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THE LOVE TRIANGLE Based on Mark 12:28-34By Pastor Glenn PeaseOne of the great tragic plays of all time is Shakespeare's Othello. Othello was ageneral in the Venetian army. He secretly married Desdemona the daughter of aVenetian senator. Desdemona was the most lovely of all Shakespeare's characters.She was a beautiful and ideal wife. Othello was less than the ideal husband,however, for he killed her. There was no reason for this senseless act of violence,but he was convinced there was a just cause. This is how it happened.Othello had promoted Cassio to higher rank, but bypassed Iago, and Iago wasdeeply offended. So much so that he plotted revenge. His method was to hint andimply to Othello that his wife Desdemona was involved with Cassio. He arrangedthat a handkerchief that Othello had given to his wife be found in the possession of Cassio. By crafty words and clever circumstantial evidence he succeeded in weavinga pattern of suspicion that put Othello in a jealous rage. In that evil stage of mindhe smothered Desdemona in her bed.In spite of the fact that Iago killed several people, including his own wife, to keephis evil scheme hidden, he was found out and sentenced to torture. But Othello,thunderstruck by his senseless jealousy, kills himself with his own sword crying,"The pity of it. O the pity of it." Indeed, a tragic story that illustrates the danger of the love triangle. Here was a case where there was no real triangle, but just the falsesuspicion, and that was enough to bring many to ruin. When David turned the loverelationship of Uriah and Bathsheba into a love triangle, it could be said that theend result was a wreck-tangle, for it led to wrecked and tangled lives, and the tragicmurder of the innocent, as was the case in Shakespeare's tragedy. The Bible,literature, and history, all agree that the love triangle is a plot that leads to tragedy.In spite of this great danger of the triangle in the realm of romantic love, Jesusmakes it clear that in realm of redemptive love the triangle is not tragic, buttremendous. The love triangle is not only permissible, but it is promoted as the onlylove that is complete. Any love that does not go upward to God, outward to others,and inward to self is as incomplete as a one or two legged tripod. Augustine said,"Where there is love there is trinity: A lover, a beloved, and a spirit of love."It makes sense that Jesus would teach the necessity of a triune love. If God islove, and God is triune, then it follows that love must be triune if it is truly aGodlike love. Any love that lacks the triune nature tends to become a perversion.But what about romantic love? We just reviewed the well known fact that the lovetriangle on that level leads to tragedy. The problem there is a false picture we havein our minds. The triune nature of romantic love is also beautiful and complete. Itis God, the husband, and the wife who make up the three of the true trinity on that
 
level. It is when a fourth breaks into the triangle that there is a problem. Four isthe number of earth, and three the number of heaven. Three is the number of heavenly balance even on earth. When Adam and Eve and God were the only threeon the stage of history, all was beautiful. When the fourth, which was Satan, cameon the stage, then came the seed of tragedy.The point I am making is that love and trinity go together, and anything more orless is not complete love. On every level, if we rightly understand it, the lovetriangle is beautiful and complete. If you eliminate any of the three points on thetriangle of love that Jesus portrays as the fulfillment of the whole law, you willdestroy love. If you love God only, and not self or neighbor, you turn religion into athing of horror. Men have committed every crime known for the glory of God, likeSaul before he became the complete and loving Paul. He persecuted, tortured, andkilled Christians for the glory of God. He loved God, but proved that without lovefor man love for God can turn you into a monster. History is filled with tyrantswho claimed love for God while they crushed their fellow man. John rightly asks,"How can you love God whom you do not see, if you do not love your brother whomyou do see?" John is saying what Jesus is saying, that love that does not have atriangle shape is not true love.If one loves himself but not God and others he is not to be admired, for his loveis pure selfishness. He is the Pharisee who thanks God he is not as other men. He isthe center of his universe, and those who are wrapped up in themselves make amighty small package. The Bible will not honor that sort of thing with the name of love. If you love your neighbor only, you may be a great humanitarian, and ahelpful guy to have around, but you are shallow and superficial, and have noultimate values and goals to give life meaning. You may be the best liked of thethree, who have only a one or two pointed love, but you still fall far short of complete Biblical love. The point is, there is no point in a one point or two pointlove. Love must be triune or it does not exist.Samuel Shoemaker, the great American preacher, said, "In the triangle of lovebetween ourselves, God and other people, is found the secret of existence, and thebest foretaste, I suspect, that we can have on earth of what heaven will probably belike." Now abides faith, hope, love, but the greatest of these is love." Why is lovethe greatest, and why is love the first fruit of the spirit? Because love is eternal, if itis complete. This triune love is the key ingredient of heaven. If one fails to developthis three fold love, he has failed to become fit for heaven. Hell is the destiny menchose when they fail to form the love triangle in their lives. It is never God's willthat any man lack this triangle. It is God's whole purpose in history to bring men tothe point where this three fold love dominates their lives.Jesus made it clear that the whole Old Testament of God's revelation is summedup in these two great commandments that cover this three fold love. In the NewTestament we have in Jesus the final and ultimate demonstration of the love trianglethat makes it possible for men to fulfill these commands. Man on his own can neverlove God, his neighbor, and himself as God demands. His fallen nature will pervert
 
love on every level. The only hope to be what God wants us to be is to surrender tothe Lord of love who fulfilled these commands in Himself, and who can fulfill themin you if you let His love invade your life.To be saved, or to be born again, is simply to let the love of Christ fill you so youcan fulfill the purpose of God for your life by entering into the love triangle. Allmen have a triangle shaped vacuum within, and only as it is filled with love can manfulfill his purpose in God's plan. Jesus is the only person who ever fully embodiedthis love triangle. He only, loved God supremely with His whole being. He only,could love himself without doubt or defect, because He only, had a perfect and idealcharacter. He only, loved His neighbor as himself, for He alone gave His life that allmen might be reconciled to God. No one but Jesus ever completely kept thesecommandments. There is no way for any man to become what God wants him to beapart from the love of Christ. To be Christlike is to embody the love triangle. Wewant to look at each of these three essential points:I. THE SUPREME LOVE.The high point in the love triangle is our love for God. It is to be our supremelove. Our total being is to put God first in its value system so that nothing, or noone, is superior. To love God is to love what God loves. Love for God isdemonstrated by the goals we strive for, and the purposes we live for. It is being onewith God in our judgment of values. This locks us into the triangle of love, for noone can truly love God who does not love his neighbor and himself, for God lovesthe neighbor and the self, and so not to do so is to reject God's value system.Love for God leads to love for self and others, and so it is the number one love,for it carries in it all other loves. Without love for God there is no true love, for Godis love, and the source of all love. Weakness in any area of your love life can betraced back to your love for God. Here is the mainspring that keeps all the otherwheels of love turning. Keep your love for God in good working condition, and youwill have no trouble forming the complete triangle of love.Everything we do in any relationship reflects love to God, or lack of it. David,after his great sin with Bathsheba, said to God in Psa. 51:4, "Against Thee, Theeonly, have I sinned." He saw that his primary problem was not just lust, but hislack of love for God. Had he loved God with his whole being he would have knownthat his action could only lead to tragedy. All sin is against God because all sin, likethe first sin of Eve, begins with a doubt that God's way is best. The only way toavoid sin is to love God supremely. If David had loved God supremely, he wouldknow that God's way would be best for his neighbor and himself.Jesus said in Matthew 25:40, "In as much as ye did it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye did it unto me." Jesus is saying, all evil actions toward othersare really directed toward Him. Every act of our life is saying, either I love God, orI do not love Him supremely. When Paul said we are to do all things to the glory of God, he was saying we are to live our lives so that every deed will be saying to God,
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