The Trinity Lives In Us

Meditations for Ragamuffins

November 17, 2023

The Trinity Lives In Us

No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

1 John 4:12

In 2007, Wm. Paul Young published The Shack. Within a few years, the book became a phenomenal success around the world, due in part because of people finding so many points of identification within his story. One of the enduring memories I have of the book is the lively, very personal, edifying, and uplifting relationship within the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In The Shack, the Trinity was not abstract depictions of a complex, distant and unknowable deity; the Trinity was very much alive. The Apostle John is pointing to this truth as he encourages us to love each other.

If God lives in us, then the lively, very personal, edifying, and uplifting relationship within the Trinity lives in us as well. This reality brings forward the teaching of both Jesus and Saint Paul: “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36 NRSV) and, “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2). Can it really be that simple? Is sharing each other’s burdens how we obey the law of Christ? Yes! When Jesus gave his disciples a new commandment, he said their fulfillment of the commandment would be their witness to the world that Jesus was the Messiah. (See John 13:34-35)

Love is more than just putting up with one another. The love of God that is brought to full expression in us is lively, very personal, edifying and uplifting as we are merciful to each other, as we joyfully share each other’s burdens. It has been my experience that revealing the full expression of God’s love is the most difficult part of life for the followers of Jesus. When we try to think of others, instead of protecting our own self-interest, it cuts across the grain of every instinct within us. Maybe that’s why Paul kept urging his congregations to crucify their flesh.

My Takeaway: God has not given us an impossible assignment, because it is possible to do with training, what is impossible to do by trying. A good place to begin is to meditate on this passage:

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus. . .” (Philippians 2:3-5).  

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2023 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.