Website of Dr. John K. LaShell
Love
Makes the World Go ‘Round
Published in the Allentown Morning Call February 13,
2010
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“Love makes the world go ‘round.” That is what
they say, and they are right. But some kinds of love go around like
old-fashioned tires in minus forty degree weather. They used to become hard and
flat on the bottom when the car sat out overnight. Thump, thump, thump, thump.
The ride was pretty rough for the first few miles.
Love at its best unites two as one and yet leaves them as two.
It is the opposite of the possessive, jealous love of a man who is trying to
destroy his wife’s individuality. He cuts her off from her family and
former friends so that he can browbeat her into a slave-like dependency on
himself.
Two walking hand in hand down the path of life in a unity that
leaves room for individuality—that is a healthy kind of love. The two may
be husband and wife, parent and child, life-long friends, or even God and His
worshiper.
Some theological systems make room for that kind of life with
God better than others. In some traditions, submission to God leaves little
room for a warm, personal relationship with Him—that is difference
without unity. Other, more philosophical strains of religion, teach that the
goal of life is losing one’s identity in God. The little drop of
individuality disappears into the great ocean of Being—that is unity
without difference. Thump, thump, thump, thump.
The Biblical doctrine of the Trinity, however, provides a
perfect pattern for healthy love because the Trinity exemplifies both diversity
and unity. God the Father and God the Son live in an eternal union of love and
Being, and yet they remain distinct persons.
On two occasions, the Father spoke from heaven and said about
Jesus, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased” (Matthew
3:17; 17:5). Jesus, in return, said to His disciples, “So that the world
may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded Me”
(John 14:31). The Son is a different person from the Father because the Father
commands, and Jesus obeys.
There is only one God, and He alone is worthy to receive all
glory and worship (Isaiah 44:8; 48:11). But Jesus receives from the angels
exactly the same glory and worship as God the Father (Revelation 5:11-14), so
the two are one God.
Therefore, within the Trinity we see the deepest unity, and yet
the individuality of the Father and the Son is clearly maintained. (If I had
more space, I would discuss the place of the Holy Spirit in the Trinity.) These
Trinitarian relationships form the basis for a genuine love relationship with
God because God draws His people up into the difference and unity of the
Trinity.
On the night He was betrayed, Jesus prayed, "The glory which
You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are
one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the
world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.
Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am,
so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before
the foundation of the world” (John 17:22-24).
God’s people will be with Jesus and see His glory, so they
remain different individuals. They will not, however, be onlookers and
outsiders because they will enter into and share the eternal love between the
Father and the Son.
The great thing about God’s love is that we don’t
have to wait until heaven to begin to experience it. You can begin a love
relationship with Him now through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.
Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. Jesus is God’s valentine to the world.
Why not receive Him and enter into the eternal love of God that truly makes the
world go ‘round?
© 2010, John K. LaShell