It has been said, that most Christians think of the doctrine of the Trinity like their appendix; they know it’s there but they’re not sure what purpose it serves, and they can pretty much live without it. The truth is, everything we believe and do as Christians flow from the foundation of the reality of the Trinity, and how the triune God operates within the Godhead. God has endless attributes, but He identifies himself as “Love.” Because He is Perfect, then He is not just love, He is “perfect love.”
1 John. 4:7, “ Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.
Notice that in these verses God’s love is always described as something given away; something shared sacrificially. It always starts with Him surrendering something important as shared love toward mankind. In light of that reality, according to verse 12, love is perfected in us when we’re GIVING IT AWAY as shared love to one another. True love; that is perfect love, only exist in an atmosphere of giving away to another. The very fact that God is Love, and therefore perfect love; is in itself proof of the Trinity. Since God is love, and love only exist as something shared with another, then God must have always existed in at least two persons. The reality of course, is that God exists, though one, eternally as three persons in an atmosphere of eternal shared love among the three persons of the Godhead. This isn’t just an issue of theology, it is at the heart of practical spirituality. In John 15:9-11, Jesus said, “Just says the Father has loved me, I have also loved you; ABIDE IN MY LOVE. If you keep my Commandments you will abide in my love…” Jesus invites us to live in what Mike Bickle calls “The fellowship of the burning heart.” True love, to be true love, has to be shared. It requires surrender, and submission. It expects, and is revealed in joyful sacrifice. This is the joy-filled environment of shared love the triune God has lived in through eternity. This is why for us to abide in his love is live a life of surrender, and obedience, as sacrifices of love, because that is how true love expresses itself. Every act of obedience is to be for loves sake. Every act of a obedience awakens our heart to love. God wants us to DELIGHT in doing His will, FOR LOVESAKE, not duties sake. If it doesn’t cost you something then it isn’t perfect love, it’s just stirred up emotion, that lacks the substance sacrificial affection. As Heidi Baker says, “love looks like something;” it doesn’t just sound feel like something.