Ephesians 1:17- I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.
I want to know God better. I want to really know him. This kind of knowledge is not based on having my doctrinal statement all lined up and perfectly orthodox. This knowledge is not the kind of knowledge that comes by reading all the right books or getting all the answers right on a test.
Scripture says that Adam knew Eve (Genesis 4:1 – NIV2011 says “made love to”), and they bore a son. To know someone is to be intimately acquainted with them. To know someone is to be faithful. God is faithful. I want to really know him, as I am known by him.
God is love.
1 John 4:7-8- 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 4:15-17- If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus.
God is love.
Love exists in relationship. God is completely perfect, complete, whole. When we think of God being love itself, we often apply this to ourselves, remembering how much he loves all of his creation, and each of us, his children. But to say that God is love means so much more than this.
In God himself exists the perfection of love. God is one, and within him love exists. In this we recognize the triunity of our Creator.
Ephesians 1:17- I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.
God, the glorious Father,
God, Jesus Christ,
God, the Spirit,
this multidimensional being sharing perfect love within himself for all eternity.
God is love.
Consider just how much is communicated about our great God in only three words.
Genesis 1:1 – In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth.
But before the beginning, God existed alone. But not alone. Ephesians 1 is one place in scripture that describes life for God before the creation of the world.
Ephesians 1:4-6- For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.
Father, Son, and Spirit, existing in perfect love. Complete and satisfied for all eternity. In that love, before time began, they thought of you, in love. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
John 1:1 - In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The Word (Logos) is Jesus Christ. Jesus existed in the Godhead at the beginning. In John 8:58, Jesus says that before Abraham was, “I AM”, attributing to himself the name of God. In John 17, Jesus prays a beautiful prayer to the Father, and in it he tells us more about their relationship.
John 17:5- And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.
Jesus was intimately united with the Father in the beginning, sharing in his glory because he himself was God.
Genesis 1:2 tells us that the Holy Spirit was also present, “hovering over the waters.”
This triune God existed in perfect unity, completion and flawless holiness.
The Psalmist says that in the presence of God is joy and pleasure forever. In God’s triunity, he would be experiencing perfect joy and pleasure and satisfaction in his own presence forever.
God dwells joyfully in eternity as the Trinity. These three were together in community with one another from all eternity. They loved each other.
And this is where community begins. This is where our community begins.
For this series, it is this perfect, eternally existing community by which we will examine all community. Through him all things were made that were made.
Trinity in Scripture
Matthew 28:19 – In the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit
2 Cor 13:14 – Trinitarian Blessing of Paul
Mat 3:16-17 – Jesus’ Baptism (also Mk 1:10-11, Lk 3:22, Jn 1:32)
Lk 1:35 – Prophesy of Jesus’ Birth includes Father and Spirit
Heb 9:14 – Speaking of our cleansing from sin with all three of the godhead
Ax 7:55 – Steven, being stoned, filled with the spirit, sees Father and Son
Trinity Before time
John 1:1 – Jesus is the Word, present with God in the beginning
John 8:58 – Jesus exists before Abraham
Colossians 1:16 – All things are created by and for Jesus
Jesus as God
John 10:30, 38
Hebrews 1:1-12
Colossians 2:9 – Fulness of Godhead in Jesus
John 14:18 – Jesus identifies himself as the Spirit of God.
Community does not exist alone. It takes two to have a relationship. We will define community as the relationship that exists between three or more, with the trinity as our example.
The importance of three in relationship is reflected in scripture. Ecclesiastes 4:12- "Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken." Matthew 18 says of the authority of believers, (vv19 and 20) “Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” Two in agreement includes the presence of Christ, a community of three.
For the purposes of this series, we will define community as the relationship between three or more individuals. One is an individual. Two is community. Three or more is community. The relationship of the Trinity, where community begins, will be our example of perfect Godly community.
Jesus’ prayer in John 17 has a beautifully poetic description of the relationship of the Trinity.
John 17
20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
24 “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.
25 “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26 I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”
Theologians call this "perichoresis"(greek) – MUTUALLY INDWELLING – Each member of the trinity enveloping and enveloped by the others.
The persons of the Trinity "reciprocally contain one another, so that one permanently envelopes and is permanently enveloped by, the other whom he yet envelopes".
(Hilary of Poitiers, Concerning the Trinity 3:1).
(just for fun...this description just reminds me of a tesseract)
What do we learn about community from this perfect union of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?
The Community of the Trinity is
1. Love, Joy, and Pleasure– God is Love – 1 John 4(esp. vv.7-8)
Godly community is a community of love.
2. Mutual Submission of the will - We see this most obviously in the Incarnation – “Not my will but yours be done” – Jesus has a different will than the father, and as a human being, he had to have the opportunity to disobey to be tempted. Also Phil 2 – (COMITY) Jesus was obedient. But outside of the incarnation, all three are shown to be eternally humbly submitted to one another in perfect unity. This is not a hierarchy. Neither is it eternal subjugation of one another. From the Father the Son is begotten. The Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. For all eternity they exist together in perfect harmony.
Members of Godly community are humble, considering others before themselves.
3. Common Ownership - Matt 11:27 – Father handed everything over to Jesus. John 16:15 – Jesus and God share everything.
Godly community is generous and shares together.
4. Understanding - 1 Corinthians 2:11 – Only the Holy Spirit fully understands the thoughts of God.
Godly community seeks to know each other better and live in understanding.
5. Co-Creating (and co-redeeming)– John 1:1-5
Genesis 1:26-28a- Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,[a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number
Godly community is open and ready to share their community with others.
Godly community is fruitful, begetting more community.
Like a family, the love within a community only grows in fullness as the community grows. As a parent’s love grows with each new child that their love produced, so also does Godly love in community seek to share that love with others, and see the community grow. God’s love (and therefore our community’s love) is an outward focused love, a love that includes anyone who would receive it.
Ephesians 1:4-5- For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will (also 2 Timothy 1:9; John 17:24)
In the beginning, in perfect community, God thought of you. Before time began, his pleasure was to prepare a place for you in his community of love. You are dearly loved by God.
And God is love.
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