All of God
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I know that we all were brought up to understand the importance of sharing, but how many times have you found yourself in situations where you struggle to be satisfied with a portion of something, especially when you know that if you could enjoy that something in its entirety, the experience would be so much better? Maybe it’s a bite or two of that dessert that you limit yourself to in an effort to shed a few pounds. Maybe it’s the snippet of the song you were listening to, which you caught toward the end instead of the beginning. My favorite is what some online bookstores do. They give you the first page or two of the first chapter, which is only a tease to make you purchase the rest of the book.
The point is that we rarely settle for a little bit of something when in the back of our minds we know that there’s so much more we could be enjoying. There isn’t much that we are content with having in bits and pieces when we wonder what life would be like if we could have it all.
So, why do we settle for only a portion of God?
That’s the question that was on the Apostle Paul’s heart when he wrote his second letter to the church at Corinth. Paul’s relationship with the Corinthians church was shaky at best, even though he was responsible for the church’s formation. Paul had established the church during his second missionary journey, staying there a year and a half teaching the Word of God (Acts 18:11). While Paul was there, everything seemed to go well, but when Paul left, everything fell apart, even to the point that some in Corinth began questioning Paul’s call to ministry and his legitimacy as an apostle.
How do you respond to criticism? If you’re like most people, you don’t handle it very well. Not many of us are secure enough to be calm in the face of disparagement and disapproval. Most of us tend to meet our critics with a snappy comeback and a bigger put down than the one they tried to give us.
Which is what surprises me about Paul’s response to his Corinthian critics – Instead of criticizing them in return, Paul blessed them. He prayed for favor to be upon them. He interceded on their behalf in order that they might be filled with the fullness of God. Evidently, Paul believed that the more his critics were full of God, the less negative they would eventually become toward him. So, Paul prayed for the Corinthians that “the grace of Jesus, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit might be with you all.”
We should note that this prayer of blessing, this benediction, is the longest of all the ones Paul offered the churches to whom he wrote epistles. In most of his letters, Paul would pray simply. “May the grace of the Lord Jesus be with you,” he said to the Romans (Rom. 16:20). “May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you in spirit,” he wrote to both the Galatians and the Philippians (Gal. 6:18; Phil. 4:21). And to the Ephesians Paul said, “Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love (Eph. 6:24). But here, Paul goes the extra mile as it were, invoking the fullness of God, who Himself is a Being of dynamic interrelatedness, which is the best way of understanding the doctrine of the Trinity.
Few of us have a working knowledge of the Trinity, beyond knowing that God has revealed Himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but what does that mean? The best that can be said is that within the nature of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit relate to one another independent of one another and yet at the same time each is intimately connected to the Being of God. As the great 3rd century theologian, Tertullian, explained the Trinity: “God is eternally Father, eternally Son, and eternally Holy Spirit.” (In other words, there wasn’t a time when God revealed Himself as Father and another time as Son and another time as Holy Spirit.) But here is the kink in the chain. Tertullian also contended that “the Father is not the Son, and the Son is not the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is not the Father.” It was Tertullian’s way of teaching us that we do not worship three Gods. We worship one God, who is full of such grace, love, and fellowship that it pours out from the one God in the persons of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
So, is the doctrine of the Trinity clearer now for you? I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, “Yes, it’s as clear as mud.”
Then let’s think of the Trinity another way. Let’s think of the Trinity as a way of teaching us that we worship and serve a Someone, not a Some-thing. We worship and serve a God who has revealed Himself as a Loving Father in the grace of Jesus Christ and whose love abides with us and holds us together through the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. It is that God whom Paul prays for the Corinthians to know – not the gods of the 1st century world that supposedly presided over power and position and possessions, but a God who has given of Himself in every way possible, and continues to do so, in order that we might love Him and live with others with grace and generosity.
The reason that most people today don’t give much thought or attention to the doctrine of the Trinity is that they don’t think that it has much relevance today. But let’s unpack that assumption for just a moment. We live at a time when people are suspicious of the church and even cynical toward the church. We live at a time when people on the outside of the church see those of us on the inside as being judgmental and hypocritical. In fact, they don’t see much difference between people who call themselves Christians and those who don’t. They see folk backbiting and gossiping. They see people who seem interested only in themselves, and they ask themselves the question: “Now, why would I want to be a part of a people like that?” I can’t say that I blame them.
But what if they saw a church that was truly filled with the fullness of God? What if they saw a church that extended to one another the same grace, related to one another the same love, and were joined together in the same fellowship that God has always enjoyed within Himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? What if they saw a church that didn’t just talk about God, but radiated His very Being? Because the Bible tells us in Genesis 1 that each of us, male and female, has been created in the image of God, they couldn’t help but be drawn to such a church, because it would be like going home. And who doesn’t enjoy an opportunity to go back home every now and then?
So, how do we show ourselves to be a people who radiate the fullness of God? In the first place, we must as individuals pursue God in all His fullness. We can’t be content with just a portion of God. We can’t just embrace the parts of God that line up with our wants and desires. We must explore the deeper nature of God, even if it means having parts of our own natures challenged. And pursuing God in that way takes a lifetime to do.
And in the second place, we must wish and work for the same for one another. We can’t afford to run the risk of depriving one another of the chance to know God more deeply. We can’t act as if there’s only so much of God to go around, and if you happen to get too much of God, then that means that I won’t get enough. As the doctrine of the Trinity reminds us, God is not a commodity; God is a Relational Deity whose Being overflows with grace, love, and fellowship in inexhaustible fashion. We couldn’t exhaust God no matter how hard we tried. Simply put, there is plenty of God to go around.
I love the story of the pastor who was out jogging with his son one day, when the two of them came across a homeless person, who approached them for some spare change. Since they were jogging and had on running clothes, they weren’t exactly loaded down with money. But the pastor reached into his pocket, pulled out some change that he had, extended it to the homeless man, and said, “Take as much as you need.”
You can imagine what the homeless person did; he took it all. Then the pastor remembered why he had the change. He was going to buy his son and himself some bottled water after their run. So, calling to the homeless person, he explained his situation. And guess what the homeless person said. Extending his hand to the pastor, he said, “Here, take as much as you need.”
If you open your eyes, you’ll see people all around you who are in desperate need of God, even as we ourselves are. While there are times when we may think God is unapproachable or disinterested, the fact of the matter is that He very much desires to relate to us and to meet our deepest needs. As Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, He invites us to take as much of Him as we have need. And the more we do, the more blessed we are for it.
Little wonder that this simple benediction of Paul has come to be a part of the church’s worship since the very beginning. After all, we are all beggars for grace, love, and fellowship, are we not? And when we receive from God what we do not deserve, we are then able to extend our experience to others and say to them, “Here, take what you need.” It is only then that the grace of Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit will truly be with us all.