Trinitarian argument

[Anders G]

Tim,
How would you meet the argument from trinitarians that God must consist of more than one person since He is love, and love is relational?
/Anders

[Timothy]

Anders,

It is important to consider all statements within their contexts, and not to extrapolate beyond them into areas that the writer never intended. The “God is love” statements in 1 John 4 are clearly referring to God’s love for US. They have nothing whatever to do with “love” shared between alleged members of a Trinity.

1 John 4 (NKJV)
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, 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.

“God is love” in this context means that God’s love for us, as demonstrated by giving His Son, provides the epitome of the standard for “love.” So to define “love,” we are to look at what He did for us, and we are to emulate it in our interactions with fellow Christians. “God IS love” means that God defined “love” by demonstration.

Making the kind of leap outlined above in that Trinitarian argument would be like saying that God did not exist before Day one of creation, because James says “God is light” and “light” was created on day 1.

[Anders G]

Great answer!
Thank you.

[Author]

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