until revealed to us in the New Testament. It is clear in the Old Testament that the Spirit of God is active in a number of events, however it is not clear that the Jews understood that there was a plurality involved.

So what should we see in an effort to understand something that is far being on us?

We need to understand that the community of Deity is a self-giving entity. Timothy Keller describes it this way: “Each voluntarily circles the other two, pouring out love, delight, and adoration into them. Each person of the Trinity loves, adores, defers to, and rejoices in the others. That creates a dynamic, pulsating dance of joy and love” (1). This self-giving community understands and creates the human community to be the same. The ideal of the garden is the beginning of what God desired for the human community. The one thing that was not good in the garden was that man should not be alone. Why not? Part of the image of God is community. When we read through scripture, we find community, whether in marriage and family, a city, a state, and finally in the church in the New Testament. As we are united in Christ, we recreate the image of God in us.

Why is this? “Because, according to the Bible, the world was not created by a God who is only an individual, nor is it the emanation of an impersonal force. It is not a product of power struggles between personal deities nor of random, violent, accidental natural forces…We believe the world was made by a God who is a community of persons who have loved each other for all eternity. You were made for mutually self-giving, other-directed love” (2). There are times of loneliness for many people; holidays, anniversaries or birthdays of a love lost, and sometimes just being on one’s own like college or traveling. That is why, for us, the assembly or church is important; that we come together to find comfort and strength to face another day or week in this world. But God has not left us alone, for we are to be filled with His Holy Spirit, led by the Spirit in our lives (see Galatians 5:22-26).

Our self-centeredness often interferes in the image we have been created in. The rebellion of Adam and Eve has damaged this idea of community, and it takes effort to rebuild it. This is done in Christ. To look beyond ourselves, not seeking my way but what is best in others is a difficult concept, but that is what we have been called to do. Sometimes we are successful and sometimes not. When we seek God’s praise, when we serve others, we are often blessed in ways we have not thought of or imagined. When we seek our own interests, then conflicts and depression comes. Paul understood this as he wrote to the Philippian church (see Philippians 2:1-11). He challenged them to not seek their own interests but the interests or concerns of others (3).

When we look at our Christian walk, we need to realize that as beings created in His image, we live in that image. We are to be forgiving as He is, to be sacrificially giving just as we see in Jesus, to love our enemies has He has, and many other teachings that we find in scripture. That is a challenge for us, to live in the fellowship of the Trinity. That life is part of our mission, expressed in what Jesus told the disciples, to go and baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:18-20).

While today we live in hope, that is, confident expectation of the future, one day we will return to Eden as God intended it at creation. The Bible speaks of this as the new heavens and the new earth. Paul tells us that it is creation groaning for its redemption (Romans 8:18-25). We will once again live in the presence of the Trinity in the garden. Today, when we come together, we are reminded of that community in our community.

Yes, the Trinity is a difficult doctrine, and yet we are a part of the Trinity image as families and churches, and as we renew that image in our lives living like Jesus, we continue to develop and growth that image.

George B. Mearns

(1) Timothy Keller, The Reason For God, Dutton, 2008, p. 171.

(2) ibid., p. 173.

(3) The TNIV and NRSV drop the words “not” and “also” whereas other translations have these in there, leading, at least to my mind, to a misunderstanding of what Paul was saying, especially in light of verses 6-8.