God is Love

A monotheist who rejects Christianity might win many converts based on shallow philosophical argumentation but there is one thing they cannot state convincingly that Christians can namely, "God is love" (1 John 4:8 and 4:16). Consider that it is agreed that time and creation had a starting point. All monotheists agree that there was God before there was anything else. If there was nothing else in existence before creation we must say that there was a time when the only one God could love (at that present time) was Himself. I am not saying this is a problem, I see the Bible as showing that God is far more "God-centered" than anyone else in all creation (lest we claim to worship an idolater). But a superficial view of monotheism cannot explain how God could be alone and truly be tied so closely with the nature of love.

But for Christians this is no problem. It seems that one of the great characteristics of passages affirming the Trinity is "intra-trinitarian love." The Father and the Son give us a picture of one of the most loving relationships a person can know (see the book of John). The Holy Spirit is, in many ways, the Divine Person Who applies the love of God. As D.A. Carson writes, "[t]here has always been an other-orientation to the love of God" (The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God, 39). So while Allah and other concepts of monotheism might picture their god loving "me me me" we see our God as loving "you you you" and still being perfectly God centered while upholding a biblical definition of love (this blows my mind). To again quote Carson, "love is bound up in the very nature of God. God is love" (ibid).

My buddy Jason recently gave a less confusing post on this topic.