The clearest command to Jesus’ disciples is that we are to be people of love (John 15:9-13). The reason behind this, and the way to become this, lies within the Trinity. 

Before creation, the Triune God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—was an eternal communion of three divine Persons who live in mutual, self-offering, reciprocal, other-oriented love. Christians, then, don’t merely say that God is loving; we can truly say that God is Love (1 John 4:8,16). Biblical love, agape, is defined as caring more about others than oneself, without regard to the cost to oneself (1 Corinthians 10:24; Philippians 2:1-11). It’s not simply the way God acts; love is God’s essence. Love is who He is. The Triune Persons do not give gifts to one another; they give themselves. The nature of God is to be continually turned outside of Himself toward another. God’s nature is also constantly open to receiving another. The essence of the Trinity is “moving around, making room for another.” The divine “Family” is the source of human family life and the Church.

There’s nothing more important than this for us to be sure about. This means that in the Bible, our only authority for life, everything God has done flows from His other-oriented love. All that He commands, even if it cuts against our natural inclinations, flows out of His loving understanding of what is best for us. God’s heart is always moving toward us, and He is always for us. Plus, He can fill us with His love for others (Romans 5:1- 5).

This Life of communion is the One who created human persons in His image. One of the first places we see this is, “Then God said, ‘Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us’”  (Genesis 1:26). The inner life of God Himself is reciprocal giving and receiving. So, to be a person, divine and human, is to find one’s life from, for, and in another.  

When we don’t experience this, a sense of well-being eludes us. Wholeness for a human person is destroyed when we are cut off from the experience of mutual self-giving and receiving with another person. That’s why Jesus told us, “If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it” (Matthew 16:25).   

The nature of the Trinity provides the nature of The Salvation Army. We are created as a denomination out of His other-oriented, self-sacrificial character. It is God’s Triune Life that we open ourselves to. When we receive Him, we are born of God. “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him, and he in God. We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. … By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, we also are in this world”  (1 John 4:15-17 NASB). All over this world, The Salvation Army “moves around making room for another.” It is God’s trinitarian essence that is the source of why the Army longs to do good. He is the source of our understanding of justice—continual watching out for the well-being of others, even when it brings cost to ourselves.

Have you felt that it is impossible to love the irritating people in your life? Loving our enemies is entirely impossible in our nature! That’s why we must be wholly sanctified. God has created us to be filled with His Triune life of holy love. We have no good or love in us apart from Him. He desires to pour Himself into our entire beings—body, mind and spirit—so He can transform our nature, and we can be as He is in this world: people of love.

Catherine Booth whispered “Others” in the ears of her children when she put them to sleep at night because the Triune God had whispered “Others” in her heart as He wrote His nature upon it (Hebrews 10:14-16).

Questions to ponder

• In what ways can you reflect God’s other-oriented love in your relationships, even when it feels challenging or sacrificial?
• How does the concept of being created in God’s image influence your sense of identity and purpose within your community and church?

This article was originally titled “We Are Made By And For Holy Love” in the March 2025 issue of The War Cry.